updated Friday morning April 16th

Paul McCartney just finished basically interviewing himself on Instagram Live with singer St. Vincent aka Annie Clark. This was to promote “McCartney III Imagined” which releases tonight and includes a remix of McCartney’s song “Women and Wives” by St. Vincent. Back to that in a minute.

McCartney is in L.A., he said, to attend a screening tonight of Peter Jackson’s “Let it Be” documentary, “Get Back,” which we will see in August. He said Ringo and other friends would be there. You can surmise Ringo’s brother-in-law Joe Walsh will attend, and maybe Olivia and Dhani Harrison.

Paul also revealed that he’s recording a track with 2021 Grammy Producer of the Year Andrew Watt, who’s worked a lot trying to make Justin Bieber seem like a recording artist. The song has something to do with spotting a girl in a window as he walks by her house.

The “Get Back” project is late by a year or more but McCartney says he’s happy with what he’s seen so far. The original “Let it Be” movie directed Michael Lindsay-Hogg accentuated the Beatles at odds with each other, looking grim as they made that album in 1969. However, they went on to make “Abbey Road.” And Jackson was given all the extra footage, which actually showed the band enjoying themselves. McCartney didn’t come off well in the original film so maybe this will rewrite history and fix that idea.

St. Vincent did ask Paul about the magic of writing songs. I’m paraphrasing, but I’d say McCartney is stumped about where his genius comes from. It’s just, well, magic. He did say it’s easier now with an iPhone remember things he came up with. Although in the old days, he said, he and John Lennon would remember ideas the next day pretty easily. “I guess we didn’t have too many forgettable songs,” he said. No kidding!

“McCartney III Imagined” drops tonight, and the track to listen for is Phoebe Bridgers covering “Seize the Day.” Only Bridgers, Dominic Fike, and Beck, a little bit, really covered songs. The rest are remixes– all interesting and cool, but Phoebe could have a hit if Capitol Records puts some elbow grease into it.

I like St. Vincent. I think she needs better marketing or something. She needs some PR attention. Maybe a manager.

Anyway, I’m a big of both “McCartney III” albums, check them out if you haven’t already.

There’s a yin and a yang to Justin Bieber’s trajectory right now.

Despite the fact that tickets aren’t selling to his 2021 concert commencing in less than two months, Bieber is on a PR tear.

He’s on the cover of GQ babbling about Jesus and whatever, Hailey Baldwin, etc. It doesn’t matter. He’s rich, he’s lonely, he’s depressed. He used to be an asshole, now he feels he isn’t. That’s his mantra.

Meantime, yesterday, Bieber and a pretty extensive crew flew to Paris and put on a “show” on the rooftop of the Hotel Crillon, which he calls the Krill-on. The wife went, all the pals, etc. The Crillon is about the most expensive hotel in Paris, so this trip, including private planes, had to cost a million bucks. Maybe more.

And the result? Odd. After about 24 hours, well under 1 million views on YouTube for the full video. Something billed as the Afterparty, on YouTube premium, has just 42,315 views. The individual songs averaged about 360,000 views. So it wasn’t a breaking down of doors to see this expensive croissant play itself out.

Promoters are telling me they’re still waiting to get the word that the 2021 tour, which was the 2020 tour, will be the 2022 tour. What if Paris and GQ and all the rest of it ends up with another postponed tour?

Hey, be a Belieber! Anne Frank was.

Jeez Louise.

Taylor Swift, you know, sold the most records last year with not one but two albums, “Folklore” and “Evermore.” That was right on the heels of her “Lover” album. I’m talking millions. Like it was 20 years ago, not the current horrid state of the music biz.

Not streaming. I’m talking hard sales. CDs and downloads.

Now hitsdailydouble and Buzz Angle predict that on Friday, when the cows come home, Swift’s re-recorded “Fearless” album will hit the 300,000 mark on its debut. That will be 200,000 CDs and downloads, and another 100,000 streaming equivalent.

“Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” will be the so far biggest release of 2021, biggest debut, biggest everything.

And it’s only April. My guess is we get at least one original album more in 2021, and one more re-release, of either “Red” or “1989.”

One day soon, when Taylor writes her book, it will be something. I hope she’s filming all this recording (I’m sure she is) for a documentary. Good for her! She’s a role model for all us lazy asses out there!