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Paul McCartney: McCartney

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Dave Amitri on McCartney

As this is the first of my looks into the post Beatles career of Paul McCartney and just in case anyone wasn’t sure, I need to disclose some truths about me and the fab four. I know so many of their songs through radio, TV and some form of weird osmosis from being born in 1965. It must have meant that without ever really being aware their songs seeped into my memory. Probably but unfortunately through an unbreakable connection with Saville and his Sunday lunchtime Pick Of The Pops show which the whole family listened to while mum cooked a roast. Regardless of the year he was looking back at there was probably a Beatles song at number one. Unless it was Engelbert Humperdinck which always made my mum very happy. Anyway, back to The Beatles. I couldn’t tell you for sure which songs Paul wrote. I can mostly guess which ones he’s singing. Also, I don’t know which album most of the songs come from unless they were on Rubber Soul. I listened to it for research purposes for a novel I’m trying to write. But that’s another story. Boom boom… Their ubiquity means they just sort of exist in my mind but more importantly also in the minds of some of my favourite artists and writers which is why I want to discover more. I probably should have done The Beatles first but there’s something exciting about taking on McCartney and Wings without really knowing very much about what went on before. However, here’s a contradiction. After the first few listens of the strange and messy McCartney and because of some of the thoughts I was having I decided that to not have some context around where he was at personally and musically would be a bit silly and render my thoughts more pointless than usual. Thankfully there is a Nothing Is Real Podcast that the lovely Jason Carty recommended to me that covers precisely the time just before and during the recording of McCartney that confirmed some of my thoughts, helped explain some gaps and challenge other views I had. What follows are still my thoughts but I’m far happier expressing them now I’ve heard Steven and Jason’s forensic examination of what was going on.

The really important things I learned were. Paul was still technically a member of The Beatles when he was recording this in Scotland and London. He was very hung up on what John was doing. By the time of release, he’d declared The Beatles done. The final Beatles album Let It Be was released after McCartney which completely blew my mind. The details are all in the podcast which I recommend giving 90 minutes of your time to.

On to the record itself. Paul looks like a tramp but a happy one, with a new baby, under his coat. It starts with The Lovely Linda which I felt straight away was a statement of intent. 44 seconds long, hardly musically or lyrically a tour de force to announce his arrival as a solo artist. Except. Is he pronouncing “I’m OK. I’ve got Linda. The lovely Linda”? It’s personal, really personal and really sweet. At this point I was thinking this is no break up album, this is an I’m over it, I’ve moved on album. He’s Paul McCartney, a member of, arguably the most popular member of, the biggest pop band there’s ever been. Yet here he is, tucked away from the public gaze mucking about with his music and being grateful, for the love of his lovely Linda. I think it marks him out as a man who’s been through the ringer but is out the other side. The podcast talks a lot about his relationship with John at this time and how if there were only three Beatles in the room all was ok. All four in the room and it became toxic. That toxicity in any relationship is exhausting, added to being a Beatle it must have become intolerable. Anyone who’s been through that sort of toxic relationship and found their own lovely Linda will get this little 44 second ditty immediately. I know I do. It certainly opened up a whole raft of possibilities for me and this review as the album develops. But then….

When I first heard McCartney it felt like a collection of demos and outtakes. Full of those little bits and bobs and instrumentals that you find on disc 8 of a boxset. The last dregs from the last bit of tape found in a skip somewhere. There’s a guy on Twitter who has reviewed all McCartney’s albums one tweet at a time. I stumbled across him and this is what he said about McCartney..

McCartney (1970) – in which Paul dicks about for most of the running time but manages to pull out three stunners (Maybe I’m Amazed, Every Night and Junk) just to remind the world of his genius #listeningtoMcCartneysoloandWingsalbumsinorder

Now I could save us all a lot of pain and leave things there but where’s the fun in that?
That Would Be Something is almost a real song that relies on the repetition of 3 or 4 lines. It does however fit the dicking about narrative as he sings it in a pretty good Elvis voice. It’s a bit of fun but when he recorded it did he really intend it to be part of an album? Who is momma? I suspect it’s just the perfect Elvis word to mimic. Unless you know different.

Valentine Day is the first of a few instrumentals. It puts me in mind of one of those Beatles songs I’m aware of but I can’t quite place it. It’s something and nothing. Three songs in and we’ve had about two thirds of a real song. I imagine there was a lot of head scratching around now back in April 1970.

I just need to veer off a bit now if that’s OK. Back to the podcast where I learned that in February 1970 John and Yoko did Instant Karma on Top Of The Pops. Quite the moment. Some believe this shook Paul from his dicking about in Scotland and made him write some real songs. We’ve all been there, you’re leaving that toxic relationship behind and suddenly you see your ex with someone new and it still gets under your skin. You and I might go clothes shopping or update our status on our socials. If you’re Paul McCartney you book Abbey Road and write some proper songs.

Every Night is a proper song that had apparently been around for years. Interpreted by some as his state of mind at the time, getting out of his head for example, I’m sure there’s some truth in that. Despite that for me the key lines, again directed at Linda and his absolute contentment with her are

“But tonight I just wanna stay in and be with you”

Aaah, innit lovely. He’s had enough of the former, he wants more of the latter. He’s moved on. With the lovely Linda.

Hot As Sun / Glasses I recognised from radio DJ and Beatles expert Geoff Lloyd’s old Absolute Radio show where he used it as a bed for his introduction to his show. It annoyed me then. Nothing has changed. It ends with Paul dicking about with some wine glasses. I’m trying here Paul, I really am but you’re not helping.

I’m a huge fan of those first two Gilbert O’Sullivan albums so I really like Junk. It contains the little references and lyrical imagery that O’Sullivan did so well and I’m sure Junk must have influenced him. It feels like a sad, melancholic song that I doubt has any real meaning just a collection of stuff. It’s what I imagine a Paul McCartney song to be. It’s nice.

I really like Man We Was Lonely. Lyrically its another statement that things have been a bit shit but it’s OK now. it reminds me of a Mike Nesmith Monkees song. Papa Gene’s Blues or Nine Times Blue. It has that country pop feel that The Monkees did so well. A quick Google confirms that there were some close friendships between the bands as well as some mutual respect. Nesmith attended the Day In The Life sessions. Could McCartney have consciously or indeed subconsciously “borrowed”? It doesn’t really matter but it was an instant connection I made the first time I heard it. The circle closes as Davy Jones covered it on his 1999 album Just For The Record. A lovely thought and a decent song to close side one on.

Side two starts with Oo You

Look like a woman
Dress like a lady
Talk like a baby
Love like a woman
Oo you
Oo you
Walk like a woman
Sing like a blackbird
Eat like a hunger
Cook like a woman
Oo you
Oo you
Look like a woman
Dress like a lady
Talk like a baby
Love like a woman
Oo you
Oo you

That’s quite enough of that. It was 1970 I suppose.

Is the Momma in Momma Miss America the Momma in That Would Be Something? I’m struggling to care. It’s a fairly rudimentary instrumental featuring some interesting drumming, piano and guitar. Anyone expecting an album of Hey Jude’s or even Yesterday’s surely by now has given up. Any thoughts I had early on that this might be a collection of songs to set me on the road to Macca fandom are being buried under the sheer oddity of this listening experience.

Teddy Boy. Blimey. Remember if you will my post from 2008 that I mentioned in my introduction to this. Initially Teddy Boy was exactly the sort of song that I was referring to when asking what my problem is with Sir Paul McCartney. Interestingly the more I’ve listened to it to try and find out what my problem is with it, the more it’s grown on me. It’s actually quite sweet and I guess lots of McCartney’s generation grew up with dads lost in the war and mommys moving on. Perhaps even more interestingly for me is how perfectly Linda’s harmonies work. It’s a bit soppy and no Billy Don’t Be A Hero or Lonely Boy but it’s OK. The benefit of really listening I suppose.

Predating karaoke’s popularity in this country he kindly drops in an instrumental of Junk for us to singalong to. Not quite sure what else to say.

Now, while the album has taken some twists and turns along the way from my original thoughts on The Lovely Linda Maybe I’m Amazed is definitely a love song and a quite glorious one at that. It absolutely speaks of a man being rescued from something by someone. What strikes again me as an outsider looking in is that this is Paul McCartney. In 1970. The cute one in The Beatles. You don’t need me to quote the lyrics but if we assume he is singing about himself it’s a stark reminder of the brutality of fame. I’ve always said I’ll take the fortune if it ever came along but you can keep the fame. I hate the thought of it with every part of my being. This song proving that you can be Paul McCartney in 1970 and still need help to understand. I’ve always detected some negativity towards Linda. Listening to this album, this song and the podcast you do begin to wonder what might have happened to Paul McCartney without her. Either way, it’s a great, great song.

Kreen-Akrore is another oddity that is completely out of synch with anything on the album. Teddy Boy to this experimental mix of sounds and heavy breathing reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac’s big love (perhaps he had a running machine?) and what I imagine to be Pink Floyd style guitar is a hell of a journey. It leaves me wondering just what sort of journey our hero has been on.

Paul McCartney was clearly in a state of extreme flux in 1970. I suspect he absolutely knew The Beatles were done. I suspect he was also terrified if what happened next. John and Yoko loomed large. Fatherhood was upon him. Story, claim and counter claim were rife. But he did have Linda. As Jason and Steven allude to he probably never intended to make an album but his hand was forced in his fevered brain by John’s solo success. When it came he called it McCartney, he could have called it anything but it said clearly “no Lennon here”. I started this by stating that he’d moved on. By the end of it I’m left thinking he was still very much in the eye of a storm that Linda sailed him through.

I’ll finish on this thought. One of my heroes and self confessed McCartney fan Justin Currie released a break up / moving on album. 2007’s What Is Love For contains several of the greatest hurt / recovery songs you’ll ever hear. Imagine if McCartney had waited, collected his thoughts and released a whole album of Maybe I’m Amazed style storm survival songs? Maybe that comes next. If it does there’s enough in this strange, rushed, awkward, mish mash of an album to whet my appetite. I leave McCartney fascinated by the story, interested in what comes next but still not quite convinced.

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Comments

  3. Thank you, Dave, for taking this bullet for the rest of us McCartney non-listeners, so we don’t have to! Very funny and interesting review, as always.

    Hey – fellow O’Sullivan fan here, although I’ve only heard his debut album (and some Greatest Hits). It’s weird to think of now, when I’ve been unable to memorize lyrics since my late teens or so, but I used to be able to sing the whole album through unaccompanied, from the age of four and well into my twenties. These days I only remember the lyrics to the Intro and the beginning of track one (can’t even name it, despite singing the chorus in my head right now!)

  4. Great stuff. I’m quite fond of a few songs on this album. It once struck me that both this and Plastic Ono Band sound very much like outtakes from the white album (in fact, literally so, in the case of Junk) : that same raw, unfinished feel.

    Maybe I’m Amazed could just be his best ever song. And on this album, it’s the one song which belies the myth that the whole album was made up of self-produced recordings. There’s definitely some studio polish on Maybe I’m Amazed.

  5. Linda is the subject of many a great love song, Maybe I’m Amazed being the best. Yoko less so. As for Pattie…

    At the time, this album was met with a resounding meh, a word not invented until decades later. There was a bit of what’s-he-doing but mainly the reaction was flat, a collective disbelief, a realisation The Beatles were over. Lennon seemed to be deliberately trying to outrage. His album had the word ‘fucking’ on it. He said if you want a new Beatles album, take one track of mine, then one of Paul’s, then George’s and so on. You’d be hard pushed to select four off McCartney, four off Plastic One Band, four off All Things Must Pass plus one Ringo and have them hang together nicely. They really did set off in different directions.

        • Was the exercise ever carried out here? Keyword search suggests not, but I vaguely remember such a discussion…or I thought I did (all downhill since turning 60 – is it still Tuesday, etc.)

          • I think it was one of mine! I’m convinced I’ve got the best Beatles ’70 album tracklist:

            SIDE ONE
            1 – Wah-Wah
            2 – Isolation
            3 – Every Night
            4 – Well Well Well
            5 – Momma Miss America
            6 – Junk
            7 – Look At Me
            8 – Let It Roll

            SIDE TWO
            1 – Let it Down
            2 – I Found Out
            3 – I Dig Love
            4 – Man We Was Lonely
            5 – Remember
            6 – That Would Be Something
            7 – God
            8 – Maybe I’m Amazed

            It’s maybe not the “best songs” from that time, but I chose where possible ones where as many different Beatles were involved in the recording, and ignored stuff like Instant Karma that was never going to be anything other than a John solo single. I think the tracklisting above has almost as much collaboration as much of the White Album, even down to Paul going off and doing his own little acoustic numbers.

            And with a bit of editing (Wah-Wah for example has no need to be longer than three minutes) it fits into 40 minutes (I know because I’ve tried!). I particularly like the transition between God and Maybe I’m Amazed at the end.

            Anyway, I’ve probably overthunk this. I’ve even made it into a Spotify playlist….

      • Steady boy. Wings are a way off yet and Yoko was in The Beatles. Kind of.

        Jealousy is a factor. She was American which seemed worse than Japanese to some people. Her photographic talent was totally ignored. How could this single mother bag a Beatle?

        • It is bizarre, isn’t it? I can actually understand people’s resistance to Yoko. I mean, I’m not talking about it from a racism angle (although that must have been a factor), but Yoko was so “in your face” and aggressively weird and artistic in a way that changed John forever.

          By comparison, Linda had less effect on Paul’s songwriting as such, but on the whole was a much more benign presence in his life. She took brilliant photos, made him happy, raised a family with him and her harmony vocals are actually really good, a distinctive and brave addition to his sound after the ubiquity of the Lennon/McCartney vocal duetting.

          So yes I think you are right. I don’t know for sure as I wasn’t there, but anti-Americanism and hatred of the fact she was a single mum and didn’t fit easily into any particular “dolly-bird” slot must have driven the derision.

    • “ At the time, this album was met with a resounding meh”

      And for some time afterwards. My Beatles obsession started in 81 or 82, so it will have been a couple of years after that before I got round to this album and I clearly remember buying it with a sense of trepidation, because everything I had read about it had been negative. But I liked it from the off, particularly Every Night and Maybe I’m Amazed, although the latter stands out like a sore thumb and doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of the album.

      Conversely, I’ve read loads of praise over the past few years about McCartney II, yet I thought it was rubbish on first listen, bar the two singles (and even then, one of those is miles better than the other) and haven’t changed my mind since.

  6. One of those comedians that always used to pitch up on Hawksbee and Jacobs eschewed the usual conversation about a favourite football team to talk about his love of County Championship cricket, in particular going to the Oval, with about a thousand others, including a little knot of old West Indian guys who he used to sit behind. That’s what I used to do.

    His phrase, “”All the things it gets criticized for, are all the things I like about it,” has resonated with me ever since.
    That’s how I think about “McCartney.”
    Not only is it my favourite album of 1970, it is my favourite album since 1970.

    Funny thing is, the only misfire is Maybe I’m Amazed, which would have been best served as a stand-alone 45 like Another Day (it may have stopped Grandad getting to no. 1 that Christmas!), and replaced by a Oh Woman, Oh Why, if ready, or some such equivalent.

    One more thing – truly beautiful sleeve design, I can not think of one more beautiful.
    Holding an original copy of “McCartney,” with it’s laminated sheen, still seems special, and was soon to be a thing of the past.

    • Maybe I’m Amazed a misfire? Maybe I’m amazed at that opinion…. Few would question that it’s the best song on the album. Is it that you don’t like the song, or just that you don’t think it fits with the rest of the album?

        • Good comparison, I see what you mean! From a certain point of view, when I’m in a particular mood, Sloop John B is my favourite song from Pet Sounds. But yes, it does spoil the flow of the album a bit.

          Yellow Submarine maybe not so much. Revolver is so hard-wired into me I can’t imagine it without that song.

    • That’s quite poetic Deramdaze. I can only say what I hear and try and feel what it felt for some. Glad you love the album.  “”All the things it gets criticized for, are all the things I like about it,” deserves it’s own thread…

  7. Lovely writing, as aye, Dave, but you aren’t “selling” the product to me one iota. Which is fine. A man needs his prejudice and you support mine without effort. Keep it up. Can’t wait for when you get to the album with Uncle Albert.

  8. I bought the album around the time it came out I think, certainly within a year or two. I always loved the slightly unfinished, work-in-progress, feel of it and I think it has grown in stature since release. I love the ‘not quiteness’ of some of the tracks….I always think about where that riff could have gone or where another verse or two could have been added. The bangers obviously stand out, but this record as a whole has a charm and intimacy which always floors me. It is one of my favourite Macca records.

    • Always interested in your considered response Nigel. I think this is where I miss out as hearing it in isolation I don’t have that knowledge of his other work. I love the phrase “not quiteness”

      • What is often forgotten is the wider context, particularly when Beatles related releases are being discussed. There is this tendency to only compare them with themselves, album to album etc., but there was so much else happening around them that is often ignored. This is perhaps inevitable when looking back from a modern perspective – but I grew up hearing the Beatles’ and subsequent releases in real time and, importantly, in the context of loads of other music that was being released concurrently. Think how this was compared to not only Abbey Road (which came out only 9 months previously), but also the likes of Led Zeppelin who had released their first two albums, the start of The Rolling Stones imperial period, Simon & Garfunkle’s greatest album, Cat Stevens best work, Black Sabbath, CSN, Neil Young, the Who Live at Leeds, Santana Abraxas….there was a lot happening! It is easy to see why it got a lukewarm response.

        This doesn’t make your response to the music any less valid, far from it, and I will enjoy your journey as it is completely different to mine!

            • It’s dire. In fact half of it is just a demonstration tape played by somebody else that George ripped off. He has form. Wonderwall Music is good but once more George took some liberties taking full credit for it

              • What Dai says. One side of it is Robert Margouleff (or Malcolm Cecil) out of Tonto’s Expanding Headband demonstrating the Moog to Harrison. That’s some nerve Grumpytrousers had, passing it off as both a “finished piece” and his own work. He was a thief, basically – not only He’s So Fine, but not crediting the Indian musicians who basically wrote the songs they appeared on. Still – a Beatle, right?

                • I’ve always considered it ironic that Electronic Music is an album by someone who in later years became one of pop’s most determined Luddites. If it’s not even him, it makes more sense.

    • I’ve never actually given Wonderwall Music the time of day. I’m sure I must have listened to it at some point, but can’t remember it at all.

      Will add it to my “to listen” list. I’m curious about it, and I like The Inner Light (which was recorded at the same time I think?).

  10. I make no apologies for being a complete McCartney nut. I have at least six different versions of this album and it isn’t even his best. In fact, it’s probably one of his worst in pure musical terms but it does have two great songs- the oft-mentioned ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ of course and the less oft-mentioned ‘Every Night’.

    Both these tunes serve to put the kaibosh rather into that popular fallacy that our Paulie can’t write a ‘personal’, or, if you prefer, a ‘confessional” song. They underline his vulnerability in the wake of the Beatles’ travails at the time (‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ was written whilst the band were still together but not, obviously, recorded by them) and ‘Every Night’ in particular is rather stark in it’s depiction of a man who is lost and succumbing to alcohol (both of which were true of Macca in the immediate aftermath of the split).

    What I find interesting about this album- even though, as I suggest, it is one of his weakest in terms of overall tunedom- is that it highlights also the fear and confusion in McCartney as the 60s morphed coldly into the 70s. The notion of ‘heritage’ rock was utterly unknown at this point and so Harrison’s jibe during the Get Back sessions (not seen in either film) that ‘I’ll see you round the clubs’ would have had chilling meaning in a world where, once a band had split (even a band like the Beatles) it was all over. For someone who, only a few years previously, had performed in front of 60,000 screaming fans at Shea Stadium and 73 million people on Ed Sullivan, this must have been a devastating period and so this album- with its desolate and rather lonely vibe (he recorded nearly all of this himself of course) has a potency which is curiously independent of any sheer ‘musical’ value.

    He would pick himself up. ‘Ram’ was a completely different kettle.

    • He does have an “out.”
      In the 2 years before the release of “McCartney” he had been a considerable part of…

      Hey Jude 45, the White Album, an Xmas flexi, the Yellow Submarine soundtrack, the whole Get Back/Let It Be thing (seen in a far more positive way – it’s f****** brilliant – in the last year), Ballad of John & Yoko, Abbey Road, another Xmas flexi, Let It Be 45…

      … and that’s just his day job!

  11. Did you mention he plays every instrument himself? It really is a solo album (with a few backing vocals from Linda). Not sure I agree with some of the theories from our NIR friends but I like the album even though it only really has 3 great songs (Junk too) on it. One of which could be his greatest ever one.

    Great reading, look forward (especially) to the next installment (and don’t forget the singles and B sides)

  12. Songs aren’t everything. Many albums are filled out with musical sketches and improvisations that are enjoyable in their own right. I like the contrast. This album is a great listen regardless. It and Ram are still in the shadow of his former band and it feels that way, as a good thing. Later on I care less.

    • “Songs aren’t everything” – I love that. It helps to sum up how I feel about some albums, where the sum of them (the concept, the packaging, the sound, the cohesion of intent….) is greater than the parts.

      I’m trying to think of examples but all I can think of are Pink Floyd albums.

        • I agree that some albums and artists can work without fully-formed songs. But Macca (certainly in the period under discussion) more or less exemplifies ‘song-based’ craft and, for me at least, even his fragments on things like ‘The Beatles’ strike me as undeveloped bits of songs that were never fully exploited. Some of these work and some don’t. The ones on ‘The Beatles’ are often atmospheric and strangely effective (the one about wanting to be taken back home appears to be a plea for simpler times and a more harmonious group vibe). The ones on ‘McCartney’ less so in my opinion. Naysayers might point towards ‘Carnival of Light’ as a contrarian argument.

          But we all know that ‘Carnival of Light’ doesn’t actually exist…

      • Songs aren’t everything I mean in the sense that minimal, stripped back pieces have great worth in themselves. Sometimes I think, why did they add a chorus and all those extra elements to fill it out. Pink Floyd is a good example. Is Wish You Were Here their best song. Some would say so. It’s a proper song all right but I prefer things like One Of These Days.

        • Wish You Were Here is pretty stripped back though by Floydian standards isn’t it? Only a couple of acoustic guitars and drums. One of the Days by contrast is pretty full-on and highly developed in terms of arrangement. I agree with your principal argument and take it on board but I think these two examples aren’t, possibly, the most potent ones when it comes to our friends the Pinks.

          • I thought that after I posted it. WYWH is pretty spare. Stripped is the wrong term. I mean OOTD is not bothering with the supposed song elements although it is well developed. Take another band’s ‘song’ Can’t You Hear Me Knocking? The song bit is a brief snippet (albeit fantastic) before the rest which is the main event and a fabulous jam. I guess in a way it’s like two extremes. One is pop and one is a bit like jazz, only jazz can be songs too so it’s a bit confusing. The jazz type stuff is just as interesting, often better IMV. Not that it’s really jazz, just a tendency in that direction, avoiding the boring chorus business.

  13. Great review as always. It’s not an album I know that well – I think I only listened to it in full for the first time 3 or 4 years ago, and my impressions then were similar to yours – an enjoyable enough record with a handful of great songs, but one that you sense McCartney made as much for himself as for the wider public – an unusual move for someone usually so conscious and conscientious about his audience.

    Incidentally, another good podcast on McCartney’s solo work, album by album, is Take It Away.

  14. It could be Maybe I’m Amazed and half an hour of Paul farting into a jar, and it would still be worth a listen. As great as some of the stuff to follow has been, occasionally, he started at the very top with that one.

    It’s a bit like New Order’s album Republic to me – Regret, possibly their best track ever – plus some other stuff.

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