POLL Those Years Ago: The Beatles Solo Careers Poll Results Thread

Yeah, I love those last three!

55. Arrow Through Me - Wings (feat. Paul) (630 points, 10 votes)
http://www.macca-central.com/macca-songs/singles/images/arrow_through_me_old_siam_sir_45_a.jpg

54. If Not for You - George Harrison (feat. George, Ringo) (633 points, 12 votes)
https://img.discogs.com/hUaT5kHUspGkZHxCDqxH-A2m_Aw=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/R-4087250-1370344961-7898.jpeg.jpg

ugh "Woman"

53. Blow Away - George Harrison (feat. George) (647 points, 10 votes)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f1/George_Harrison_%22Blow_Away%22_picture_sleeve.jpg/220px-George_Harrison_%22Blow_Away%22_picture_sleeve.jpg

but yay "My Brave Face"!

i hate "woman," i expect... only alfred will agree with me?

lol xpost

"Blow Away" at #53??????

Thought this was instant top 15 at least!

52. Ram On - Paul & Linda McCartney (feat. Paul) (655 points, 11 votes)
http://beatlesarama.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/McCartney-Ram-record-lg.png

51. End of the Line - Traveling Wilburys (feat. George) (656 points, 11 votes)
http://s1.dmcdn.net/MtzQj/x240-4A0.jpg

50. Whatever Gets You Through the Night - John Lennon (feat. John) (659 points, 9 votes)
https://img.discogs.com/1LJIM031aLkZnYsuBdkXSw76Muo=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/R-5108210-1513266972-7155.jpeg.jpg

"arrow through me" is much too low

'Whatever Gets You Through The Night' is one of my least favourite Lennon singles.

and Brad OTM, 'Arrow Through Me' too low!

otm both comments

yeah i kinda think "whatever" is... whatever

The production is non-existent; sounds like an engineer pushed play.

If Not For You is one of my very favorites

record, engineers press "record"

Played "Jenny Wren" just now and "At the Mercy" came on after. I'd forgotten about the instrumental sequence at 1:31 in that one, just this long series of chords. So great.

Only lasts ten seconds

These results are all over the place (in a good way)! Blow Away definitely too low though. Happy to see My Brave Face here, no idea if anything else from Flowers in the Dirt will place but that was one of the records that grew on me a fair bit while putting my ballot together.

I hope to see 'This One', at least.

Ringo’s the drummer on “Take It Away”...iirc, it’s his first appearance on a Paul solo record.

I wonder how much it stings for Paul that basically all of the other Beatles were happy to work together, but pretty much none of them wanted to work with him - the lack of post-Beatle collaborations is really glaring when you look at these results and who was playing together (and who wasn't)

multiple entries featuring some combination of John, George and Ringo but every single Paul placement is just "features Paul" (except for apparently "Take it Away", which I missed!)

maybe worth noting that "Take it Away" also recorded around the time when Ringo's career was at its absolute nadir, so much so that he couldn't even get a record deal in the US.

I wonder how much it stings for Paul that basically all of the other Beatles were happy to work together, but pretty much none of them wanted to work with him

It probably didn't bother him too much, to be honest - I think he enjoyed being his own boss and getting his own way on this solo records, even if it meant playing everything himself.

maybe worth noting that "Take it Away" also recorded around the time when Ringo's career was at its absolute nadir, so much so that he couldn't even get a record deal in the US.

McCartney contributed songs to and played on some of Ringo's 70s albums though? I assumed that Ringo's appearance on Tug Of War was more because of McCartney retiring Wings than Ringo being forced to work with him due to his solo career stalling

Let's not forget that McCartney basically had to sue to dissolve the Beatles partnership so he could regain control over his releases, and also saved the Beatles fortune from slipping into the hands of Allen Klein. He got very little/next to no thanks from the rest of The Beatles over that, so I guess he wasn't particularly hankering after working with any of them for a while. I think it bothered him that circumstances had had a negative affect on his relationship with Lennon in the '70s, but I don't particularly think he was interested in getting The Beatles back together.

yeah Ringo pulled in everybody for "Ringo", enough to get all four Beatles appearing on the same album. But still, my point stands - he collaborated with the others the least, by a considerable margin.

xp

And yeah, McCartney contributed to Ringo.

he wrote one of the songs on 'Ringo's Rotogravure' as well, him and Linda provide backing vocals

handing three songs to Ringo, playing kazoo on one of them, backing vocals on another, and then getting Ringo to drum on a single song is not really a stellar track record compared to the literal multiple albums' worth of material the other three made together.

Yeah, I'm sure he wasn't arsed.

Like, it's hard to imagine McCartney losing any sleep over John or George or Ringo not appearing on 'Mull of Kintyre' when it was selling its millionth copy in the UK when Ringo's and George's careers were nowhere at the same level by millions of country miles and John was shutting himself indoors writing 'Free as a Bird' ...

imo who gives a shit

how did he sleep, one wonders

...with Linda on top of a pile of money and weed I assume.

i hate "woman," i expect... only alfred will agree with me?

*52. Ram On - Paul & Linda McCartney (feat. Paul) (655 points, 11 votes)*
🖼

"arrow through me" is much too low

'Whatever Gets You Through The Night' is one of my least favourite Lennon singles.

maybe worth noting that "Take it Away" also recorded around the time when Ringo's career was at its absolute nadir, so much so that he couldn't even get a record deal in the US.

And no one's mentioned that fuckin' George got Paul, Linda, and Denny Laine to sing harmonies on "All Those Years Ago."

Remember too low - the JL/POB song I return to the most. Driving and insistent and mean, with the disenchanted / loss of innocence that runs thru the record without being overpowering. Good compliment to I Found Out, which is just vicious.

it made me smile to open up this thread and see "calico skies" at the start. flaming pie was the first solo beatles album i ever owned -- i bought it at the mall the week it came out. it was really the perfect album for kids like me who got into the beatles in the mid-90s, post-anthology -- lots of gentle acoustic tunes, some fun rockin' stuff, everything very familiar-seeming and unthreatening. the songs aren't as polished as the ones on flowers in the dirt but paul really sounds like he's having a great time here. i still remember watching the video for "beautiful night" on vh1 with my mom and getting so excited when ringo showed up. but "calico skies" for some reason is the one that sticks with me most.

mccartney is almost always on form on his spare acoustic songs. sometimes they can feel like faint variations of "blackbird" or "yesterday" but.. idk, there's some kind of magic occurring every time he does it, "calico skies" and "jenny wren" both being late career peaks

surprised nothing from band on the run has placed yet

A bunch of it will appear very high here no doubt.

McCartney is (rightfully) going to rule this poll.

(But I’m betting he won’t have the #1 song)

mccartney is almost always on form on his spare acoustic songs. sometimes they can feel like faint variations of "blackbird" or "yesterday" but.. idk, there's some kind of magic occurring every time he does it, "calico skies" and "jenny wren" both being late career peaks

― flamenco blorf (BradNelson), Tuesday, June 5, 2018 12:42 AM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yup, I agree. 'Put It There', too.

Yeah Calico Skies and Jenny Wren were both high up on my ballot, I need to revisit Flaming Pie properly.

Flappy bird OTM about Remember, "driving and insistent and mean" is exactly it. Got so say, a lot of the John songs to place so far (Woman, Beautiful Boy, Give Peace a Chance) are my least favourites.

ugh "Woman"

cmon guys that is so obv a classic, same goes for Beautiful Boy btw

Arrow Through Me so smooth, alongside the Linda record probably my fav discovery in this poll - great 70s funky melodic fun, did not think Paul could pull smth like that off

Like many Harrison tunes Blow Away starts out very promising but the chorus is a drag. No wonder a lot of his best tunes only really have one part...

The wiki on Whatever Gets You Through the Night is hilarious:

This was Lennon's only solo number 1 single in the United States during his lifetime, and Lennon was the last member of The Beatlesto achieve his first American number one solo hit. The recording featured Elton John on harmony vocals and piano. While in the studio, John bet Lennon that the song would top the charts, and such was Lennon's skepticism that John secured from him a promise to appear on stage at one of his performances should the record indeed hit number one. When the record did achieve that feat, Lennon appeared at John's Thanksgiving performance at Madison Square Garden on 28 November 1974. It was his last major concert appearance.
The inspiration for the lyrics came from late-night television. In December 2005, May Pang told Radio Times: "At night he loved to channel-surf, and would pick up phrases from all the shows. One time, he was watching Reverend Ike, a famous black evangelist, who was saying, "Let me tell you guys, it doesn't matter, it's whatever gets you through the night." John loved it and said, "I've got to write it down or I'll forget it." He always kept a pad and pen by the bed. That was the beginning of 'Whatever Gets You Thru the Night'."

The music was inspired by the number one single at the time, "Rock Your Baby" by George McCrae.[4][5]Although the released track bears little resemblance, the inspiration is more apparent on the alternative version released on John Lennon Anthology.

This track was not Lennon's first choice for a single. It was chosen by Capitol Records vice-president Al Coury, who had recently worked his singles 'magic' with Paul McCartney's Band on the Run album.