* I know
This Thursday, Paul McCartney – he was in The Wings, you know – will be guesting Marc Maron’s WTF Pod.
I’m hoping Maron will manage to dig deeper than the usual, by now, well known anecdotes. He’s usually good at that.
Since I’m a fan of Paul and Marc both, this is exciting.
Thanks for the heads up. The problem I have with MarcM is that he seems to do virtually no research on his guests before he interviews them. So I fully expect Maron to be surprised when he finds out Macca’s dad was in a band and Macca will go off on some well-drilled anecdote about playing the piano at family parties. I also reckon it will be 90% pre-1970, and there’ll be a curveball question about Heather Mills that Paul will shut down politely.
I think I should make Macca-interview Bingo cards:
“A great little band”
“That’s the best line in it”
“Didn’t get out of bed for a month”
“Made peace with John before he died”
**plays 20 Flight Rock**
**comedy scouse accent**
I think with MM at least he is honest when he’s not fully up on the artist – I remember he interviewed Todd Rundgren and confessed he wasn’t up on all the detail (really, how could one person be up on everything) but he still gets a good dialogue at a human level rather than “wasn’t there a problem recording the second album” etc.
I think Maron´s strenght is to avoid the usual plug-your-latest-product stuff. Mainly, I guess, because he has the time to go deeper.
That recent interview in the Times had at least one story I’d never heard before and I thought I’d heard it all!
There’s also an interview coming up in Mojo? Q?, I forget but it says something about McCartney at home and that is almost always a no-go zone. He let a New Yorker journalist interview him in his home for a cover story a few years ago and the journalist told an amusing story about getting at least one panicky call from McCartney after the fact, apparently having second thoughts about having let somebody into his home.
He’s on Soderjerker too
https://www.sodajerker.com/paul-mccartney-talks-songwriting-with-sodajerker/
Wow that’s fantastic – I love the Sodajerker Podcasts and I know they have been trying to get to interview Macca for a long time- chuffed for them. They’re great because they don’t ask irrelevant questions or bring everything back to themselves like Marc Maron does – they’re genuinely interested in the songwriting craft and in doing so get far more out of their interviewees – you can sometimes hear the penny drop mid-interview (a good example is when they interviewed Kevin Godley – hear him audibly unwind! ). Their interview with Andy Partridge is very funny and inspiring – we can all learn something from Mr Partridge and his creative processes.
Not sure where i stand on MM.
1. He can do excessive fawning
2. He tries to bring everything back to addiction or family issues, so he can reference himself
3. Musically, he tries to impress by always talking about ‘the blues’ and going ‘yeah-yeah’ to anyone’s stated influences
But on the plus side – which keeps me listening (to the non-stand up ones) he is intelligent, does listen to the answers and it is a self-made, self-started podcast.
Oh! I’ve just remembered the worst one – going on and on about Lorne Michaels and why he didn’t get a SNL job
I agree. However the eventual payoff, Maron’s Lorne Michaels interview was worth it.
I agree re MM flaws but he does get good guests and is really passionate in a good way.
I usually skip the first 15-20 mins, but there have been some good ones lately – a repeat of an older interview with Robin Williams was very moving (even without subsequent events) and the one with David Harbour of ‘Stranger Things’ was hilarious from start to finish. I started listening after somebody on AW recommended the Alice Cooper episode.
In the Jarvis Cocker interview I thought it was quite sweet when he knowledgeably name-checked “Catherine” and the Queens. It’s Christine. Kind of comforting when someone with his unrivalled credentials makes an old-duffer-just-like-us-type error.
Apparently, it’s a live podcast and MM claims that the audience didn’t know Macca was going to be there before he showed up. So I wouldn’t have high hopes for any great revelations. He barely mentioned it in his weekly email yesterday which suggests he might not be very excited with the outcome.
I’m a big fan but I do think that Maron has kinda fluffed his big music interviews (Keith Richards, Neil Young, Springsteen, for instance – although the Roger Waters one was good) and I can’t imagine between all the whooping of the live audience that this will be much better. Saying that he’s been churning out 2 podcasts a week for almost 10 years at no cost to the listener so I can’t really be too critical. And I don’t mind the chat at the start either. Could do without the guitar noodling though.
Anyway, perhaps MM will surprise us. Maybe he’ll be the one who’ll finally yell ‘WE KNOW!!” at Macca when he starts rolling out that story again about Lennon telling him to leave the shoulder line in Hey Jude. Probably not.
Re Maron’s big music interviews. The Springsteen one was part of Bruce’s book “tour”. Marc has admitted he’d rather talk to people without a “product” being involved but the opportunity to speak to a superstar in that way is rare. From what I remember he did as well as anyone does talking to Neil Young but the Keef one he went fanboy crazy and really fluffed. Marc’s a Stones guy though so maybe he’ll just ask Macca about the Fabs rivalry with them. I agree the Roger Waters one was good though.
I enjoyed the Billy Bob Thornton recently (came across engagingly as a quite an oddball, maybe not surprisingly) – also E from Eels (MM doesn’t get him), Louis Theroux (again MM doesn’t get him). James Hetfield was good too
Neil was in his grumpy mood the day he talked to Maron, Bruce didn´t reveal anything he hadn´t already decided to reveal.
Crosby, however, was great. It´s on YouTube, kids. Though Crosby is always entertaining. He should do more interviews and less music.
It is a great conversation IMHO. And no rambling intro, just relevant background.
There is a bit of guitar for the outro though…
Anyone else had a listen? Well worth it for mine, and pretty much none of the concerns or predictions up-thread come up. Macca comes off like a good bloke talking to a witty mate who knows his history. The mate’s not an uber nerd, granted, but Maron’s not on the Afterword now is he…definitely better than the Neil and Brooce interviews