C/D Paul McCartney Solo

"Jet"

"Junior's Farm"

"Listen to What the Man Said"

otherwise, it's shit.

I like 'jet' and the start of 'C moon' and I like 'maybe I'm amazed' and 'no more lonely nights' and 'silly love songs'!!!

It's an odd collection because it is missing some good bits ("Maybe I'm Amazed" "Helen Wheels" "Take it Away"). I'll probably just end up getting his lps eventually, like I usually do with artist I admire (sigh).

-- Alex in NYC

There's no difference!! Paul was the, what do you say, "auteur"...

Paul McCartney is one of those artists that I bet there's a potential CD-R or two's worth of stuff I would absolutely adore - really he needs to be a lot more obscure than he is, so some loving curator could trawl through his albums and B-Sides and make some selections. As it is his commercial/historical clout means the available compilations take the path of least resistance a bit too much.

Beatles beat the rest hands-down - that much we know. Beyond that, RJG is probably right. But the best post-Beatles Macca I know is VENUS & MARS - a bit of a 70s masterpiece. TUG OF WAR also has great stuff; his work with Costello has its moments; and so does the FLAMING PIE LP (1997).

I did the CDR thing with McCartneys back catalogue a year or two ago and managed to get 4 really good chronological comps. I would guess that a lot of people would like much of this stuff if they sat down and listened to it. McCartney solo though is almost dismissed and I don't think that the Wingspan comp kicked off the resurection of the post Beatles stuff that I or probably he expected.

What I really can't get over is the fact that Paul himself doesn't realise how rubbish he is nowadays. Wake up!

He really seems to think his solo work is comparable to the Beatles. It's not. Maybe it was always going to be a dissapointment by the Beatles standards, but by _any_ standards it's awful. And still he doesn't get it.

Maybe if we all stood outside his house with placards saying "Paul, your music is now shit!" he'd get it. But I doubt it. He'd probably think "Hey those guys have spelled 'hit' wrong".

Dud.

Favourite videos: Goodnight Tonight, Pipes of Peace.

Also C: "Jet," "Too Many People," "Let Me Roll It," "Spin It On" (Wings go thrash!)

good old dad.

I don't think I've even seen a copy of WINGSPAN in a record store.

I reminded my dad about the 'all the best'-for-christmas thing on friday night when we were in a car. he didn't really remember. he said "and why did she [my mum] buy you that instead?" and I told him again and he understood. then he asked "and why did you want 'faith'??" and the answer was...I was six...I had seen it advertised on television.

Yes, COMING UP is great.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316860328/qid=1045408789/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_3_1/026-5101041-0610836

It's an intimate scrapbook.

Capitals are the new italics.

If that's not a special offer I'll EAT MY HAT. Note controversial opinion expressed herein: the best solo Paul McCartney work did not appear until FLOWERS IN THE DIRT. Before anyone rushes to order it, please note that it appears to be two-dimensional.

I used to listen to my mum's copy of "All The Best" all the time. On vinyl, too.

amazing.

Love Coming Up and C Moon too.

And then I wake up.

I had "All the best" on CD for many years, never listened to it, but I'll agree that "Venus and Mars" is a neglected classic, as is the first McCartney LP, very primitive but rather homely.

I had dreams about WINGSPAN last night. or it featured in my last night's dreams. I think it was really big and cost one hundred and twenty-five pounds or twenty-five pounds and was sealed in plastic and didn't tell me the tracklisting.

record shopping w/ allyC, yesterday, we saw many mccartney/wings albums. WINGS AT THE SPEED OF SOUND looked OK but was on cassette and three pounds fifty.

Only that, I suppose, some Wings songs have less sentimental value for him.

Ah yeah, he's been playing a ton of Wings stuff – I think it's specifically the post-split era he's not been keen on revisiting (and maybe it's something specific about the Ram sessions time).

But y'know, he plays nothing from the 80s either, Temporary Secretary being an occasional exception. He has a lot to choose from …

He doesn't ever play much off "Chaos & Creation..." at all, does he? Probably another sore point for him. Such an excellent album, too.

Best show I saw was 2009 at Citi Field partly because ALL of the new stuff (from Memory Almost Full and the new Fireman album) was really good, and they stood strong next to the Beatles and Wings hits of which only two weren’t so hot. Basically 31 outstanding numbers out of 33 played that night, far better than what I had anticipated.

yeah I like that he plays 'new stuff' but I could do without the tracks from New that he plays. I was lucky to see him do one of the only performances of "women and wives" from Mccartney III. But I'd obv prefer some Chaos tracks, things from MAF, etc. Griping about his setlist is the hoffman forum official past time.

Got to say the two peaks of his December show for me were Now and Then and Wonderful Christmastime.

xps praps “Silly Love Songs” is too evocative of Linda

Yeah I think that's likely

Though he could have played it between 1977 and 1998

But I'd obv prefer some Chaos tracks

If he's not going to play songs that remind him of Linda, then he's sure as hell not going to play any songs that remind him of Heather Mills.

I just put on Memory Almost Full and it plays even better now. There were three or four songs on there that I didn't really like, but this time around, I thought they were all right, which pretty much makes it a solid album for me. (FWIW, this is the deluxe edition with the DVD, which I picked up a few years ago. They're really easy to find for $5 if you're fine with a "very good" copy instead of something "like new.")

I have fond memories of this album because it's really where I started to warm to McCartney in terms of what he was doing at the moment, and it came out just before I moved to London for a school term. Since it was his first release on Starbucks' Hear Music label, you pretty much heard and saw it everywhere, and on top of that, he was constantly in the papers because of his divorce proceedings. But McCartney seemed to take it all in stride, with pop-up shows and sightings everywhere, culminating with the Electric Proms show that I so wish I had attended - there's probably no way I could've attended (I don't think I even knew I was going to London until tickets were long gone) but I was living a short tube ride away so theoretically it was possible. With the recent Bowery shows, it's not a huge deal because his voice has lost so much, but I would've absolutely lost my mind seeing and hearing up close in 2007.

Hands down, I'd say Band on the Run (U.S. version with "Helen Wheels"), Run Devil Run and Memory Almost Full are probably the three and only three studio albums I'd enjoy putting on - not just for select tracks, but to let play from start-to-finish. A lot of Chaos leaves me cold, but I'll give it another try later tonight. Same deal, I found the deluxe edition with the DVD for peanuts, but I've only played it once since getting it a few years ago.

Okay, according to setlist.fm I did get “Let ‘Em In” in Foxboro in 1990. But that was the only Wings song other than ”Live and Let Die” (which is another “POOCHA HANDS TOGETHAH” crowd pleaser he has probably played in 90% of stadium shows since he wrote it).

He's never tired of "Jet" and "Band on the Run" either.

I may need more time with Chaos. When I give it my full attention, I can definitely appreciate the craftsmanship, and the DVD is actually pretty good even if it's more or less an EPK. If anything, it makes watching McCartney craft a record feel like a better and more meaningful experience than seeing a regular concert - unlike Get Back, there's no searching for songs, it's McCartney bringing them in and carefully performing the right takes and, with Godrich, figuring out the right way to present the music. McCartney's voice in particular sounds amazing in this context, as if he understands it's for posterity so his voice sounds rested and fresh.

McCartney also talks about this role-playing he does to create different songs, and he's talked about it many times in the past ("Good Day Sunshine" is his version of the Lovin' Spoonful, "Here, There and Everywhere" is the Beach Boys). He brings up Ray Charles for "The Long and Winding Road," and for this album, it's George Harrison for "Friends to Go" (one of several songs that I've always loved on this album) and Randy Newman for "Anyway." It seems to be a handy trick a lot of recording artists use, and it doesn't need to be a person - for example, Keith Richards crafted the riff for "Satisfaction" by wanting to do something that sounded like horns without actually using horns.

Nigel Godrich also talks a bit and he explains that he wanted McCartney to record this by himself because originally when he was thinking over McCartney's offer to produce the album, he thought, "okay, this could work if I do it in this setting and get these players..." Then he explained that McCartney really needed someone to spar with in order to make his best music, but because he's such a heavyweight, no one like that really exists. So by making him play everything, he thought he could come up with something more interesting.

In terms of pushing McCartney, he says at one point he sung McCartney a verse from "Tug of War":

In years to come they may discover
What the air we breathe and the life we lead
Are all about
But it won't be soon enough
Soon enough for me

He explained he has never owned that record, ever, but he heard that on the radio once when he was ten and it immediately connected with him, and he thinks McCartney understood where he was coming from and it had an immediate impact on the songs he was bringing in.

With that in mind, I wondered how well Tug of War and other albums actually did with critics, so I did a quick search on Pazz & Jop. Unfortunately, I can't get results past #40 for every poll up to and including 1997, but the complete results for later polls are online. Before 1998, only one album managed to place, but he has a few more after 1997 that landed in the top 200:

1982: #34 Tug of War
1999: #55 Run Devil Run
2005: #73 Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard
2007: #75 Memory Almost Full
2008: #145 (Fireman) Electric Arguments
2013: #129 New

Chaos is well passed Heather Mills era, that was Driving Rain.

FWIW, Mills or McCartney's marriage never comes up on the DVD, much less when they discuss the songs in-depth. I don't think any of them have anything to do with her.

The PBS Chaos and Creation At Abbey Road special is neat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9elQeVfrLOo

Especially the part where comes up with a (daft) track on the spot and goes around from instrument to instrument building it up.

yeah, remember watching and enjoying that special.

Always thought Riding to Vanity Fair was at least partially about Mills. Regardless it’s easily one of his best albums. I like it lots more than Memory.

I’d probably rank Chaos third behind Ram and BOTR. But generally I celebrate Paul’s entire catalogue.

The band Cut Worms actually ran into McCartney while they were rehearsing in Brooklyn for a Valentine's Day show:

Something truly cosmic in proportions happened last week. My band and I met Paul McCartney in a chance encounter on the sidewalk in Brooklyn, mere feet away from where we happened to be rehearsing for our upcoming Valentine’s Day shows.

The serendipity of this and how we happened to be in the same place at the same time still ties my brain in knots to think about. Needless to say, Paul and the Beatles are probably the most important influence on my life and music out of any artist or group, and to get to stand and talk with him for several mind-bending minutes was a great honor and an actual dream. He was very sweet and funny and completely casual; even shook all of our hands. It was surreal.

A kind stranger happened to capture these photos of the interaction, otherwise I’d have no record of the happening, as we didn’t want to impose by asking for a photo. Here you can see me attempting to tell Sir Paul about our band, and that we had learned a Beatles cover for our show — “I Need You,” a George song, (to which he said “oh I love George.”) he asked the group name and I said “Cut Worms” and to my unending delight, he spoke the words “Cut Worms” back to me. Whether or not he looked it up I’ll never know, but this was enough. It was a thrill also that we all got to experience it together, with @primordialsounds @johnjandrews @joncatfishdelorme and @thebublight
What a buzz, man I cannot tell you.

I can 100% hear Paul saying “Cut worms.”

Wow, that’s brilliant. Blind sided by how emotional I felt reading that and seeing the video.

Wonderful! Geez.
I ran across Ringo ( and Barbara) one afternoon and shook his hand. I only said "Thank you for the music". His "Oh, you're very welcome!" in that voice ...one of the highlights of my life, I'll tell ya.

Darren Hayman does a commentary for 'McCartney' (1970):
https://www.patreon.com/posts/commentary-on-by-122430445 (free)
I enjoyed

Thanks! Made a nice bathtime listen

It would have been funny in the Cut Worms encounter if, on hearing they were playing I Need You he instead said "Oh right. I never really rated anything George did before Something" like he kind of does in Anthology as I recall

It’s possible he doesn’t remember the song. Eric Clapton was reportedly surprised when Paul had no memory of “All Things Must Pass” when it was suggested to him for the memorial concert (and which he did indeed perform).

I don't blame him.

Maybe he still has vivid memories of the bitter cold the day they filmed the sequence for Help!

Recent ILM macca activity has been the prompt to get me to finally check out Off the Ground, after eons of assuming it was probably pretty all right, based solely on "Hope of Deliverance." But if you ask me... It stinks! Really what you might be afraid an early 90s Paul record would be like. The sound is passably warm and organic but the songs feel soooo forced and uninspired.

Does it have any champions here? I searched a bit but it seems like it's barely ever been discussed at all.

I like "Hope of Deliverance" more than I should.

It's a good song! Bops along pleasantly. The first half of the chorus ("I don't know") adds a lot of interest.

"Get Out of My Way" is all right if you can tolerate studio-boogie of this vintage, and Paul's vocal, which has suddenly, painfully hit its limits in terms of convincingly "rocking."

"Winedark Open Sea" also kinda nice, but the self-crib from "Lazy Dynamite" is really distracting.

Shameless lift from Homer, too, I guess.

Some of the best Off the Ground stuff is on The Complete Works (also 1993), which adds a second disc of B-sides and offcuts. "Long Leather Coat" has a dollop of Merseybeat about it and a fun lyric, "Kicked Around No More" is (sorta) Paul does 90s lounge revival and "Style Style" is excellent power pop. All of those at the very least deserved to be on the album.

As for the album proper, "Hope of Deliverance" is a gold-plated classic to me. Top Macca. I really like the two Costello-aided tracks, "The Lovers That Never Were" (their earlier demo is better though) and especially "Mistress and Maid". I also like "Golden Earth Girl" too, though you get the impression McCartney could write piano ballads like that in his sleep. I think I like the album overall about as much as Flaming Pie; the latter is seen as the great return to form but its conservatism bothers me.

oh I didn't mention "Biker Like an Icon". That's fuckin ace, sorry.

I enjoy a few cuts. Agree on Golden Earth Girl and the two McManus collabs. And there were some nice b-sides. But Biker Like an Icon I always thought was lame.

I saw a cat with a machine in his brain/the man who fed him said he didn't feel any pain

"Winedark Open Sea" is pretty nice. IIRC it's the one track from the LP that made it on to Pure McCartney, albeit the box set edition. Prior to that, Greg Kot (who championed the album as underrated) singled it out as a highlight. "Long Leather Coat" mentioned above is a favorite B-side. "Hope of Deliverance" was a nice single. But that's about all I'd go back to, the rest does nothing for me.

And I agree, the earlier demo (rather the 1987 acoustic demo with Elvis Costello) of "The Lovers That Never Were" is much better, and I even consider it one of THE highlights of his '80s work. Geoff Emerick mixed (or produced?) something like a polished, finished version for the Flowers in the Dirt box set. I think it was a hidden track and it's not radically different, it's just cleaned up with a few additional touches to make it presentable as a finished album track rather than a raw demo. That's the definitive version for me, but the 1987 recording that's more easily obtainable is close enough.

The tunes are boring. I’d put up with the Jools Holland show-ready production but the songs are not there, unusually.

Yeah, on another listen I do think it's as simple as his usual gift for melodies and hooks failing him. I understand the comparison to Flaming Pie, but imo the quality of the material there (on average) is way way higher.

I suppose I'd call the album tuneful but it's just so damn generic. Like the title tune is catchy, it's got hooks, but they're so, so bland, like something you'd expect for a network sitcom or a nationwide commercial jingle. Again, there's a pair of cuts and a B-side that I kind of enjoy, but the two album cuts are really B-side level work as well, not something that should be a highlight of an album, much less the lead single.

I think there's an increased seriousness to his writing that maybe starts with Flaming Pie? With songs like "Little Willow?" That gets more pronounced when you get to Chaos and Creation.

I think Linda getting sick then passing away from breast cancer (same reason why Paul's mother died when he was only 14) really impacted his work. It's not quite so clear cut with Flaming Pie but IIRC he's suggested it was on his mind when he was putting together the album and promoting it. "Little Willow" wasn't inspired by Linda's illness - it was written in 1995 in response to Maureen Cox (Ringo's first wife) dying from cancer - but this would've been the same year Linda was diagnosed with cancer, and the video they later made for it explicitly deals with a dramatized cancer diagnosis. "Calico Skies" was originally recorded in 1992 and I think that's the same take they used for the album, but all the love songs chosen for the album do feel poignant and even have a bit of unease to them. (For the promotional video, there's quite a bit of footage where he's singing it for Linda, who simply sits there quietly.)

When she does pass away, the next time he performs at all is a full year later, and it's in the studio for Run Devil Run which he said was a conscious attempt to move past his grief. It's still by far my favorite album from Paul - the fact that it's nearly all covers doesn't matter, it's just wonderful hearing him find a way out through the things that gave him so much comfort in the past. I'm not a fan of the next album that came two years later - especially with "Freedom" shoved in there at the last minute - but that's where he put together his present band, and they're all over Memory Almost Full, where he's at peace confronting his past and mortality. (The album sessions actually straddle those for Chaos and Creation.)

"Cosmically Conscious" reminds me of Oranges & Lemons

Kinda cool!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4Jnl4jERqE

That is cool! I guess Paul never asked Ginger Baker about this because he's credited on the record!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY7G0SgEw1Y