Selling Out?

Colleague e-mails this NPR link re Sir Paul, wondering if the old boy has sold-out.

Here's my reply:

Interesting piece - I guess I could be described as "post-integrity" - the term used in the piece. Personally I see nothing wrong with using your "art" to make more money or just get your face/name in front of the public's eye (again). My opinion is not based on the fact that everyone does it - - though most groups do "sell out" eventually.

At this stage of my life (43 years old and sitting in a cube somewhere in corporate America), if I could somehow parlay any earlier fame I possessed into fortune today, I'd do it. Paul is just playing off his early fame as a Beatle [and that's what it really is - since he's not producing a lot of new, ground-breaking music these days - - though I hear his new CD is fairly good] to continue to get his name "out there" and make money. I suspect a lot of starving (and not so starving) artists of centuries past would have made commercials given the chance.

It's like sports stars. They have about 10 good years before the fall apart. Why not trade off early fame and coast for the rest of your life?

McCartney is first and foremost an entertainer - why else would he be touring at age 63 when he's worth $1.5 billion? The guys' a Knight for Pete's sake - a grandpa as well as a new father. He should be puttering around the garden, playing with his cats or something. But he craves and needs public adulation - nothing wrong with that. He seems to have made his peace with that - and many fans are the happier for that.