Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 3, 1993 TAG: 9302020214
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BEN KUBASIK NEWSDAY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
MTV ACCUSES MCCARTNEY OF PUBLICITY PLOY
Former Beatle Paul McCartney's repeated use of the "f" word in a new recording about how upset he is over environmental pollution may have been more calculated than concerned.Right after MTV said that it would not show him singing the song "Big Boys Bickering" in a program to be broadcast tonight, because the seven uses of the obscenity were not consistent with MTV's standards, suspicions broke out in music circles that it was precisely such controversy that McCartney sought.
"I don't think he wanted us to play the song," said MTV spokeswoman Tina Exarhos. "He knew we couldn't play it because of its obscenity. Of course, we're going to show him singing other songs from the album."
"This is an old-fashioned publicity stunt," said a knowledgeable music-industry source. "He's got this soft reputation, very middle of the road, and now he's trying to appropriate a cutting edge. He knows what he's doing. He's been a professional in this business for 30 years."
The source added that the storm over MTV dropping the song might have been a McCartney effort to build sales for his about-to-be-released CD, "Off the Ground," which contains the offending number, and to entice audiences to his upcoming six-month world tour.
The 90-minute show from which "Bickering" was bumped is "MTV Presents Paul McCartney Up Close," which will be broadcast tonight, on MTV and its sister channel, VH-1. The program is a taped version of a concert McCartney performed in December at the Ed Sullivan Theater, where the Beatles had performed.
McCartney wrote the song after then-President Bush declined to sign an ecological treaty in Brazil last year.