C/D Paul McCartney Solo

"Maybe I'm Amazed" is a beautiful song, and nobody can deny that. But I am not a fan of the way he sings on it. It would have benefited more from the more controlled singing style he used on songs like "Yesterday", "And I Love Her", "Michelle" and the first half of "Hey Jude".

The "Wings over America" version instead then?

I think Geir could be correct!

looks like new firemen coming up:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20081001/ten-uk-mccartney-5fdf947.html

The second Fireman, 'Rushes', was pretty good I think.

I am a big fan of the totally weird new wave experiments in Paul McCartney II. Especially the songs "Temporary Secretary" and "Darkroom".

If you haven't heard these, they will shock you.

"Maybe I'm Amazed" is a beautiful song, and nobody can deny that. But I am not a fan of the way he sings on it. It would have benefited more from the more controlled singing style he used on songs like "Yesterday", "And I Love Her", "Michelle" and the first half of "Hey Jude".

This is a completely retarded statement.

Beatles >>>> McCartney solo > Wings

And btw. I stand by the above statement. I dislike exaggerated show of emotion, and part of what I like most about McCartney is when he does NOT sing in his "gospel" or "rock'n'roll shouter" voice.

Yeah, but there's a huge difference between the extremely over the top "Get On the Right Thing" and "Maybe I'm Amazed." Yes, there's the way he sings the "loud" verse -- I think that part is pretty incredible myself, but people may feel differently.

But the fact that he sings the first few verses with an open throat instead of softly and mostly in his head way, way, WAY makes the song as emotional as it is. This isn't Whitney's "I Will Always Love You" where you're supposed to be impressed by your hi-fi's remarkable dynamic range -- it's a paean to your wife who pretty much saved you from going insane, and you don't whisper that shit.

not being a huge fan of mac's "gritty" vocal style myself, I can side w/geir here (also note, when eric carmen does this in raspberries songs, i begin to hate p-mac more). but also *love* the regular verse vocals NTI is talking about -- see also his singing in "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window", or "I've Got a Feeling" (which also skirts the line between corny soul-emoting and smoother, perhaps more vulnerable sounding singing)

Nothing Too Much Just Out of Sight is ... good.

what about the last Macca LP? I like the song 'My Ever Present Past'.

I would say he hasn't made a really weak normal solo album since "Pipes Of Peace". "Press To Play" was patchy, but in places very good. "Flowers In The Dirty" was excellent, no less. "Off The Ground" was a bit more patchy, but still a nice overall listen. "Flaming Pie" may not have been quote the return to form some claimed, but still a good album. "Driving Rain" is perhaps the weakest of this lot, but still with some pretty strong moments such as the title track. "Chaos & Creation In The Backyard" was his best since "Tug Of War" and his second best solo effort overall, whereas the most recent one was also a good album where the main weakness had more to do with compression than with the actual material.

Listening again to 'maybe I'm amazed' - very strong guitar presence in this song, hacking and chugging along under verses. And all these solos breaking the song up!

"Ever Present Past" is really nice. Sounds like a lost Wasp Star track.

McCartney solo is even worse than Bob Segar, and that's saying something. At least some Bob Segar songs have a memorable tune, even if they reek of shit and truck stops.

Bob Seger has obviously never come close to such fantastically beautiful tunes as "Only Love Remains", "Maybe I'm Amazed", "My Love", "Bluebird", "Venus And Mars", "Love In Song", "Once Upon a Long Ago", "No More Lonely Nights", "Tug Of War", "Someone Who Cares", "C'mon People", "Distractions", "Golden Earth Girl", "A Certain Softness", "At The Mercy", "Riding To vanity Fair" and "Anyway". All of them perfect schoolbook examples of how melodic pop ballads should be written. (And now I have only mentioned his solo songs - "Here There And Everywhere", "Michelle", "Golden Slumbers", "And I Love Her" and "Yesterday" are even better and all among the best pieces of music that have ever been made regardless of genre or time or age!)

Some of those are indeed magnificent and peerless tunes.

So is 'I Will'.

Who wrote 'If I Fell'? I admire that melody immensely, and have never been able to work out how the opening relates, musically, to the main body of the song.

Lennon has always claimed credit.

1st 2 mccartney solo lps r so classique

Ou Est Le Soliel is cool in a b*l**r*c way.

yah of course i love you baby... in a "balearic" way

i'm not talking about beatles songs though; those were written, I suspect, by an entirely different person-- one who died in a car accident and was replaced by government agents who had "already factored him into [their] equation for a cultural values shift."

(hear the full story of Paul McCartney's doppelganger on this brilliant record that details this conspiracy!-- seriously, i love this song!)
http://www.archive.org/details/TeenageReverseMindsOnFire-BadwrongFalsepaul

Paul>>>Falsepaul>>>Oldpaul>>>Ringo.

Who wrote 'If I Fell'?

The general rule of thumb is if John sings lead vocal, John wrote it, if Paul sings lead vocal, Paul wrote it.

The excellent book "Beatlesongs" details exactly who did what on all Beatles recordings, and breaks down songwriting credits into percentages.

but I don't have that song and don't know who sings it; don't they both sing different parts?

"Maybe I'm Amazed" is pretty much the only non-dud moment in all of post-beatles Macca.

The excellent book "Beatlesongs" details exactly who did what on all Beatles recordings, and breaks down songwriting credits into percentages.

...according the best guess of the book's author.

"Maybe I'm Amazed" is pretty much the only non-dud moment in all of post-beatles Macca.

His entire solo output consists of 70 per cent classics and 30 per cent duds (unlike his Beatles output, which was 99% classics and 1% duds)

Anyone who argues that "Maybe I'm Amazed" is the only good solo Macca song has clearly not heard more than 5 or 10 solo Macca songs.

...according the best guess of the book's author.

Right, but he sort of triangulates his assessments based on quotes, studio notes, recollections, etc. It's very well done, and I trust it to be pretty accurate. On the song "In My Life" which was just one of two songs that John and Paul both had strong disagreements about who wrote (I don't remember what the other song was, though I don't remember it being 'If I Fell'), the author determined (accurately, in my opinion) that it was largely John's song and Paul only had a hand in a few lines; this was despite Paul's numerous protests about it.

Anyone who argues that "Maybe I'm Amazed" is the only good solo Macca song has clearly not heard more than 5 or 10 solo Macca songs.

:facepalm:

Anyone who argues that "Maybe I'm Amazed" is the only good solo Macca song has clearly not heard more than 5 or 10 solo Macca songs.

Maybe he's got a few decent ones, but they just don't have the power or presence of the Beatles songs. They could have been written by any AM radio jerkoff. Nothing I've heard-- and I've heard a lot-- suggests to me that he's an entity worth investigating, except that he has an extraordinary past. But that's not reflected in his solo career hardly at all IMHO.

McCartney solo hasn't got the quality control that he did in The Beatles, when John would ridicule anything that didn't hold up. But when he comes up with something great, it is still great. At his best, McCartney is at least almost as good as he was in The Beatles. It is his worst moments that are much worse now.

His solo ballads definitely couldn't be written by any "AM radio jerkoff". Most professional songwriters haven't got the musical gift to write the kind of ballads he does, with the perfect variation between major and minor and other harmonically intersting elements. The only other writer I know that is able to combine major and minor in the same perfect way is Neil Finn.

What do you mean by 'major and minor'? Chords? Keys?

I remain forever in Naive Teen Idol's debt for introducing me to Press To Play.

What do you mean by 'major and minor'? Chords? Keys?

He is almost certainly referring to Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.

What do you mean by 'major and minor'? Chords? Keys?

A bit of both, but, like Neil Finn, he actually does the chord changes in such a way that it feels like key changes. And changing between major and minor is always a great thing to do when you compose a ballad. It works every time!

one thing I always notice is that Paul McCartney was such a creative and brilliant bassist from '66 to '69 or so, and then suddenly after that I don't find his bass work all that remarkable.

The only thing I notice about his bass playing is that his bass is way too loud in the mix. Particularly on "Abbey Road" and his first couple of solo albums.

A fantastically beautiful song, which is probably his most underated solo work of all:

(And a perfect example of the interplay between major key and minor key that Macca is so good at when he is at his best. Particularly the "Only Love Is Strong Enough" bridge is fantastic)

huh. that song sounds like schlocky by-the-numbers McCartney to my ears. go figure.

That's because you are tone deaf then. It is all about harmony!

That clip doesn't have any sound on it!

I have found the song on last.fm. It sounds pretty good.

One thought about this song: if some kind of reasonably hip contemporary artist released it, it would blow people away. ... I have just been listening to Sufjan Stevens which a friend gave me from his hard drive. I guess it shows some talent, ambition, at least a couple of good tracks (out of a lot!) - but imagine if he suddenly came up with this!