POLL Those Years Ago: The Beatles Solo Careers Poll Results Thread

The scoresheet appears to have a hard time w songtitles with apostrophes and parentheses. I had to manuallly correct a bunch of those

Loup is gonna win this innit?

New album cover?

https://www.facebook.com/PaulMcCartney/photos/a.481990853312.275107.182736663312/10156654754088313/?type=3&theater

He did a gig at the Philharmonic pub in Liverpool last night, 50 people there

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/paul-mccartney/2018/philharmonic-dining-rooms-liverpool-england-5bea9ff8.html

What a shitty setlist lmao

A must-read piece by The Dean on Double Fantasy written in the weeks after Lennon was murdered:

http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/lennon-81.php

Even though I am a McCartney nut, I left off super-popular McCartney & Wings singles in favor of songs that I personally love; I wasn't worried about leaving off stone cold classics like "Band On The Run" and "Jet"!
Notes:

• I feel like a prize idiot for forgetting "So Bad" from Pipes of Peace! Definitely a top-10 McCartney ballad; exquisite vocal performance and a lush production but not overproduced.
• I also forgot the John Lennon demo of "Real Love". Derp.

• "Call Me Back Again" features a McCartney vocal performance on the level of "Maybe I'm Amazed"- check it out!
• "Heather" is a lovely (nearly) instrumental, docked points for being named after his ex-wife;
• "Flaming Pie" strikes the perfect balance between "silly fun" and "rocking" while not being overthought;
• I voted for a bunch of Costello/McCartney collaborations and I don't feel guilty about it. I voted for "Veronica" and "This Town" but forgot to rank "So Like Candy".
• I love Jeff Lynne's Armchair Theater LP, so I was happy to place "Lift Me Up" and "Every Little Thing" near the bottom.
• I didn't vote for "My Love". Only two people did. I'm guessing its massive popular success (million-selling #1 single), and out-of-style production has made it uncool to like in 2018?
• "Distractions" is another terrific ballad, with some nice Spanish guitar, reminiscent of "And I Love Her"

Here's my complete ballot. As I said above, I wish I'd ranked "So Bad" near the top, plus "Real Love" and "So Like Candy"!

Rank Song Artist
1 Maybe I'm Amazed Paul McCartney
2 Oh Yoko! John Lennon
3 No More Lonely Nights Paul McCartney
4 Every Night Paul McCartney
5 Junk Paul McCartney
6 Say Say Say Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson
7 Handle With Care Traveling Wilburys
8 Happy Xmas (War Is Over) John Lennon
9 Live and Let Die Paul McCartney
10 Heather Paul McCartney
11 What Is Life George Harrison
12 Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) John Lennon
13 Helen Wheels Paul McCartney
14 Headed For The Light Traveling Wilburys
15 Nobody Told Me John Lennon
16 All Things Must Pass George Harrison
17 When We Was Fab George Harrison
18 Watching The Wheels John Lennon
19 That Would Be Something (unplugged) Paul McCartney
20 Silly Love Songs Paul McCartney
21 Wonderful Christmastime Paul McCartney
22 My Brave Face Paul McCartney
23 Awaiting On You All George Harrison
24 Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five Paul McCartney
25 Calico Skies Paul McCartney
26 Ever Present Past Paul McCartney
27 Jealous Guy John Lennon
28 Flaming Pie Paul McCartney
29 Woman John Lennon
30 Working Class Hero John Lennon
31 Cloud Nine George Harrison
32 Another Day Paul McCartney
33 Distractions Paul McCartney
34 I'm Losing You (Cheap Trick version) John Lennon
35 Heart of the Country Paul McCartney
36 Instant Karma! John Lennon
37 Mother John Lennon
38 Coming Up Paul McCartney
39 Pipes of Peace (ugh, why did I include this?) Paul McCartney
40 Photograph Ringo Starr
41 Whatever Gets You Through The Night John Lennon
42 Momma Miss America Paul McCartney
43 Daytime Nighttime Suffering Paul McCartney
44 Junior's Farm Paul McCartney
45 Dark Horse George Harrison
46 Weight Of The World Ringo Starr
47 Nobody's Child Traveling Wilburys
48 Veronica Elvis Costello
49 I Won't Back Down Tom Petty "Veronica" and "I Won't Back Down" probably rank in my Top 100 songs of any artist of all time, so I have no problem ranking them on this list!
50 Lift Me Up Jeff Lynne
51 Badge Cream
52 Cold Turkey John Lennon - many years ago I downloaded an awesome remix of this song by "IDC" - if you can find it, check it out.
53 God John Lennon
54 How? John Lennon
55 Got My Mind Set On You George Harrison
56 Fine Line Paul McCartney
57 Hope of Deliverance Paul McCartney
58 Call Me Back Again Paul McCartney
59 All Those Years Ago George Harrison
60 Fame David Bowie
61 This Town Elvis Costello
62 Every Little Thing Jeff Lynne
63 She's My Baby Traveling Wilburys
(please dont' correct me about the proper artist credits, I can't keep them straight)

And I would have put Badfinger "Day After Day" near the bottom too- so sorry I rushed this!

Lol "Spies Like Us" was my #99. I had that record when I was like 5-6 years old so I had to.

From the "they covered that?!" file:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbq03s2-Nsg

Anyone wanna make the Spotify playlist collaborative? It’s missing the last ten spots.

this one is complete https://open.spotify.com/user/unbornwhiskey/playlist/5DEbc3r4iHaFLSaELH9QLn?si=1awue1dWSJyvzPGYpinl6Q

the other one was based on a false countdown that shakey disowns

i made them both collaborative anyway

i was wondering about that as i have been listening to this over the last few days and today it ended with "Band on the Run" and thinking, i know that didn't win.

Thanks for the updated Spotify Brad!

George’s whole Jeff Lynne period is arguably the most consistent of his post-Beatles career past ATMP but most of it—Wilbury’s, Cloud 9, “Cheer Down,” what I know of Brainwashed—sounds even more indistinguishable from ELO than I remember. So much so that I really do wonder how much George is responsible for it.

Perhaps I’m only struck by the contrast now because it’s juxtaposed here against his previous work. But with few exceptions, everything from the melodies to the production to the arrangements of this period sounds almost jarringly different than the rest of his catalogue. Even still, so many of these songs are now in the George canon—and blur together with all the Wilbury’s-related projects Lynne was working on around that time—that even when it’s staring you in the face you still almost don’t realize the extent to which the last dozen years or so of his career really was ELO feat. George Harrison.

imo Lynne turns everything he touches into ELO soundalike, even the Beatle reunion

It's those gated-snare and vocal-compression settings he carries with him everywhere. Plus, of course, the fact that he sings backup on all his productions.

See also: Dave Edmunds

I hear what you're saying, Idol, but George's pinched, naturally sardonic approach comes through. ELO wouldn't have come up with "Fish on the Sand," "Cloud Nine," or "Devil's Radio," not to mention the ukelele stuff on Brainwashed.

"If That's What It Takes" and "When We Was Fab" sound like truer Lynne-Harrison collabs, agreed

I'd disagree on a few things. "Devil's Radio" (which I like) has the "Don't Bring Me Down" groove and the Jeff Lynne Tabernacle Choir in support. Even the way George sings the climactic "the Devil's radio!" sounds like Lynne's phrasing.

But that's the thing, isn't it? You wouldn't blink an eye if it were Lynne singing most of these tunes instead. His whole ethos is the "Beatles" but in most cases, it's some weirdly genericized version that doesn't exactly correlate to any specific Beatles song (tho "When We Was Fab" sounds like its backing track was assembled from Magical Mystery Tour MIDI files). Sure, there's drips and drabs of "George" throughout these records--pinched vox, pinched slide guitar--but it wouldn't shock me if Lynne actually played some of these parts himself such was his mastery and subsumation of all these disparate elements.

And the funny thing is, there's probably as much George on these records as there are on the rest of his catalogue. Which is to say, I agree with you that some of these songs could only have been done by George. But where the previous albums all had long stretches of uninspired songwriting, disinterested performances and poor singing, the blank spaces on these records just have Lynne filling the gaps, who is nothing if not a pro's pro.

iirc, in response to the clamoring for a reunion in the '70s, John Lennon said something once like, "If you want new Beatles music, just go buy some ELO records."

You wouldn't blink an eye if it were Lynne singing most of these tunes instead

Well, maybe, but it would never occur to Lynne to write lyrics like "Devil's Radio" or "Wreck of the Hesperus." And remember: George had proved himself rather well in the Beatles and solo as an arranger of brass instruments.

Brainwashed sounds less like classic Lynne to me.

Naturally, I think his Dark Horse era of 33 1/3 through Gone Troppo is just as inspired a period.

the previous albums all had long stretches of uninspired songwriting

And this ends for me with Extra Texture

In fact, I wonder how much a familiarity with those late '70s/early '80s albums can inform an understanding of that question - how much George is in Cloud Nine? That has not been one of my favorite Harrison albums, but I'm due to give it another listen.

ET is pretty bad. i like "You" though even if the vocals are kinda fried.

I think I said it on the noms thread but "You" is a great song that was clearly written for someone else (Ronnie) to sing, and George wasn't up to the task

he definitely had some bad years in there voice-wise.

"That's What It Takes" I could hear done in the style of, say, the '79 self-titled album, minus a few of the Lynne touches.

And if Eric Clapton had played on it...

"Fish on the Sand" and "This Is Love" are OK songs but the elaborate production elements do at times feel like "filling the gaps" to me, too. I like retro guitar sounds but sometimes these strike me as generic.

"When We Was Fab" is a triumph of the style, though!

Other than that synthed up middle eight, Fish is pretty plain!

So many guitars on that.

Like as many as Murmur, but it's not as good as Murmur

The synth break in "This Is Love" is great. That's a different dimension in synth use than the synth use in Harrison's late '70s/early '80s records, but in a way synths in general feel more key to those records than they do to this one.

Wouldn't mind hearing "Wreck of the Hesperus" produced in the style of the Hoagy Carmichael tunes on Somewhere in England.

The George discussion makes me realize something great about this poll:

That for all the mini-discoveries in these dudes’ catalogues—and there are some really cool ones—their solo careers tell us very little about them we didn’t already know – if anything they pretty much reinforced these views.

I mean, Paul was the mildly adventurous but ultimately vapid tunesmith we suspected he was in the Beatles – he spent another forty years mining mindless pop. John was a lazy cunt – he pissed away half his time left on the earth (and retired from music the other five years ha ha). Ringo was in the right place at the right time – he literally had nothing to offer musically or otherwise absent the others. And George, well, he was a sourpuss millionaire – if there were a word for the face one makes when it smells bad cheese it would be Harrison.

And yet, together they still formed the greatest band there ever was and will be. Amazing.

lol yeah that is generally true

although it did make me think more about Paul and how deeply strange and vacant he is. the other three, I feel like I can relate to them on some level as people - they present as recognizable human personalities/types with characteristics that I can recognize both in others and myself - Paul is a Reagan-esque nullity.

(the above has no bearing on the quality of the music, if that's not clear. plenty of inscrutable vacuums have made great music, and I don't need to "relate" to an artist to find their work engaging)

Paul is a Reagan-esque nullity

No he isn't. And you guys repeat the same line over and over again about forty years of mindless pop when he has been a different artist for two decades at least.

if there's a person in there with definable opinions and emotions, I can't discern it. I stand by my previous comments:

Coming to the conclusion that Paul is definitely the *weirdest* Beatle, he's kind of inscrutable in his stoner randomness and bad judgment.

... 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.

he really loved Linda, and the idea of love in general. that's all I got.

in other news, I am fond of the word inscrutable. INSCRUTABLE, I say!

And that characterization applies to, say, Thrillington? To Standing Stone? To the Blackbird poetry collection? To his paintings? To the Fireman records? To Chaos and Creation in the Backyard?

There are several degrees of nuance describing a willingness to use craftsmanship as a shield and screen than calling someone a Reagan-nite nullity.

for one, Reagan was a sociopath.

btw for all the talk of Macca as the nullity George never once cracked in the interviews I've seen -- never once gushed about what John meant to him. The closest is the line in "All Those Years Ago": "Living with good and bad/I always looked up to you." Whatever he felt about John -- whatever gradations of love and hate and regret -- he kept to himself.

I stole the Reagan ref from you lol