C/D Paul McCartney Solo

mccartney section was half-full of copies of Kisses on the Bottom

which I don't care if all of you said it was great, no one should have to listen to an album with that title srsly wtf Macca

not that any of you did, just saying IF that was the case

this will draw mockery, perhaps deserved, but that valentine song he played on snl sounded pretty great imo, way better than i would've imagine his rod stewart/linda rondstadt with strings! move ever would've.

That is a great title, damn you MCartney (Back to the Egg is VVVV good, btw, mostly awesome even. Ram is even better. Chaos and Creation is better than I expected)

live a little, be a gypsy, get around, get around, get your feet up off the ground, live a little, get around

Ram is indeed the best album - - - so it's kind of good that, as balls hints, BotR is 'only' a pretty-darn-good poppy rock album, short but hooky and fun... so then you get in through that and still get to enjoy delving in and discovering the greatness of Ram. No clue how BotR ever became THE album - maybe just that it's so impeccably produced and structured, like Tug of War very deliberately going for what will "feel" like a complete Album, down to the little reprise of the opening track at the end. I still enjoy the hell out of it but the run of RRS, BotR and Venus & Mars is really the apex of Macca as craftsman/showman with nothing to actually say. Most nights, that's enough for me and I'll take all three over most of Lennon's warbly, moldy-sounding records.

Basically VG I think you've chosen wisely. Soak up BotR and see where you feel like exploring from there. As far as Wings stuff goes, I'd say you can wait longest on Wild Life, Speed of Sound, and London Town.

As far as Wings stuff goes, I'd say you can wait longest on Wild Life, Speed of Sound, and London Town.

― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, August 13, 2013 4:51 AM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yup, I second this. And for his non-Wings stuff, I'd say you could wait the longest on Pipes Of Peace and Off The Ground.

And christ, miss out the Give My Regards To Broad Street soundtrack album completely, I'd say. Apart from 'No More Lonely Nights', which is grade A McCartney as far as I'm concerned.

off the ground is possibly the worst album ever and the thought of it makes me barf

give my regards to broad street is great don't listen to him! it was definitely my favorite movie at age 6, which is saying something

It's an album full of inferior re-recordings of Beatles classics, and far from essential versions of stuff that's already on Tug Of War and Pipes Of Peace, though? I guess there's a couple of tracks on there that are exclusive to the soundtrack, but I couldn't say ('No More Lonely Nights' aside) that any of 'em were worth bothering with, myself.

I did a little S&D of tracks from all Wings/McCartney solo LPs in this thread here a while back.

zzzzzzz your opinion means nothing until you've watched the movie as many times as i did when i was 6

zachlyon's musical opinions are bristling with otm. back to the egg is fabulous, and red rose speedway is a masterpiece.

I don't much care for Ram. Too bloody long.

That's because it's Paul's "White Album".

We've already got one of those.

"Do you love me like you know you ought to do" vs. "you become naked"

Turrican, I remember that post! Good stuff.

I love how much love Back to the Egg gets on ILX, it's not an album I'd ever recommend as one of one's first purchases and I think I only acquired it as a teen because I was at a Best Buy, I had decided I was going to buy a McCartney CD, and it was literally all they had. Some great tracks though, and as I've said before the unreleased stuff from that period ("Boil Crisis"!) is great.

Thanks to this thread I listened to "Venus And Mars". Wow.

So you...listened to what the thread said?

talk more talk!

xpost I sure did. For what seems at times to sound like a very stoned, throwaway deal it holds together very well.

I've probably mentioned this before, but back when I had dreams of doing a two-disc Paul McCartney covers album, all I ever completed were versions of "Dear Boy," "I'll Give You A Ring," and "Magneto & Titanium Man." And I think some reallllly scrappy demos of "1882" and "Biker Like An Icon."

It was going to be my masterpiece.

Are the V&M demos worth seeking out? Seems there were quite a few collections of these available on Ye Olde Blogs before the Great Megaupload Fire Of '12.

I guess I never had the Red Rose Speedway with bonus tracks. That live version of The Mess just grabbed me big time. Starts out like a sort of normal retro-rocker, then goes off to some interesting places starting about 1:30 in.

Yeah, I used to really dig that when I first got into that album. "Country Dreamer" is also quite pretty IMO, if lightweight.

Recently picked up a copy of Cold Cuts, the Club Sandwich bootleg of the shelved unreleased-tracks collection. Dunno why I did, given that I've long since assembled all this material in other formats, but it's feeling like pretty choice Macca listening - absolutely nothing essential, but everything sounding kinda good and profoundly McCartney-esque, and sounding just more like an album coming out of the turntable and good speakers than through my disposable early-00's MP3s. Anyhow, the motley assembly of throwaway tracks with no overriding vibe basically makes it sound like most Wings records. Slightly different "My Carnival" than I know from the Venus & Mars CD - more hooting and carrying on by Paul. Otherwise the standouts are naturally "Waterspout" and the lovely "A Love For You," which could have really held Wild Life together with a serious edit. I've always liked "Robber's Ball" for silliness but not as much as I want to like it. Wikipedia has the tracklist if you want to see about tracking these down yourself.

"Cage" – Removed from Back to the Egg at the last minute in favour of "Baby's Request",this song features the chords C-A-G-E as its riff to go along with the cage lyric.

can I lol

haha yeah. perhaps more notable for the, er, calliope solo. i've also always loved the totally incoherent filler lyrics that almost, but don't quite, hang together as an actual plot. "baby's request" slays it hardcore, good choice there and maybe works against the idea that without lennon/martin he had nobody to push back and veto bad ideas. i do kinda like "cage" but it has all the earmarks of a not-very-good idea that got worked on too long by stoned people who later forgot about it.

"Cage" – Removed from Back to the Egg at the last minute in favour of "Baby's Request",this song features the chords C-A-G-E as its riff to go along with the cage lyric.

Where?

http://www.macca-central.com/macca-songs/getchords.php?width=800&height=600&id=219&title=cage&Album=unreleased&composer=Paul_McCartney

Oh, I see it: C Am G Em7... which isn't quite C-A-G-E.

London Town sounding much better to me drunk, and turned up loud, than it ever has before. Love those "MY LOVE!" backing vocals on "Name and Address." Even the songs with "children" in the title are sounding good. Can't wait for my perennial favorite on this one, "Morse Moose."

COME ON DOWN AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA
TELL ME ARE YOU RECEIVING ME
MY NAME IS MORSE MOOSE, AND I'M CALLIN' YOUU

I've always loved London Town!!! Denny's children songs are killer, Paul's weirdo shit (backwards travelled, morse moose) is killer, the original version of girlfriend, dont let it bring you down, the synths on the extended cut of with a little luck. It all works so well together even though it's a lot more low key than Wings typically is so people pass it over or say it's "trite" or whatever

"Backwards Traveller" is one of the duds for me - just feels a little more effortful than some of the other numbers. "Cafe on the Left Bank" kinda falls in the same slot, though I like the tune. Would like to take a moment to appreciate "Cuff Link," though it's totally a throwaway in this context; it clearly heralds McCartney II and suggests a less "rock" approach they might have taken to those other songs...

loved Deliver Your Children when i was a kid. haven't heard it for a long time.

It's Denny Laine's best contribution to the canon imo

"I'm Carrying" is a pretty classic McCartney ballad.

I've always loved 'Cuff Link' - yeah, it's a bit of a throwaway, but really the only problem that I have with it is that it's too short. I've never really liked 'Don't Let It Bring You Down', 'Deliver Your Children' or 'Name and Address' ... but 'I'm Carrying', 'Cafe On The Left Bank', 'Backwards Traveller', 'With A Little Luck', 'Children Children', 'Girlfriend'... always had time for all of those.

In fact, it tickles me a little that the synth solo on 'With A Little Luck' sounds like the theme tune for Thomas The Tank Engine but a few years ahead, especially given that Ringo was the original narrator for it.

I was actually just thinking this morning that "With a Little Luck" in general sounds very much like it could have made, with a muddier and quainter arrangement, for a great 70s or 80s TV theme tune - especially the "... Just me and you!" part. Thinking of the sound on the Webster theme, maybe.

I like "Name and Address" - nice little pastiche, cool sound IMHO. I do think its enjoyability is inversely proportional to how much you think McCartney is winking to himself about the double entendre of "leave your name and a dress." Oh, what a rascal...

Ha, I'd never picked up on that! I guess it's far preferable to other nudge-nudge-wink-wink McCartney double entendres like, say, Kisses On The Bottom, or that line in 'If You Wanna' from Flaming Pie where he sings in his Elvis quiver "make arrangements for the trip"... like oh my god Paul, you're so edgy, making acid puns in your mid 50's.

is it McCartney playing the synth in "With a Little Luck"?

Well, somebody is.

Ha, I'd never heard "make arrangements for the trip" in that way before, but now I'm sure I'll never be able to shake it. At least it kinda fits that whole album's theme/vibe of trying to, ah, "get back" to a mild, communalist form of 60s counterculturalism. "Flaming Pie" the song is maybe the biggest fail in this regard (though I really liked it at age 16 - it's catchy) with its hopeless attempt to ape Lennon-style absurdity. Paul writes better absurd stuff when he's not trying to be wacky and is really just trying to fill out the rhythm. It's not as dire as "Return to Pepperland," but it's a bit cringey. Whereas I think "The Song We Were Singing" works - it's not trying to be cool, just kinda honestly describing (I think) a dad-ish nostalgia for them good old days.

I've noticed "(getting) back" has been a very common theme throughout McCartney's work, even when he was in The Beatles... whether through pastiches such as 'When I'm Sixty-Four', trying to return The Beatles back to their roots on Get Back/Let It Be, or looking back on The Beatles themselves in his solo work. It's undoubtedly prominent on his last few solo albums.

No discussion so far on the title track of London Town. Thoughts? I think it's a very nice mood setter and I love how it ends unresolved, leaving the rest of the record to follow up on it. I think it's better as a prelude than a stand alone track though

Also if we're talking Flaming Pie I think the song "Somedays" has one of the best orchestral arrangements of any Macca/Beatles tune. The oboe lines playing counterpoint to the vocals on the chorus is just gorgeousness. Great vocal on that track too. Also Calico Skies is a top 10 or 15 all time Macca tune for me

I like "London Town" - very enjoyable melody to sing. Took me a long time to come around to it just from the goofiness of "Upon his foot - toot toot!" and so on. Agreed that it's a really weird choice for a single - such a classic "title opening track" imho. Maybe they were thinking along the lines of "Band on the Run."