Hey, I finally saw Paul McCartney in concert for the first time! You can read all about it in my Virtual Ticket Stub Gallery.
For all the crap thrown at Paul McCartney for his catalog of post-Beatles silly love songs, he is the only one of the four former Fabs whose solo career could prompt me to come up with a full list of 25 favorite tracks. Ringo Starr? I couldn't list ten. I might be able to have a run at a John Lennon or George Harrison list, but it was no challenge whatsoever for me to come up with way more cool Macca tracks than I needed for a Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) All-Time Top 25. Granted, McCartney has also released a number of tracks that make my skin crawl, from that awful Christmas track through his duets with Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson. (By contrast, his more recent collaboration with Rihanna and Kanye West is pretty good, even though it didn't make my Top 25.) I'm never going to develop much enthusiasm for "Silly Love Songs" or "Let 'Em In," nor for "Mull Of Kintyre" or "Freedom." But each of the 25 tracks listed below is an ace in my book.
As with all of my All-Time Top 25 lists, these are unranked, and listed alphabetically. So, as a young Paulie shouted with that old band of his, 1-2-3-FAW!
ANOTHER DAY When your first band is the greatest rock 'n' roll group of all time...man, how do you follow that? Paul McCartney was about 28 years old when The Beatles rolled up their Long And Winding Road and filed it away. What now? 28 is an awfully early age to start your twilight years, to just do nothing, no matter how much money you've made. So McCartney re-invented himself. It wasn't a radical re-invention; he was still the Cute One who'd sung "Blackbird" and "Yesterday," the pop balladeer with a wink and a smile. But he was also the keen songwriter who'd chronicled a disintegrating love affair with such devastating precision in "For No One" on Revolver. The 1971 non-LP single "Another Day" is a spiritual descendant of "For No One," similarly telling a sad, so sad story of a lonely life yearning for meaning and connection.
BALLROOM DANCING I've always found the sheer exuberance of this track from 1982's Tug Of War to be inviting and infectious. It's controlled exuberance, sure: sedate and proper, as befits a ballroom, with little to no danger of anyone freakin' out or kickin' out the jams, muthuhs and bruthuhs. It's exuberance nonetheless, palpably giddy, and delighting in its own sense of what the dance may bring (or maybe already has).
BAND ON THE RUN The definitive Wings song? Maybe. It's certainly a key moment in the history of that revolving band of players. It's no slight against the great Denny Laine (he and Linda McCartney were Paul's only constant companions in Wings) to say that virtually everyone considered Wings to be McCartney's backing group. McCartney himself may not have agreed with this, at least not consciously, but the perception remained. The 1973 Band On The Run album, recorded following the departure of all but that core trio of Wings, was a tacit bid for respectability, a grand grab at seeing Wings taken as seriously as The Beatles. That wasn't going to happen, but Band On The Run is both the best and the most consistent album released under the Wings brand name. Its title track is confident and secure in its post-Beatles skin.
BEAUTIFUL NIGHT McCartney's 1997 album Flaming Pie isn't exactly underrated--I believe there are fans who regard this as McCartney's last great album--but it's too bad that its best tracks aren't more widely-known. "Beautiful Night" is just lovely, a brilliant evocation of the spirit of The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds filtered through McCartney's own mature pop sensibility.
EVERY NIGHT The Beatles hadn't officially broken up yet when McCartney recorded his first album, McCartney, in 1970; but his plan to release it at the same time as The Beatles' Let It Be LP provided the public with his notice of severance. "Every Night" is simple, uncluttered, and elegant, emblematic of that album's charm.
GETTING CLOSER I had a friend in college who dismissed this track from Wings' 1979 album Back To The Egg, referring to it derisively as "My Salamander." I'll concede that the salamander line is puzzling. Nonetheless, the track itself is terrific, the sort of uptempo power pop treat the Fabbest among us wish McCartney would do more often.
HERE TODAY I know how John Lennon's murder affected me. I can't even imagine how it affected Paul McCartney. John and Paul were brothers, their long-time relationship characterized by bickering and worse, but held together by a unique bond beyond even what they shared with George and Ringo. When John was killed, reporters stuck microphones in Paul's face and asked how he felt; overwhelmed, Paul said, "It's a drag!" He was pilloried for his apparent lack of emotion. The soulless pundits had no goddamned clue. "Here Today," an album track on Tug Of War, expresses the wistful regret and feeling of loss when a loved one is taken too soon.
HOPE OF DELIVERANCE Much of McCartney's best work is buoyed by optimism. When it will be right, I don't know/What it will be like, I don't know/We live in hope of deliverance from the darkness that surrounds us. This track from 1993's Off The Ground delivers that promise, that hope, as well as anything you can conjure.
JET Rockin' Wings! From Band On The Run, a consistent Fave Rave during my AM radio-listening heyday. The lyrics don't make any sense ("Lady Suffragette?" What...?). The only line that matters is JET! Ooo-woo-ooo-ooo-woo-oo! That's the transcendence of pop music, mate.
JUNIOR'S FARM This 1974 single didn't mean all that much to me when it hit. I certainly didn't mind hearing it on the radio, but it wasn't anything I specifically ached to hear, like The Raspberries or something. The song's appeal has proven surprisingly durable in my mind. For me, the song's rehabilitation (if we can call it that) stems from the only performance by a Syracuse supergroup called The Swordsmen. The Swordsmen formed when The Flashcubes booked a gig at The Lost Horizon some time in the '90s. 'Cubes guitarist Arty Lenin wasn't available for that date, nor was drummer Tommy Allen. Rather than cancel the gig, 'Cubes bassist Gary Frenay and guitarist Paul Armstrong recruited local guitar legend Mark Doyle and drummer Tony Carbone to perform as this one-off group The Swordsmen, with a bunch of other Central New York music stars pitching in here and there as the night went on. The Swordsmen played almost all covers, with The Flashcubes' "No Promise" and Charlie Robbins' "Heart Said Go" (the latter performed with Charlie and his former Tearjerkers partner Tom Kenny) the only originals I recall hearing. The covers included "Junior's Farm." I've had considerably more affection for the song ever since that night.
LET ME ROLL IT This incredible facsimile of what it might sound like if John Lennon joined Wings is my favorite track on Band On The Run. A pastiche from Paul, and I confess that I prefer it to some (not all!) of John's solo career.
LIVE AND LET DIE I loved this track from the moment I first heard it, on Paul's 1973 TV special James Paul McCartney, and its appeal was almost enough to prompt me to go to my first James Bond movie; I wound up deferring my 007 initiation until 1974's The Man With The Golden Gun (with its Lulu-sung theme). This track is literally explosive in McCartney's live show, accompanied but sufficient pyrotechnic dazzle to start a small fire near the roof of The Carrier Dome at Macca's Syracuse appearance in September. (And, while I can mangle syntax with the best of 'em, I do auto-correct that one jarring lyric to a more palatable But in this ever-changin' world in which we're livin'. A license to kill doesn't grant you license to kill the language, Paul.)
LOOKING FOR CHANGES A peak behind the Boppin' curtain: in college basketball parlance, "Looking For Changes" is The Last One In for this All-Time Top 25, its place on the list almost commandeered by "What It Is" (a great McCartney original from 1999's mostly-covers album Run Devil Run). My borderline ambivalence with this track has nothing to do with the music; in many ways, this is the purest power pop that McCartney has done since 1966. As pure pop, it would perhaps be better served by some kind of boy/girl lyrics, and the fact that the song is instead a protest against animal experimentation makes for an awkward juxtaposition. Still, can't fault the sentiment, and surely can't fault the power of its pop.
MAYBE I'M AMAZED My favorite solo McCartney track. "Maybe I'm Amazed" is the equal of anything The Beatles did from 1967 on, fully worthy of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the best of Abbey Road, and better than anything on Let It Be (and I do like Let It Be, honest!).
MRS. VANDERBILT I didn't own any Wings albums during the group's lifespan; I heard the singles (and the occasional LP track, like "Let Me Roll It") on the radio, but I came to the albums well after the fact. Band On The Run stood out, largely because of its mix of radio-worthy 45s ("Band On The Run," "Jet") and compelling album tracks like "Let Me Roll It" and "Mrs. Vanderbilt," the latter channeling McCartney's occasionally cutesy instincts into something greater than its parts. As such, it's a microcosm of the album, taking McCartney's seemingly shallow conceits and remaking them into a greater whole. Silly love songs? Not this time.
MY BRAVE FACE This is such a great, great track. From 1989's Flowers In The Dirt, "My Brave Face" suffers only slightly from decidedly '80s production, and soars as a deceptively jaunty-sounding rumination of what happens after love has gone--after "Yesterday," if you will. I would be willing to sacrifice a Beatles song in exchange for Paul returning "My Brave Face" to his live set.
NINETEEN HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-FIVE Band On The Run's closing cut and closing argument, sealing the deal for one terrific album. The little coda/reprise of the album's title tune that plays as this track fades away provides a satisfying sense of completion, but "Nineteen Hundred And Eighty-Five" would still be rock solid without it, simultaneously breezy and defiant, steadfast and nimble, and catchy as hell.
NO VALUES/NO MORE LONELY NIGHTS Paul McCartney's 1985 film vehicle Give My Regards To Broad Street is not very good. It's probably not that bad; I should watch it again to see if it holds up better than my memory claims. If nothing else, hey: it's Paul McCartney! I mean, what the hell, right? It's not like he owes us anything. And the soundtrack is frequently terrific, with remakes of "Eleanor Rigby" and "Ballroom Dancing," and a great hit single in "No More Lonely Nights." The album's highest points are two tracks Paul recorded with an ace combo consisting of Linda, Ringo, Dave Edmunds, and Chris Spedding, and I woulda killed to see that combo live! McCartney claimed that "No Values" came to him in a dream, a song he imagined seeing The Rolling Stones perform in concert. When he realized no such Stones song existed, he wrote and recorded it himself. It's the second best song on the Give My Regards To Broad Street soundtrack. The best song? Glad you asked!
NOT SUCH A BAD BOY "Not Such A Bad Boy" is not just the best song on Give My Regards To Broad Street, it's one of McCartney's very best tracks, period. Its relative obscurity is maddening. And it's second only to "Maybe I'm Amazed" among my favorite post-Beatles McCartney songs.
PUT IT THERE From Flowers In The Dirt, this is such a touching little gem. I wouldn't become a father myself until six years after the song's release, but its pervasive message of paternal love resonated immediately. Now that my baby daughter is somehow, inexplicably, a 22-year-old college graduate, my emotional tether to "Put It There" hasn't slacked in the slightest. Now, as then, the song makes my heart ache with possibility, devotion, sadness, happiness, hope, regret, determination, trepidation, and love, all at the same time. Yeah, just like being a Dad. Exactly like being a Dad.
SING THE CHANGES Under the collective nom du bop The Fireman, Paul McCartney has recorded three albums with producer and former Killing Joke bassist Youth (aka Martin Glover). I've not heard either of the first two albums--let's face it, I'm a poseur--which I'm told are instrumental and more experimental in nature. 2008's Electric Arguments gave us the dreamy "Sing The Changes," a song that marries an embrace of the ethereal to pure pop melody and delivery.
THE SONG WE WERE SINGING To my ears, "The Song We Were Singing" (from Flaming Pie) is a companion piece to "Here Today," almost a bookend. "Here Today" mourns the loss of a friend, wishing for another chance to express things left unsaid; "The Song We Were Singing" recalls the beginning of that friendship, as young Quarrymen John and Paul looked far, far ahead to that distant toppermost of the poppermost awaiting them down the line.
TAKE IT AWAY The second single from Tug Of War (following the cloying and annoying "Ebony And Ivory"), "Take It Away" radiates the amiability and likability one associates with Paul McCartney. I remember hearing it on Buffalo AM Top 40 station 14 Rock in '82, loving it, and subsequently calling the station to request it. The person on the phone at 14 Rock denied they even had the record, or that they'd ever played it. Wait--what?! International incidents have ensued from less provocation.
UNCLE ALBERT/ADMIRAL HALSEY I have mixed feelings about this single from 1971's Ram album (just as I have mixed feelings about the album itself). On the one hand, "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" seems to force a Beatley whimsy that had seemed natural on Sgt. Pepper, or when John Lennon did it in "Yellow Submarine." On the other hand, well, it's Paul McCartney, and his winking, winning aura somehow imbues the track with sufficient substance to make it sound great on the radio. And that's all I've ever asked of a pop song.
THE WORLD TONIGHT God, why wasn't this a big, big hit? "The World Tonight" was the only single off Flaming Pie, a sturdy, churning rockin' pop number that is nothing short of masterful. It's an indispensable component of any respectable Paul McCartney collection, and it brings my All-Time Top 25 McCartney list to a righteous conclusion.
THE LAST FIVE OUT (i.e., tracks # 26 through 30):
"What It Is," "No More Lonely Nights," "Try Not To Cry," "Coming Up," "Daytime Nighttime Suffering"
To the toppermost of the poppermost!
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Our new compilation CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4 is now available from Kool Kat Musik! 29 tracks of irresistible rockin' pop, starring Pop Co-Op, Ray Paul, Circe Link & Christian Nesmith, Vegas With Randolph Featuring Lannie Flowers, The Slapbacks, P. Hux, Irene Peña, Michael Oliver & the Sacred Band Featuring Dave Merritt, The Rubinoos, Stepford Knives, The Grip Weeds, Popdudes, Ronnie Dark, The Flashcubes,Chris von Sneidern, The Bottle Kids, 1.4.5., The Smithereens, Paul Collins' Beat, The Hit Squad, The Rulers, The Legal Matters, Maura & the Bright Lights, Lisa Mychols, and Mr. Encrypto & the Cyphers. You gotta have it, so order it here.
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