MUSIC STARS ALIGN

The music stars have aligned. Just As Spy Vibe covered the release last week of a new graphic novel about The Beatles early Hamburg days, the love story between Astrid Kirchherr and Stuart Sutcliffe, and Sutcliffe's handing the bass role in the band to Paul McCartney, it appears that we were riding the same wave as Gibson Guitars. Gibson announced today that McCartney has been named "best bass guitar player of all time" for his great influence in shaping popular music. They even tread into Spy Vibe's story here: "To think it almost didn't happen at all - McCartney became the Fab Four's bassist by default after original bassist Stuart Sutcliffe left the band to return to art school." Read more at Gibson here. McCartney began as a great music fan himself and has remained so throughout his career. There are lovely moments with Paul and Carl Perkins worth seeking out on vhs or youtube. McCartney once received a special gift from his wife, the photographer Linda McCartney, who gave him Bill Black's original upright bass that was used on the Heartbreak Hotel recording sessions by his boyhood hero, Elvis Presley! Story and video clip here. Below is space-age Paul, a portrait I feel captures the creative explosion of the era. And while we're here, let's just groove once more to that great mash-up between The Beatles and The Kinks.