C/D Paul McCartney Solo

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.

xp well he should bring that pride back and play a bunch of it live

I agree with matt, the bassline on SLS is by far the best thing about that single, and it's a GREAT bassline. I could listen to that on loop for hours on end.

(just the bass part that is)

Even if the only song in his solo oeuvre was "Maybe I'm Amazed," that would be enough to make him a classic.

Fortunately, he also hasd "Press."

i really think it's a crime paul never did a whole album in the vein of tracks like "silly love songs" and "goodnight tonight"

I think you could put together an album length compilation of stuff he did with a similar vibe - those two, My Love, Arrow Through Me, Take It Away, Dress Me Up as a Robber ... maybe the version of No More Lonely Nights with the squelchy synth bass. I like Write Away, but but I think the mid-80s production make it sound too harsh to fit in with the above, not smooth or lush enough. Secret Friend has a different sound as well, but maybe the ten minute version would work as an outro

"blue sway" is another yeah

I’m kind of stunned to see Super 70s Sports on the case:

Name a song you love that doesn’t get played or talked about a ton. I’ll start: pic.twitter.com/EdEhEr60pS

— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) March 23, 2024

i'm kind of having a Wings phase and will check this out. i just listented to Wild Life for the first time, which rules and has my wondering why i waited so long.

"Arrow Through Me" is by far the best tune on Back to the Egg.

haha, good to know. it's not too shabby

listening to Red Rose Speedway now. you know, i love Linda's voice. beautiful angel voice. when i think about how people went through the trouble to isolate her vocal tracks so they could shit on her and imply that she somehow didn't deserve to be making music with Paul McCartney -- god it makes me so fucking mad

Back to the Egg is an excellent album and yes, this song is great

Linda harmonies are usually A+

Red Rose Speedway might be underrated? I need to listen some more but it all sounds good to me.

Love Big Barn Bed and Single Pigeon.

Red Rose Speedway is an all-time favorite of mine. Side B is just about perfect. And personally I'll take Paul/Linda/Denny harmonies over those by Paul/John/George anytime.

https://www.stereogum.com/2257275/vinyl-artwork-rejected-by-paul-mccartney-for-being-too-unflattering-is-being-auctioned-for-charity/news/

hahaha that is horrific

Yikes

lmao

Watching Wingspan (on YT) which I haven’t seen since it aired in 2001 – it’s absolutely a love letter to Linda. He’s interviewed warmly by Stella, and it’s full of warm (at times treacly) remembrances of their relationship.

The opening 45 minutes that covers Paul and Linda’s unorthodox musical romance, the formation of Wings and rather brave tour of English universities is fascinating. Notwithstanding his own massive celebrity, Paul’s partnership with Linda (replete with open air tour buses with baby cribs on the roof and seafaring recording studios in the Virgin Islands) even now scans as a somewhat unlikely path to superstardom.

Have to imagine that it wasn’t a coincidence that he married Heather Mills a year later either.

Mary, not Stella, I think.

To his immense credit the world's biggest star tried to be as 'umble as possible.

Yep, Mary