McCartney POX (strictly post-Beatles material)

uhm

8 temporary secretary

don't think I can make 10.

1. waterfalls
2. maybe I'm amazed
3. junk
4. teddy boy
5. dear friend
6. wanderlust
7. my brave face
8. let me roll it
9. coming up
10. jet

Sorry, I had to.

hmm ...
Let em In ?
Coming Up?
Bluebird

..Can't do it .. Sorry.

9 live and let die (alternate: pipes of peace at halfspeed)
10 wings - hey jude (linda's tamborine & vocal mic mix)

listening to 'temporary secretary' ten times in a row -- I had to stop halfway through the first time. it's just not possible even for money.

It also reminds me a hell of a lot of The Coral.

Right now, I think Ram is better than Abbey Road.

Melodic ballads is clearly what he is and remains best at.

McCartney is best at melodic ballads.

"Arrow Through Me" is rapidly becoming my favorite Macca moment.

Big Barn Bed
Dear Boy
Teddy Boy
She's My Baby
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five
Arrow Through Me
The Back Seat of My Car
Maybe I'm Amazed
Here Today
Long Haired Lady

I assume everybody really loved "Freedom" until it got played during the Super Bowl and got super popular, right?

chronologically:

Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey
Hi Hi Hi
Jet
1985
Helen Wheels
Junior's Farm
Goodnight Tonight
Daytime Nighttime Suffering
Wonderful Xmastime
Coming Up

I know, the guy's a 'genius', and I treasured my "Hi Hi Hi" and "UA/AH" 45s as a 5-year old. (Still do.) So I really WISH I could enjoy his post-Beatles albums, but except for 2/3 of "Band On The Run", his albums just don't make it.

It seems you need to learn to enjoy his fantastic ballads and midtempo pop songs. They represent him at his best a lot more than the rockers.

"Darkroom" *
"Mrs Vanderbilt" **
"Listen to What the Man Said"
"Stranglehold" ***
"Wanderlust"
"My Brave Face"
"No More Lonely Nights"
"Letting Go"
"Every Night"
"Pretty Little Head"

* For whatever reason. The melody pops up in my head from time to time.
** Yes, it's corny, but I loved it when I was 12.
*** Press to Play is such an underrated album!

This is enormously difficult...

Indeed. I can't really think of any beyond "Maybe I'm Amazed"...

OK thanks Geir, I'll keep it in mind!
xpost

Rockers:

"Maybe I'm Amazed"
"Too Many People"
"Get On the Right Thing"
"Jet"
"Band on the Run"
"Nineteen-Hundred and Eighty-Five"
"Letting Go"
"Getting Closer"
"Old Siam, Sir"
"Stranglehold"

All highlights in his solo career, Geir.

Those sound like everyone else. They might as well have been written by Cliff Richard in the 50s. It is his pop style that has that uniquely English/European style that was so great about McCartney, and about The Beatles in general.

Yeah, don't contradict Geir! He's NEVER wrong.

"Old Siam, Sir" and "Jet" could have been written in the 50s?!?!?! Man, Europe must be a crazy place!

It is his pop style that has that uniquely English/European style that was so great about McCartney, and about The Beatles in general.

As much as I love Macca's remarkable pop sensibilities, they were but one of the things that was great about him and The Beatles. Besides, the only thing on that list that could've been by Cliff Richard was "Get On the Right Thing." In fact, "Letting Go" sounds so much of its time, it wouldn't sound out of place on a comp w/ BadCo...but it doesn't sound remotely LIKE BadCo. And I defy anyone to argue "Too Many People" sounds generic in any way.

Honestly, sometimes I wonder if Geir's celebrity on ILM has gone to his head -- b/c these arguments seem to be getting increasingly facile and tossed off.

I've heard plenty of McCartney and I'm sure there are better candidates...and yet, if I took the time to make a list I'd go with my gut and find a spot for "Silly Love Songs." What's wrong with that???

Hmm I meant Little Richard not Cliff Richard. Paul McCartney's rockers, to me, sound like Little Richard. And that is not a positive thing!

Ok. I'll try...

Right now it's:

"Magneto and Titanium Man"
"Monkberry Moon Delight"
"Mama's Little Girl"
"Hold Me Tight/Lazy Dynamite/Hands of Love/Power Cut"
"Some People Never Know"
"Arrow Through Me" (discovered through ILM!)
"Listen to What the Man Said"
"Little Lamb Dragonfly"
"Hi,Hi,Hi"
"Man We Was Lonely"

I've also been digging some of his more recent stuff, his last twenty years or so, but his 70's stuff just sounds cooler. He sounds more into it.

I've still never heard much from "McCartney II" through "Press to Play."

And I've never heard "Back to the Egg" either but if it's anything like "London Town" I don't think I want to. Definitely the worst of his 70's output- too much Denny Laine folky stuff. Even "Wild Life" is better.

Back To the Egg has very little in common with London Town. Seek it and McCartney II out post-haste!

Even "Wild Life" is better.

Bit of an emotional overstatement there, mh?
Not sure myself whether there actually is *any* Maccasir album that's worse than Wild Life :(

I like London much, much more than Egg. The latter has too many faceless rockers on it, although "Old Siam, Sir" and "Arrow Through Me" are both better than anything on the former.

The title track of London Town is a really nice composition. And the album's got "Cafe on the Left Bank" (which sounds like Duran Duran!) and "Morse Moose" - but yeah, Back to the Egg is a better sounding record and side one of that album is a really good side.

I like Wild Life a lot. The "throwaway" tracks are no more ridiculous or whatever than the ones on McCartney and I think I'd actually take "Some People Never Know," "Tomorrow," and "Dear Friend" over "Junk," "Every Night," and "Maybe I'm Amazed." (OK, that's actually a close call, but I just like the sequencing of Wild Life as an album a lot.)

Over "MAYBE I'M AMAZED"?!? Um, I like WWL just fine, but please.

"Every Night" is awesome, btw -- Matthew Sweet does a great cover on the tribute...

"I Am Your Singer" is a rad song.

I'm beginning to think that Wild Life is way underrated as a result of the context in which it was presented. Wasn't it released around the same time as Plastic Ono Ban and All Things Must Pass?

can someone do a poll cause this is really hard work?!

will anyone defend Pipes of Peace? Worth it only for "So Bad," which remains one of the Great Lost Macca Singles.

I am afraid that I cannot defent Pipes, although I really love "Say Say Say."

Xpost re: poll, I already did one.

Pipes, methinks, is nearly fine after all - esp. compared to really dull shit like Press To Play, which I bought recently and was GRANDLY dissappointed with.

how on earth can "Press" and "Good Times Comin'" disappoint??

O oh-key, Alfredo-san, just for you, just tonite, just now I'mma a-putting that damn thing on again! :)

"However Absurd," fellas.

"However" - not! :(
"Good Times" - mm, good, like, yeh; wouldn't be out of place on Queen's Hot Space.
"Press" - nah, this's exactly the kind of '80s sound' that broes me to total numbness.
"Pretty Little Head", however (no matter how generically P-Gabrielesque it appears), me likes also -- a little.
"Write Away" - a decent George-Michael-song.
"Stranglehold" - wouldn't be out of place on Queen's The Game.

(Haha, no -- this doesn't mean I'll be buying me Wild Life next!:)

Wild Life >>> Press to Play

Wild Life >>> Press to Play

WORD

Um, a coupla more dozens of posts like that and - who kno's?!

In the case of "Pipes...", the title track and "The Man" are great while "Keep Under Cover" is OK. The rest - apart from the production, which I love - is mostly rather mediocre. Not among his best albums.

"Keep Under Cover" is about the only thing that's compositionally interesting on that album. The production on the title track is really something else, though.

OMFG Where is the love for "Girls' School"?

"Press" - nah, this's exactly the kind of '80s sound' that broes me to total numbness.

This is the kind of eighties sound that drives me to ecstacy. Twenty-four tracks madness! Linda's psychotic harmonies! Paul's guitar fills!

And Carlos Alomar's, people!

CANNOT RECALL THE RADNESS OF THESE GUITAR PARTS

I cannot imagine a world in which "Press" does not exist.

"Press" and "Only Love Remains" were great. The rest of that album was not.

... "Press" ...
This is the kind of eighties sound that drives me to ecstacy.
-- Alfred, Lord

Good Lord, we *are* two different people eh!:)

On the Wild Life front, however, didn't find it today in any of my hometown's shops. So got me 3 other Maccasir's instead, he.

junk
coming up
one of these days
too many people
front parlour
band on the run
darkroom
frozen jap
temporary secretary
the lovely linda

The End of the End
English Tea
Scared
You Tell Me
Single Pigeon
You Gave Me the Answer
Magneto and Titanium Man
Dear Boy
Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey
Band on the Run

lol @ flappy bird's McCartney range only extending to McCartney, McCartney II, Ram and Band On The Run ... all Pitchfork-approved favourites, I'm sure.

This is an impossible question for me, fwiw.

oooooooooOOOOHHHH!!

no.

a few years ago I was driving with a friend to a Panda Bear show (the man from the Animal Collective). he put on "Darkroom." He asked us all in the car "who do you think this is?" We had no idea. It was wild. Listened to the whole record after that. Was blown away.

I don't like Ram at all. but Too Many People is good.

now JUNK? you wanna talk junk. you ever heard the Esher acoustic demos? when paul, george, and john got together at george's house in May 1968 and laid down all the songs they wrote in India. beautiful collection of double-tracked acoustics and vocals, messy and stoned and gorgeous. the demo of Junk on there has stuck with me ever since.

i ran out of songs so I put band on the run.

boom!

honestly i should've just written Junk ten times

I'll post 10 I wanna hear right now:

1. Figure of Eight
2. Only Love Remains
3. No More Lonely Nights
4. Take It Away
5. This One
6. Old Siam Sir
7. The Note You Never Wrote
8. Magneto and Titanium Man
9. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five
10. Maybe I'm Amazed