Paul McCartney wins two Ultimate Classic Rock Awards

From Paul McCartney wins Artist and Album of the Year Ultimate Classic Rock Awards, February 11, 2014:

The combination of his artistic legacy and continued vitality has paid off well for Paul McCartney. He is the winner of the two most prestigious 2014 Ultimate Classic Rock Awards — Artist of the Year and Album of the Year.

McCartney was a landslide winner in the Artist of the Year category, taking 64 percent of the vote. In second place was Black Sabbath, who, despite putting out a solid reunion album, ’13,’ only received 20 percent. David Bowie’s surprise comeback only netted him 5 percent, which was still good enough for third place.

Album of the Year was considerably closer, with McCartney’s ‘New’ beating out ’13’ by a total of 45-38 percent. Bowie’s ‘The Next Day’ was, again, in third place with 5 percent.

If not for Rush, the former Beatle would have had a clean sweep of the top four awards. McCartney finished in second place behind the Canadian trio in the Best Tour of 2013 category — we attended his excellent Milwaukee show — by a tally of 36 percent to 28 percent, and his ‘Queenie Eye’ (36.8 percent) narrowly lost to Rush’s ‘The Garden’ (37.4 percent). McCartney could have been a victim of split-voting. His collaboration with the surviving members of Nirvana, ‘Cut Me Some Slack,’ finished in third place, with 8 percent.

Congratulations to Paul McCartney on his two 2014 Ultimate Classic Rock Awards!