something about Paul McCartney

[calimac]

This falls in the category of, why did nobody ever tell me about this?

You know I'm a Beatles fan, but my knowledge of post-Beatles is pretty much limited to the first subsequent decade. I know a lot of Lennon's later work, some of which I like ("Watching the Wheels" is my favorite of his solo songs), I've heard some of Harrison's, I know a lot of McCartney's work from the Wings period, and while I enjoy some of it, the oft-noted treacliness is also really there.

After that: well, I wasn't doing anything so radical as to buy anybody's new albums myself, so at the time I had to depend on what I might overhear on the radio, and the early 80s was the one period in my life when I actually listened to pop radio of my own volition.

In 1982, Paul McCartney released two songs, both collaborative, that were all over the radio. You didn't have to turn it on yourself to hear them. They were the gawdawful "Ebony and Ivory" and the even more execrable "The Girl Is Mine." These songs were evidently popular, because they were unavoidable for a while, but they were so bad as to lead me to conclude that, whatever shreds of his talent he'd retained in the 70s, he had now entirely lost.

And I've paid no attention whatever to his more recent work since. (Reviews I read of his ventures into classical did not encourage exploration.)

Until now. I found this little article giving the author's choice of Sir Paul's best post-Beatles songs. The first four, from the 70s, I knew. I had never heard, or even heard of, any of the subsequent six.

What throws me is not just that they're all at least OK and some are quite good, but that the very best of them, a song that instantly hit my list of favorites, is also from 1982 and in fact from the same album that "Ebony and Ivory" is on. Why did I never hear this at the time? Why had I never heard of it in all the interim? True, I don't go seeking them out, but lots of things that appeal to me a lot less track themselves across my path without my volition; why did it take this one thirty years?

(Of the links at the bottom of the page to similar lists, I have so far explored those of the Beach Boys, which confirms my opinion that they only ever had about two-and-a-half good songs, one of which isn't even on the list, also that they could not sing; and Richard Thompson, whose work I like a lot better, to the extent that I can grouse over the choices and object that no list omitting "When the Spell Is Broken" and "The Poor Ditching Boy" can possibly represent his best.)

Comments

[ron-drummond.livejournal.com]

Every McCartney solo album, without exception, has at least one, and more often than not several, excellent songs. Too often the most popular song off any given album was NOT the best song on the album. I personally consider McCartney's last three studio albums of original songs, not including the new one (which I've only heard once and am still assessing) -- Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (2005), Memory Almost Full (2007), and Electric Arguments (2008, released under the band name The Fireman) -- to be among the best post-Beatles albums he has ever made and quite possibly THE best. They are also among his most diverse and eclectic. Highly recommended.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this--I gave up on Pul McCartney in the seventies, and missed these.

I am also exploring this writer's clips of Benjamin Britten.

[(Anonymous)]

I also had never heard of "Wanderlust" (or four others of those last five, although I knew "Hope of Deliverance"), and I have been a regular listener of pop radio since about 1980. The reason for my ignorance appears to be that (according to Wikipedia) the song was never released as a single, and thus received no airplay.

-MTD/neb

[otherdeb.livejournal.com]

"Wanderlust" is absolutely stunningly beautiful in its simplicity and elegance. It's long been my favorite post- Beatles McCartney effort.

[otherdeb.livejournal.com]

Re the Beach Boys: You were aware, were you not, that the Wrecking Crew were largely responsible for a lot of the ctual music on their studio stuff. And that Glen Campbell, as part of the Wreckign Crew was involved in their studio work, as well as being a part of theri road ensemble.

[(Anonymous)]

I was very surprised to learn from The Wrecking Crew documentary a couple years ago how much of the music on recordings nominally by well-known '60s rock bands was performed by studio musicians.

-MTD/neb

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

The worst Beach Boys performances in the clips were the live ones, and perhaps that's why. But are you claiming that they didn't sing on their own albums, like Milli Vanilli? Color me skeptical.

[otherdeb.livejournal.com]

Not at all. The Wrecking Crew were a group of studio musicians, including Glen Campbell, Hal Blaine, and Larry Kenchtel, who played on almost all the records of that era, soeties even replacing the bands who were supposed to be recording them. The vocals were by the band members.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Even the Beatles used session instrumentalists on occasion, so there's nothing surprising about any of this. It was in the vocals that the Beach Boys were strikingly deficient.

[(Anonymous)]

I just listened to five of those Beach Boys youtube clips from Haglund's list, with a more critical ear than I'd ever applied to them before. The other five videos have been pulled due to copyright claims. There is indeed significant vocal trouble on the one live song for which a link still works ("In My Room"), and even on the studio recordings ("Don't Worry Baby", "California Girls", "Feel Flows", and "'Til I Die" [the last two previously unknown to me]), where of course they were able to rerecord and remix, while the vocals include no wrong notes that I can hear, show at least some tentativeness. They don't have strong voices, to be sure. That said, I think those harmonies would defeat many well-known pop singers in concert.

By the way, which is the Beach Boys song you like that's not on Haglund's list? My own favorite is probably "God Only Knows", which Haglund did list. Coincidentally, I see on Wikipedia that Paul McCartney once identified it as his favorite pop song.

-MTD/neb

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, it's been a badly kept secret among McCartney's fans that since about 1980 he's typically released the worst song on each album as the single, and that all the interesting stuff is buried among the album cuts or, sometimes, the flip side of singles.* There are exceptions, of course ("Jenny Wren").

Songs I'd recommend (dates are partly from memory):

--"Every Night" (McCartney, 1970), which I think of as a companion piece to Buddy Holly's "Every Day"
--"On the Way (McCartney II, 1980), a rare blues track, extremely simple but effective
--"Daytime Nighttime Suffering (single, 1978/79), one of the few solo songs that sounds like it cd have been recorded by the Beatles
--"We Got Married" (Flowers in the Dirt, 1989), the more serious side of 'Ob-la-de' and 'When I'm Sixty-four'
--"Heather" (Driving Rain, 2001), mostly glorious instrumental until the vocals kick in to cap off the song at the end
--"So Bad" (Pipes of Peace, 1983), beautiful simplicity, the best of his high-range vocals
--"Rockestra Theme" (Back to the Egg, 1979), shows how well rock instrumentation lends itself to multiple instruments playing the same part.
--"Little Willow" (Flaming Pie, 1997), his elegy to Maureen Starkey (=Mrs. Ringo); the best, I think, of his three elegies, the others being "Put It There" (Flowers in the Dirt, 1989) for his father and, most famously, "Here Today" (Tug of War, 1982) for John.
--"Pretty Little Head" (Press to Play, 1986), really weird but really good
--"Mr. Bellamy" (Memory Almost Full, 2007), elusive slice of life; either the story of a cat up a tree or a man contemplating suicide --hard to tell which
--"A Leaf" (single, 1995), the best of his 'classical' pieces

All of which is why I'm looking forward to the new album, just out, which I haven't picked up yet. Odds are good that it'll be pleasant on the whole, with one or two really outstanding pieces tucked away somewhere.

--John R.

*cf. for example "The Mess" (single b-side, 1982), a live recording which is far better than anything appearing on the album he put out about the same time, Wild Life.