The Half-time Show

The NFL was playing it safe this year in the half-time show, following the media storm the American Taliban stirred up about the "wardrobe" issue last year. Who could be safer and more wholesome than Sir Paul McCartney? He was the most well-mannered of the mop-tops, and, hey, he's been knighted!

But watching the show, it seemed to me that Sir Paul might have been paying attention to this, and slipped in a tweak or two. Perhaps it's all my imagination.

For example, I noticed that Sir Paul picked a tune that required him to scream the word "Hell!" Since this song was one of his mega-hits, and the theme to a James Bond movie, it's not like this is anything we all haven't heard dozens of times. But in our current era of media paranoia and overreaction, I'm surprised I'm not hearing about it. Isn't the FCC being deluged by complaints from Christian groups? All those poor impressionable children! Though maybe I'm just confused about what is and isn't verboten. (Sex bad, damnation, OK?) Whatever.

Later though, I wasn't the only one in the room who thought there might be a hidden comment on American foreign policy when Sir Paul sang, to a huge audience of Americans, "You used to say live-and-let-live, now you say live-and-let-DIE!" Hmmm.