The Beatles' Solo Careers Poll - Voting and General Discussion Thread

"Jet" is so fucking great. SUF FUR RUH GETTE! JET!

"Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five," tho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yrop_GZsp-U

OTM

Alfred's list is closest to the type of list that I'd put together. There's one or two that I'd remove, and a lot more that I'd include, but it's a far better representation of what McCartney is good at compared to the likes of 'Mumbo' and 'Morse Moose' etc.

I'd rank Red Rose Speedway as easily one of the weaker albums in the McCartney discography. The best three Wings albums are Band on the Run, Venus and Mars and Back to the Egg.

'Bluebird' is a great song - one of my favourites, that.

Lovers That Never Were is lovely! Paul often better when tempered by some opposing force/with someone to impress.

I like the McManus demos but some of the lyrics (or even, like, the title "the lovers that never were") are too Costello-y for me. Paul, of course, is terrific on them - he's great at working with pompous windbags

That's why Paul stopped working with Costello - he didn't want to make an "Elvis Costello" album. (His words)

'The Lovers That Never Were' is without doubt a '90s McCartney classic for me. The Off the Ground version of course.

there's something eerie and almost sinister about One Of These Days. I don't know if it's intentional, and it would probably would have had a different vibe if it had ended up Tug Of War or Pipes Of Peace, but the production on McCartney II is so hollowed out and spectral sounding it gives the impression of hopelessness, that this day when he looks around and sees what's right and breathes fresh air ever after etc is never going to happen?

A lot of the reviews of McCartney II (both positive and negative) talk about it as sounding like a seines preliminary sketches that he didn't turn into fully formed songs, but imo One Of These Days is more like the reverse, a ghostly remnant - like someone has constructed their life around this dream and everything has been hollowed out and enervated over time so that all that's left is this forlorn dream - especially the way it stops and then starts up again after a moment of complete silence, like the thought process he's singing about has become some entirely mechanical and there is nothing else. The processing on McCartney's voice makes the bit where he sings "fresh air evhuuu-ahhhh-fter" sound like a death rattle! idk, if you asked him I get the impression that McCartney would say that the song is meant to be optimistic and that the stillness is supposed to suggest tranquility and meditation rather than devitalization, but it sounds so grim to me

Still on Pipes of Peace, "So Bad" is... so good (sorry) !
Arguably his best falsetto ever.
Such a beautiful, classic, Smokey-like slowjam (and it made sense that Smokey covered it).

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

soref, i agree totally.

fwiw turrican, i never said my selections were the best showcase of what mccartney is capable of, just a sampling of things i get a kick of, off the albums that strapped-for-time voters will probably not sit and sift through. some of em will make my ballot, but they'll be down below "jet" and such, as i was trying to make clear...

I read somewhere that "Jet" was the song Paul played in the Lagos studio to convince Fela he wasn't ripping off his music. "No really, we're not stealing from you! Listen!" "Jet! wooo-oooo-oooo! Jet!" Fela paused for a second and said, "Yeah, you are definitely not stealing from me. OK, see you later."

Jet was entirely recorded by George Martin at AIR after the Lagos sessions.

speaking of BOTR, I've long wondered how much lead guitar McCartney plays on that album as opposed to Denny Laine? I assume Laine was closer to a strummer, and I know he handled the keyboard parts that Linda couldn't play or McCartney wouldn't play.

Really? Huh. Wish I could remember what song it was that he played for Fela.

xp

or I guess maybe by Emerick at AIR? anyway

added most tracks mentioned itt to the collaborative playlist
https://open.spotify.com/user/betamaxdk/playlist/61os6iMh4h0qY70BawKB5U

not much Lennon on it, maybe his cuts are too obvious? added #9 Dream which is gorgeous and weirdly proto-Ariel Pink

Ok, so I made these a while back - imaginary LPs from Abbey Road up to 1981 (I planned to continue up to the present day but didn't for whatever reason) - I am positive that nobody will 100% agree with my choices, but thought I might as well share / get some feedback on them.
was there a blog with fake news to go with these? rings a bell

George's voice which even on a good day isn't a beautiful instrument to listen to
hate to admit it but listening through these George's voice indeed isn't that great

Plastic Ono Band is a great album, not a bad song really (okay mayyybe Working Class Hero) my choice cuts apart from Mother which will surely place are Love and Well Well Well

u crazy, Working Class Hero is top ten easy

bravo niels, collabo playlist looking much more robust. though very short on john as we've had our attention focused elsewhere. hmmm. well i'm gonna continue with my ringo adventure for now but maybe i'll swing back to john before revisiting paul...

xposts

POB, Ram, and All Things Must Pass are kind of my starting points for this whole exercise (as i'm sure for some other people here? maybe i'm wrong about that). it's really hard to cut more than a handful of songs from any of them

secret fave on POB (though "Mother" floors me more than any of 'em) is "I Found Out" - I like John pissed off and reveling in what an angry young man he can be and how many enemies he's realizing he has. "Gimme Some Truth" is in that same vein, ditto "Crippled Inside" even though the sonic attack has been reined in in favor of a jaunty, old-timey boogie. Love all those.

Not that I don't buy positive-activist John too! "Give Peace a Chance" is something really special IMHO, maybe wore it out when I first got my hands on the John Lennon Collection on cassette... but the refrain is so good, and the lo-fi "live in some administrative room we're occupying" sound in the recording, where the assembled chanters sound numerous but by no means unstoppable, give it this incredible hope-against-all-odds vibe. Maybe a weird connection to the hollow sadness haunting "One Of These Days" - of course I'm hearing it in the hindsight of knowing that peace has not been given its chance, but more than most of the anti-war songs of this period, it still comes through fresh and alive with the sound of genuinely optimistic young people reclaiming their naivete as strength, and believing that it really might just be as easy as giving peace a chance.

A few Lennon songs I'll probably vote for that I don't think have been mentioned yet:

Bless You
Nobody Told Me
Watching the Wheels
Jealous Guy
Oh Yoko!
I Don't Wanna Face It
One Day (At a Time)
Oh My Love
Give Me Some Truth
Hold On
I Found Out
Isolation
Remember
Look at Me
God
Power to the People
Remember Love

Instant Karma should be v high on any lennon list imo

"How Do You Sleep?" will likely be way up there on my ballot, which i didn't expect when starting all of this.

i really appreciate its cruelty, especially after trawling through the coasting crap that eventually overwhelmed so much of the beatles' mid-1970s-80s. he heard Paul's indirect swipe at him, "Too Many People", and responded by punching back directly, 100 times as hard. it's not the most noble reaction, but at least i remember it afterward. having george on hand to add the little bluesy licks adds to the viciousness. even the phil spector strings have a raw synthetic quality and a nasty bite in some places (like the way they cut off at the end of the first chorus).

it's not the most noble reaction, but at least i remember it afterward.

(just to be clear, i love and remember "too many people" as well. the songs i can never remember are the filler on Walls and Bridges, Mind Games, etc)

Macca's gonna dominate any discussion of Beatles solo output just because there's so much *more* of it, it's a lot to ruminate over (even if huge swathes of it are forgettable nonsense). At the same time, John's smaller discography also results in him having a much higher hit:miss ratio than any of the other Beatles imo. There's mushy sounding filler on Walls and Bridges and Mind Games, and some real misfires like Once Upon a Time in NY - but that's pretty much the limit of it. The range of great albums in his pocket - both POBs, Imagine, Fly, Pussy Cats, etc. - is very impressive.

which is why a George or Ringo playlist would be cool!

btw Living in the Material World is a forgotten blockbuster: #1 five weeks, #1 single, best-ever solo guitar work, pffft

I like the account How Do You Sleep's recording by Felix Dennis (about halfway down here):

https://www.beatlesbible.com/people/john-lennon/songs/how-do-you-sleep/2/

this sounds like George's guitar (over a ska beat? lol) but I guess it's actually Joe Walsh...?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnN3IRPSOjs

that whole album "Old Wave" is Ringo + Walsh apparently

that was the ad campaign: "Old Wave = Ringo + Joe Walsh!"

and never even released in the US! which is sort of crazy

a Beatle not being able to get a record contract in America (even with an Eagle!)

yikes is there anything more literal than the "I've been here so very long/I've lost all direction" lyric in this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGfKqMW5WiQ

Thanks for the Spotify playlist, niels! It's nice to listen to a ilx-curated collection of these songs. I've found it really challenging to slog through Harrisons non-ATMP solo work in particular. I've put on Dark Horse, Extra Texture, etc so many times and always give up after a couple of songs. Nice to discover so many gems I've ignored.

that features the appearance of at least Beatle.

i assumed you were trying to approximate Leo McKern in Help!

I think George would win for me via Peak Value (like Sandy Koufax). Thus Paul would lead in volume of gold AND shit.

At the same time, John's smaller discography also results in him having a much higher hit:miss ratio than any of the other Beatles imo.

The guy made two great albums, and you seriously have to cherry pick from the rest.

My favourite Lennon deep cut is 'What You Got' ... awesome song, great vocal.

oh god I hate that honking pre-disco vibe. I can smell the old cigs on sofa cushions.

yeah, blech

made two great albums

I listed five, which is way more than you can say for McCartney

not a bad track on any of those imo. That can't be said of a lot of Macca's albums, which feature not just boring or lazy songs but actively terrible ones.

(I re-listened to "My Love" after being reminded of it by Alfred but being unable to recall it and jeeeeeezus christ that is godawful)

always loved the Spector-ish melodrama of this, would've fit right in on Death of a Ladies Man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O28PqKx8n2s

I listed five, which is way more than you can say for McCartney

― Οὖτις, Thursday, May 17, 2018 4:38 PM (twenty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You listed two John Lennon albums, two Yoko Ono albums and a Nilsson album, and four of those albums came out prior to 1972. McCartney not only made more very good to great music, but made more of it in Lennon's lifetime alone.

I'm using the criteria for this poll, John was deeply involved with the production of all those albums, regardless of when they came out

John was obviously better at choosing collaborators/projects too, nobody of any quality was willing or able to work with Paul throughout the 70s