MACCA SOLO ALBUMS!

Oh God y'all, I'm listening to Give My Regards to Broad Street for the first time in probably 20 years, probably for the second or third time ever, and there's so many oddball sonic and production choices all over this thing. The "disco" No More Lonely Nights for example, is SO close to being plausible as the seed for another McCartney II level foray into 80s electro-indie pop. Unfortunately for me, for once I'm not buying Paul's nonsense and it all just sounds distractingly unrealized to my ears.

Like, I LOVE "Ballroom Dancing," always have, but the version here is such a disaster. In theory I'm SO on board for Paul wanting to swerve the song halfway through into the land of 80s studio boogie, but it's just so terribly-executed and uninteresting. On many great Paul albums, his random style exercises feel like they come from a genuine interest in new sounds he's hearing, while this sounds like he's striving to do it but doesn't really have a handle on it. "Not Such A Bad Boy" is much more convincing. Not landing like an instant classic or anything, but gives me a pleasant "Live at Daryl's House" vibe. "No Values," later in the album, is very bland, but maybe kind of pub-rocky if I'm using that term right?

The lows are SO low. But I can imagine an alternate-universe version that's thought of like, "oh yeah Paul McCartney's got this kinda cool early-80s album that's his version of Glossed-Up Roots-Rock With a Hint of New Wave; if you dig Run Devil Run or any of the more rock-type Wings songs, you'll dig it." Instead it's pretty widely considered his worst album, or at least pretty high up there (right?). I guess it might just be a case of "the songs weren't there."

Marcello:

I really didn’t think we could sink any lower after Bowie’s Tonight, but Give My Regards is a far more actively unpleasant record and a far more painful listen, despite (unlike Tonight) having at least one salvageable track. Why? Because Bowie micturating on “God Only Knows” is one thing, but listening to an artist effectively crapping on his own work brings a level of badness which this tale has not previously known. It is not that this record lacks good songs; indeed, some of its songs are among the best ever written...

No doubt the internet is full of Macca fan sites and message boards whose contributors can see the good side of Broad Street and strive to point out its hidden merits. Good luck to them. I tried, and I could not. The one song worth saving was the most prominent new one, and the single: “No More Lonely Nights” was the strongest song McCartney had written in years, and proved that when he could be bothered to pull his finger out, he was more than capable of bringing back the old magic. Eric Stewart and Linda McCartney’s backing vocals remind us of “I’m Not In Love,” Dave Gilmour turns up to play a propulsive, anguished guitar solo, and it’s all very acceptable in a late 1975 kind of a way (and a far more deserving number two single than “The War Song”).

i personally think this album is better than it's given credit for but only if you ignore the utterly pointless covers. the original material is pretty good.

The only time I'd ever favour the Stones over my belov'd McCartney and Bowie is late 1984, and quite drastically too. The Stones released their best ever thing (the Too Much Blood 12" maxi) and Paul and David released their worst ever.

'orrible wuzzn't it

very fa'kin' funny michael

So yeah I pass on Regards (though the film has its uses), but I am to some degree a Press to Play defender.

come sit by me then

he's a has been at this point along with bob dylan (his last decent record was 'desire')

more caustic opinions plz

More cerebral opinions please

At least one would be a start.

Chat more chat

Oh God y'all, I'm listening to Give My Regards to Broad Street for the first time in probably 20 years, probably for the second or third time ever, and there's so many oddball sonic and production choices all over this thing.

some of these wings albums aren't half bad y'know

is the movie better or worse than the 70s sgt pepper one

better because it's never actually boring except for this bit - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3rG4vm06kE - which apparently lasts 12 minutes but feels like 12 years.

Ebert said that when he told Paul his movie was no good, Paul looked like he wanted to kill him.

Magical Mystery Tour is very close to the worst movie of all time with some of the best scenes.

"his movie" i.e. Broad Street

Magical Mystery Tour would've worked out great had they simply cut out the musical sequences and sent those out to Ed Sullivan, the BBC and other television programs, similar to what they had been doing with their other proto-music videos. It probably wasn't economically feasible though - they needed to recoup the cost of making that film and that wasn't going to happen unless they had an hour-long program to sell.

FWIW, I thought Dylan should've done the same with the 1975 tour footage that became Renaldo and Clara - the film was always going to be a mess and he needed to deliver a live show to NBC anyway, so he should've just ditched his ill-conceived narrative film idea and simply cut together a concert film. In that case, it would've been a far better financial decision had he done so - he ended up spending a great deal of money shooting that Colorado show for the NBC broadcast, and then he poured a ton of additional money into Renaldo and Clara as he kept editing it for another two years, leaving himself buried in a ton of debt (which was the main reason he did those awful Budokan shows - to financially right the ship).

Ebert said that when he told Paul his movie was no good, Paul looked like he wanted to kill him.

lol yeah it was Siskel, who said McCartney almost threw a glass of OJ in his face.

McCartney not even the best filmmaker in the Beatles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gk1tnvl8mo

omg that looks so awful.

appreciate the liveblog, NTI.... Wow, I don't think I ever really had a clear sense of what the movie was, just that it looked very uninteresting and uncool, even to a teenage Beatle nerd weighing the VHS box at Blockbuster. I wish I'd been more adventurous, since it does at least sound *memorably* bad. The sheer quantity of dream sequences! He must have thought that the success of MTV was an endorsement for the kind of nigh-structureless MMT model of "there's some songs, and then in between, things happen!" well again: maybe if the songs had been there. but now I'm picturing a 70s version with the Band on the Run tracklist and it still seems pretty wince-worthy.

I saw this movie in the theater, my pick.

My step-brother leaned into my ear the whole time, going "this SUUUUCCCCCKKKKS."

Paul McCartney's new tour is called Got Back:

https://www.paulmccartney.com/live/got-back-tour

It'll be the first tour under his new name, Sir-Macs-a-Lot.