C/D Paul McCartney Solo

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.

Does anyone else like 'Hope of Deliverance'? I think it has a haunting melody.

p.s. 'for your love'+'bus stop'=gouldman.

Dud: 'Wings at the Speed of Sound', 'Flaming Pie', 'Driving Rain' (a little better than 'FP'), 'Press to Play' (interesting yet not successful experimentation from Macca in 1986...) & 'Back to the Egg' (consistently average, only 'Old Siam Sir' makes any real impression).

Many albums of his i'm mixed about... yet, overall 'Classic', I maybe go towards this strongly as the general consensus is so unfairly a 'dud' opinion. You have to look deep into his work, and will find much that is good...

Too late, it was in the issue with Santana on the cover.

If one's scratching one's head about how badly Paul's solo cheese wears on the nerves, try the following experiment: program disc one of the white album to only play Paul's tracks. Starts off okay but the unrelenting 'Ob-la-di' to 'Martha My Dear' to 'Blackbird', by the time it gets to 'Rocky Racoon' you'll be clawing your face off.

It should be mentioned that it's the MCCARTNEY II version that should be considered "classic." The live version, which Columbia released as a single in the US, pales in comparison (though there's a very strange meteor-shower synth break toward the end).

Am I the only person who thinks BACK TO THE EGG is almost the equal of BAND ON THE RUN/VENUS & MARS? Probably.

Most obvious cases of search:
"Tug Of War", "Flowers In The Dirt", "Band On The Run", "Venus And Mars"

Destroy:
"Wild Life", "McCartney II", "Press To Play", "Wings At The Speed Of Sound", "Pipes Of Peace".

Other than the disastrous "Wild Life", even the worst albums contain at least one or two great tracks each though.

The production on that album is definitely classy, but the songs are just too weak for it to avoid the dustbin. "Tug Of War" has the same marvellous production, and contains almost exclusively great songs. (Yes, even "Ebony & Ivory" isn't that bad, really)

"Waterfalls" is the only really good song on that album. "Coming Up" is a dud IMO. Just because John Lennon liked it doesn't automatically mean it was good (in fact, most of Lennon's solo work sucked anyway)

'Flowers in the Dirt' has a far worse production than 'Pipes of Peace'; it really lacks focus and sympathy for the songs. There is some fine material on there, but much of it is middling.

Do *not* destroy 'McCartney II'... it's a revelation frankly! Such a massive step up from 'Back to the Egg' and more cohesive and compelling I believe than 'McCartney' (though 'Junk' & 'Every Night' are sublime). It is McCartney very interestingly going down the route of electronic music; which sadly he didn't continue so much on his next two (nevertheless good) albums. 'Summer's Day Song' is among McCartney's most beautiful, as is 'Waterfalls'... 'Frozen Jap' and 'Front Parlour' see a Kraftwerk-type influence beautifully used to make jaunty, expressively melancholic electronic pieces. 'Dark Room' is oddball in a great manner... 'One of these Days' is a masterful close to the album.

'Press To Play' possibly does... but it is mis-produced and really inadequate in its music and songwriting (will have to give it another chance, mind).
I fully agree on 'Wings at the Speed of Sound'; apart from 'Silly Love Songs' (a badly produced and sounding recording of it) and the towering pop of 'Le 'Em In', it is a seriously mediocre record and the one with the most detrimental influence of the other Wings members.
'Ram', 'Band on the Run', 'Red Rose Speedway' and 'Venus and Mars' are unreservedly recommended as an fine early quartet of albums.

Wouldn't call any of them awful. Although they are clearly tracks that seem like partly failed attempts to copy his duet partner's musical styles.

I love the production on that one too. But, then again, I enjoy most of what Mitchell Froom and Trevor Horn/Stephen Lipson have ever done sonically.

The hits are mainly produced by Mitchell Froom (Crowded House, Suzanne Vega, early 90s Elvis Costello). But Trevor Horn produced "How Many People" and "Figure Of Eight"

i have heard neither, and know very little about mccartney solo. what are these songs like?

"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