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.

"fluid" on rushes is the nearest he ever approached bitches brew (released just a month or two before let it be)

This has been pegged by the more excitable tabloids as a hate rant against Heather Mills

lol i'm sorry but this word choice is a low blow

I always thought Junior's Farm was nonsense lyrics, but it's actually a clever little thing about capitalism, isn't it? Looking forward to One Hand Clapping coming out.

― timellison, Saturday, 4 May 2024 20:47

?? There's one line about inflation, that's all I can see. The poker stuff is about Beatle/Apple breakup negotiations, innit

― glumdalclitch, Monday, May 6, 2024 8:48 AM (six hours ago)

Yeah, but specifically about MONEY and how it's earned. Or not earned, you just have to play the game. And what happens in the seats of power - "We all chipped in for a bag of cement." And what someone is willing to do for a couple of pence.

Re. sexuality in his songs - "Alligator" on New.

coldblooded, that one

Actually, the next song on that album ("On My Way to Work") also.

Re. sexuality in his songs - "Alligator" on _New._

Actually, the next song on that album ("On My Way to Work") also.

are old people not allowed to be horny? or do you want more appropriate expressions of horniness whatever that would look like? I mean the queen is dead so what do you want from him

and he already made the most unsexy sexy song ever decades ago it's called temporary secretary

My nursing home crack probably made that sound more ageist than it was intended. I just don’t think either of those songs are sexy or carnal in any way. They’re mostly just kind of sad and lonely.

This catchy motherfucker OTOH …

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

(h/t Alba)

Great!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLncY7Q1hIQ

Steph Harmon for the Guardian: Have you ever had a cringeworthy run-in with a celebrity?

Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips: All the time. Really. The first time we met Paul McCartney – he wasn’t there to meet us, he was at one of these festivals, and he came in through the backstage. No one really knew he was there. He came in with his wife, Linda, and I just followed him up on stage. He thought I was part of his entourage – apparently he didn’t mind that I was there.

But I stood right behind him as he watched Neil Young play. I’d seen Neil Young play – I was there to look at Paul McCartney more than anything else. It was a long time ago – 1993 or something like that – but I remember: his ear was very crusty. I mean, you’re just looking at Paul McCartney as a human, you know? You don’t get to do that very often. And I remember looking at his ear and – look, sometimes when you’re travelling around a lot, your ears are kind of crusty.

I don’t smoke pot, and he had a big joint, and he handed it to me as if I was part of his entourage, and I took a big puff of it, which I shouldn’t have done, but I thought, “Well, how often do you get to smoke a joint with Paul McCartney?” It was amazing.

he's playing bowery ballroom in new york tonite (sold out in about 10 seconds this afternoon, of course)

Crazy. Such a fairly small place. He could do a residency there for a year and it would probably sell out every night

He does this every so often, like at Irving Plaza and Grand Central (and that's just NYC alone). He live streamed the Grand Central show, and it's still on his official channel on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QGxFpSb6Sc

Apologies if this sounds likes sour grapes, but speaking as someone who has seen McCartney in concert four (or five?) times now, his voice has noticeably deteriorated over the years. I'm not sure when exactly because the less-than-ideal acoustics in places like stadiums and arenas actually "help" by making it tough to hear anything off, but I started to notice in 2017 when he played MSG. It was likely during the quiet numbers, but I remember thinking his voice might've needed a rest from touring. Unfortunately, it's only gotten worse and when I saw him in 2022 at Fenway, I was taken aback by how off he was most of the time. You can hear this in the Grand Central video, which is mostly Beatles songs - I think the problem is that he wrote and recorded those songs when he had one of the most protean voices in pop music, and it's just impossible for anyone to physically retain that same range and elasticity in their 70s and 80s. I won't lie, I would love to go to a tiny show like this and be upfront, but I've also had experiences where I did just that for some other favorites, only to find out that I waited far too long to see them.

In terms of other small venue shows, the complete Amoeba Gig is highly recommended. From 2007 at Amoeba in L.A., it took a while for them to release the entire show (it was initially released as an EP), and even though he sounds older, he still sounds genuinely great. It helps that the new songs are also good - the mid-to-late 2000s are actually my favorite years among his post-Beatles work. He doesn't seem to use any autotune either, which has marred a lot of his later live releases, and I think having the show in a record store instead of a stadium or arena really helps his performance.

I saw McCartney at Wrigley back in I think 2011. It was a million degrees out and he killed it for around three hours. But I can't imagine tacking another almost 15 years to the age tally will have done him any favors. Still, he's the only McCartney we've got, which makes him the best McCartney.

Actually playing the Amoeba show now, and it's better than I remember. Just go to "Get Back" and even "Baby Face." He's hitting all the notes without much strain, his voice doesn't get gravelly, quick tempos and changes are handled with ease - I don't think he can sing like this anymore, not even close. But tbf it's almost 18 years later, which is a really long time - 18 years before the Amoeba show is Flowers in the Dirt.

Clearly his voice has deteriorated but I saw him play the O2 in December and it sounded far stronger than it did at Glastonbury in 2022. So I disagree that it gets worse and worse

The thing he never seems to do is lean into an older voice by transposing old songs for a different register. I guess he's stubborn like that.

I'm more than happy to be wrong if that's the case - I'm probably going to see him at least one more time, and plenty of people I know haven't yet. And you're absolutely right about him keeping the songs in the original key. I haven't seen that much of that Grand Central video since it came out, but IIRC, he sings the newer songs better than the ones he did with Wings or the Beatles. This is kind of why I would prefer to hear him do the best of his later albums nowadays - they were tailored to his current voice, not what he could do 50-60 years ago.

Getting to the end of Amoeba, "Let It Be" is a little shakey, but still hits plenty of the high notes.

Bootleggers came through:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I5GrkskJdg

I confess that I don’t really listen to much modern day McCartney and only saw him once, gah, 35 years ago on the stadium-tastic FitD/“Lets play the outro to ‘Hey Jude’ for 15 minutes” tour.

But if the guy wants to sing his old songs into his 80s in their original keys that is 100% his prerogative. As noted, he is our only McCartney after all.

i think he should play "silly love songs", "goodnight tonight", and all of ram live but he refuses

oh yeah he should play "you never give me your money" in full too

like it's really crazy to me that he's never played "silly love songs" since wings broke up because it's truly the greatest and it was one of wings' biggest hits

Never sung "Press" either.

I keep hoping he's considering the rock-heavy Got Back tour setlist (which the Bowery gigs still mostly adhered to) as a last blast of that kind of show and that he'll go in a different direction when (if?) he tours again.

He does play some interesting bit and pieces (Ram On, Coming Up) at some of these "VIP soundcheck" things but I've no idea if those things are proper performances or not.
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/paul-mccartney/2024/estadio-bbva-guadalupe-mexico-53573359.html

But yeah, he hasn't played Silly Love Songs since 1976. It would be great to see him with a different band for a change, but I don't think that's going to happen.

With Ram, he's said that he knows lots of people love it but that he has painful memories of the period it was recorded in, so maybe that's part of the reason he stays away. But then again he plays Every Night quite a bit and surely that's from him at a low ebb.

He's played "Letting Go" often, no?

Yes, that's been on the Got Back setlist. What are you getting at though?

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.