07/02/2012

Paul Mccartney Bst Of The Solo Years


I wanted to share with you this great article about Paul's solo music.


Paul McCartney: Best of the Solo Years

Four decades of hits and near misses


Introduction

Paul McCartney's 15th studio album, Kisses on the Bottom, is a collection of covers of Hit Parade-era songs that he loved while growing up. McCartney, of course, has compiled an incredible songbook of his own, and not just with his little band called the Beatles: 34 of his solo singles have made the U.S. Top 40. Some of them – "Band on the Run," "Live and Let Die" – are as ubiquitous as his greatest work with the old band. Following is a selection of the highest highs of McCartney's four-decade solo career, including some of his biggest hits and best album tracks.
By James Sullivan

'Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey'

After releasing his mostly demo-ish first solo album, McCartney, around the time of the Beatles' acrimonious breakup, McCartney found his solo stride on Ram, the 1971 followup (actually credited to Paul and Linda McCartney). The album featured the lovely ukulele tune "Ram On"; "Too Many People," a cranky swipe at his estranged writing partner, John Lennon; and the Number One hit "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey," a classic McCartney pastiche that starts like a dream, grows jaunty and progressively weirder ("The butter wouldn't melt so I put it in the pie!") and rocks out on the fade.  

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Live and Let Die'

Settling in with his new band, Wings, McCartney was invited to contribute a theme song to the next film in the James Bond franchise. It's another trademark McCartney mini-symphony with orchestral audacity, the familiar ballad-y breakdown ("When you were young . . ."), even a bit of ersatz reggae.





'Helen Wheels'

After a couple of uneven albums, Wings hit the jackpot with Band on the Run, recorded with a skeleton crew under unusual circumstances in Nigeria. The advance single, the full-throttle rave-up "Helen Wheels," did not appear on the U.K. version of the album. It's a classic car song, named for Paul and Linda's Land Rover.  

Jet' (live)

The second single from the fertile Band on the Run sessions was a joyous blast of power pop.

Band on the Run'

Heard this one before?

'Junior's Farm'

Like "Another Day," "Hi Hi Hi" and others, "Junior's Farm" is another of McCartney's non-album singles from his very productive first decade apart from the Beatles. It was recorded in Nashville.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where's Beware My Love, Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five, The World Tonight, or However Absurd?

sissialexandra said...

totaly agree,1985 should be cited here,Ram on,Distractions and Heaven on a sunday.

Joey said...

what about Let me roll it