The Beatles' Solo Careers Poll - Voting and General Discussion Thread

and I hope this lil gem (w George and Ringo) gets at least one vote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBmXLABEo_k

it's like once Paul hit the psychedelia period and realized he could get away with just any old silly off-the-top-of-me-head bullshit he never looked back.

I know this was posted seven hours ago but it is my job to point out that saying he never looked back is fine if you consider eternity to have ended around 1982.

he named an album Flaming Pie in 1997

which tbf I guess you could call an instance of looking back lol

he was also working on a canned album called Return To Pepperland circa 1986/87

Ringo update: Stop and Smell the Roses (working title: Can't Fight Lightning) (1981) finds Ringo attempting to right the ship and stack the credits with trusty writers (McCartney, Harrison, Nilsson, Stills), a freshly beardless look, and what must have been intended as "wacky" music video themes (haunted house, BDSM). It was a disaster:

Stop and Smell the Roses reached no further than number 98 in the US.[19] On 31 December, the HMV store in London announced that despite the busy Christmas period, only 30 copies of the album had been sold(.)[1]

It sounds a little more competent than the last couple of albums, but there's still some really poor decision-making here and not much to suggest that anybody had any compelling reason to be recording an album. (Note: this one and Old Wave aren't on Spotify so it could be that I'm getting inferior versions on YouTube or something...) McCartney's "Private Property" (his response to the ska revival??) just isn't five minutes' worth of song; his "Attention" makes no impression at a all. Harrison's "Wrack My Brain" has just a little bit of energy, and the barest outline of a "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night" party song.... but why are the drums quieter than the oompah-band horn? Nilsson's "Drumming Is My Madness" and "Stop and Smell The Roses" sure are Nilsson giveaways circa 1981; I would have rather heard Ringo covering "Sweethaven" or "Everything is Food" than slowly asking "Do you think I'm sexy? Do you think I'm silly?" Naturally our boy Ron Wood turns up, with something called "Dead Giveaway" which is one of the most lackadaisically recorded 'rock' songs I can remember hearing. For some reason, there's a remake of "Back off Boogaloo," opening with a remake of "It Don't Come Easy" and including reprises of "With A Little Help From My Friends," "Help!" "Good Day Sunshine" etc. - Nilsson showing off, I guess.

On the positive end... "Stop" at least has a decent throwback quality, like it's 1968 and doing straw-hat bicycle-built-for-two throwbacks is still the cutting edge, and Ringo delivering more semi-coherent spoken-word rant ("You know it's accident-prone! Nobody likes you! [...] Stop! And take the time to buy this album..."). As usual, the country song (Carl Perkins's "Sure To Fall") is decent. Stills's "You've Got A Nice Way" takes a bold step into the mainstream of corny 1981 pop-rock, much more convincing than his previous gestures in the yachty direction, and the little surprise chord change on "so I know" actually gives you something interesting to look forward to.

I wonder if they are bad quality versions, Dr. C, because that was Ringo's best sounding album. I like the McCartney and Harrison produced stuff on that. It's a good version of "You Belong to Me."

(Best sounding of the old ones, anyway, imo. Not familiar with the newer albums he's been doing since the early '90s.)

"Wrack My Brain" is Ringo's last American top forty hit.

I like this other George album track:

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

Anyone else voting for this freaking gem with its weird, apocalyptic imagery?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48FfjqPW3XM

i love "You're Breakin' My Heart". that album is like a brother White Album to me, down to the way Ringo says "Goodbye, Harry!" at the very end.

The Ringo Starr single of "It Don't Come Easy / Early 1970" are the only Ringo songs I know and they're very likeable

"Photograph" is cool, it's a pretty nostalgic tune, in the vein of Beatles-nostalgia tracks like "No. 9 Dream" or "When We Was Fab". "I'm The Greatest" is kind of silly and fun like a Tenacious D track or something. my favorite Ringo track rn is "Back Off Boogaloo" which is basically Ringo doing T-Rex.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXg1AxBXN5g

vote for back off boogaloo yes

title track for Goodnight Vienna also very good and will be getting a vote from me

Realizing how crucial "Long Haired Lady" is to Ram, for me. Great song.

lmao i love "c moon"

also unfortunately i don't think i understand why "my love" is so bad, though it def is macca desperately trying to rewrite "something"

lmao exactly

"How would George play this? OK, Henry, your solo is GREAT, man."

btw the not-so-big surprise of this thread is how consistently great George's solos are, even at his hackiest. On paper the idea of a slide solo bores me, but he 99.9 percent of the time is terser, more sarcastic, or more liquid than expected. Like, he always knows what the song means. The dude is one of my top ten favorite guitarists ever.

means = ever

lol means = needs

I hate phones

red rose speedway doesn't really make any kind of sense as an album but it's kind of adorable. i love the arrangements of "get on the right thing" and "little lamb dragonfly." the production is almost confectionary, just clouds of sugar

yeah those are two songs i always totally forget about and then find totally enjoyable when they're on.

c moon rules. "was that the intro i should have been in?"

Brad may dig the chord/tempo changes on this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzHJcW5wpP0

'Little Lamb Dragonfly' was never really one that grabbed me, although it's a favourite of many in the McCartney hardcore. 'Get On The Right Thing' has some neat ideas and I like the drum sound on it, but doesn't 100% work for me.

'Big Barn Bed' is okay (you can hear him break into an early draft of it during the fade of the 'Ram On' reprise on Ram) but the main highlights for me are 'My Love' (all-time McCartney favourite) and 'Single Pigeon' ...

I have absolutely no use at all for the Medley (absolute waste of time) or 'When the Night' ...

'C Moon' is great - always loved that one.

Speedway is a good sounding record. Better than BOTR, I think.

Actually, looking at the tracklisting, I'd somehow forgot 'One More Kiss' and 'Loup' were on Red Rose Speedway. I like both of those - 'One More Kiss' has the kind of melody that wouldn't have sounded out of place on an early Beatles record, and 'Loup' has that neat Floyd-like section in the middle.

the medley is weirdly kinda bad yeah. it's weird, you'd think paul connecting unrelated songs would be the main attraction at this point in his career, with "uncle albert" and "band on the run" coming out in the surrounding years

That's what I thought when I first heard it way back, plus this was the guy that had a big hand in piecing together the Abbey Road medley from scraps of unfinished Lennon and McCartney songs. The Red Rose Speedway medley just doesn't feel focused at all - individually the different parts aren't very good, and together the whole thing feels a bit of a mess. I don't like it at all and find it a bit of a slog, come to think of it.

Paul’s pre-Beatles solo LP will likely figure heavily in my ballot.

https://i1-wp-com.cdn.ampproject.org/ii/w820/s/i1.wp.com/rockcriticsarchives.com/bookshelf/shipper01a.jpg

i love band on the run, it's so charming. "nineteen hundred and eighty five" is one of the coolest songs paul ever wrote

Yeah, love that song too, and one time heard a great version of it one Sunday evening whilst changing trains at Times Square by Beatles tribute band The Meetles.

lol means = needs

I hate phones

whoa i LOVE "magneto and titanium man"

otm -- the keyboard!

"letting go" also rocks

that's long been one of my favorite solo Macca favorites -- and a total bomb on the charts.

yesssss to magneto

The Speedway medley --- I want to say I read that the original idea, when this was a double album, was that each of the first three bits would have been sprinkled around the different sides, so that when they start appearing in "Power Cut" it's this awesome payoff. Or maybe I just imagined that, but it makes a *little* more sense than just unrolling these fairly trifling songs one after the other as your closer. Ambition exceeding his grasp - I still like it, but if each section was really convincing as a song in itself, it could have been spectacular.

Fan of “Love in Song” if we are talking Venus and Mars.

I love 'Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five', particularly the way it builds up to that ending!

'Magneto', 'Letting Go' and 'Love In Song' all favourites of mine, but then I rate Venus and Mars quite highly in general. I get 'Medicine Jar' stuck in my head quite a fair bit too, and McCartney didn't write that one!

AND THE CRIMSON DYNAMO
JUST COULDN'T CUT IT NO MO'!

A few other McCartney songs that deserve shout outs:

No Words
Tomorrow
She's My Baby (I might be alone in my appreciation of this one)
Jenny Wren
Junk

HI DERE

i love "She's My Baby," "mopping her up" and all. That's a real pop-into-my-head-at-the-grocery-store tune.

No Words

ok so: i started constructing a ballot i may never complete, but this is currently my no. 1

also "junk" is so lovely

wow i’m really glad i heard “getting closer”

On paper the idea of a slide solo bores me

you have never listened to classic country i take it?

No, I never listen to any country music.