[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 12517]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           SIR PAUL McCARTNEY, GLADWELL'S ``OUTLIERS'' AND BP

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                           HON. CLIFF STEARNS

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 29, 2010

  Mr. STEARNS. Madam Speaker, I would like to submit a letter from my 
good friend Gene Jewett, who shares his thoughts on the phenomena of 
talent and the recent visit from Paul McCartney who received the 
Gershwin Award from the Library of Congress.

       Dear Friends,
       Recently, Sir Paul McCartney visited Washington where he 
     exhibited his musical prowess for the politically powerful, 
     initially at the Library of Congress and then at the White 
     House. In the course of his performance on the first night, 
     he revealed the process by which he had written one of his 
     most famous tunes, one where the melody had come to him in a 
     dream, a refrain that he was fortunate enough to recall. For 
     days, he hummed the tune (randomly entitled ``scrambled 
     eggs'') to his band mates and everyone else in his greater 
     circle of musicians, all in an attempt to determine whether 
     it was a product of his own musical software or a reflection 
     of a tune he had previously heard for which he was serving as 
     a mere psychic conduit. When he finally accepted the song as 
     his own, he re-dubbed it ``Yesterday'' and the rest is 
     history. Over 3000 singers have recorded the song, a number 
     which marks it as a continuing star in the firmament of pop 
     music.
       His story caused me to reflect on the phenomena of talent, 
     particularly as alluded to by Malcolm Gladwell in his book, 
     ``Outliers.'' In this book, there's a central premise that 
     suggests that great achievement is derived from spending at 
     least 10,000 hours honing one's craft. Specifically, it uses 
     as an example Paul McCartney and the Beatles playing in the 
     clubs of Hamburg where they purportedly refined their songs. 
     Notwithstanding the fact that the ``Hamburg'' Beatles played 
     cover songs which could have encouraged them to write their 
     original tunes, the more simple truth points to what 
     McCartney observes in himself as some mystical talent with 
     which he has been gifted, something for which he has no 
     explanation. The difference between the Beatles and thousands 
     of other bands can be found in these ``gifts'' of unusual 
     talent.
       Not to be too grand, but the book ``the 100: A Ranking of 
     the 100 Most Influential People in History'' by M.H. Hart is 
     a primer for the study of people with extraordinary talent 
     and abilities. For example, Genghis Khan was a late bloomer 
     and certainly had no training as a military leader, but no 
     one else in military history save perhaps Alexander shows 
     anything close to his record of achievements. And how many in 
     the realm of physics approach the works of Newton, Maxwell 
     and Einstein? I realize this is a leap from Sir Paul, but 
     pure talent, while it surely needs to be developed, is really 
     a gift that defies description. It seems that some things 
     just ``are'' and that's the name of that tune. And upon such 
     random distributions of talent and ability the upward curve 
     of the course of history will continue to remain reliant.
       Sir Paul, author of over 300 popular songs, also played 
     ``Blackbird,'' a very pleasing and interesting composition. 
     But I was hoping he'd do, ``Fixing a Hole'' as a nod to BP 
     who could certainly use a little mystical talent about now, 
     no?

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