“A fairly average porn movie”: The erotic artist who did nothing for Paul McCartney
The most remarkable facet of this particular headline is the fact that Paul McCartney actually watches porn. Try not to let that sink in.
It’s a natural thing, of course, but he’s so highly revered in our wider social psyche that you just don’t imagine him in any typical light whatsoever. Least of all, with his pristine, pinstriped trousers around his ankles, punching the Spaniard and knocking Jaun out over Debbie Does Dallas. It’s a thought that could readily put you off ‘Yesterday’.
The cult comedian Bob Mortimer said it twisted his melon when he learnt that Macca was a fan of his outings on the humble BBC panel show Would I Lie To You, but imagine being a porn star, wondering whether the man who changed the world had fiddled with his yoghurt cannon over your on-screen career.
In fairness to McCartney, he did have a hefty hand in the sexual liberation movement to begin with. As he recently revealed with regards to the 1963 anthem, ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, “There was an eroticism behind it all. If I’d heard myself use that word when I was seventeen, there would have been a guffaw. But eroticism was very much a driving force behind everything I did.”
While on the surface, it might sound like an innocent statement, McCartney had a lot more on his mind when he wrote the tender song. He adds: “You know, that was what lay behind a lot of these love songs. ‘I want to hold your hand’, open brackets, (and probably do a lot more)”. Along with this erotic undertone, screaming Beatlemania had made the world a more sexually progressive place.
Its winks, nods, and rollicking ‘Sexy Sadie’ efforts opened the door for the sultry pop exploits that lay ahead. Sadly, they quickly became a cash-in. What was once a middle finger to the stuffy ways of conservatism rapidly became co-opted into ‘sex sells’ commercialism.
The “horny” pop star Paul McCartney was utterly indifferent to
Thus, when Madonna came along, he wasn’t all that surprised by the ‘desire drives dollars’ approach of the whole thing. In fact, he thought it was primarily a cleavage based business model more so than sincerely good pop, and he figured it couldn’t hold a candle to the Real R18 McCoy. When someone cited him as a fan of the emerging pointy-breasted pop star in 1990, the then-49-year-old former Beatle remarked, “Am I?”
Adding: “I’m not really.”
He wasn’t one to lambast her easy pop hooks and appeal; he just wasn’t all that bowled over by it, having clearly already satiated his thirst for such things with some one-handed magazines or other. “I liked ‘Vogue’,” he conceded, “That’s a good video. She makes good videos. And ‘Justify My Love’ is pretty horny.”
However, as for its ‘profound’ place in culture, he wasn’t quite so sure. “I think it’s alright, but I’ve seen better porn films. If you want porn, why not watch porn?”
Once again, try not to let that sink in. He continued, “I think it’s okay, y’know, it’s pretty good, but it’s only surprising because she’s a pop singer really. If anybody else did it, it would be a fairly average porn movie,” he quipped with a dismissive shrug and the waft of a firm bass slapper’s hand.
Evidently, he likes a little bit more substance to his pop. He wasn’t alone in this criticism, either. Joni Mitchell famously delivered her lashing of the wanton lustiness even firmer. She figured she represented the demise of ‘proper’ music. “Music has become burlesque over the last few years – video’s done that. Every generation has to be more shocking than the last,” she said.
“But at a certain point, you’ve got to reel it in because decadence ultimately isn’t that hip. Our country is going down the tubes from it. It’s rotten to the core. And I think women can be more than decorative,” she explained while setting up her scathing insult, laden with smatterings of problematic language.
“Yet someone like Madonna can be seen as a feminist hero because she’s exploiting her own sexuality rather than being exploited by some man. That’s an interesting idea, but what’s the difference between her and a hard hooker, you know? Who’s being exploited there? She’s revelling in herself, too,” she controversially said.
The notion that her independent liberation was simply lining the pockets of MTV and the powers that be rather than informing real, pointed change was one that was shared by a fair few critics. Madonna thumbed her nose at every one of them. In fact, the ‘Vogue’ singer embraced all the hubbub, simply saying, “I’m tough, I’m ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay.”
Nevertheless, Mitchell continued her cutting, troubling diatribe when she added: “She’s got that whore-Madonna thing built-in [laughs]. She’s like a living Barbie doll but a little bit on the blue side. There’s always been that type of female. There’s always been a market for it, but the danger is that she thinks she’s a role model. And it’s a terrible role model. It’s death to all things real.”
So, sex might sell, but it certainly has its critics, too.
