France

French, Spanish, Hindi....

Every  morning I start our show with a Beatles song.  Lately I've been going in chronological order, or as close as it can be.  We're working our way through the group's third album, A Hard Day's Night, this week.

Given that songs like 'Blowin' in the Wind,' 'Only a Pawn in Their Game' and 'The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll' perfectly captured the mood of the Civil Rights Movement, you'd think Bob Dylan would be one of the last people to be accused of racism. But the legendary songwriter has officially been accused by French authorities of "public insult and inciting hate."

Kids, today I thought we'd take a break from the Christmas music and holiday cheer and give you something a little bit foreign.

Here at Ultimate Classic Rock we always root for the underdog, and we love it when artists who have gone under-appreciated for years finally get their due, especially when it occurs in their lifetime. Today we learned of one such case when we saw the news that the French government has awarded the Legion of Honor to a little-known singer from Liverpool, England, Sir Paul McCartney.

Time definitely does fly. Back in 1984, it was a then unknown actress Courteney Cox who got plucked out of the crowd and catapulted into fame when she joined Bruce Springsteen onstage for the ‘Dancing in the Dark’ video.

You can say what you want to about the French, but they have given us two great gifts.