MACCA SOLO ALBUMS!

The second Fireman album Rushes is a favourite of mine.

A few thoughts:

1. There's a difference between having the production of 10cc and a GUY from 10cc.

2. London Town is as diverse a record as Macca ever recorded, underrated and almost disarmingly unforced.

3. Agreed -- there's really something to be said for the way Macca approached his first post-Beatles records. The E6 comment is spot on, tho I'd argue it's channeled via Emmit Rhodes in that it's the production, not the songwriting, that sounds like Macca.

Also, just throwing this out there: Red Rose Speedway. Like Ram, it's the fusion of the early homemade style and his more grandiose aspirations. But unlike the former, the gap between the ambitions of the sound/arrangement/production and the songwriting is palpable. It's likely why the likes of Xgau had so many problems with it upon its release, but in retrospect, it's exactly what makes it so daring and interesting...

1. There's a difference between having the production of 10cc and a GUY from 10cc.

Except when that guy provides backing vocals, on "The Pound Is Sinking", the result sounds a lot like 10cc.

And I don't see this homemade approach of his early solo albums as anything that could be said about his late Beatles style. Surely some of the stuff on "The White Album", maybe. Possibly also his "Let It Be" contributions before Phil Spector added all the grandeur. But on "Abbey Road", McCartney's contributions are the most polished of all, and the most polished The Beatles ever made. And after all, that was the last album they ever recorded.

Wait, you're saying you can't see the homemade approach to his late Beatles approach except for the fact that you do see it on two of the three albums?

the homemade approach to his late Beatles approach material

Not on the last they recorded. In the case of The White Album and Let It Be, I see them as nothing else but the worst two Beatles albums, and obvious examples of how badly they performed when they didn't enjoy what they were doing. On "Abbey Road", they knew this was the last thing they did, they agreed to keep it together and work properly to make it a great album, and the result was a lot more satisfactory. And a lot more polished-sounding and "finished".

There's a tendency in modernist art to something being "unfinished." You are advocating classicism.

I despise modern art.

"how badly they performed" on the white album? I don't hear it. Yes, they probably had more interpersonal strife during those sessions than they did with Abbey Road. But remember that John didn't like side two of Abbey Road.

Abbey Road, for me, is Paul taking his first steps toward his '70s pop sound that found fruition, ultimately, in GLAM. There is no vision for the production of John's songs and George's songs on that album and they took different and more radical steps in working with Spector on their subsequent solo albums.

But remember that John didn't like side two of Abbey Road.

A sense of quality at the time. John Lennon lost all sense of quality after "I Am The Walrus" (his last masterpiece) and didn't quite regain it until after his "housewife" periode in the late 70s.

I understand that you like certain things about McCartney, but you present it as though the things you like in him define him and they don't (i.e., "McCartney is pop," "a McCartney record should have glossy pop production"). If you don't think he's a modernist, I'd suggest taking a look at his paintings or reading Barry Miles' book.

I agree completely, but spare yourself the paintings.

Oh Geirpaws!!! Well, I shouldn't be surprised that Geir doesn't like Plastic Ono Band.

spare yourself the paintings.

Why? Here's one called "Bowie Spewing":

http://www.siwikultur.de/pmc/english/bbspew.htm

"The Queen after her first cigarette":

http://www.siwikultur.de/pmc/indexb.htm

Wrong link. Here's the one:

http://www.siwikultur.de/pmc/english/bqueen1.htm

In popular music, as opposed to painting, classisism still exists and is still respected.

"Monkberry Moon Delight" is my favorite Paul solo track.

London Town is an unjustly overlooked classic. "Cafe on the Left Bank?" "I've Had Enough?" "Cuff Link?" Sheer genius.

Red Rose Speedway also deserves another look; it has the daftest combination of sophisticated songwriting and a tossed-off feel that I've ever heard. It disorients me. The closing medley is one of his finest moments - someone mentioned on another thread that it is an obvious antecedent to Quadrophenia and I couldn't agree more..

Oh, and has anybody heard Thrillington? Such a guilty, delicious pleasure...

Thrillington is really lovely and really points up just how richly detailed Ram is. As someone who loves almost all of the albums open to the poll, I don't think I could vote for any one, but Ram certainly has the edge of the most gestures and textures per square minute of any McCartney record. Glad to see Red Rose Speedway getting some love, though - it's been growing on me over the last few years. Even if "Loup (First Indian On The Moon)" will always be basically lousy, it's a fun kind of lousy, and then you have just utter gems like "Single Pigeon" in there... It was originally intended to be a double album, wasn't it? One trembles to imagine.

That was a really cool sounding band with Henry McCullough. The good tracks on that album, like "Big Barn Bed" and "Get on the Right Thing" are really, really good! (And, yeah, Dr. Casino, "Single Pigeon" is a beauty.)

"Little Lamb Dragonfly," people.

I copied "Arrow Through Me" onto my iPod for my Seattle trip this weekend (I have Matthew Weiner to thank for teaching me to love it).

I continue to rep for the increasingly bizarre Press To Play (it gets weirder the longer I listen, the older I get, and the more Wings records I acquire).

I copied "Arrow Through Me" onto my iPod for my Seattle trip this weekend (I have Matthew Weiner to thank for teaching me to love it).

I continue to rep for the increasingly bizarre Press To Play (it gets weirder the longer I listen, the older I get, and the more Wings records I acquire).

Twin Freaks!

Huh, thought I posted about this earlier....maybe it ended up on some poor other thread. Anyway: Love "Dragonfly," can't take "Little Lamb" under any circumstances. (See also the vast superiority of "Love Awake" over "Winter Rose"; "Good Times Coming" over "Feel The Sun," etc.)

Yes, Twin Freaks!

I keep giving Press To Play more chances, and certain parts of it keep growing on me, while others (mainly, the self-consciously "rockin'" moments) just sit there on the platter. Would love to swap out those numbers for some of the odder things McCartney recorded and never released in the mid-80s, eg "Love Come Tumbling Down," "Return To Pepperland," "Lindiana" etc... all of which are on my to-do list for my own personal two-disc McCartney covers project (two songs down! twenty-four to go!), to culminate, of course, in "Power Cut"...

I understand that P-Mac's next solo record has a big song suite

and it's a Starbucks release!

More info, Dom?

I voted for Driving Rain, I just find it his most emotional and emotionally satisfying work.

yeah, that's pretty good. If it had shown up on the last XTC record, I'd probably be saying that Andy Partridge's McCartneyisms are getting out of hand, but when McCartney's McCartneyisms (love that he's back into double tracking his vox) are good, I like them.

Who did he record the album with? That really feels like a treading water song to me, I'm sorry to say. Someone should play him the new of Montreal and Jennifer Gentle (the one coming out this summer on Sub Pop) albums and then he could just go at it.

i can't believe he has another solo album already; when did he have the time to do it with his touring and divorce?

Sounds to me more like Paul McCartney's Partridgisms. Not that it's a bad idea though, sounds like one of his better solo singles to me.

Who did he record the album with?

It was produced by David Kahne who did Driving Rain, which for me doesn't bode well, not an album I've ever got into. Over long and a bit dull. On the other hand, that's the second time I've heard that single and it's sounding pretty good.

"From a Lover To a Friend" is the only song on DR that really affects me -- but it really affects me...

"Driving Rain" is a very patchy album, but I don't feel like putting down the entire album. "From a Lover To a Friend" is great, and there's also the title track, which is among his better uptempo pop songs.

Not among his best solo albums though.

II you fules.

Which one has Temporary Secretary?

Because, that one.

II does. Driving Rain is pretty good.

or it is if you turn it off before "freedom" comes on

I R corny indie fuXor -- i voted for mccartney II mostly on the strength of "coming up."

Results!

Ram lol.

that seems about right -- in any case, top 5 are the ones I still have

My vote for Press to Play wasn't tabulated. Revulsion?

I'm surprised Wild Life got nothing. It's actually pretty good - much better than II anyway.

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.

"Ballroom Dancing" is a crappy listen, but does it have Dave Edmonds on it? I feel like maybe that boogie-cum-unnecessarily-loud-brass-arrangement brew all might've made more sense if you were watching the film (ok, that's a lie -- no film Paul McCartney has ever been behind has ever made a lick of sense).

Fake edit: Ok so now I’m WATCHING THE GIVE MY REGARDS MOVIE on YouTube and there is a whole sequence of them shooting a video to this in a ballroom and a West Side Story-esque tussle over a woman. The arrangement does actually make a little more sense when you’re watching it. John Paul Jones, Edmonds and Chris Spedding and Ringo are all playing on it.

Other things, I’m noticing:

There’s a whole sequence at the beginning of this movie with Paul, recording in a studio with Ringo, who is tuning his drums initially, while George Martin is producing. Oh hey look, on trombone is the same guy who played on Sergeant Pepper, who also so happened to teach trombone at my college while I was there.

Tracy Ullman shows up about a half hour into this, I think as the girlfriend of Harry who they think stole the mater tapes. There are actually a lot of pretty good actors in this. I have to imagine a bunch of people just wanted to work with Paul.

Now after some guy break danced through “Silly Love Songs,” with the whole band dressed like some 80s French aristocrats, with shaved mullet wigs and white makeup, we’re on to Live From Paulie’s House where Paul and his band do some rough and ready version of “Not Such a Bad Boy.” Linda is rocking a splendid fedora.

“So Bad” comes next. I’ve always had a soft spot for this kind of awful song. It got a ton of radio play the year before. Eric Stewart is here now looking like Matthew Sweet, as are about 400 overdubbed 10cc background vocals that are clearly not Live From Paulie’s House.

The third song from this section is No Values, which I have zero memory of. It’s a p good rocker.

Well, I guess I am live blogging this now, so I suppose I’ll just keep going.

Now a radio interview followed by straight arrow (thru me) live in the studio versions of For No One and Eleanor Rigby. I actually kind of wonder, when combined with the studio stuff earlier in the movie, Paul just wanted to show himself playing and singing a bunch of these tunes effortlessly but also, with his studious filming of mixing board faders and racked gear, to demonstrate all the craft and care that goes into capturing and promoting this stuff.

Ok so Eleanor Rigby evolves into a show hall performance and then a fantasy sequence with Paul in some Vixtorian era carriage with him and Ringo drinking wine and eating grapes by a lake and rowing boats with swans. Sunday in the Park with Paul and Ringo … but not George (or John, he’s dead).

The pastoral bliss is interrupted when Paul imagines Harry stealing the tape and everyone goes over a waterfall and dies.

Now it’s snowing and Victorian Paul sees a ghostly Linda riding a horse in the sky. Then he’s wandering the streets of London with the whores and drunkards, peering like Jack the Ripper at Harry skulking around with the tapes. Harry tries to hide the tapes but is caught by some Peter Grant looking heavy we met a few scenes earlier in the movie and beats him. Then the actual Jack the Ripper who is a record executive I think shows up in a carriage and stabs him. Jokes on you, Harry – those tapes you stole were from Press to Play! Anyway Harry stumbles back to the steps of a concert hall with all the record execs and dies there. Paul then awakes from his dream.

Paul gets back in his ZZ Top car from the beginning of the movie, which has a computer in it that gives him his schedule for the day. He drives past the Battersea powerstation, listening to the Wings version of Band of the Run.

Now he goes to Ralph Richardson’s house. Ralph has a monkey. Ralph serves him tea and suggests Paul slow down a bit and then looks like he’s about to hypnotize him.

Paul cruises around the streets of London some more in his ZZ Top car, listening to a cheesy Baker Street sax version of him singing “The Long and Winding Road.” Meanwhile Tracy Ullmann laments Harry’s disappearance. Brian Brown, his manager, paces a lot and the shadowy corporate guys walk around with suitcases because they’re going to foreclose on Paul or something if he doesn’t find the tapes in time.

Anyway, Paul drives past the Broad Street rail station and has a revelation and parks his ZZ Top car. As he walks around the abandoned rail station to “No More Lonely Nights” Paul imagines himself as a busker. And then once his fantasy ends, he looks over at the bench next to him and sees his master tape lying there in the rain. And then he hears poor Harry who apparently locked himself in a shed thinking it was a toilet. Mystery solved!

Paul rings Linda from his ZZ Top car to let her know he’s found the tapes and Harry. Brian Brown informs the suits who look sad they won’t be able to foreclose on the McCartney family farm.

Paul then wakes up in his car and realizes he’s been daydreaming whole time. Cue the disco version of “No More Lonely Nights” over the credits which, yeah, I’d completely forgotten and apparently has Anne Dudley on synths. This thing is extended. After doing 1980s versions of all of his songs, it’s legit like he just timewarped back to 1979 for this. Why? No one knows.

This is all ridiculous and meaningless. But it’s a lot easier to watch when you realize Paul’s entire concept is just to do his own Hard Day’s Night.