Paul McCartney: "Inexplicably Terrible Solo Career"?

**Facelift** · 04-24-2013

For the purposes of the article, hie is defining McCartney's solo career as starting around 1980. I have no use for anything McCartney has done since then, so I can't really argue too much about putting him on that list.

**Mister Triscuits** · 04-24-2013

Originally Posted by Facelift

For the purposes of the article, hie is defining McCartney's solo career as starting around 1980.

Which is BS, of course. The excellent pre-Wings solo albums are an extremely significant part of Macca's solo career, and nobody in the real world considers Wings to be anything other than Paul McCartney solo, plus backing band. (The weakest parts of the Wings catalog came when McCartney pretended it was a real, democratic band and let the other members contribute songs.)

Originally Posted by Facelift

I have no use for anything McCartney has done since then, so I can't really argue too much about putting him on that list.

I haven't exactly been faithfully snapping up every release over the years, but after the strangely disappointing McCartney II (interesting for the cutting-edge use of synths, but almost totally lacking in songwriting), Tug of War had a lot of good songs, Flowers in the Dirt was great, Flaming Pie was a quite good album that would have been better with some judicious pruning, and his last two or three (not counting Kisses on the Bottom) have been really good content-wise but marred by "loudness wars" mastering which makes them hard to listen to front-to-back, especially on earphones.

**Esoteric** · 04-24-2013

I think me amd Mark must be oblivious to critics as I loved his "Fireman" album--the one he didnt credit to himself, he does do a fair bit of cheese but lots of very good stuff too and its a rare artist over that length of time who pleases everyone all of the time with every album/song. I also like a lot of all the other Beatles solo output too.

**JJ88** · 04-24-2013

Originally Posted by Esoteric

I think me amd Mark must be oblivious to critics as I loved his "Fireman" album--the one he didnt credit to himself, he does do a fair bit of cheese but lots of very good stuff too and its a rare artist over that length of time who pleases everyone all of the time with every album/song.

That's what some of the hipster persuasion have resented, I think- the fact he has done what he wants without caring about whether it is cool or what he 'should' be doing. A case in point, I'm very fond of 'McCartney II' which is a bizarre little record- I listen to something like 'Temporary Secretary' and just laugh with it (not at it, crucially), it's so out there. It's the kind of thing you'd never get from more modern image-conscious rock stars.

The Wings part of his career is not my favourite though; I do love 'Band On The Run' but the other albums are very patchy, I think- good in parts but I've always played his 'solo' albums much more.

**JIF** · 04-24-2013

Originally Posted by JJ88

That's what some of the hipster persuasion have resented, I think- the fact he has done what he wants without caring about whether it is cool or what he 'should' be doing. A case in point, I'm very fond of 'McCartney II' which is a bizarre little record- I listen to something like 'Temporary Secretary' and just laugh with it (not at it, crucially), it's so out there. It's the kind of thing you'd never get from more modern image-conscious rock stars.

The Wings part of his career is not my favourite though; I do love 'Band On The Run' but the other albums are very patchy, I think- good in parts but I've always played his 'solo' albums much more.

Nice to meet another Macca II fan on here.

**Rickenbacker** · 04-24-2013

Another fan of Macca II. Got the recent deluxe box set of it.

**JIF** · 04-24-2013

Originally Posted by Rickenbacker

Another fan of Macca II. Got the recent deluxe box set of it.

I only have the version with the bonus disc.

**SteveSly** · 04-24-2013

Originally Posted by JIF

Don't you mean Flaming Pie, Steve isn't Magic Pie a new prog band. I have four Macca solo albums(I, II, Driving Rain, and Chaos And Creation In The Backyard) and Ram with Linda. I love them all. I like I and II for their homemade qualities. Also, II has an experimental edge. Chaos And Creation In The Backyard is very musical(also, McCartney played most of the instruments on that one. I do listen to Driving Rain much(bought it because I dig the song Freedom).

Ooops.......yes I meant "Flaming Pie" not Magic Pie.

Steve Sly

**mogrooves** · 04-24-2013

Originally Posted by 3LockBox

"To put it bluntly, Paul McCartney is corny as fuck. When there's no one else around to tame it, Paul McCartney's tendency to embrace the sappiest things in life often makes his music impossible to stomach"

Funny, because it's true

Harrison bitched that "Paul made us do all these fruity songs."

**3LockBox** · 04-24-2013

Originally Posted by mogrooves

Harrison bitched that "Paul made us do all these fruity songs."

Lennon called them "Paul's granny songs"

**3LockBox** · 04-24-2013

Not saying the entirety of Paul's solo output is corny tinpan alley shit (for you extremists who must love or hate an artist) but for me a lot of it is. I do love me some Macca every now and then, but in small doses.

**GuitarGeek** · 04-25-2013

Originally Posted by Facelift

For the purposes of the article, hie is defining McCartney's solo career as starting around 1980. I have no use for anything McCartney has done since then, so I can't really argue too much about putting him on that list.

If we're limiting ourselves to just 1980 and after (and I don't see why, since Paul wrote most of the Wings material anyway), I think there's some good material here and there. I never had the albums, but I always dug the singles, like Take It Away (which had a great B-side called I'll Give You A Ring), Coming Up, Pipes Of Peace, Tug Of War, and No More Lonely Nights (the ballad version, with David Gilmour guesting). I'm sure those can't be the only good songs on those records.

If one wants to expand and include Wings, and as I said, I don't see why not, there's stuff like Arrow Through Me, Goodnight Tonight, With A Little Luck (which I think I first heard in a Farrah Fawcett movie called Sunburn), Venus And Mars, Silly Love Songs, Venus And Mars/Rockshow, and Jet. Oh yeah, and I always thought Rockestra was a snappy little number too.

**Esoteric** · 04-25-2013

well as someone who is doing Todd Rundgren at the moment--Im very aware of the "cool police" or hipster journos , or in fact the other way--the journos who only like it if every album is exactly the same and the same style or to be fair in a style they like. This is hard with the artists who like to vary their releases "a lot" !!

[QUOTE=JJ88;91671]That's what some of the hipster persuasion have resented, I think- the fact he has done what he wants without caring about whether it is cool or what he 'should' be doing.