C/D Paul McCartney Solo

He sang “Queenie Eye” from his 2013 album, “New” and "Four Five Seconds" at Oldchella in addition to Wings and Beatles songs

he seems quite down on McCartney II, I saw an interview where he says he thought some of the songs are good but the synthy production was too "cold". I get the impression that he's pretty influenced by the critical reaction his records get, so maybe the bad reviews for McCartney II explain it (and why he rates BOTR)? I remember seeing him talk about Back to the Egg being a relative commercial failure, and how in recent years he's met younger people who tell him it's quite cool to have some relatively obscure albums, like cult hits or whatever, anf how McCartney found this idea totally alien to him.

He gets defensive about Ram, which was his idea of a great record in 1971; he still tells the story of bumping into a guy while skiing who told him, "Great record, Paul."

I think soref sadly might be close to the mark regarding McCartney being easily swayed by critical opinion or even the amount an album has sold, which is a bit sad because surely he must have believed in many of those songs enough to record them. I just wonder if there's ever been a moment when a critic has savaged one of his solo tracks and he's thought "nah, fuck off! wrong!"

I think Morrissey might be a good parallel. First band that burned bright but fast, which has informed every little thing he's done since (and influenced countless other acts in its wake). McCartney's written some great tracks, he's written some terrible stuff, he's written a whole bunch of generally null set stuff, but I'm not sure how well even his good stuff stands up outside the context of the Beatles. Big difference obviously is that McCartney is a musical savant, which perhaps makes his MOR-ness more disagreeable.

Yesterday I learned that McCartney co-wrote and played on this worthless Steve Miller track, which sort of provided the seed for "Fly Like an Eagle."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT2JGBeew00

woah, never heard that. cool.

Alfred should totally do that "McCartney song per day 1975-1989" that he was thinking about doing.

if you'll help!

Yeah, I'd totally contribute! I know his discography quite well by this point.

He's always liked BOTR and performs many of its songs. Not a bad doc:

📹

he played Temporary Secretary when I saw him live two years ago

I can think of shitloads of songs he doesn't play anymore that would go down well: 'My Brave Face', 'Only Love Remains', 'This One', 'Take It Away' etc.

he never ever plays No More Lonely Nights, which is weird considering it might be his last huge hit.

Yeah, that one too!

supposedly (well according to him anyway) he'd just had a big row with Lennon when he did the drum take on that Steve Miler track. he says he took his anger out on the drums and that you can 'hear it' but i never could really.

was listening to Mac unreleased stuff on youtube over the wkd, and heard a demo he did of My Brace Face w Costello. And wow, I never picked up how retro old school Beatles it is. The finished track 80s-izes it up a bit, but the demo sounds like something that would have been on Hard Days Night or Beatles for Sale.

indeed ! I didn't know that version and just listened to it following your post.

yeah those costello demos are all really good.

yeah, this is nice! reminds me once again of my theory that flowers in the dirt, had it been produced as an 80s roots-rock album (by say, don gehman), would be much better-remembered today.

It's one of my favourite McCartney albums as it stands!

i'm having deja vu so i'm pretty sure i've posted all of this not too long ago... but i really like it too! if he'd swapped in some of the b-sides for the weaker stuff (especially the godawful "motor of love") i think it would at the least be mentioned in the same breath as tug of war, way more often.

'Motor of Love' isn't one of his best solo tracks, but when I think about it the only thing I can find fault with is the lyrics, which are... typical McCartney filler stuff.

I get the impression that some of the contemporary reviewers did receive Flowers in the Dirt as, if not roots-rock, then at least as a return to something more gritty and raw after Hugh Padgham's production on Press to Play, e.g. this is from the NYT review:

He has also abandoned the self-conscious trendiness that made his last album of original material, 1986's ''Press to Play,'' sound posed and dated. Instead, he has found a sound that is varied and fresh, yet firmly rooted in his own past.

but the passage of time has kind of smoothed away the differences and they both sound very 80s now. I like the production on Flowers in the Dirt though, probably more so than the "live in the studio" sound he went for on Off the Ground

Yes, me too. Particularly the drum sound on things like 'Figure of Eight' (underrated song)

xpost A while back I went through and learned (to the best of my remedial abilities) how to play the first Elvis Costello album on guitar, and boy is it more Beatles-infused than I ever noticed.

LOVE "Figure of Eight," notably how it sounds DIY and hi-tech at once.

I have such an antipathy to "dated" as a pejorative. Ad the always sounds delicious dated, but the 12-string guitar sound of the mid '60s does not? AOK.

Uh that should say "Synths always sound dated..."

Distractions, We Got Married, This One, the othet singles -- I like it a lot.

Gonna give Flowers In The Dirt a listen... it's been a while! I've had the outro from 'We Got Married' stuck in my head for the last half hour.

It doesn't work out if ya don't work at it... doot doot do!

Okay, so I've just been reminded of how much I love 'Distractions', one of those McCartney songs that seems to come more from a personal place. Usually McCartney either shies away from the personal or obfuscates it.

with a Clare Fischer string arrangement!

'That Day Is Done' is another top tier McCartney track as well, IMO. I'd say if I had to pick one song from Flowers In The Dirt that I don't like as much as the others, I'd say 'How Many People' ...

It's a bit long -- my complaint about the album.

Yep, ten tracks would have been perfect!

Figure of Eight is great - actually had it stuck in my head for a couple days a week or two ago. Good walking-pace tune.

How Many People is dire though - and the other thing one might forget about Motor of Love is that it is about five hundred years long. This One and Back On My Feet would have made a much, much better back end to the record.

I don't really have a problem with 'dated' stuff... I mean, I'm on record as a fan of ''Ou Est Le Soleil,'' ''My Brave Face,'' etc. Just mean that the production on this album may be a barrier to people discoverng it, critics thinking to include it in ''the essential McCartney albums'' lists, etc., which is unfortunate since the material is so good.

To me the album stops after the last minute of "That Day is Done" and the thought of a McCartney album in which "motor" and "love" work in the same sentence and one in which he wrote a save-the-rainforests! anthem.

Yup, those are pretty much the two tracks I'd bump off the album and leave the rest of the sequencing as-is. 'We Got Married' would be the perfect side one closer, and 'That Day Is Done' actually feels like an album closer. I guess 'Don't Be Careless Love' works in the penultumate position too.

A few thoughts:

We Got Married would be a lot better without the bombastic David Foster production.

This One is really catchy.

My Brave Face is good, not great.

Figure of Eight is the only Trevor Horn production that works on FitD.

Put It There is really underrated.

Press To Play is a better album.

i just can't get behind that assertion. I love mccartney, even some of his dreck, but I've never understood the allure of that album. People who love it seem to really love it. It sounds so forced to me.

agree on Put It There. Mama's Little Girl is another pretty acoustic number in the vein of Put It There and I Will, it was recorded during the sessions for Red Rose Speedway in 1972 but wasn't released until 1990 when he put it on the b-side of the Put It There single:

https://youtu.be/2ACW8TUEqUw

I owe Naive Teen Idol for introducing me to PTP a decade ago.

We Got Married would be a lot better without the bombastic David Foster production.

Hmm. Not sure about this, the big production is one of the reasons I love that track so much!

This One is really catchy.

Yep! A great choice of single that should be seen as a solo McCartney classic and McCartney really should be playing it live. Horrid video, though, yet more "I used to be in The Beatles, y'know" shite.

My Brave Face is good, not great.

Disagree completely... it's great! I think it's very well written musically. The only thing I'd change in the lyric is the "I've been breaking up dirty dishes and throwing 'em away" line!

Figure of Eight is the only Trevor Horn production that works on FitD.

Hmm. I'd think I kinda agree with that.

Put It There is really underrated.

I definitely agree with this!

Press To Play is a better album.

Ooh, definitely don't agree with this, although the highlights of Press To Play are very good and on the whole the record doesn't deserve the amount of shit it gets (see also: Back To The Egg, which is excellent and doesn't deserve the shit it gets at all)

Press To Play should have been the "Press" EP - title track, "Good Times Coming," "Pretty Little Head" and "Only Love Remains." Nice little variety-pack from dear old Macca. The rest is profoundly forgettable.

Or just, like, spread it around between the "Press" and "Spies Like Us" singles. He didn't have an album's worth of great material in him and he'd have been better off just touring, noodling around, letting things percolate. There was great potential in a lot of the never-released cuts from this period - "Squid" is lovely, and "Lindiana" and "Love Come Tumbling Down" have strong hooks - they just need more work. All three are better than most of Press to Play.

Back to the Egg just has a stupid cover/title, and the "rockestra" stuff is goofy, otherwise I reckon it's rep'd be a lot better. There's so much good stuff on it. "Getting Closer" is about my fav PM single. Xpost

Urgh "its"

'Press' and 'Only Love Remains' are two of my favourite solo McCartney tracks, and 'Pretty Little Head', 'Talk More Talk' and 'Strangehold' still work their way into my mind from time to time. I'm not really much of a fan of 'Good Times Coming' or... shit, I'm going to have to look at the tracklisting to see what else is on it...

*'Stranglehold', rather.

I love the "Feel the Sun" section of "Good Times Coming." And "Stranglehold" has pep, good horn chart, and nice chord changes -- I credit Eric Stewart. Also: first time "preamble" ever appeared in a pop song.