For me, the song on Press To Play that challenges what people normally think of when McCartney comes to mind is "However Absurd." It's a "ballad," I guess, but the lyrical imagery is weird, the production metallic and processed, and the bridge is arresting. Maybe it's Eric Stewart's presence, I dunno. But really, it's the kind of track that reminds me why I like him solo so much. No, it doesn't have anything on his Beatles work -- but for every "Only Love Remains" on a McCartney album, there are at least three or four cuts that affirm the guy's drive to experiment.
But really, it's the kind of track that reminds me why I like him solo so much. No, it doesn't have anything on his Beatles work -- but for every "Only Love Remains" on a McCartney album, there are at least three or four cuts that affirm the guy's drive to experiment.
I prefer his usual style, but he experimented in The Beatles and I'm perfectly OK with him trying out various stuff as a soloist too. It's just that I feel that it is exactly when he experiments that he doesn't have the quality control he would need. As long as he does on just a few tracks it doesn't matter though - I prefer the patchiness of "McCartney II", "Press To Play" and "Driving Rain" to the downright dullness of "Pipes Of Peace".
I've a friend who detests McCartney yet thinks "Only Love Remains" is one of the greatest ballads ever.
This is stranger because, as Naive Teen Idol says, it is a very typical McCartney ballad. And if you like "Only Love Remains" I cannot quite see how you wouldn't like "Golden Slumbers", "Michelle", "Here There & Everywhere" or even "Once Upon a Long Ago". I know some of those who detest him may do because of his most extremely twee stuff like "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", "When I'm 64" and "Honey Pie" though.
― Geir Hongro, Monday, 13 October 2008 15:24 (fifteen years ago) link
1.) "I'm Down"2.) "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?"3.) "Helter Skelter"4.) "Get Back"5.) Last half of "Hey Jude"6.) "She's A Woman"
Bingo! Except the order would be another one. :)
― Geir Hongro, Monday, 13 October 2008 15:25 (fifteen years ago) link
Ringo! Have you heard he quit singing :)
― abusive comments (PappaWheelie V), Monday, 13 October 2008 15:27 (fifteen years ago) link
There's quite a lot of relatively tedious bluesy stuff on very late Beatles / Let It Be sort of period, isn't there? I would have thought Mr Hongro might be against that too.
― the pinefox, Monday, 13 October 2008 15:29 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, "Oh Darling" is missing from that list for sure. I don't mind some of that stuff, but I agree with "relatively tedious" - if they had kept on going as a band I think that period would stand out more as a kind of weird genre digression - one very much in line with general trends in the period - whereas, since it lined up with them trailing off, it just becomes part of the melange of "classic rock"...
― Doctor Casino, Monday, 13 October 2008 15:42 (fifteen years ago) link
Most of that blues stuff wasn't Paul's. If anything, he got even more tin pan alleyish.
― ☑ (Pleasant Plains), Monday, 13 October 2008 15:45 (fifteen years ago) link
Well, except for the triumvirate guitar solos on "the end".
Yeah, "Oh Darling" is missing from that list for sure
"Oh Darling" is R&B influenced but also has other elements, like more chord changes, for instance. It is more like the early stuff than like his most blatant rock'n'roll numbers, really.
― Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 14 October 2008 01:31 (fifteen years ago) link
i bought the bowl of cherries one recently, it's pretty nice....the sort of record they call "slight" i guess, but still it's jaunty.
― M@tt He1ges0n, Tuesday, 14 October 2008 01:31 (fifteen years ago) link
He got more Tin Pan Alleyish? Examples?? I wanna hear them.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 14 October 2008 11:49 (fifteen years ago) link
I guess McCartney's most blatantly Tin Pan Alleyish number must be "Baby's Request".
― Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 14 October 2008 12:41 (fifteen years ago) link
The never-finished "Suicide" has the appropriate jauntiness as well.
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 14 October 2008 16:46 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/nov/21/fireman-electric-arguments
apprently not his finest hour.
― titchyschneiderMk2, Friday, 21 November 2008 21:19 (fifteen years ago) link
Not his finest, but it's OK. Quality-wise, it is more on level with "Driving Rain" and "Off The Ground" than with "Chaos And Creation In The Backyard" though.
― Geir Hongro, Friday, 21 November 2008 21:34 (fifteen years ago) link
It'd pretty good, I dont' think it's of the level of "chaos" or the last album, on the whole, but it's also not meant to be the same kind of thing. It's not McCartney II either, but for a late-career experimental album, something you wouldn't even expect him to do at this point, it succeeds.
― akm, Friday, 21 November 2008 23:40 (fifteen years ago) link
but that review is completely off base and nothing to go by
― akm, Friday, 21 November 2008 23:41 (fifteen years ago) link
He'll never match the greatness of "Temporary Secretary" again. And I am not being sarcastic.
― Nate Carson, Friday, 21 November 2008 23:47 (fifteen years ago) link
"Temporary Secretary" isn't even the best song on that SIDE of that album!!
― BIG HOOS enjoys a cold mindbeer (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Friday, 21 November 2008 23:56 (fifteen years ago) link
Oh damn, I thought I wouldn't let myself be tempted, argh...
Well most of the best and brilliant-est songs on that alb are on Side 1 anyway. The soapsuds and dandruff are mostly on the other side. ("Summer Day's Song" is super, tho.)
― t**t, Saturday, 22 November 2008 00:01 (fifteen years ago) link
"McCartney II" isn't even particularly good. And "Temporary Secretary" surely not. Just using synths isn't enough to impress - they have to be used on a good song too.
― Geir Hongro, Saturday, 22 November 2008 00:56 (fifteen years ago) link
lol something Geir and Alex can agree on
― Passenger 57 (rogermexico.), Saturday, 22 November 2008 01:19 (fifteen years ago) link
pfft geir you are wrong
― I'm Richard (Autumn Almanac), Saturday, 22 November 2008 02:06 (fifteen years ago) link
McCartney II is a very accomplished piece of experimentation, being produced (as it was) in 1979-80. Yes he makes a load of noise about doing it all himself, but he's always done that.
― I'm Richard (Autumn Almanac), Saturday, 22 November 2008 02:07 (fifteen years ago) link
Rockestra w/ Bonham:
― What Goes Up... (Naive Teen Idol), Saturday, 22 November 2008 07:01 (fifteen years ago) link
What a woeful helicopter smash of an album. How it's Fireman and not Macca being 100% self-indulgent is fathoms beyond my reach.
― Brunswicki and Footescray (Autumn Almanac), Thursday, 4 December 2008 08:18 (fifteen years ago) link
Armed with this thread's contents I made a best of post-Beatles playlist on Spotify (sorry to those shut out of Spotify):
http://open.spotify.com/user/nickyd/playlist/40YtLVuiEtdisxLcaqhHt1
― Alba, Tuesday, 16 June 2009 12:54 (fifteen years ago) link
And then I whittled it down further to stuff I actually liked:
http://open.spotify.com/user/nickyd/playlist/7Ctxim1T5TslHsVGg09feX
― Alba, Tuesday, 16 June 2009 12:55 (fifteen years ago) link
(can't stop listening to Back Seat Of My Car at the moment.
Where is Pinefox when you need him?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.― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 13 February 2003
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.― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 13 February 2003
― the pinefox, Friday, 10 July 2009 12:31 (fifteen years ago) link
"Every Night" from the first solo album is an idyll of a song, very "Railways Conserve The Environment" 1970 (as opposed to, you know, RADICAL 1970) indeed. I'd have liked it if he'd written "Come And Get It" slightly later so it could be his first solo single, because it's better than "Another Day", or if he'd written it slightly earlier so it could be a Beatles single, because it's better than "Hello Goodbye". The promo film for "Helen Wheels" is fantastically evocative. "Hi Hi Hi" is better than "My Ding-A-Ling" precisely because it *isn't* "in the tradition of the music hall" (the hilarious reason given by the ultra-conservative Charles Curran-era BBC as to why it was still playing Chuck Berry's lowpoint when it had banned the Wings song in December 1972).― robin carmody (robin carmody), Monday, 17 February 2003
― robin carmody (robin carmody), Monday, 17 February 2003
― the pinefox, Friday, 10 July 2009 12:37 (fifteen years ago) link
I'm listening to Macca on spotify, maybe I can play N's playlist.
I'm not sure though, how those playlists work.
I am just listening to RAM.
― the pinefox, Friday, 10 July 2009 12:42 (fifteen years ago) link
you shld be able to just click on the link and it shld open the playlist
― just sayin, Friday, 10 July 2009 12:57 (fifteen years ago) link
Listening to that playlist: whatever else about it, it reminds me of the greatness of 'You Gave Me The Answer'
― the pinefox, Friday, 10 July 2009 16:56 (fifteen years ago) link
still on N's playlist; 'Jenny Wren'!
― the pinefox, Saturday, 11 July 2009 12:51 (fifteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHz_7e7yluM
― the pinefox, Monday, 13 July 2009 07:35 (fifteen years ago) link
...hard not to admire that! Love love love the song, beyond all rational justification - so much flourish and energy put into this goofy little idea!
May have linked this before, but: http://www.ummagurau.com/art/doctorcasino/magneto09.mp3 is an unfinished homemade cover of the song from my extremely unfinished (ie, never to be even halfway done) double album of Paul McCartney covers.
― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 5 August 2009 14:33 (fifteen years ago) link
current fave solo pmac: "let 'em in"
― Dominique, Wednesday, 5 August 2009 14:39 (fifteen years ago) link
gotta give a shout out to "little lamb dragonfly".doctor casino, good to know someone else has been working on the same project as i am! so far all i've got is spot-on versions of "c moon" and "some people never know".
― johnnyo, Wednesday, 5 August 2009 14:49 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, Let 'Em In is fantastic! I mean who writes a song like that, such a ridiculous, drug-addled concept for a song. Musically, it's all so regimented with everything in its right place. I guess I'm having trouble describing what's so great and strange about it, but it's a very odd number. Sonic candy about nothing, which I guess sums up Wings pretty well. And it reached #3 here in the States!
x-post
― ColinO, Wednesday, 5 August 2009 16:16 (fifteen years ago) link
i had this exact thought: "who writes songs like this?" So simple, so addictive. The piano/drums/one note bass line doesn't really even sound like a mccartney tune, until he starts singing, and it all fits together so perfectly. And like a lot of his songs, I have no desire to know what he's talking about, or what any of the lyrics might actually mean.
― Dominique, Wednesday, 5 August 2009 18:00 (fifteen years ago) link
it is about a doorbell and that is all
― akm, Wednesday, 5 August 2009 18:16 (fifteen years ago) link
McCartney's songs-about-nothing or songs-about-stuff ethos (doorbells, lambs, etc) was perfect for the seventies, no?
― Anatomy of a Morbius (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 5 August 2009 18:35 (fifteen years ago) link
Paul McCartney >> Wings
― Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 5 August 2009 20:24 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah heard 'let em in' (for the first time i think) at dinner the other night with the girl and we were both kinda really into it. maybe i should check a wings rec?
― bear, bear, bear, Sunday, 14 November 2010 16:12 (thirteen years ago) link
how the hell have I never heard Magneto and Titanium Man
― Life! The Story of Life (CaptainLorax), Sunday, 14 November 2010 20:24 (thirteen years ago) link
Those mid seventies Wings albums have some good stuff but they defy categorization.
― otherwise, and twat (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 14 November 2010 20:25 (thirteen years ago) link
NY Times' Pareles likes the 2 1/2 hour Yankee Stadium gig
At 69, Mr. McCartney is not saying goodbye but touring stadiums and playing marathon concerts. Friday’s set ran two and a half hours, with Mr. McCartney constantly onstage, and it had 35 songs, not counting a few additional excerpts. He played half a dozen instruments (though he didn’t show off his drumming), sang with only a few scrapes in the voice that’s familiar worldwide, and looked as if he was having a boyish romp as he navigated what endure as some of rock’s oddest hits. His hair grew more tousled with every song.
The set drew on Mr. McCartney’s various outlets from the 1960s on: the Beatles, Wings, his solo albums and his once-pseudonymous project the Fireman.
Though he also notes:
There was more than a little familiarity to the concert for anyone who attended Mr. McCartney’s 2009 shows at that other new ballpark, the Mets’ Citi Field, or listened to and watched the resulting live album of CDs and a DVD, “Good Evening New York City” (Hear Music). Once again he wore suspenders over his white shirt. His band lineup hasn’t changed, with Abe Laboriel Jr. on drums, Brian Ray and Rusty Anderson on guitars and Paul (Wix) Wickens on keyboards. Two-thirds of the songs were the same, often in similar groupings and with the same arrangements and first-time surprises, like appending Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” to “Let Me Roll It,” or segueing “A Day in the Life” into “Give Peace a Chance” — a V-sign waving epiphany for the crowd — or explaining that the civil-rights movement inspired “Blackbird.”
― curmudgeon, Monday, 18 July 2011 03:36 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/arts/music/paul-mccartney-yankee-stadium-concert-review.html?src=recg
Did "Maybe I am Amazed" too
― curmudgeon, Monday, 18 July 2011 13:56 (thirteen years ago) link
Aw...no birthday wishes on his 70th! My favourite:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbKGsEK_T9g
― clemenza, Monday, 18 June 2012 23:46 (twelve years ago) link