Barbra Streisand’s name may be what first draws readers to a heartbreaking account circulating online, but two details are harder to shake: the woman at its center was reportedly just 30 years old, and her child is only 3. The unconfirmed account describes her as a longtime assistant connected to Streisand’s team and says she…
A phrase attributed to Paul McCartney in circulating posts has set off a debate that reaches far beyond the Beatles legend. The posts allege that McCartney called mandatory LGBT symbols a “political charade,” language that some readers took as a defense of music as common ground and others saw as dismissive of LGBTQ visibility. The…
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A 28-year-old described as a personal assistant and close confidant to Paul McCartney reportedly stepped into a bar fight hoping to stop it. The young assistant was shot and, according to the account, did not survive. McCartney’s name is what draws the eye, but the detail that stays with you comes a little later: the…
Read More “A TRAGIC STORY LINKED TO PAUL McCARTNEY PUTS A YOUNG FAMILY’S LOSS IN THE SPOTLIGHT” »
On a July afternoon in 1957, Paul McCartney heard John Lennon sing at a church garden party in Woolton, Liverpool. John was there with the Quarrymen; Paul had come as a visitor and was introduced by a mutual friend. When Paul got the chance to play, he knew words and chords that John hadn’t quite…
The frightened dog keeps its distance at first. In the imagined opening of Hope Haven, a Tennessee animal sanctuary, Carrie Underwood kneels a few feet away and waits. Nearby, her husband, former NHL player Mike Fisher, approaches an aging horse with the same patience, letting it get used to his presence. The story puts a…
In an imagined scene at a Los Angeles gala on April 26, Carrie Underwood accepts a Global Impact Award, looks out at a room full of entertainment executives and wealthy guests, and asks them to think about rent. It’s a startling turn for an evening built around celebrating success. The audience expects to hear how…
The most moving image in this imagined story is a woman arriving at a house in Pontypridd, Wales, and learning she has a safe place to sleep. The house is modest enough to look familiar on a street she might have passed before. Behind its front door, though, is the promise of somewhere to stay…
When Sir Tom Jones stepped back onto the stage at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, he told the audience about a moment when he feared he might never sing for them again. The 86-year-old Welsh singer had spent a week in the hospital after falling ill with pneumonia. “You’ve had a wonderful life, Tommy,…
Before Tom Jones sang for television audiences in America, he worked in a glove factory in Wales and sang in pubs at night. At 16, he married Linda Trenchard, the girl he had known as a neighbor. They married in 1957, the same year their son, Mark, was born. There was little money, and singing…
When Clarence Clemons’s saxophone takes over in “Jungleland,” Bruce Springsteen stops singing and lets his friend finish the thought. The solo climbs, hesitates, and gathers itself again, carrying the ache of a story that has run out of words. It’s one of the most memorable passages on Born to Run, and it offers a way…