I just saw a video on Facebook of The Cure doing a cover of the Beatles ‘Hello Goodbye’ for an upcoming CD accompanied by Paul McCartney’s son James. I know James lives a quiet life, and that besides writing songs with his dad and mom he has performed in public and released his own material, but his career doesn’t seem to have taken off quite like it did for John Lennon’s sons. Someone please correct me if I have it wrong there.
Living in the shadow of your father must be incredibly hard, especially if you father is a living legend, but he apparently chose to go into the music business. I don’t think any of Paul’s other kids are in show business.
Not meaning to be cruel, but is his relative lack of success due mainly to his quiet nature, or due to a lack of talent? I haven’t heard any of his solo stuff yet, but that’s partly because he seems to be flying under the radar.
I of course realize he may be perfectly happy with the amount of success he has and not want to be more successful.
Honestly, where is there to go from Paul McC. except down? How do you follow in the footsteps of a freakin’ Beatle? You’d have to be Paul, John, Johannes and Amadeus rolled into one to even be taken seriously on the music front, and every pop star of the last 50 years in one to be credible as a performer. I can’t fault him for choosing to live his own quiet life.
I have been having weird fantasies about a ‘Beatle children’ ensemble, though. Dunno why. I’m not a huge fan - fan, but not a Maniac.
I get that, but Julian managed to be quite successful for a number of years, now not so much, and Sean, whether you like him or not, seems to be out there making music. I think they are more driven than James is, and while they are competing to some degree with John’s legacy, it’s not like he’s still out there touring like Paul is. Let’s assume that he likes his quiet life and doesn’t really want to be any more famous.
I can’t judge, but would anyone ever have heard of them were it not for famous genes? Julian in particular seems to have used John as shoulders to stand on.
After George Harrison died, there was a concert in remembrance of him (The Concert for George, as I remember it was called). Dhani, his son, played guitar at the concert, and looked spookily like him.
There’s no question that having a famous father can give you opportunities that most will never have, but you still have to produce and sell product, which Julian was able to do. I know it didn’t hurt him to have John Lennon as his father.
Julian clearly has some musical talent, which James may also have (Sean I’m not so sure), but James isn’t as outgoing as the others are and at best may just be a good sideman. James just doesn’t seem to have the personality and drive to get out front and make a mark for himself, assuming he even has the raw talent to do it…
Dhani is perhaps another example of someone with a famous dad who had musical talent and liked being on the sidelines. He seems more outgoing than James, but less than either Sean or Julian, so perhaps we are just seeing a normal spectrum here. We assume that they are all as driven to success as their father’s were, or as we like to think we are…
Sean’s new album (*Midnight Sun *by Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger) is fucking great. He may look exactly like his dad circa 1969, and his music may have echoes of “I Am the Walrus” era psychedelia, but note that he’s using a band billing and not trading on his famous surname.
Fair enough. I didn’t mean to slam Sean (even though I did) since I haven’t heard his new album. He certainly is out there producing music and working with other artists, and has been for a number of years.
The fact that he looks s lot like his father probably hurts him as much as it helps him. When people see him I’m sure that at least some of them see John. I hope he can break through that at some point.
Perhaps it’s not surprising that having an enormously famous parent can make someone into introvert. How can you compete with that? Another reason why it seems strange that James went into the same business as his father. Who needs the constant comparisons?
I got the impression that Julian bought himself a career. I mean, he was able to produce and sell product because he could afford a lot of assistance that his father didn’t have at the outset. He sings a little better than John did, but John didn’t have a voice coach.