Thought for Thursday

Last night, PBS aired the all-star concert heralding Paul McCartney as the latest recipient of the Gershwin Prize. The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song is an award given to a composer or performer for their lifetime contributions to popular music. This is only the third Gershwin Prize to be awarded, the first two being presented to Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder. Making it even more special for Paul to win this esteemed award is his memory of his father playing Gershwin compositions for him on the piano when Paul was young.

Included in the line-up of performers who paid tribute to Paul McCartney were the Jonas Brothers, Dave Grohl, Stevie Wonder, Emmylou Harris, Faith Hill, Elvis Costello, Jack White and Sir Paul himself, who brought his Hofner bass out again to share the spotlight - the same Hofner bass he played on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964 and during the Beatles rooftop concert in 1969.

President Obama presenting Paul with the award


My personal favorites of the evening:

Elvis Costello- Penny Lane


Jack White- Mother Nature's Son


Dave Grohl- Band on the Run


And our Thought for Thursday - Paul, on performing "Ebony and Ivory", a duet he recorded with Stevie Wonder in 1982:

"One of the highs was singing Ebony and Ivory with Stevie because we'd never done it live together, so that was great. To sing it live together for the very first time with the first black president there, it suddenly gave a great significance to the song."




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