The Beatles' Solo Careers Poll - Voting and General Discussion Thread

can I do a mixed ballot?

what do you mean?

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, May 23, 2018 10:05 AM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I was wondering this too, mixed meaning part-ranked and part-unranked

can i vote for paul’s “black beatles” vine

wait do I have to list the artist as well as the track title? if so, what is the correct format?

Artist - Title

wasn't really feeling driving rain and "freedom" is an atrocity but i had to find room for "rise the raindrops" on my ballot

er rinse*

I've always wanted to like Rinse the Raindrops more than I do... the title line will pop into my head but then I'll put on the full song and it just kinda wears me out.

I can imagine an enthusiastic Paul protest song called "Raise the Raindrops!"

i remember seeing the "lonely road" video on vh1 all the time in 2001/2002

it's really terrible in a specifically 2001/2002 music video way

shakey, how important would you say it is that ballot artists are labeled correctly? (say I might confuse Plastic Ono Band with John Lennon or Wings with Paul McCartney...)

I'm standardizing all the poll entries as part of the vote tabulation process, so as long as you give me some kind of clue as to which artist performed the song I can take it from there.

I was wondering this too, mixed meaning part-ranked and part-unranked

I don't know how to count unranked entries without being prejudicial or arbitrary, so everything should be ranked plz

I ranked the absolute cream, then broke the rest into tiers and ran each tier through a randomizer.

I did exactly the same thing, got a top 7 and then let Excel do the rest, happy with the result!

So I have to disqualify some stuff I listed, since I just noticed a vote for Leon Russell's "A Song For You". I had the whole album that song is from down as featuring George, but it actually looks like he only played on Dixie Lullaby, Shoot Out on the Plantation, and Hurtsome Body. (Ringo only played on Dixie Lullaby and Shoot Out on the Plantation).

Sorry about that

awww, dang

"spinning on an axis" is a really weird song, kinda feels like wings and ram combined

turns out in the end I couldn't not include a few goofy ringo tracks... certainly it's a fool who plays it cool

ballot sent!

Driving Rain - think I voted She’s Given Up Talking and From a Lover to a Friend!

those songs are both really good

sorry to just reiterate what i said earlier but wow chaos and creation is SO good

12 ballots so far, get 'em in people

do Shakes a favor
open the door
and get'em in

kinda lol but mostly sad that How Do You Sleep is on the same album as Imagine

Imagine Paul sleeping peacefully
I wonder if you can

I take it we're just voting for songs rather than specific versions, yes? Apologies if this is answered somewhere already.

It depends. I combined all the votes for the different versions of "Isn't It a Pity" into one, for example, since most people didn't specify which version. But in other cases you need to be clear that you're voting for, say, Wings' version of "Live and Let Die" as opposed to Paul McCartney and the Freelance Hellraiser's remix version. Or Bob Dylan's version of "If Not For You" as opposed to George's.

Live versions are not eligible.

"only mama knows" is a really strong late macca rocker

Good website for instrumental credits: https://www.the-paulmccartney-project.com/

yeah I looked at that a bit

lol i love this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9elQeVfrLOo

ew

this poll is really putting me in touch with my true, deep hatred of Paul McCartney.

sorry sleeve!

haha it's cool, as usual your love for music I cannot stand is inspiring in a weird "takes all kinds" kinda way

there are a couple of Wings tunes down in the lower 30's of my ballot and that's probably gonna be it.

What do you dislike about McCartney enough to flush whole chunks of his music down the toilet?

wait, no voting for the live "maybe i'm amazed" and "coming up" ? those were substantial hits!

^ racist

....?!?

the live "Maybe I'm Amazed" sounds mannered imo

"jenny wren" is a lovely song

yes

jenny wren is astonishing, one of his best

after some thought i guess i'm okay with not vote-splitting either of those songs. but if you're considering either for your vote, and you don't know the live ones, check 'em out, maybe it boosts them up a slot or two!

What do you dislike about McCartney enough to flush whole chunks of his music down the toilet?

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

I think Paul is truly smug and holds his audience in contempt (see multiple references itt to half-assedness at best). At best, it comes across to me as all wink-winky and self-conscious and knowing, which is not a vibe I dig. Plus his worst moments in the Beatles are so so bad that it leaves me profoundly uninterested in investigating into the 80's (esp after enduring the omnipresence of his work in the early 80s). also, I don't really like pop music per se as I'm sure you know, although the nature of subjectivity means that I do end up liking some (partly due to ILM dialectics), and those are pretty much the Wings songs. Music-hall ripoffs and random bedroom experiments and mainstream 80's pop and "rock artist gone classical" generally don't appeal to me.

I also really really like a lot of the work that the other three have done! Being in the 30's is a compliment! There's just less of his stuff.

But it's also totally personal and related to living in the hippie capital of the universe for decades and seeing the worst aspects of Beatles worship. Part of the dislike is undoubtedly subjective and irrational and unfair, for sure, and I happily cop to that.

I promise to skim the Spotify stuff from the 70's I haven't heard. Brad pointed me towards "1985" which is def up there.

coulda used more editing, sorry

oh I also shoulda clarified that I'm only up to 60 or so, very open to additions

The half-assedness comes through in the material more than the smugness, which is evident in interviews and Beatle reunions.

...?!?

that's not what racism means fwiw

I’ve come to the conclusion that Macca is the funkiest and most versatile Beatle but also the weirdest and most inscrutable, always hiding behind schmaltz or nonsense or charm, which makes him seem like he’s not all there. Like, of all of them he seems the least like a real person in his work, he’s like a strange caricature.

well put

There's something Reagan-esque about Paul's use of amiability as a squid ink.