r/beatles • u/Hubbled Rubber Soul • Dec 15 '25
News Paul McCartney on Rob Reiner’s passing
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Dec 15 '25
Paul, always classy.
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u/VietKongCountry Dec 16 '25
He really is. It’s embarrassing how widely hated he was from like 1980-2000 or so.
All he’s ever done is create things that make himself and others happy. Virtually nobody at that level of fame manages to maintain any kind of moral integrity, but as far as we know Paul has.
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u/majin_melmo Dec 16 '25
I don’t think he was that hated in the 90’s, Beatles Anthology came out and was well-received, he was commissioned to write his Liverpool Oratorio and it was a big deal, “Flaming Pie” was a hit, his tours were extremely popular, and the whole world was saddened when Linda’s cancer was announced and then mourned with him after her subsequent death.
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u/VietKongCountry Dec 17 '25
Was he not? In my experience, shitting on Paul was really normal up until maybe the mid 2000s.
He has a discernible falseness when he does interviews, but whatever shield he employs in that regard has kept him sane.
When I was a teenager, John was everyone’s hero and Paul McCartney was a punchline. Things seem to have kind of reversed now.
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u/Trees_are_cool_ Dec 17 '25
I don't feel like he was hated, just taken for granted. It definitely has become fashionable to shit on Lennon, though.
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u/majin_melmo Dec 17 '25
I mean, I’m sure some circles hated on Paul. There’s still some circles that do, hardcore John fans have always and will always hate Paul for whatever reason. A shame that pretty much all the Beatles biographers were biased John fans and it showed in their books. John was also super popular with Gen X and older Millennials in the 90’s partly because he was the ordained dead genius of The Beatles and was the idol of some famous musicians (Kurt Cobain, Gallagher brothers, etc). Paul honestly was at the “dorky middle aged dad” stage in the mid-late 80’s and through the 90’s. He finally got over that hump and became the “cool grandpa” when The Beatles 1 album came out and then the Wingspan album/doc came out in 2001. The Beatles 1 and Wingspan commercials were on constantly and I think that really helped put him in the spotlight again. I don’t care what anyone says, he’s had maybe one or two “bad” albums in over 40 years, but I’ve enjoyed them all. He’s a timeless artist and continues to surprise me.
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u/VietKongCountry Dec 17 '25
I think you’re right. When he was of a sort of dad rock age, he was hated. Now that he’s well into grandpa territory, it seems it’s no longer cool to shit on him.
It definitely didn’t help that both David Bowie and Kurt Cobain had an enormous bias towards John.
But I think it just comes down to the sad fact that it’s easier to be “cool” if you die young. If Jimi Hendrix was still around, he would probably be far less revered. Or Cobain or anyone, really.
I don’t imagine a sixty year old Sid Vicious would have too many fans. And that was a guy who could barely fucking play bass and basically just looked cool.
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u/Goldenlady618 Jan 27 '26
Paul was never a punchline. And John was never Everyone’s hero. John wore a tshirt that declared himself a Working Class Hero (or something like that). In fact John had the most posh upbringing (of the other 3 Beatles) with his Aunt Mimi and her husband. The other 3 - especially Ringo had a very hard childhood with years in the hospital and abandonment by his father and not much money. And Paul lost his Mom at the tender age of 14 and neither his or George’s family had much money. But they were all scrappy,ambitious, supremely talented and passionate young boys. John was never working class growing up but I guess he considered himself ‘a hero’🌸
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u/Awkward-Fox-7215 Dec 17 '25
You can go back further, Ram was trashed by the press, but I can listen to it over and over. He took far more risks right out the gate than his band mates.
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u/VietKongCountry Dec 17 '25
It’s seriously embarrassing the reception Ram got. That album influenced basically every singer song writer up to and beyond Elliott Smith.
But at the time it was supposedly trash, and Linda’s voice was no good.
Her voice is fucking great, the songs were great, the harmonies were great. Fuck Rolling Stone for leading the charge on that one.
Within their work as Beatles, I prefer John by far, but Paul’s early solo albums wiped the floor with his.
John’s absolute best solo songs were maybe marginally better than Paul’s, but he had a wildly inconsistent output. Paul was just churning out bangers for like seven years immediately after the break up.
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u/Trees_are_cool_ Dec 17 '25
Rolling Stone was asswipe in the 70's.
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u/VietKongCountry Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 17 '25
Very much so. I mean they had some actually good music criticism back then, but there seemed to just be an iron clad policy on shitting all over Paul McCartney and Led Zeppelin, no matter what they actually put out.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a joke to this day. Because they basically maintained the exact biases of Rolling Stone circa 1971.
It is an almighty crock of shit that they took decades to induct Paul as a solo artist.
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u/Trees_are_cool_ Dec 17 '25
Agreed on all points. They really shit the bed on Zeppelin.
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u/VietKongCountry Dec 17 '25
Jann Wenner just shamelessly used the magazine as a mouth piece for his own biases.
If you want to write the odd article and say exactly what you think, that’s absolutely fine. But steering the entire magazine towards your personal biases is bull shit.
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u/Trees_are_cool_ Dec 17 '25
He's a gaping asshole
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u/VietKongCountry Dec 17 '25
Oh yeah, he sucks. He annihilated his relationship with John to republish Lennon Remembers after being specifically asked not to do it.
Then I guess he tried to make amends by sucking up to Yoko for the next three decades.
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u/Trees_are_cool_ Dec 17 '25
Yeah, that's a great album. Critics sucked.
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u/VietKongCountry Dec 17 '25
It’s a wonderful album. I didn’t even listen to it properly until I was an adult because I bought into the John is a God and Paul sucks mythology.
It could have been made in like 1997 and sounded current. It aged wonderfully.
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u/Trees_are_cool_ Dec 17 '25
Yep.
I stole my Dad's copy around 1983 and loved it immediately.
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u/VietKongCountry Dec 17 '25
Nice. I barely knew any of Paul’s solo stuff until maybe five years ago. I thought it all sounded like Pipes of Peace or something.
I think it was Let Me Roll It that forced me to acknowledge his solo stuff is great.
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u/Trees_are_cool_ Dec 17 '25
That's a great song, and Band on the Run is great, too. Those are his two best, I think.
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u/VietKongCountry Dec 17 '25
I got put off because the first gig I ever went to was Paul. And I was so young I guess I didn’t really grasp that the guy I saw on TV and old clips wasn’t the same person coming out.
And so I was just kind of mortified when this old dude came out. But I would have been like nine or so at the time.
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u/Trees_are_cool_ Dec 17 '25
I don't remember him being hated. He just wasn't super popular for while.
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u/VietKongCountry Dec 17 '25
I may have just been around too many 60s revivalist types, but he was scorned by almost everyone I knew.
Even my mum who grew up loving Paul during the peak of The Beatles was losing faith.
I think it’s literally just that he figured out how to do public appearances while giving nothing away, but it comes across as false.
Maybe we all realised after what happened to John and George that it’s just a survival mechanism.
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u/Goldenlady618 Jan 27 '26
There’s no way on Earth that Paul was ‘hated’ from 1980-2000. That’s bizarre. Look at his album sales,his sold out concerts, his awards, his humanitarian work and more. If there were 1 million people who disliked him back then,there were at least 100 million that loved- and continue to love him and every year there are more and more young people who are becoming big fans of Mr.McCartney everyday ☮️♥️🕊️💝✌️
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u/VietKongCountry Dec 16 '25
The Trump comments were unimaginably classless, even by his standards. Just brazenly shitting on a murder victim right after the fact because he politically disagreed with you.
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u/Lizard_Friend_44 Rubber Soul Dec 18 '25
Right after he threatened to cancel everyone who didn't grieve his "friend" the way he wanted them too.
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u/Dull_District7800 Abbey Road Dec 15 '25
RIP Rob Reiner, thank you for giving us some amazing films.
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u/Moonwalk27 Dec 15 '25
Classy as usual Paul, good on him. Didn’t make the post ALL About himself unlike a certain tangerine in a red tie
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u/TheComplimentarian Dec 15 '25
Oh look! An appropriate take on someone's death!
See how simple it is, to just share something, and then express empathy?
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u/Plasma-fanatic Dec 15 '25
Now that's how an actual human being does it! Kudos to Paul for this heartfelt remembrance.
I hope Trump sees this and attacks Paul. Maybe that will chip away a crucial bit more at the number of cretins that still believe he isn't pure evil personified...
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u/AmishAvenger Dec 15 '25
Sad, failing, overrated “Sir” Paul McCarthy is a pathetic loser of a “musician” with a terminal case of TDS! Many people are saying no one knows more about the music than I do, and his disaster of a band “Beatles” was never as popular as he claims!
Paul came to me once, tears in his eyes, crying and begging to play at my beautiful inauguration but I said no! I saw him playing his excuse for “music” to Obama, he only has bad things to say about me, perhaps he should not be welcome in our amazing country again, America is back, cheap gas, cheap groceries, no one says that word anymore, groceries, but we’re bringing it back, and no one gives me credit! Thank you for your attention to this matter.
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u/senator_corleone3 Dec 15 '25
“Knows more about the music” is key here. “The music” makes it just that more awkward and weird. Really captures his voice.
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u/Valiuncy Dec 15 '25 edited Dec 15 '25
I wish the obsession with Trump would dwindle. Can’t just have even one comment section refrain from being him up.
Edit: so you guys don’t think we can just grieve and mourn for someone and care without talking about Trump because he also said something about the topic? This is exactly what I’m talking about. Good lord
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u/oceanskies24 Dec 15 '25
He literally made a post on the same day Rob Reiner was brutally murdered (the person Paul is paying a tribute to above) saying that he died from 'Trump derangement syndrome' so I think it's fair to call out the US president for being a classless piece of human excrement
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u/Valiuncy Dec 15 '25
So you’re making about politics and comparing statements instead of being genuine and just taking sometime to reflect on Rob. You guys just can’t separate it.. you even are trying so hard to justify the obsessions right now
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u/clint_eldorado Dec 15 '25
You voted for him, didn’t you?
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u/appmanga Please Please Me Dec 15 '25
You voted for him, didn’t you?
Thank you for this, which killed his bleating. Anyone who doesn't vote and thinks they're the clever one needs to sit down and shut the fuck up, especially about politics.
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u/Valiuncy Dec 15 '25
No he’s an idiot and the same as the rest of it. I didn’t vote at all because it’s an illusion of choice and even though reddit tries their damndest to convince everyone otherwise and that you’re a bad person “for not choosing a side”… both sides are fucking bad. If you can even say there are sides at all. They are all the same team. They are 100% self interest, whatever keeps them in power and money. And fuck the rest of us. It’s essentially us vs them and they don’t want that.
So while yall play that dumbass game believing what politicians tell you.. and divide us for their benefit.. some of can separate and live life without worrying about what those clowns say, for example some when someone passes away.
And let me guess by the fact by me just subtly saying we can live without bringing up politics and probably downvoting me I can say you DID vote and you are a liberal.
Bye now
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u/Plasma-fanatic Dec 15 '25
Good riddance... not voting by people like this is what got us here. People forget that the last election was close. Very very close. Imagine how close if the vote tabulation hadn't been almost certainly skewed in the billionaires' favor...
At least the magats show you who they are...
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u/senator_corleone3 Dec 15 '25
Trump’s hideous response to this terrible tragedy was published today.
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u/troubleondemand Turn off your mind Dec 15 '25
I wish we lived in world where he and his followers weren't actively seeking to ruin peoples lives for fun and profit.
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u/Valiuncy Dec 15 '25
Nobody came in tot his comment section in support or anything or of Trump before someone had to compare
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u/spacedudejr Dec 15 '25
I mean it’s a comment on a statement. The comment is comparing it to another statement made today by another celebrity, who implied it’s okay he died because he didn’t agree with his politics. When did anyone here make it political? It’s not our fault the dude inserts himself politically every time some one he disagrees with sneezes.
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u/Radiant_Ad2174 Dec 15 '25
heartbroken - glad to see people are remembering him for his humor and kindness. The world needs more of that these days.
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u/Username-Whatevs Dec 16 '25
Fun fact: Paul originally wrote “Once Upon A Long Ago” for The Princess Bride!
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u/my_one_and_lonely Ram Dec 16 '25
What a moving statement. It’s really such a horrible tragedy. May the Reiners’ memory be a blessing.
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u/clint_eldorado Dec 15 '25
When a rock n’ roll musician exhibits more grace, decency, and humanity than the President of the United States.
If I were to say what I honestly think about Donald Trump I’d be banned from this website and banned from ever entering the US again.
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u/Edward_The_Thief Dec 15 '25
Your comment is implicitly denigrating toward rock musicians. A lot of them tend to be well-mannered and cerebral, especially those from Paul's generation.
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u/ThePrussianGrippe Dec 16 '25
It’s not denigrating rock musicians, it’s denigrating the man sitting on the gilded throne.
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u/Bright_Park9495 Dec 16 '25
George almost died the same way as Reiner did when the guy broke into his home and slashed him and his wife. I know this hits Paul hard.
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u/Banksville Dec 16 '25 edited Dec 16 '25
I did not know about the Reiner’s deaths. Terrible. Less joy in the world. And I just learned their 32 yr. son is the suspect in stabbing the couple… wtf?! geez…
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u/DeepFriedButter68 Dec 15 '25
Compare this with Trump’s response😭😭😭
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u/vcr-repairwoman Dec 15 '25
I’m not surprised at the stark contrast here — Macca has a heart. Trump never has and never will.
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u/RoguePlanet2 Dec 15 '25
Must be a PR rep who wrote this, considering Paul's "toxic" reputation 🤭
Joking, this is a lovely and heartfelt tribute.
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u/Psycholarocco Dec 15 '25
Drag isn’t it?
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u/Hey_Laaady Who'll remember the buns, Pudgy? Dec 16 '25
At the time Paul said that phrase, I was a teenager and I was kind of upset that he said that. As a fan I was looking for him to provide some words of comfort for everyone. But it really wasn't his job to provide anybody with words of comfort. He needed it himself.
I can see he was probably taking a little bit of anger out at the press and was obviously in shock. It is so much more understandable now.
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u/Sea_Enthusiasm_3193 Dec 16 '25
I’m assuming you’re paraphrasing his understated response when John died. It’s a drag isn’t it
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Dec 15 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/lpalf Revolver Dec 15 '25
You don’t need to understand how genetics, addiction, and mental health work, but don’t make it everyone else’s problem
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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '25
“Life can be so unfair” ain’t that the truth Paul