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5.11pm
1 August 2013
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meanmistermustard said I may get slaughtered but i don’t think a lot of the Wings material says anything of note, it’s great to listen to, Paul can write melodies and create great songs, but little of it makes you put down your cocoa and ponder what is being sung. Who sits down and thinks hard about Jet , My Love, Mull Of Kintyre (3 big Macca songs)? Silly Loves Songs is a huge “f**k you” to the critics but nothing else (that intro is up there for me). There must be some that make you, not that i can think of many, Dear Friend, Too Many People , but thats ’71, must have been a couple between those and Here Today ?
I agree the Wings years were something of a fallow period for Paul, lyrics-wise. Probably because he was spreading himself too thin (and maybe smoking too much?) and something had to give (similar observations have been made about his bass parts during the ’70s).
But there are some gems in there. “Little Lamb Dragonfly” is a stunning portrait of love and regret. “I’m Carrying” is so odd and touching — what is he “carrying”? Gifts? A ring? A “torch”? Drugs? The lyrics are playful yet melancholy, and in the last refrain when that bass doubles up under the string section it somehow sounds like a vow, given eye-to-eye in absolute solemnity. Sometimes it makes me cry. “London Town ” has some intriguing lyrics, sadly undercut by the horrible “toot toot” and lackluster melody. “After the Ball/Million Miles” is a song of my soul (that’s probably just me, though). “San Ferry Ann” is another good Lonely People song. Also, and I am usually met with blank stares when I say this, but the “Temporary Secretary ” lyrics? BRILLIANT.
And then of course there’s always the Different Strokes thang… to use a George example I’ve been discussing recently: “Brainwashed.” I’m not knocking it for the many fans who dig it, but for me it all amounts to this: “We’re all brainwashed by everything. God is the answer.” It’s not that I disagree with that, necessarily, but… it’s just not a particularly nuanced or interesting statement to me? It’s like, “Yeah. …And?” I’m much more stimulated by “Jet “-esque word-salad, by the Angry!Secrets-vibe of “The Note You Never Wrote”, by non-sequiturs like “No one even left alive in nineteen-hundred and eighty-five will ever do.”
What it comes down to, perhaps: For me, the best and most powerful way to artistically approach Big Issues is through the “back door” — through imagery, through characters, through implicit rather than explicit meaning, through observation of people and relationships. The old “finding the extraordinary in the ordinary” thing.
All that said, yes, Paul was generally in better nick lyrics-wise pre-Wings (“Amazed,” “Junk,” “Monkberry,” etc.) and post-Wings (starting with McCartney II ).
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Von Bontee4.51pm
14 June 2016
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My Paul solo ranking, excluding Wings, The Fireman, etc. as well as cover albums
- Pipes Of Peace
- Tug Of War
- Ram
- New
- Off The Ground
- Flaming Pie
- Flowers In The Dirt
- McCartney II
- Chaos And Creation In The Backyard
- Memory Almost Full
- McCartney
- Press To Play
- Driving Rain
My Wings Ranking
- Red Rose Speedway
- Venus And Mars
- Back To The Egg
- Wild Life
- Band On The Run
- London Town
- At The Speed Of Sound
Here | There | Everywhere
It's ya boi! The one and only Billy Shears (AKA Paul's Replacement)
"Sometimes I wish I was just George Harrison" - John Lennon
8.50pm
26 January 2017
Offline Solo/Wings
McCartney
At the Speed Of Sound
NEW
Chaos And Creation In The Backyard
@William Shears Campbell I can’t believe Band On The Run is so low! I personally love that album. A lot of your top ranked albums I’m indifferent about, but I respect the choices.
For me, the bottom five are all pretty low quality and in no particular order, however from Ram to Venus And Mars is pure gold.
"The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles!"
-Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues
"We could ride and surf together while our love would grow"
-Brian Wilson, Surfer Girl
10.37pm
14 June 2016
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@sir walter raleigh, if it makes you feel better, I really like At The Speed Of Sound
Here | There | Everywhere
It's ya boi! The one and only Billy Shears (AKA Paul's Replacement)
"Sometimes I wish I was just George Harrison" - John Lennon
4.38pm
28 September 2018
Offline I find that ranking his studio albums is not an easy task. The differences between some are razor thin. The only one I’m sure of is NEW, which I rank number one. To rank the rest will require more thought than I have time to give this topic right at the moment.
12.43pm
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20 August 2013
Online ^New is fantastic, @Pancho. Have you heard Egypt Station yet? I think both albums are truly gear!
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2.09pm
26 January 2017
Offline I underrated Flowers In The Dirt on my previous list. I want to make a new one to inclue Egypt Station
McCartney
At The Speed of Sound
Chaos And Creation In The Backyard
Egypt Station
New
Give My Regards To Broad Street
CHOBA B CCCP
"The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles!"
-Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues
"We could ride and surf together while our love would grow"
-Brian Wilson, Surfer Girl
2.18pm
28 September 2018
Offline @Ahhh Girl, yes, I got Egypt Station via a pre-order, and while I agree that it’s quite good, I couldn’t rank it just yet. That will take a little more time, although it seems at least in the top half.
A friend once mused that it was a shame McCartney had “lost it,” wasn’t very good anymore, and his best years were behind him. I couldn’t disagree at the time because the conversation took place in 2007 and I had stopped keeping up with him after Off The Ground . But when my daughter gave me Chaos and Creation for my birthday in 2013 and I later bought NEW, I knew my friend’s assessment was not only wrong, but possibly the opposite was true. After hearing Chaos, I caught up completely, and I will never miss another release of his as long as he’s alive. I even bought the remastered CD of Wings At The Speed Of Sound , which I had previously eschewed, even though I had bought the record back in ’76. It turns out it’s actually not too bad. I’d place it far down the list, maybe at the bottom, but it’s really not too bad an album.
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Ahhh Girl8.29pm
10 October 2018
Offline Mine from worst to best:
NO THANK YOU!
25. Press To Play
24. Kisses On The Bottom
23. Wild Life
22. CHOBA B CCCP
21. Give My Regards To Broad Street
WELL, IF I MUST…
20. Back To The Egg
19. Run Devil Run
18. Red Rose Speedway
17. Chaos And Creation In The Backyard
16. Wings At The Speed Of Sound
HMMM…OK THEN
15. Driving Rain
14. McCartney
13. Off The Ground
12. McCartney II
11. Venus And Mars
SURE, LET’S GO!
10. London Town
9. Flaming Pie
8. Memory Almost Full
7. Pipes Of Peace
6. Flowers In The Dirt
WOW! YES PLEASE!!
5. Egypt Station
4. New
3. Ram
2. Band On The Run
1. Tug Of War
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Into the Sky with Diamonds9.00am
10 August 2011
Offline I discovered an ironic aspect to my musical tastes:
a) Outside of Band On The Run , my favorite albums are all outside the 70s: Tug Of War , Flowers ITD, Flaming Pie , Chaos ACITB, NEW.
BUT my favorite songs are by and large from the 70s: 1985 (pardon the abbreviation), Monkberry Moon Delight , Maybe I’m Amazed , Every Night , Junk, Live And Let Die , … (don’t get me wrong: I really like a number of post 70s songs (Sing the Changes, Lonely Road, The Lovers that never Were, Beautiful Night, Save Us,…)
b) Every album has at least one song I really like – except Wild Life
[How lucky are we to have so many albums to choose from?]
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Ahhh Girl"Into the Sky with Diamonds" (the Beatles and the Race to the Moon – a history)
9.28am
12 October 2018
Offline I don’t really understand the flack McCartney I gets. Its not ground breaking as a whole album sure, but it still contains some decent songs on it to make it a decent album. Its probably my 2nd fav of Paul’s; 1) Band On The Run , 2) McCartney I, 3) Ram . The rest of his solo work I find incredibly difficult to listen to though.
1.03am
15 March 2017
Offline I haven’t listened to all of his solo albums yet but I will have a go at ranking the Wings albums so here we go:
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William Shears CampbellAnd in the end the lunch you take is equal to the lunch you bake.
12.32pm
1 December 2009
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parlance said
acmac said
Unlike Into the Sky with Diamonds above, I have absolutely zero use for “Live And Let Die ” and am very glad it’s not on an album.
Interesting. You might be the only person I’ve come across who dislikes that song. It’s one of my favorites, and my experience is that people who don’t like Paul at least like that one.
parlance
I like it, though not nearly as much as I did at age 12. It’s nicely cinematic, the way it xplodes into big-screen production values, and the shift to reggae in the bridge is amusing and surprising, but my favourite bits are ultimately the instrumental ones. I’d call the whole more of a triumph for GM than PM.
GEORGE: In fact, The Detroit Sound. JOHN: In fact, yes. GEORGE: In fact, yeah. Tamla-Motown artists are our favorites. The Miracles. JOHN: We like Marvin Gaye. GEORGE: The Impressions PAUL & GEORGE: Mary Wells. GEORGE: The Exciters. RINGO: Chuck Jackson. JOHN: To name but eighty.
2.03pm
30 April 2019
Offline The memes spawned from that song are great
10.00pm
26 January 2017
Offline I’ve been listening to a lot of Paul lately, I wanted to make a top 10 albums, maybe Ill go back over and fill out the rest; I don’t know, for me Choba B and Run Devil Run are pretty equally undesirable, some of the middling albums have strong and weak points, I dont really feel like contrasting the strengths ans weaknesses of Memory Almost Full with Driving Rain at the moment.
1. Ram – fully in control of arrangement and production (Paul is an extremely underrated producer by the way) we get a cohesive masterpiece that contains so many flavors of Paul’s music. From whimsical acoustic tunes to orchestral show stoppers, this album really pulls out all the stops during a sustained high point of Paul’s songwriting. Hear Long Haired Lady for the full spectrum of sounds contained inside this LP.
2. Flaming Pie – I wanted to put Flaming Pie here because the best moments on it are up there with anything Paul has ever done, and outside of maybe the 90s Dylanaissance its the best any artist has ever sounded over 3 decades into their career. Calico Skies, Little Willow, Beautiful Night… this is one of the greatest of all time completely on top of his game.
3. Band On The Run – can’t put it any lower. Its the most well known, but also might legitimately be his best. Every single track is great. Like Ram , it is full of varying sounds from electric to acoustic to orchestral to electronic, but remains extremely cohesive, where no individual track is out of place. The highlight for me is Nineteen Hundred Eighty Five, but any track would work as an example of what makes this album so good.
4. McCartney – A really great album, I used to like it even more but recently have been less impressed by some of the more meandering instruments like Ooh You or Momma Miss America, but the highlights of this album are at or above the level of Paul on the White Album . Every Night , Junk, That Would Be Something , and of Course Maybe I’m Amazed are some of the best songs ever written.
5. Tug Of War – while not a perfect album, the best moments on Tug Of War compete with anything Paul has ever done. Glamorous production makes songs like Tug Of War and Take It Away absolutely mesmerizing, and the vocal performances on Wanderlust and Ballroom Dancing are some of the best of all time. This album is pretty serious lyrically, and I think it works really well for the overall listening experience. The collaborations with MJ and Stevie are effortlessly great during this period as well.
6. Chaos & Creation in the Backyard – Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy ways came out in 2020, and there is a contigent of deep and passionate fans that believe it is the best work of his career. Unbelievable to be that on top of your game creatively at such an advanced age. Chaos & Creation is the last Paul album I would be able to convincingly argue that he is on top of his game in the same way he was in his prime (Although not even Ram compares to his work in 60s with The Beatles, and the same goes for John’s solo career as well. Not even worth comparing any of these albums to Revolver or Pepper where they are all firing on all cylinders pulling each other in so many fadcinating directions). Either way, you have a great batch of songs here on Chaos and Creation. Lyrically he is as good as he’s ever been, and musically there is some seriously good stuff all over this album. Very adventurous and ambitious chord progressions are the norm, yet it never feels unnatural against the melody.
7. Red Rose Speedway – this album has grown on me a lot over that last 2-3 years. The medley is good, but the first half of the album is what really stands out for me. Right from the jump, the run of tracks from Big Barn Bed to Single Pigeon is just phenomenal.
8. Wings At The Speed Of Sound – used to be higher for me becuse I didn’t mind the vocal performances from the rest of the band. I still like Wino Junko, but Denny Laine’s performance on The Note You Never Wrote isn’t enjoyable for me anymore. Still love Wino Junko though, and of Course Let Em In, Silly Love Songs, Warm and Beautiful, and my favorite Wings song: She’s My Baby.
9. Flowers In The Dirt – another album that has grown on me quite a bit over the years. Fun songs that aren’t too serious, yet there is a lot of power behind the production and performances. You Want Her Too is cheeky and unserious, yet the tight production and incredible performance from Paul turns it into one of the highlights of Paul’s 80s output. And thats the case with most of the album. It isnt necessarily breaking any ground or changing anybody’s mind about how they view the world, its a great album and I love listening to it.
10. NEW/Egypt Station – Both of these albums are actually really good, and wildly impressive late career releases. Seriously beats out most other artists greatest work. Give me either of these albums over anything Queen, U2, Radiohead, Oasis have ever done. The only downside to these albums if you go in with an expectation that this music is made by an out of touch old man, confirmation bias could really skew the reception of the music in a negative way. If you go in excited to hear the latest batch of tunes from the best to ever do it, you will be pleasantly surprised by how many earworms are spread across both of these albums. Highlights across these two are Queenie Eye , NEW, Looking At Her, I Don’t Know, Who Cares, Fuh You. (What he was thinking when he made Fuh You I have no idea but its an awesome song)
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Von Bontee"The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles!"
-Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues
"We could ride and surf together while our love would grow"
-Brian Wilson, Surfer Girl
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