Millions of words have been written about The Beatles so why would James Campion spend 2 years writing ANOTHER one?
You could be excused for thinking, “Either he’s jumping on the bandwagon to earn a quick buck or because he has something genuinely original and thought-provoking to say.”
Thankfully ‘Take a Sad Song – the Emotional Currency of Hey Jude’ charges headlong into the latter category.
In Misadventures in Music episode #14 Ian Prowse and Mick Ord meet New York based author, journalist and broadcaster James who reveals many of the fascinating layers to Hey Jude.
Yes, it was written by Paul McCartney for John Lennon’s son Julian who’d just seen his parents split up after John left the family home for Yoko Ono, but the song is SO more than that, as James explains in his critically-acclaimed book.
He takes us back to 1968 (the Year of Revolution, according to many social historians) when the band appeared on the David Frost show in front of the cameras to sing Hey Jude in front of a studio audience (well, THREE studio audiences actually) for the first time in 2 years, having given up touring in 1966.
James takes us behind the scenes of that performance and explains why and how the song became worldwide number one single and why, in his view, it’s the best song they ever recorded.
As one of the contributors to the book says, ” It was 7 minutes we needed at the time’
Find out more on James’ website – www.jamescampion.com
