Paul McCartney and Kanye West

Kanye West fans ask: Who's Paul McCartney?

The unlikely duo's new music collaboration may raise questions for those West fans who are not familiar with the former Beatle, and for some pranksters eager to rile Fab Four fans.

 The New Year's Eve release of "Only One," the first song collaboration by rock legend Paul McCartney and hip-hop superstar Kanye West, certainly caught fans of the rock legend and hip-hop superstar by surprise.

This holds especially true, perhaps, for West fans who may have no idea who former Beatle and veteran solo star McCartney is -- or what he's done in a career that now covers more than six decades.

"Who is Paul McCartney?" tweeted one West fan.

Another tweeted: "I don't know who Paul McCartney is, but Kanye is going to give this man a career w/ this new song!!"

It is possible, of course, that these posts were written by people who know very well who McCartney is and wanted to have some fun at the expense of his fans.

Or, as one fan tweeted with mock-outrage: "Who tf is paul mccartney???!??! this is why i love kanye for shining light on unknown artists."

Along those lines, another tweet referenced The Beatles alone: "Why did people used (to) listen to bugs?"

Excellent question!

The response from McCartney fans was swift and decisive, if perhaps not remotely good-humored.

"Losing hope in humanity by the minute," tweeted one McCartney fan. "RT if you know who Paul McCartney is #TheBeatles."

Another was clearly angered, tweeting: "If you don't know who #PaulMcCartney is, you don't deserve your ears."

Van Gogh, long deceased, was not available for comment.

Better, still, was this tweet: 'The downfall of America’s youth has officially concluded with people not knowing who Paul McCartney is."

We suspect that some West fans genuinely are not familiar with The Beatles or McCartney, who performed an epic concert at San Diego's Petco Park in September. But it also appears some Twitteratti members are poking fun at McCartney fans to get a rise out of them. It also suggests that sarcasm does not work well in 140, inflection-free characters on the Internet.

On the other hand, then more time devoted to this Kanye/Sir Paul"controversy" -- whether real, contrived or both -- the less time spent on "Only One" itself.

The ballad, while not as sappy as "Ebony and Ivory," McCartney's 1982 collaboration with Stevie Wonder, is not McCartney's finest moment. He plays keyboards and appears to provide barely audible backing vocals for West, who croons via Auto-tune, the pitch-correcting device long favored by vocally challenged performers.

There's no doubting the sincerity of West's heartfelt lyrics about his late mother, Dr. Donda West, and his young daughter. Its sentimentality is as pronounced as the fact that West should have let someone else sing his lyrics instead. McCartney wisely refrains from trading vocals with West, since doing so would likely be embarrassing for both of them.

Meanwhile, we can only wonder (on behalf of some younger West fans): Who, or what, was Wings?

Cr. The San Diego Union-Tribune  News