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

Essential listening:

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

I like the sound of Living in the Material World, too. In fact, it sounds better to me in the current mastering job that's on Spotify than what I remember from having a vinyl copy. One thing I'm not crazy about, though, is the sound on some of the lead vocals where it sounds like you're hearing Harrison being picked up by something other than a close miking of his voice.

He was recording at his home studio as early as that album, but I've always thought there was a real notable change in the quality of the sounds being produced starting with 33 1/3.

wow "sisters, o sisters" fucking rocks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAMR0JPXDHo

the badness of some time in new york city is overstated imo, it's mostly... ok. however, this song ^^^^^ is AMAZING

i'm voting for "we're all water" too, thank god for yoko ono

listening to all things must pass straight through for the first time in years and years. god it's terrific. just gorgeous, generous music. so many ideas and little bits of guitar playing all pouring out. i love spector's production, gives so much texture and also probably helps accentuate the differentness of the songs (versus if it'd just been drums-bass-guitar-vocals all through).

some weird sequencing starting on disc two though. in general the third disc, apart from "it's johnny's birthday" still seems pretty pointless to me, but i also think the title track is such a "closer" that it feels weird to get up and start again after that. maybe that's partly just a legacy of first getting to know this on CD, where it was a double-album, and all of the original side four is the opening suite of disc two. but idk, "awaiting on you all" followed by "all things must pass" is just such a concluding pair for me, and having the redundant "isn't it a pity" in there also makes it feel like you're into some kind of weird bonus material, like one of those albums that comes with a seven-inch of implicitly secondary material.

but yeah count me as one of those who could easily vote for 9 or 12 songs from this album

wow "sisters, o sisters" fucking rocks

It does! What a crazy, weird song. So much to process here. I guess l've never actually listed to Sometime in New York City. I agree that it's not nearly as bad as I've been led to believe. The songwriting isn't stellar, but the production and performances have more energy that Mind Games or Walls and Bridges.

'You Gave Me the Answer' and 'Sisters, O Sisters' both rule - the former being one of the better songs in McCartney's old time mode, the latter being Yoko writing a stellar chorus.

We got to got to got to got to got to got to got to got to got to got to got to (*five centuries pass*) got to got to set him freeeeee!

as far as which other producers would be better, i dunno, but there had to have been other producers who wouldn't have covered all the tracks in reverb and strings. again, i love POB and ATMP and Imagine and Spector's sound is very much a part of those records, but i don't think everything would have fallen apart if someone else was in the room. to believe that they only would have been good with Spector's touch is to elevate him above all his peers in a way that i don't think he necessarily deserves

Love the sound of POB, sparse, clear, slightly aggressive, capturing time, but tbh I don't think ATMP sounds very good - the reverb and multitracking makes it unfocused to my ears. Let it Be def the worst sounding Beatles record. Was never a huge Spector fan anyway, in general I prefer my records hifi, and while obv working within a pop framework sounds to me like Spector was more into noise.

I never really cared for "Some Time in NYC" but listening to it lately, it's not so bad.
And "New York City" is basically punk rock, isn't it ?

from george's notes in the 2001 ATMP reissue…

"All these years later I would like to liberate some of the songs from the big production that seemed appropriate at the time, but now seems a bit over the top with the reverb in the wall of sound."

george otm

Nope

"All these years later I would like to liberate some of the songs from the big production that seemed appropriate at the time

George otm re: Cloud Nine.

haha

at the speed of sound sounds oddly drowsy (so it feels v similar to red rose speedway to me) but the singles are great and "beware my love" is awesome

i guess "she's my baby" wasn't a single but it should've been one

"beware my love" has kind of a norman whitfield-era temptations groove running beneath it

the song that has been stuck in my head since i started this post-beatles trawl: "jet"

I really don't hear big production CN other than on "If That's What It Takes."

i was listening to an unremastered copy of cloud nine last night, sounded p good to me but i don't hate a lot of the artifacts of that production era

jeff lynne productions may be infinite prisms of reverb but they still feel v tasteful

i wanna get as far into mccartney's career as possible but it's... so long. still hoping to hear press to play and flowers in the dirt, and i've also always been curious about the fireman records

also chaos and creation in the backyard features jason falkner from jellyfish on guitar! (his second appearance in this thread!) so i kinda have to hear that

verdict on at the speed of sound is that it has a lovely first side and a drippy second side, but "san ferry anne" is a hell of a deep cut

I've written 60,000 words on "Press" to date and hope to write 12,000 more.

idk quite what to make of london town but i kinda think it's awesome. the first five tracks, where paul leans into his swervier melodies, seem to set up a weirder record than we actually get though (hopefully a preview of the new wave stuff on back to the egg, which i've still only heard "getting closer" from), as soon as "children children" and "girlfriend" happen it's like we've settled into an actual wings record instead of a cool speculative one. also got v surprised by "girlfriend" bc before this i was only familiar with mj's cover

The first side of LT is sweet! Back to the Egg is the one on which conventional wisdom is correct. Sorry, dudes! I love "Arrow Through Me" and the addled "Old Siam, Sir," can tolerate "Getting Closer," and will dump the rest.

so so pleasantly surprised by "with a little luck" tho, what a cool song that doesn't seem like it deserves to be almost six minutes long, but then, suddenly, it does!

i do like that on every paul record (so far) there's at least a moment if not several where i'm like "oh huh, that's interesting, you've never done that before"

he's never consistent exactly but his songwriting really grows

"London Town" the song should be better-known. the lyric isn't wildly great ("ordinary people it's impossible to meet" - barf) but love that tune and that great soft rainy-day late 70s production....mmmm. in that same vein, but stronger, "With A Little Luck" is one of his very best singles imho. i grew up with it on All The Best so i never had any sense of how well-known or obscure it might be. a #1 in the US! rarely heard now, i fear. don't you feel the comet exploding?

a #1 in the US!

i've never heard it in my whole life!

on listen two i may prefer london town to venus and mars. it's the first time aimless and scattered wings has really worked for me. i mean, what in the world is "morse moose"

a great song

it's true. i put it next to "open your box" on my ballot just bc they feel like they belong together

here's hoping a london town... naked will someday allow shakey to hear "morse moose" without the "morse code" synth (guitar?) effect running through. though i also think it's fair to follow sic's cue and just rock out to the twin freaks mashup with "coming up." that album for me peaks with "mumbo" but boy it's a garden of trainspotting delights for the lifelong paul fan.

i guess i love "getting closer" bc it reminds me of abba

curious what you think of "Again and Again and Again"

xgau otm!

London Town [Capitol, 1978]

McCartney's lyricism is so capricious, so given to inanity and icky-poo, that only at its very best--"With a Little Luck" and the affectionate goof on "Famous Groupies"--does it come on strong. But from its slices of life to its romantic reassurances this is nowhere near as feckless as the Old Band on the Run claque claims--even on the one about the fairy who'll invite us to tea Linda adds a few harmonies that are as charming as they're meant to be. And at the very least you have to be impressed by how steadfastly Paul has resisted supersessions--he's been loyal to his group, which has now recorded longer than the Beatles. B

Finally checking out Old Wave. Maybe it's just taking a couple days off the Ringo marathon but it's sounding a lot better than those last few records. Would never have picked Ric Ocasek's as a good sound for Ringo and Joe Walsh to try and rip off but it at least clears out all the sonic clutter and just gives us Ringo trying to belt out some rock tunes. Makes me wish this had been combined with Gone Troppo in a Cuban Linx-esque dynamic duo "ex-Beatles have fun going new wave" kinda deal.

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

^^^ like, this isn't going to change the world or anything but it is wayyyyy more enjoyable than you'd expect from a Ringo cut in 1983. compare to idk Frankie Valli's "Streetfighter" or the Monkees' "Every Step of the Way" and it's damned good. the next song leans charmingly into Ringo's sad-sack schtick with a litany of bad news: "The martians have invaded, it's hopeless."

it's pretty inane but not godawful. and yet he couldn't even get a US label to release it.

curious what you think of "Again and Again and Again"

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, May 22, 2018 11:05 AM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

turns out i love it

more on old wave: "Be My Baby" taking us back to the trusty old talkbox glories of "Rocky Mountain Way"... "Everybody's In A Hurry But Me" is just a Starr/Walsh/Entwistle/Clapton jam session, apparently... yeah this is a cool album idk man. the cover of "She's About A Mover" doesn't really bring much to the song but it's the kind of thing that should be showing up as a cover on a Ringo record. his cover of "I Keep Forgettin'" doesn't seem to be on youtube. so who knows.

i wish, btw, that george had stuck by covers a bit more! his rendition of "If Not For You" is just so lovely.

this is really just my rockist lizard brain getting switched on but my favorite part of any wings song is when the guitars get thick. (np: "old siam, sir")

back to the egg is fuckin awesome. the simultaneous synth/guitar solo in "to you"? i love hearing paul this loose but not, like, wild life loose

London Town has its highlights, but I'd rank Venus and Mars and Back to the Egg above it. Love 'Cafe on the Left Bank' and 'With a Little Luck' ... it's interesting that Brad is honing in on a lot of the same songs that I rate highly.

Okay, Brad is now my favourite person in the entire universe and I'll never post anything snarky on the 1975 thread ever again.