Over the lifetime of this website the initial theme has remained the same- I, the author, am only one of many Paul McCartney fans. I am not better or worse than any other music fan. I am simply a writer who likes to write about my fan experiences, mostly about my music collection which I started as a teen in 1993. Being a Paul(as a solo artist) fan for 20 something years does not make me a "real", "true","super" or any other adjective that would acknowledge that I've got some sort of leg up on other people that like The Beatles or Paul McCartney.
What I am is a fan just like someone in 2015 who has just bought a Paul album for the first time. A new fan is commonly known as a "newbie". But a "newbie" might know about something I have no knowledge of- a remix, recent news, a promotional item, etc. In some ways, I too, am a "newbie" and in no way should I be doubting another persons level of fandom.
Similarly, I have little respect or patience for people who want to express their fan loyality as greater than my own. The truth is these sorts of fans usually have one thing greater than myself, which is a lot of disposable income to spend to continue to keep up to contribute to Paul McCartney's income. Let's ignore that Sir Paul has an estimated worth of at least £800 million. The misconception is that a fan's superiority is equivalent to a musician owing them, personally, for faithfully supporting(aka moola) them through the years. Recently, on the subject of The Paul McCartney Achieve Collection, someone wrote that only buying the deluxe versions of those CDs and not the Box Set collection, is what the average non-fan person would buy. My reaction to this, as I own all the delux CDs sans two and no box sets is extreme pity that anyone would believe their financial position equals being a genuine fan. If that's the measure of a real fan, I want to take my toys and go home. Now, with Tug of War having a 1,000 copy limited run of a super deluxe box set, I did not even attempt to order it. The people who want to basically brag about owning this, I don't want to associate with, but I tolerate these people until the "I'm a better fan" declaration is implyed or said.
As I'm sure some of you may relate, proving yourself to be a big fan is pointless, usually due to another attempting to prove themselves greater with statistics which again, only equally to greater amounts of money spent. For example, I've been to four concerts, yet there will always be a person who's gone to fourty and they will tell you what happened(financially) by telling you what merchandise and seat packages they bought without you even asking or really caring. I recently enjoyed concert #4 by simply spending time with a fellow fan and cracking jokes left and right about Paul. How can we get away with this behaviour and call ourselves fans? OK, we're happy to say we are 100% not fans just so you will leave us alone. Bygones be bygones, et all.
So, why should any of my rant matter? Unfortunately, it is unavoidable but it boggles the mind why people feel the need to knock others for less involvement(again, M-O-N-E-Y) in Paul McCartney's career. Most musicians do not discriminate over fan status because they have private lives. As much as a meeting an musician seems like the ultimate experience for a fan, it's a general and usually forgettable experience for the musician. Paul has said previously that he relys on fans to have his career statistics, but he never gives those people individual shout outs. Why? Because it's "too many people" to mention individually.
No one should feel invalidated for being an average fan. We're all special and we all spend money on the musician because we "appreciate" them and they "appreciate" our money, admiration, and devotion in general. It's my opinion and I'm allowed to have one as a person(not necessarily as a fan).
Now that's enough on that topic, I have enough Paul related problems to attend to, starting with which Linda McCartney frozen meal to have for dinner and neglected reading and listening materials to get to. Viva la average fandom!
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