-- Alex in NYC
There's no difference!! Paul was the, what do you say, "auteur"...
― chicxulub (chicxulub), Thursday, 13 February 2003 14:01 (twenty-one years ago) link
Paul McCartney is one of those artists that I bet there's a potential CD-R or two's worth of stuff I would absolutely adore - really he needs to be a lot more obscure than he is, so some loving curator could trawl through his albums and B-Sides and make some selections. As it is his commercial/historical clout means the available compilations take the path of least resistance a bit too much.
― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 13 February 2003 14:15 (twenty-one years ago) link
Beatles beat the rest hands-down - that much we know. Beyond that, RJG is probably right. But the best post-Beatles Macca I know is VENUS & MARS - a bit of a 70s masterpiece. TUG OF WAR also has great stuff; his work with Costello has its moments; and so does the FLAMING PIE LP (1997).
― the pinefox, Thursday, 13 February 2003 14:19 (twenty-one years ago) link
I did the CDR thing with McCartneys back catalogue a year or two ago and managed to get 4 really good chronological comps. I would guess that a lot of people would like much of this stuff if they sat down and listened to it. McCartney solo though is almost dismissed and I don't think that the Wingspan comp kicked off the resurection of the post Beatles stuff that I or probably he expected.
― mms (mms), Thursday, 13 February 2003 14:31 (twenty-one years ago) link
What I really can't get over is the fact that Paul himself doesn't realise how rubbish he is nowadays. Wake up!
He really seems to think his solo work is comparable to the Beatles. It's not. Maybe it was always going to be a dissapointment by the Beatles standards, but by _any_ standards it's awful. And still he doesn't get it.
Maybe if we all stood outside his house with placards saying "Paul, your music is now shit!" he'd get it. But I doubt it. He'd probably think "Hey those guys have spelled 'hit' wrong".
Dud.
― mei (mei), Thursday, 13 February 2003 15:32 (twenty-one years ago) link
― harveyw (harveyw), Thursday, 13 February 2003 18:33 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 13 February 2003 18:56 (twenty-one years ago) link
― dleone (dleone), Thursday, 13 February 2003 19:04 (twenty-one years ago) link
― dave q, Thursday, 13 February 2003 20:54 (twenty-one years ago) link
Favourite videos: Goodnight Tonight, Pipes of Peace.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Thursday, 13 February 2003 20:59 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 13 February 2003 21:04 (twenty-one years ago) link
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Thursday, 13 February 2003 21:06 (twenty-one years ago) link
Also C: "Jet," "Too Many People," "Let Me Roll It," "Spin It On" (Wings go thrash!)
― mike a (mike a), Thursday, 13 February 2003 22:54 (twenty-one years ago) link
― RJG (RJG), Friday, 14 February 2003 00:33 (twenty-one years ago) link
― RSPMJLGH (Piano Man), Friday, 14 February 2003 00:37 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Arthur (Arthur), Friday, 14 February 2003 01:25 (twenty-one years ago) link
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 14 February 2003 10:52 (twenty-one years ago) link
good old dad.
― RJG (RJG), Friday, 14 February 2003 11:21 (twenty-one years ago) link
― RJG (RJG), Friday, 14 February 2003 11:24 (twenty-one years ago) link
― the pinefox, Friday, 14 February 2003 13:26 (twenty-one years ago) link
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 14 February 2003 21:11 (twenty-one years ago) link
I don't think I've even seen a copy of WINGSPAN in a record store.
I reminded my dad about the 'all the best'-for-christmas thing on friday night when we were in a car. he didn't really remember. he said "and why did she [my mum] buy you that instead?" and I told him again and he understood. then he asked "and why did you want 'faith'??" and the answer was...I was six...I had seen it advertised on television.
― RJG (RJG), Sunday, 16 February 2003 05:54 (twenty-one years ago) link
― dave k, Sunday, 16 February 2003 13:27 (twenty-one years ago) link
Yes, COMING UP is great.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Sunday, 16 February 2003 15:19 (twenty-one years ago) link
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316860328/qid=1045408789/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_3_1/026-5101041-0610836
It's an intimate scrapbook.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Sunday, 16 February 2003 15:23 (twenty-one years ago) link
Capitals are the new italics.
― the pinefox, Sunday, 16 February 2003 16:21 (twenty-one years ago) link
If that's not a special offer I'll EAT MY HAT. Note controversial opinion expressed herein: the best solo Paul McCartney work did not appear until FLOWERS IN THE DIRT. Before anyone rushes to order it, please note that it appears to be two-dimensional.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Sunday, 16 February 2003 17:57 (twenty-one years ago) link
I used to listen to my mum's copy of "All The Best" all the time. On vinyl, too.
― robin carmody (robin carmody), Monday, 17 February 2003 02:23 (twenty-one years ago) link
amazing.
Love Coming Up and C Moon too.
― Charlie (Charlie), Monday, 17 February 2003 02:32 (twenty-one years ago) link
― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 17 February 2003 02:57 (twenty-one years ago) link
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Monday, 17 February 2003 09:52 (twenty-one years ago) link
And then I wake up.
I had "All the best" on CD for many years, never listened to it, but I'll agree that "Venus and Mars" is a neglected classic, as is the first McCartney LP, very primitive but rather homely.
― Rob M (Rob M), Monday, 17 February 2003 10:55 (twenty-one years ago) link
I had dreams about WINGSPAN last night. or it featured in my last night's dreams. I think it was really big and cost one hundred and twenty-five pounds or twenty-five pounds and was sealed in plastic and didn't tell me the tracklisting.
record shopping w/ allyC, yesterday, we saw many mccartney/wings albums. WINGS AT THE SPEED OF SOUND looked OK but was on cassette and three pounds fifty.
― RJG (RJG), Monday, 17 February 2003 14:59 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mike a (mike a), Monday, 17 February 2003 15:39 (twenty-one years ago) link
― RJG (RJG), Monday, 17 February 2003 15:46 (twenty-one years ago) link
― matt riedl (veal), Monday, 17 February 2003 16:05 (twenty-one years ago) link
― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 17 February 2003 18:45 (twenty-one years ago) link
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Monday, 17 February 2003 18:59 (twenty-one years ago) link
― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 17 February 2003 19:33 (twenty-one years ago) link
― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 17 February 2003 19:34 (twenty-one years ago) link
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Monday, 17 February 2003 19:42 (twenty-one years ago) link
Does anyone else like 'Hope of Deliverance'? I think it has a haunting melody.
― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 17 February 2003 19:46 (twenty-one years ago) link
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Monday, 17 February 2003 20:10 (twenty-one years ago) link
p.s. 'for your love'+'bus stop'=gouldman.
― RJG (RJG), Monday, 17 February 2003 20:21 (twenty-one years ago) link
― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 17 February 2003 21:17 (twenty-one years ago) link
― dleone (dleone), Monday, 17 February 2003 21:42 (twenty-one years ago) link
― robin carmody (robin carmody), Monday, 17 February 2003 23:12 (twenty-one years ago) link
Dud: 'Wings at the Speed of Sound', 'Flaming Pie', 'Driving Rain' (a little better than 'FP'), 'Press to Play' (interesting yet not successful experimentation from Macca in 1986...) & 'Back to the Egg' (consistently average, only 'Old Siam Sir' makes any real impression).
Many albums of his i'm mixed about... yet, overall 'Classic', I maybe go towards this strongly as the general consensus is so unfairly a 'dud' opinion. You have to look deep into his work, and will find much that is good...
― Tom May (Tom May), Thursday, 20 February 2003 22:43 (twenty-one years ago) link
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 21 February 2003 22:14 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mike a (mike a), Friday, 21 February 2003 22:17 (twenty-one years ago) link
Yeah I get why so many people hate it but I’ve always liked it. It’s fun, catchy and the production is pretty good (I think he doubled the bass so the sound is pretty fat).
― AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, 2 November 2023 11:16 (five months ago) link
i feel pretty indifferent to it, it's far from the worst of paul's "granny music" but also pretty far from his best work
― ufo, Thursday, 2 November 2023 11:22 (five months ago) link
It was an unexpected highlight when I saw him at Glastonbury in 2022. Fat sound indeed.
I love me some Wings but less a fan of the rockers so the early Junior's Farm wasn't a highlight back then, though I sort of enjoyed the bemusement in the crowd ("Do we know this? Are we into it?")
― Alba, Thursday, 2 November 2023 11:25 (five months ago) link
It puzzles me that he never plays Silly Love Songs any more. I wonder if some songs just remind him of Linda too much.
― Alba, Thursday, 2 November 2023 11:26 (five months ago) link
Though setlist.fm says he hasn't played it since 1976!
― Alba, Thursday, 2 November 2023 11:28 (five months ago) link
he has barely ever played anything from ram in concert so truly who knows what goes into his choices
― ufo, Thursday, 2 November 2023 11:33 (five months ago) link
"silly love songs" is a classic and one of the very best wings songs, i would have loved to have heard it. sometimes people throw about 'ram invented indie pop' which doesn't make much sense to me but "silly love songs" sure anticipated a fair amount of it
― ufo, Thursday, 2 November 2023 11:38 (five months ago) link
On Ram, when responding to its latter-day status among fans, he's said that he finds it hard to listen to himself as it was recorded at such an unhappy time for him.
― Alba, Thursday, 2 November 2023 11:47 (five months ago) link
i wonder if he'd like it more if it had been correctly acclaimed at the time
― ufo, Thursday, 2 November 2023 11:57 (five months ago) link
Ram's public embrace and rejection by critics was for years a point of pride for him.
― hat trick of trashiness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 2 November 2023 12:03 (five months ago) link
I think SLS is OK apart from the bassline, which is right up there with “Michelle” for my favourite Macca. I can’t believe some of the stuff he played on the Fabs records.
― assert (matttkkkk), Thursday, 2 November 2023 12:14 (five months ago) link
xp well he should bring that pride back and play a bunch of it live
― ufo, Thursday, 2 November 2023 12:16 (five months ago) link
I agree with matt, the bassline on SLS is by far the best thing about that single, and it's a GREAT bassline. I could listen to that on loop for hours on end.
― birdistheword, Thursday, 2 November 2023 17:19 (five months ago) link
(just the bass part that is)
Even if the only song in his solo oeuvre was "Maybe I'm Amazed," that would be enough to make him a classic.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 2 November 2023 22:21 (five months ago) link
Fortunately, he also hasd "Press."
― hat trick of trashiness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 2 November 2023 22:43 (five months ago) link
i really think it's a crime paul never did a whole album in the vein of tracks like "silly love songs" and "goodnight tonight"
― ufo, Saturday, 25 November 2023 10:04 (four months ago) link
I think you could put together an album length compilation of stuff he did with a similar vibe - those two, My Love, Arrow Through Me, Take It Away, Dress Me Up as a Robber ... maybe the version of No More Lonely Nights with the squelchy synth bass. I like Write Away, but but I think the mid-80s production make it sound too harsh to fit in with the above, not smooth or lush enough. Secret Friend has a different sound as well, but maybe the ten minute version would work as an outro
― soref, Saturday, 25 November 2023 10:31 (four months ago) link
"blue sway" is another yeah
― ufo, Saturday, 25 November 2023 11:06 (four months ago) link
I’m kind of stunned to see Super 70s Sports on the case:
Name a song you love that doesn’t get played or talked about a ton. I’ll start: pic.twitter.com/EdEhEr60pS— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) March 23, 2024
― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, 23 March 2024 11:00 (three weeks ago) link
i'm kind of having a Wings phase and will check this out. i just listented to Wild Life for the first time, which rules and has my wondering why i waited so long.
― budo jeru, Saturday, 23 March 2024 15:25 (three weeks ago) link
"Arrow Through Me" is by far the best tune on Back to the Egg.
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 23 March 2024 15:27 (three weeks ago) link
haha, good to know. it's not too shabby
― budo jeru, Saturday, 23 March 2024 15:35 (three weeks ago) link
listening to Red Rose Speedway now. you know, i love Linda's voice. beautiful angel voice. when i think about how people went through the trouble to isolate her vocal tracks so they could shit on her and imply that she somehow didn't deserve to be making music with Paul McCartney -- god it makes me so fucking mad
― budo jeru, Saturday, 23 March 2024 15:36 (three weeks ago) link
Back to the Egg is an excellent album and yes, this song is great
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Saturday, 23 March 2024 16:25 (three weeks ago) link
Linda harmonies are usually A+
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 23 March 2024 17:25 (three weeks ago) link
Red Rose Speedway might be underrated? I need to listen some more but it all sounds good to me.
― brimstead, Sunday, 24 March 2024 15:22 (three weeks ago) link
Love Big Barn Bed and Single Pigeon.
― bookmarkflaglink (Darin), Sunday, 24 March 2024 19:06 (three weeks ago) link
Red Rose Speedway is an all-time favorite of mine. Side B is just about perfect. And personally I'll take Paul/Linda/Denny harmonies over those by Paul/John/George anytime.
― TheNuNuNu, Sunday, 24 March 2024 20:26 (three weeks ago) link
https://www.stereogum.com/2257275/vinyl-artwork-rejected-by-paul-mccartney-for-being-too-unflattering-is-being-auctioned-for-charity/news/
― PaulTMA, Thursday, 28 March 2024 11:13 (three weeks ago) link
hahaha that is horrific
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Thursday, 28 March 2024 13:07 (three weeks ago) link
Yikes
― Naive Teen Idol, Friday, 29 March 2024 03:57 (three weeks ago) link
lmao
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 29 March 2024 04:06 (three weeks ago) link
Watching Wingspan (on YT) which I haven’t seen since it aired in 2001 – it’s absolutely a love letter to Linda. He’s interviewed warmly by Stella, and it’s full of warm (at times treacly) remembrances of their relationship. The opening 45 minutes that covers Paul and Linda’s unorthodox musical romance, the formation of Wings and rather brave tour of English universities is fascinating. Notwithstanding his own massive celebrity, Paul’s partnership with Linda (replete with open air tour buses with baby cribs on the roof and seafaring recording studios in the Virgin Islands) even now scans as a somewhat unlikely path to superstardom. Have to imagine that it wasn’t a coincidence that he married Heather Mills a year later either.
― Naive Teen Idol, Friday, 12 April 2024 22:26 (one week ago) link
Mary, not Stella, I think.
― Alba, Friday, 12 April 2024 23:13 (one week ago) link
To his immense credit the world's biggest star tried to be as 'umble as possible.
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 13 April 2024 00:04 (six days ago) link
Yep, Mary
― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, 13 April 2024 02:33 (six days ago) link