(That’s hysterical, by the way!)

I fall on the McCartney side of the fence when it comes to his and Lennon’s solo careers.  Lennon had some great solo songs, and McCartney definitely produced some material that doesn’t hold up, but I’d rather listen to McCartney’s ’70s output any day.  And if Lennon had lived through the ’80s, I think he would’ve slid even further than McCartney in terms of song quality, even if he only produced albums every five years.  I’m not a Lennon hater by any means, but I am a McCartney defender, and I think whenever a musician as talented as Lennon dies before he’s an old man, fans tend to think "The best was yet to come!"  Think of it this way: Would you want to see where Andy Kaufman’s career would’ve gone if he hadn’t died of cancer in 1984?  Look at Chris Elliott’s career post-Get a Life.  Elliott deserves better, but what’s the right place for quirky comic talent like him and Kaufman?

All that being said, I love "Woman."  I was five when Lennon was murdered, and I don’t remember hearing the news, but I do remember hearing "Starting Over," "Woman," and "Watching the Wheels" on the radio in 1981 and loving all three, and then loving George Harrison’s "All Those Years Ago" later in the year without knowing it was a tribute to Lennon.

I’ve never been in a band (well, there were those three hours in the summer of 1990 when I was lead singer of a band that couldn’t get through one song), but I have been in sketch comedy groups and improv groups, and if it makes you musicians feel any better, the same kind of dynamics pop up in those settings.  If one person feels that his or her ideas aren’t being fully embraced, he or she tries to squash everyone else’s ideas.  In my experience, the group members who have the most trouble playing well with others are … well, see the title of this week’s Mellow Gold classic and change it to a plural.  I’m not saying you’re not funny, ladies, because you are.  Just stop whining so damn much!  There’s no crying in comedy!

Finally, here’s a write-up of the band Midlake from the Chicago Reader, where I work.  The writer, J. Niimi, likes soft rock and Mellow Gold, so I thought I’d share it here.  (As for Midlake, I listened to their new album, but I didn’t get any kind of Mellow Gold high off of it.)

MIDLAKE  I first heard these guys on a friend’s soft-rock podcast, between tunes by Firefall and Al Stewart, and my initial thought was, Oh man, what Chris de Burgh song is this, and how have I never heard it in 25 years of exposure to light-FM radio? Regardless of your feelings about Chris de Burgh, that ought to persuade you that Midlake’s take on "yacht rock" is as authentic as they come (nothing against Cheer-Accident or Bobby Conn, but their pop material is way too perverse to pass for the real thing). The song in question, "Head Home," is from their second album, The Trials of Van Occupanther (Bella Union, 2005), which, as an absolutely sincere fan of smooth music, I find irresistible. It always bugs me when people call stufflike this a "guilty pleasure." I mean, either you get off on easygoing, hermetically precise pop cheesecake or you don’t–who’s ever had an ironic orgasm? The members of Midlake are even bona fide musos: they formed the band while in the jazz program at the University of North Texas. I hope they get big enough to drag Supertramp back into the spotlight. St. Vincent opens. –> Wed 2/14, 7 PM (18+) and 10 PM (21+), Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, 773-525-2508, both shows sold out. –J. Niimi