LATEST ADDITIONS

Whatever fans might hope for on a McCartney album is here: thoughtful pop tunes, accomplished melodic invention, focused, meticulous production and comforting glints of The Beatles. More importantly, what McCartney detractors (including the Beatles fans among them) might expect is missing: namely sugary confections, shlock-rock, and corny lyrics.

The release of “The Autobiography of Donovan, The Hurdy Gurdy Man,” last December, unleashed a publicity juggernaut that had the ‘60’s icon returning to the public eye with perhaps greater intensity than he experienced during the height of his original success (though without the #1 hits, of course).

Issued in 1982 as the couple were going through a painful divorce, Richard and Linda Thompson’s Shoot Out The Lights became an immediate critic’s “must have” album. Despite the wildly enthusiastic world-wide press and the couple’s brave decision to tour in support of the album despite their personal acrimony, it was never a big seller.

At the end of Part 1, Mr. Porter had just left RCA Studios.

MF: Why did you leave?

BP: I left RCA because they tried to dictate to me and I wasn't gonna be dictated to.

MF: Dictate to you what?

BP: I had a small publishing company and they told me it was a conflict of interest. I said, 'How can that be, everybody else has got one. Chet has one.” “yes, but you work with a lot of different clients.” “Yes, but I'm not abusing the privilege.” So they said either the publishing company or you go. So I made my decision. The legal department said there was nothing wrong, but personnel did. Steve Sholes called and said “Now Bill, please don't leave.” “ I said story Steve.”