C/D Paul McCartney Solo

<3 Mrs Vanderbilt

Wouldn't you say that Rundgren or Sparks "revelled in goofball nonsense" as frequently as Paul?

Rundgren definitely, probably moreso.

Sure but even at his goofiest there’s a sour earnestness to Todd that Paul never had. He’s a little bit like if John and Paul had a kid and sent him to sell newspapers on a Philly street corner.

Nilsson also belongs in this family tree of mutant hybrids.

there’s a sour earnestness to Todd

You mean something like Ra? Or Swing to the Right?

For fans in Frome, Somerset:

In 24 hours time from now Paul McCartney will be performing live, here in Frome, at the Cheese and Grain. Tickets for this extraordinary experience are available now from our box office in person only and will be available on a strictly first come first served basis. The box office will be open for extended hours this evening until tickets have sold out. What an incredible opportunity to watch Paul warm up for his Glastonbury headlining performance this weekend. What an amazing treat… we are told this won’t be his normal set either so should be an afternoon full of wonderful surprises.

Tickets are £25 each and limited to 2 per person and are non transferable.

https://www.cheeseandgrain.com/events/paul-mccartney-live-in-frome/

And naturally it's already sold out. Capacity is only 650.

The Guardian had a list of his best post-Beatles songs a few days ago:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/jun/16/paul-mccartneys-greatest-post-beatles-songs-ranked

I didn't realise that "Waterfalls" had a video. A really bad one. Why he didn't sue TLC, I don't know. The prosaic answer is that they didn't have any money, but even so it would have established dominance. Paul McCartney (by then an old man) would probably have lost in a fight against TLC, but he could have won in a court of law.

I've always thought that the cover of McCartney was years ahead of its time and hasn't aged at all.

Why would he sue? The songs sound nothing alike.

I finally made my own preferences official: The Jacksons

LOL

I meant: https://www.stereogum.com/2190413/paul-mccartney-best-solo-songs/lists/10-best-songs/

But, yeah, The Jacksons!

I saw that top 30 - not a bad selection, though I was pretty underwhelmed by "Little Lamb Dragonfly" when I gave it another shot. The only Red Rose Speedway song I'd consider is the studio recording of "The Mess," and that was left off the final album.

Paul actually mentioned "Waterfalls" in an interview around the time he did Chaos & Creation (though he didn't mention TLC by name and seemed to think it was a bit newer than it was). I'm glad he didn't sue. No offense to Paul, that is a highlight of McCartney II, but TLC really transformed those parts into something massive, not to mention thoroughly different - great, great single.

#ActualPartridge pic.twitter.com/qsLLcdB8l5

— Accidental Partridge (@AccidentalP) June 26, 2022

I picked up the special editions of Chaos and Creation in the Backyard and Memory Almost Full (the ones that come with DVD's), and it's pretty amazing how much stuff they crammed into these packages. It sank in that McCartney's done this this going back to the Beatles' later albums where you get an album and a bunch of other stuff thrown in (could be a poster, cut-outs, a book, etc.) In this case, you even got a $5 Starbucks gift card with Memory Almost Full and a stencil activity appropriate for kids built into the album packaging. I got them both used for a few bucks apiece, but I don't think the retail price was high to begin with, at least not for a brand-new two-disc release.

This was a good playlist a couple weeks ago

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-eau6w-124a677

"Friends to Go" from Chaos is a favorite off that one too. "Wanderlust" is great. I've grown to like "Calico Skies" a lot more after hearing it live - IIRC the album is pretty much solo acoustic, but with his current band, it's a full-band arrangement that kicks in after the first verse, and it helps it quite a bit.

Apparently there's a complete singles box set that will be released on Dec. 2.

Not clear on format, but most likely 80 7" singles containing 159 different tracks. (No word on a CD version, but if there is one, it could be more manageable. Probably 8 CD's.)

https://music.apple.com/nz/album/the-7-singles/1653180402

Ah, it's one of those super-expensive limited edition things for collectors.

They're pressing 3000 copies and it comes in a wooden crate with a 148-page book - 163 songs and 65 of the 80 singles come with restored original artwork with the remaining 15 previously unreleased on 7". List price is $611.98. A lot of it has been newly remastered so at least they're making this available for download purchase where you can presumably cherry pick what you want for peanuts.

Most 45 singles can still be found in bargain bins btw

Not counting taxes, etc., if you pay list, it comes out to $7.65 per single. I guess you can think of it as paying a premium for eliminating the labor of tracking them all down (and of course the book and I guess a wooden crate).

(I'm still not buying it regardless.)

yeah this is a ridiculous thing. only 3000 copies; has to have been expensive to produce; costs an arm and a leg. it'll sell out, obviously, but I'm not sure what the point is with things like this because the limited number and high production costs mean it's not going to net him much if any money. why doesn't he just reissue Memory Almost Full on vinyl like I want?

ok just checked discogs and a bunch of the early 45s and some weird one offs like mary had a little lamb are going for a pretty penny. temp sec is going for $35 for some reason. most are still $0.50 and under tho.

It has sold out already. I guess the commercial point of it isn't a direct one, but rather to inject some high-end sparkle into the Paul McCartney brand.

temp sec is going for $35 for some reason

Ha - did you miss temp sec becoming a thing over the past decade or so?

Remember when they put out the complete lyrics? Always McCartney's biggest attraction, especially in the solo years.

Oobu! Oobu! Joobu! Joobu!

Sometimes I think Paul's just world's greatest jingle writer. It may be crap but it sticks in the memory like a bad infection that won't go away.

*just the

I know temp sec has had a huge revival and I'm a big fan of the song myself but that doesn't mean the 7" should sell for big money, it's not like the song isn't on McCartney II.

yah mc2 is still like a $5-10 record

i just saw him live and he puts on a good show for being in his 80s but he really has odd taste in his own material. like, he played for over 2.5 hours and has enough hits that he could have played solely iconic crowd-pleasers, and definitely didn't do just that, but it wasn't like he was pulling out great deep cuts for the real heads either? and the only lennon song he played was "being for the benefit of mr. kite" of all things, though i guess maybe that's because he's been taking credit for co-writing it in interviews in the last decade

probably the weirdest thing was when he played only half of "you never give me your money" straight out of "fuh you" (which is just an awful song lol)?

despite being as maligned as it is, "ob-la-di ob-la-da" got one of the very biggest reactions from the crowd. granny music is eternal i guess

i did get a rather good view despite having bought one of the cheapest seats, no idea why it was like that but i'm certainly not complaining. certainly many people who paid hundreds more would have had worse views

wow, he played "Junior's Farm" and "Letting Go"!

despite being as maligned as it is, "ob-la-di ob-la-da" got one of the very biggest reactions from the crowd.

the older i get, the more i like this song

wow, he played "Junior's Farm" and "Letting Go"!

I saw him do the former at Yankee Stadium - it's one of my favorite recordings from him and he didn't do it when I saw him earlier at Citi Field, so I was very pleased. I saw him do the latter at MSG in 2017, and I had completely forgotten about it - excellent deep cut.

i think we got "letting go" at each of the last two shows I went to, and one even had a horn section

he had a horn section this time, it was nice. though it was funny when there were the occasional synth horns used that he didn't bring out the real horns for

Sometimes I think Paul's just world's greatest jingle writer. It may be crap but it sticks in the memory like a bad infection that won't go away.

I have a similar suspicion: his best musical moments might have come about when he was simply exploring for himself what sounds really pleasing to the ear when you’re heavily stoned… A few snatches of notes that are insanely catchy that he then later extends into a song.

ob-la-di the only beatles song my mum likes, and I have to agree that it's a cracker

Yeah I get why so many people hate it but I’ve always liked it. It’s fun, catchy and the production is pretty good (I think he doubled the bass so the sound is pretty fat).

i feel pretty indifferent to it, it's far from the worst of paul's "granny music" but also pretty far from his best work

It was an unexpected highlight when I saw him at Glastonbury in 2022. Fat sound indeed.

I love me some Wings but less a fan of the rockers so the early Junior's Farm wasn't a highlight back then, though I sort of enjoyed the bemusement in the crowd ("Do we know this? Are we into it?")

It puzzles me that he never plays Silly Love Songs any more. I wonder if some songs just remind him of Linda too much.

Though setlist.fm says he hasn't played it since 1976!

he has barely ever played anything from ram in concert so truly who knows what goes into his choices

"silly love songs" is a classic and one of the very best wings songs, i would have loved to have heard it. sometimes people throw about 'ram invented indie pop' which doesn't make much sense to me but "silly love songs" sure anticipated a fair amount of it

On Ram, when responding to its latter-day status among fans, he's said that he finds it hard to listen to himself as it was recorded at such an unhappy time for him.

i wonder if he'd like it more if it had been correctly acclaimed at the time

Ram's public embrace and rejection by critics was for years a point of pride for him.

I think SLS is OK apart from the bassline, which is right up there with “Michelle” for my favourite Macca. I can’t believe some of the stuff he played on the Fabs records.