The Beatles' Solo Careers

The sessions tapes are a treat though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmI-MdAxs0k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSO8Z-qrPtQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pVnXgiG0bk

lol "remember the solo, that's the bit where I don't talk"

spector is the one who suggested he cover "just because" -- which john, a lifelong elvis fan, had never heard

Wait, I'm confused, what is this story? The "Just Because" on Rock and Roll is the Lloyd Price song, not the Elvis/Stanley Brothers/Frankie Yankovic etc.one, and there's no way Lennon had never heard Lloyd Price. Or did Elvis ever cover the Lloyd Price song?

"What're they gonna do, play jazz with Jethro Tull?"

"I'm gonna be a 90 year old guru"

:(

i definitely feel like most of the energy goes out of his solo work post-71, but part of that might be down to poor production -- i used to have the lennon anthology and i remember there was some good stuff on that.

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, October 24, 2014 5:09 PM (45 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Lennon was kinda the opposite to McCartney in the sense that McCartney, whenever he brought a song into the studio, would have very specific ideas about all the parts and what kind of treatment to give the song in the studio (which legendarily used to wind the rest of The Beatles and members of Wings up), whereas Lennon was a little more collaborative in this respect... in his solo work he'd have the chord sequence and melody and get the musicians he was working with to play around with it until they honed it into something that Lennon was happy with. In The Beatles, I actually think McCartney used to take a very active role in arranging Lennon's songs, which help give those Beatles album a type of consistency.

McCartney has this thing for working out every single aspect of his songs: chord structure, melody, production, arrangement, all the parts... whereas with Lennon's solo stuff the arrangements and playing are only as interesting as what the musicians he's working with come up with.

Wait, I'm confused, what is this story? The "Just Because" on Rock and Roll is the Lloyd Price song, not the Elvis/Stanley Brothers/Frankie Yankovic etc.one, and there's no way Lennon had never heard Lloyd Price. Or did Elvis ever cover the Lloyd Price song?

ah, you're right -- it's been so long since i heard the lennon album that i actually didn't remember it wasn't the elvis song he was covering. i can't find the story i'm thinking of but from this lennon quote it sounds more like he probably had heard the song but didn't "know" it well, which isn't too surprising since he often couldn't remember the words to his own songs:

"At the end of making that record, I was finishing up a track that Phil Spector had made me sing called 'Just Because,' which I really didn't know -- all the rest I'd done as a teenager, so I knew them backward -- and I couldn't get the hang of it. At the end of that record -- I was mixing it just next door to this very studio -- I started spieling and saying, 'And so we say farewell from the Record Plant,' and a little thing in the back of my mind said, 'Are you really saying farewell?' I hadn't thought of it then. I was still separated from Yoko and still hadn't had the baby, but somewhere in the back was a voice that was saying, 'Are you saying farewell to the whole game?'

thought this was a fun interview w/ mccartney when i read it, he talks a lot about his time on the farm in scotland after the beatles broke up, making "ram," and beards: http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/8854-paul-mccartney/

Pitchfork: When you went to the nearby town in Scotland, were people unfazed by the fact that Paul McCartney was in their grocery store?

PM: Yeah, a little bit. People get used to it when you live locally, because you go to into the pub with them, or you go to dinner with your local solicitor, or you hang with a couple of guys working on the farm. You gradually get to know other people, and they become very protective of you. The only people who would bother us would be the tourists, but it was never a real problem.

Also, you gotta remember, I had a big black beard, and not everyone recognized me as a Beatle. When we went to New York, I'd go to Harlem or wherever and I had this beard and an old thrift-shop jacket on, like a Vietnam vet-- I used to joke with people, like, "I look the guy who might mug you." People didn't want to look me in the eye. It was quite a good cover at the time.

One of the things about beards is that, when men reach a certain age, they'd like to see if they can grow one. It's a phenomenon I understand very well. So I thought, "I'm gonna be in Scotland, there's nobody to see me if I fail." After you get over the itchy face, you go, "Oh, I don't have to shave, that's cool." And then you move into the philosophical thing-- people say, "Oh, you look weird, you have a beard." And you say, "No, actually, it's weird to shave." Having a beard is natural. When you think about it, shaving it off is quite weird. (laughs)

oh sod off, Paul. yer boring ass pot sketches never came close to something like POB. wings is execrable, everything. McCartney II is ace but it doesn't have, you know, "Mother." or "God." Or "I Found Out." and on and on...

"Lovely Linda" is gorgeous and coulda been a White Album toss-off. "Momma Miss America" is a really nice thick groove.

"Mother" and "God" are important but I hardly ever want to listen to the mmore than once in a good while.

xpost My reaction to "All the Best" was colored by immediately following my discovery of the Beatles canon, which I was directly comparing it to. I looked at the track listing and it's actually really good and I like most of the songs, but some of that soft rock stuff ("My Love", "With a Little Luck") was just too weak and wussy for a teenaged me who thought "Happiness is a Warm Gun" was the best rock song ever (which I still maybe kinda do).

and for many years it was the only place to find "NO More Lonely Nights."

Hah. That was probably the moment I wrote him off.

Ringo begged off playing on the Beatles re-recordings on the Broad Street soundtrack: "Paul, we already did these songs, remember?"

his best eighties song after "Press."

whereas with Lennon's solo stuff the arrangements and playing are only as interesting as what the musicians he's working with come up with

yeah this is definitely true, borne out by the superiority of his material with Voorman/Ringo/Keltner and Spector. Those guys all really brought strong, well thought-out supporting ideas to the table. Elephant's Memory might have been fine for Yoko's solo material, where something more conventional works as a good counterpoint to her very unconventional writing, but they were shit backing up Lennon imo. And after that it's p much downhill apart from Pussy Cats, which benefits (again) from Ringo, Keltner, Voorman, Kortchmar, Nillson etc.

god I love Pussy Cats

Yeah, I definitely have 'No More Lonely Nights' as being up there with the best of McCartney's '80s material. I have more than a soft spot for 'Once Upon A Long Ago' and 'Only Love Remains', too.

People give Broad Street a rough time. It's a good film. Sentimental for it, maybe. But I revisited it last month and it's just a bit of fun, y'know?

Macca solo beard had nothing on George:

http://media.tumblr.com/453734071c6593abc64c2701a643c1e6/tumblr_inline_mt1rqxZrDw1qz4rgp.jpg

http://the-beardles.tumblr.com/

Paul McCartney is such a strange conundrum. How many other folks have written both several of the best songs of all time and several of the worst?

In the excellent "Tune In," Lewisohn recounts Ringo being made to shave before he formally joined the Beatles. Ringo: ahead of the curve.

beards are horrible

you're horrible

lol kj but i like beards

ringo's the only beatle where the beard seems really natural. paul looks like he forgot to shave, george looks like he's in his howard hughes phase, and john looks like he's about to pull off his fake beard and laugh at you.

Ringo obv. also kept the beard.

His hair migrated.

whereas with Lennon's solo stuff the arrangements and playing are only as interesting as what the musicians he's working with come up with

yeah this is definitely true, borne out by the superiority of his material with Voorman/Ringo/Keltner and Spector. Those guys all really brought strong, well thought-out supporting ideas to the table. Elephant's Memory might have been fine for Yoko's solo material, where something more conventional works as a good counterpoint to her very unconventional writing, but they were shit backing up Lennon imo. And after that it's p much downhill apart from Pussy Cats, which benefits (again) from Ringo, Keltner, Voorman, Kortchmar, Nillson etc.

god I love Pussy Cats

This is all super duper otm. Listening to Pussy Cats for the first time right now and its much better than I thought it would be!

No More Lonely Nights is mainly great because of Gilmour IMo. still .. great like.

"Bring on the Lucie" is such an underrated song, recorded sort of poorly though.

"No More LOnely Nights" has that descending vocal melody before Gilmour's last solo -- peak Paul.

I've always thought RAM would sit very comfortably next to 90s/00s indie pop. Not sure if that is McCartney "anticipating" that sound so much as his influence exerting itself on a new generation, but...

his best eighties song after "Press."

"Take It Away" is so good, though...

Would be cool to hear his current band do it.

I hate Paul's drippy shit and God knows I don't know any deep cuts (aside from "Temporary Secretary"?), but he's Paul goddammit.