Something slightly different this time. The Beatles are done, but of course their careers carried on, so I am tackling all of their solo output in order of UK release. By my calculation that is over 60 albums. I hesitated over Ringo. Does he have as much to offer as the other 3? And he has a substantial body of work behind him and still apparently going strong. But my completist friends told me it wouldn't be the same without him (which isn't necessarily a recommendation). I am reliant on Spotify to do this stuff and they do have some holes in the Ringo back catalogue, which might be a blessing. I also briefly considered Yoko but decided against it. McCartney has been prolific, so classical efforts are out, although I've been convinced that ambient adventures like Fireman are worthwhile. I'll chuck in the Wilburys. They seem to have a significant part to play in George's story. I've been warned it's a mammoth task and I'm starting in July 2017, so it may take me to Christmas and beyond.
WONDERWALL MUSIC
George Harrison
UK Release: November 1st 1968
First out of the traps is George, getting this out about 3 weeks before the White Album. It's a soundtrack and I've already discounted McCartney's first solo effort, The Family Way, on the grounds that it too is a soundtrack (strictly speaking it is the first solo album by a Beatle). However The Family Way is as much, if not more, a George Martin composition than a McCartney. Now, I was warned that as well as taking on a horrendously large list of albums, the quality and listenability of some of them might leave a little to be desired. If we're starting as we mean to go on then I have made a very bad decision indeed. This is a mixture of noodling on Indian instruments and a lot of fairly lazily executed hashed together musical styles. The first track 'Microbes' is akin to having a mosquito buzzing around your ear for 3 minutes and 42 seconds. I don't believe I'm culturally insensitive, but traditional Indian music is quite an acquired taste that I've never really bought into. Kula Shaker is more than enough for me. 'Cowboy Music' is a promising title, but it does amount to about the most literal interpretation of the subject matter you could possibly achieve. 'Drilling A Hole' fills that much needed gap between Mrs Mills and The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. 'On The Bed' ends sounding like a child's toy whose batteries are on the brink of giving out. And yet George cannot be in the blackest creative pit at the time because he's just contributed 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' during his day job. Go figure. If I had to pick anything from it, it would be the fuzzy 'Ski-ing' and the quite pleasant 'Party Seacombe', but clutchable straws are hard to find.There are three bonus tracks which are generally better than most of the original release. I listened to this twice, which was probably at least three times more than anyone needs to.
George Harrison
UK Release: November 1st 1968
First out of the traps is George, getting this out about 3 weeks before the White Album. It's a soundtrack and I've already discounted McCartney's first solo effort, The Family Way, on the grounds that it too is a soundtrack (strictly speaking it is the first solo album by a Beatle). However The Family Way is as much, if not more, a George Martin composition than a McCartney. Now, I was warned that as well as taking on a horrendously large list of albums, the quality and listenability of some of them might leave a little to be desired. If we're starting as we mean to go on then I have made a very bad decision indeed. This is a mixture of noodling on Indian instruments and a lot of fairly lazily executed hashed together musical styles. The first track 'Microbes' is akin to having a mosquito buzzing around your ear for 3 minutes and 42 seconds. I don't believe I'm culturally insensitive, but traditional Indian music is quite an acquired taste that I've never really bought into. Kula Shaker is more than enough for me. 'Cowboy Music' is a promising title, but it does amount to about the most literal interpretation of the subject matter you could possibly achieve. 'Drilling A Hole' fills that much needed gap between Mrs Mills and The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. 'On The Bed' ends sounding like a child's toy whose batteries are on the brink of giving out. And yet George cannot be in the blackest creative pit at the time because he's just contributed 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' during his day job. Go figure. If I had to pick anything from it, it would be the fuzzy 'Ski-ing' and the quite pleasant 'Party Seacombe', but clutchable straws are hard to find.There are three bonus tracks which are generally better than most of the original release. I listened to this twice, which was probably at least three times more than anyone needs to.
Microbes
Red Lady Too
Tabla And Pakavaj
In The Park
Drilling A Home
Guru Vandana
Greasy Legs
Ski-ing
Gat Kirwani
Dream Scene
Party Seacombe
Love Scene
Crying
Cowboy Music
Fantasy Sequins
On The Bed
Glass Box
Wonderwall To Be Here
Singing Om
In The First Place (2014 Reissue Bonus)
Almost Shankara (2014 Reissue Bonus)
The Inner Light (2014 Reissue Bonus)
Side 1
UNFINISHED MUSIC NO. 1: TWO VIRGINS
Release Date: 29th November 1968.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono
If it carries on like this then it won't be such a gargantuan task after all. Who would listen to it twice? You can kind of understand why the outside world might have thought that Yoko was probably a bad influence. There's no point in trying to deconstruct the content, but if this is truly art, then it is of the type which prompts the reaction "Well my 5 year old could have done that". When you consider that this was put out, on a record, to be sold in shops, it tells you one of two things. Either the public would consume anything at the time or the Beatles celebrity was so great and all-pervading that they could literally get away with artistic murder. This was released one week after the White Album, and I guess that that lesson from this and Wonderwall Music is that both albums tell you far more about the internal struggles of George and John than anything that was being put out under the Beatles name. If I was forced (maybe by dint of being closed in a featureless room and forced to listen to it over and over for a couple a hours) to choose, I'd say Side 2 is more listenable than Side 1, but that's like saying a six-inch nail is more edible than a horsehoe. There is a bonus track and here at least you can credit them with starting something. It's like those drippy, wistful songs that advertising men currently love so much, sung in a breathy female voice. The artwork is easily the most memorable thing about it for reasons no-one needs to spell it out. Spotify rather coyly reproduces the brown paper modesty protector.
Side 1
Two Virgins No. 1
Together
Two Virgins no. 2
Two Virgins no. 3
Two Virgins no. 4
Two Virgins no. 5
Side 2
Two Virgins no. 6
Hushabye Hushabye
Two Virgins no. 7
Two Virgins no. 8
Two Virgins no. 9
Two Virgins no. 10
Remember Love (Bonus Track)
ELECTRONIC SOUND
Release Date: 9th May 1969
George Harrison
Dear God. This was presumably released simultaneously with Life With Lions on their 'avant-garde' Zapple label. One track per side, 'Under The Mersey Wall' and 'No Time Or Space'. Just dreadful, but let's at least recognize where both John and George are pioneering here. The idea of fewer tracks and a theme pretty much sums up the concept of a concept album. I wouldn't go so far as to say that there would be no Lamb Lies Down On Broadway nor Ziggy Stardust without these, I suspect that Gabriel and Bowie would have found their way regardless, but I suppose they are throwing out the idea that the rock album does not have to be a series of 3 minute ditties. Also, George is using a Moog on this, and electronica had to start somewhere I guess. However, what they are producing here seems to be an obvious reaction to the strictures imposed by the band that they are in. They seem to be being just wilfully terrible. It's anti-music. How bad must things have been in the Beatles if this was their outlet? It really does seem like a cry for help. And there's more to come. John and Yoko effectively did a trilogy of this stuff and the forthcoming Wedding Album isn't even available on Spotify. The temptation to drop it altogether is hard to resist, but I reckon I can access it on YouTube. Realistically I could have dropped all of these albums along with The Family Way and started with McCartney by McCartney, but I guess that these at least provide some perspective (insert Spinal Tap quote here).
WALLS AND BRIDGES
GOODNIGHT VIENNA
ROCK N ROLL
VENUS AND MARS
RINGO'S ROTOGRAVURE
Release Date: 17th September 1976
Ringo Starr
This is the first of the 'lost' Ringo albums, by which I don't mean it is rare and mysterious, I don't think anyone would accuse him of that, but that it is not available on Spotify. This means that I have to resort to YouTube to hear it (I ain't buying the bloody thing) and for that reason it will get less thought and attention than something I can spend time listening to repeatedly. I'll write as I listen. But, if Ringo can't be bothered to allow me to sponge off what we shall call, for sake of argument, his 'talent' for the modest subscription fee of £9.99 per month then the big-nosed droner only has himself to blame. Anyway, this has a sort of claim to fame in that it is the last album before Lennon's death to feature input from all four Beatles. So we start with 'A Dose Of Rock And Roll' which comes in more like a dose of salts before settling down into a kind of doo-wop effort. Then he turns his hand to 'Hey! Baby', which better artists than him have murdered, he just makes it shambolic and raucous, which is about the best you can do with it. McCartney's contribution is 'Pure Gold', which might be a good song, your guess is as good as mine, but that old Ringo magic renders it rather humdrum. The self-penned 'Cryin'' could have been done in his sleep, and might well have been. At this point, it's worth pointing out that the YouTube option means you sometimes get to see the great man in action, so 'You Don't Know Me At All' sees him wandering around some unnamed Southern European city with bald pate and striped shirt. It's nice because it distracts from the song. He starts side 2 with a song from John Lennon, 'Cookin' (In The Kitchen Of Love)'. Fairly typical Lennon rock'n'roll-by-numbers. Then George's contribution, 'I'll Still Love You' comes in. A great opening guitar intro is unceremoniously slapped down by Ringo's unmistakable drawl. What bewilders me is why all these great songwriters blow good songs on him. You can only conclude that he must be a thunderingly great mate to have and therefore you'll happily donate some of your intellectual property for him to squander. Next in line is Clapton - who gives him 'This Be Called A Song' (not one of his best mind you). He goes all mariachi on 'Las Brisas', which he partially wrote, as he did the wretched 'Lady Gaye'. Just to cap it all off there's this thing called 'Spooky Weirdness'. Least said, soonest mended. I'd probably have found more to like if I'd given this a fair hearing, although the last album I had to do this with was Tin Machine II, and you could understand why Bowie wanted that out of the public eye. Just for the record, since I had to look it up, a rotogravure is a printing machine.
GEORGE HARRISON
Lennon was killed three weeks after this was released but I don't think I'm being generous out of any kind of sentimentality to say that this is about his best solo effort - although Rock n Roll was also worthwhile. As I recall, at the age of 13 and on hearing of his death, I was kind of nonplussed. I guess I must have been aware of him, but he didn't seem a significant figure to me. He hadn't put anything out for over 5 years, while McCartney had been pretty ubiquitous. In the 1970's an artist who wasn't keeping the handle turning and ploughing out an album at least once every two years counted as some kind of weird recluse (and John and Yoko do fit that category to some extent), but he appears to have been sorting out his priorities, and you can hear it in the songs on this album, from them both. 'I'm Moving On' by Yoko and 'Watching The Wheels' show them both to be in a fairly sane, settled place. There is also a lot of love pouring out of this record too, in a way that in the past might have manifested itself as neediness on John's part and control on Yoko's. 'Woman' is heartfelt, Yoko clearly adores the two men in her life on 'Beautiful Boys' and the only problem with the gentle and sweet 'Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)' is what the hell must Julian have thought? Also, to have such an explicit document of the state of her relationship with the man she loved from the exact time she lost him must be a mixed blessing for Yoko.
Would the Beatles have ever shared a stage or a recording studio if the events of December 8th 1980 had not occurred? I would think it is fairly certain, Live Aid at least might have done the trick, although it's likely that George would have proved a bigger sticking point - he allegedly rather grumpily turned down the chance to do Let It Be with Paul for the finale. But there was a willingness to revisit the Beatles at the time of the Anthology releases, so I think we would have seen them together again at some point.
SOMEWHERE IN ENGLAND
One thing about George is plain. He wears his heart on his sleeve with his songs. All the way back to 'Taxman' he hasn't been afraid to air his own personal gripes in song. At this point he's reportedly quite disgruntled with the whole industry and presents his complaints front and centre in 'Blood From A Clone'. "They don't have time for the music, they want the blood from a clone" sings he. Well quite. Are you listening Simon Cowell?. It's also quite indicative of how prescient and on the money Harrison is in general. 'Save The World' may express it's sentiments fairly simplistically, but as a song it is pretty much as relevant today as it was in 1981. Maybe that isn't saying much really and just tells us that we were, and remain, incapable of making the changes that he thinks are needed. Since I do these chronologically it's no revelation that this is the first ex-Beatle release since Lennon's death, and they all get behind his tribute 'All Those Years Ago', with Ringo on drums (across the whole album in fact) and Paul, Linda and Denny Laine on backing vocal. It's a fitting salute as it captures just a hint of Lennon's spikiness, and it's a good, catchy song too. For the rest, it feels like he's marking time a little. 'Teardrops' is a nice piece of cheerful disco, but there is much that is not particularly memorable. I give you two versions of the artwork. The rather good cover with him superimposed with a map of Great Britain was initially replaced by the rather poor one taken at the Tate Gallery. The original cover was eventually reinstated on reissue.
UNFINISHED MUSIC NO. 2: LIFE WITH THE LIONS
Release Date: 9th May 1969
John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Forewarned is fore-armed. I had to go out to the bank at lunchtime today, and my nearest branch is a good 15 minute walk away. There's also a decent sushi bar right next door so not only could I listen to this while also doing something constructive, but maybe some salmon nigri, california rolls and chicken katsu would help me empathize with Yoko's plight. For she does indeed seem to be in a plight. If you need a definition of the word 'caterwauling' do not go to the Oxford English Dictionary, nor even Merriam-Webster. Just listen to all 26 minutes and 31 seconds of 'Cambridge 1969'. The kind of noises our local moggies and foxes make in the street when enjoying sexy-times. A line I occasionally trot out is that I listen to this stuff so that you don't have to. In this case I've listened to it and I implore you not to. It actually made me a little queasy and gave me a headache. In fact the opener of Side 2, 'No Bed For Beatle John' was almost a relief as Yoko's febrile whine was at least approximately tuneful. A rant against the hospital that had just kicked out John (for not actually being ill) to make room for another patient and against EMI who "Refused to handle the LP called 'Two Virgins'; Because of the sleeve". Hmm, maybe Yoko old girl, but perhaps it was because it was utterly awful. 'Baby's Heartbeat' - you can guess (although it's actually John's). 'Two Minutes Silence" - you can guess. By this point the 12-odd minutes of scratchy noises that is 'Radio Play' hardly seemed to register on the annoyance scale. At best it's utter crap. At worst it's actively insulting. Of course bonus track 'Song For John' is the best thing, because it is actually a song. The other one, 'Mulberry' is just as bad as the rest and so it is a mystery as to why it wasn't included first time round.
Side 1
Cambridge 1969
Side 2
No Bed For Beatle John
Baby's Heartbeat
Two Minutes Silence
Radio Play
Song For John (Bonus Track)
Release Date: 9th May 1969
George Harrison
Dear God. This was presumably released simultaneously with Life With Lions on their 'avant-garde' Zapple label. One track per side, 'Under The Mersey Wall' and 'No Time Or Space'. Just dreadful, but let's at least recognize where both John and George are pioneering here. The idea of fewer tracks and a theme pretty much sums up the concept of a concept album. I wouldn't go so far as to say that there would be no Lamb Lies Down On Broadway nor Ziggy Stardust without these, I suspect that Gabriel and Bowie would have found their way regardless, but I suppose they are throwing out the idea that the rock album does not have to be a series of 3 minute ditties. Also, George is using a Moog on this, and electronica had to start somewhere I guess. However, what they are producing here seems to be an obvious reaction to the strictures imposed by the band that they are in. They seem to be being just wilfully terrible. It's anti-music. How bad must things have been in the Beatles if this was their outlet? It really does seem like a cry for help. And there's more to come. John and Yoko effectively did a trilogy of this stuff and the forthcoming Wedding Album isn't even available on Spotify. The temptation to drop it altogether is hard to resist, but I reckon I can access it on YouTube. Realistically I could have dropped all of these albums along with The Family Way and started with McCartney by McCartney, but I guess that these at least provide some perspective (insert Spinal Tap quote here).
Side 1
Under The Mersey Wall
Side 2
No Time Or Space
THE WEDDING ALBUM
Release Date: 20th October 1969
John Lennon and Yoko Ono
The prologue to Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, which is broadly contemporary with the early solo Beatles output, is all that stuff about the monkeys and monoliths. It sets the scene but doesn't really bear a lot of relation to the rest of the movie. Thus it is that I shall take these first five albums as a similar kind of prologue to the main event. A lot of a meaningless, monolithic monkeying about which at least frames them against the break-up of the band. This came out about a month after Abbey Road and Lennon's decision to leave the Beatles. Even by the standards of the other four albums I've listened to so far, Side 1, 'John & Yoko' is a particularly unpleasant experience. Nearly 23 minutes of a verbal rally of "John"/"Yoko" against a backing of a heartbeat. Most of it is clearly intended to sound like they are in the throes of passion, although occasionally John's "Yoko"s do sound rather stern. As if he's asking her to rein it in a bit. If they wanted to record this then fine I guess, everyone needs a hobby, but to release it as, at least nominally, a commercial proposition seems self-indulgent in the extreme. Side 2, 'Amsterdam' is more satisfying since it is largely made up of interviews where they explain their 'Bed-In' for peace. Except they don't really explain it at all, and don't really go beyond just saying that it is a demonstration 'for peace'. It's not clear what they are demonstrating though. If we all stayed in bed then the world would be a more peaceful place? Undoubtedly so but it's not a very practical way to run society and we'd all end up with bedsores. The suspicion is that they just fancied lying around in their pit for a week, which I can sympathize with, but without being a multimillionaire rockstar, it is a little beyond my current life goals. Despite the shouty-crackers nature of the 'music' of these first three Lennon/Ono albums, they do at least sound calm, in good humor and actually quite pragmatic during the interviews, which leads you to the conclusion that they're enjoying all this on a lot of levels.
Side 1
John and Yoko
Side 2
Amsterdam
My breast has been thoroughly savaged by the Quiet One and the Angry One and his missus, so here comes Paul to calm it. And indeed he does, although the initial effect is rather like being given sweet milky tea to get you over a shock. It seems pretty insipid at first and he risks being just as nauseating albeit in a very different way, as 'John and Yoko' with the opening 'The Lovely Linda', but it's only 44 seconds, even if he does giggle idiotically at the end. I've listened to it a few times and the first impression of it all being light as a feather does dissipate after you get used to it. It's pretty seamless from his Beatles stuff to this, especially on things like story-song 'Teddy Boy' and the waltz-time instrumental 'Singalong Junk', which does suggest it's in need of a lyric. However, he must be the original beatboxer on 'That Would Be Something', even though he does appear to have a perfectly adequate percussion section on the song too. There's a few more instrumentals, the first of which 'Valentine Day' very much reminds me of 'Cinnamon Girl' in the intro, with some more hints later on too. The Neil Young song does pre-date this although coincidentally he released the song as a single only 3 days after this album. 'Maybe I'm Amazed' is probably held up as the standout track on this, but I like 'Every Night' better. It seems like the more complete song. There's something about 'Maybe I'm Amazed' that hints that he never quite got over how clever he'd been with the title and didn't pay enough attention to getting the song right, and his 'angry voice' feels too forced on it. McCartney's great talent was and is harnessing simple tunes that you are certain you've heard before. At it's worst it can begin to sound trite. 'Man We Was Lonely' bears more than a passing resemblance to the theme tune to Postman Pat, and he cannot resist falling into the Jagger trap of overdoing the C&W inflection as the song progresses. 'Oo You' is much harder edged and 'Momma Miss America' is a good bass guitar led instrumental groover. You can imagine Lennon was snorting with derision at more 'granny music' on this, but McCartney is not above a little 'experimental' music of his own. 'Kreen-Akrore' is just about held together as a piece of music, but monkey noises and drum-accompanied heavy breathing are the thin end of the wedge Paul old son. Snap out of it.
BEAUCOUPS OF BLUES
SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY
Release Date: 27th March 1970
Ringo Starr
In the Beatles breakup landscape, John and George are occupying the leftfield and Paul is pushing through the centre and keeping the fab flame alive, but Ringo has elected to go for the strongly conservative traditional territory. He seems to be casting himself as the Crosby Crooner, the Speke Sinatra or the Dingle Davis Jr. So he resorts to Tin Pan Alley standards and music hall classics. Not for him screaming art terrorism or new fangled synthesiser wotsits. It's lush strings and big bands thank you very much. And you know what, he pulls it off pretty effectively. His voice has limitations, but these kind of songs were written for limited singers, and he at least injects some character into everything. He plays it mostly straight, only lapsing at the end of 'Blue Turning Grey Over You' when he starts saying to "hit me Daddy one time" and scats like Louis Armstrong. 'Have I Told You Lately That I Love You' is a little too cute, ranging from Frankie Vaughn style kettle drum stabs and sweet little violin interludes all mixed up with some Hammond organ twiddling. There's also a touch of modernity on the title song where there's a Frampton-esque talk-box vocal. Other old faves getting the Starr treatment are 'Whispering Grass', easily best remembered in the UK for the version by Don Estelle and Windsor Davies, in character, from WWII Malaya sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum ("Sing Lofty, Sing"), and 'Stardust'. 'Stardust' got me thinking, because it seems to be the grand-daddy of all standards. Everybody seems to have sung it. But when you look up the most-covered songs it doesn't feature. Instead it's always 'Yesterday' (and a load of other Beatles stuff) - but I can only think of one other version of that off the top of my head, and that's the one by Daffy Duck that Danny Baker uses on his radio shows. The whole thing just makes you think that Ringo had a much better grasp of the fact that, at the end of the day, they were just a bunch of entertainers who needed to make a living, and to be honest, it's all quite enjoyable.
Side 1
Sentimental Journey
Night And Day
Whispering Grass
Bye Bye Blackbird
I'm A Fool To Care
Stardust
Side 2
Blue Turning Grey Over You
Love Is A Many Splendoured Thing
Dream
You Always Hurt The One You Love
Have I Told You Lately That I Love You
Let The Rest Of The World Go By
MCCARTNEY
Release Date: 17th April 1970
Paul McCartney
My breast has been thoroughly savaged by the Quiet One and the Angry One and his missus, so here comes Paul to calm it. And indeed he does, although the initial effect is rather like being given sweet milky tea to get you over a shock. It seems pretty insipid at first and he risks being just as nauseating albeit in a very different way, as 'John and Yoko' with the opening 'The Lovely Linda', but it's only 44 seconds, even if he does giggle idiotically at the end. I've listened to it a few times and the first impression of it all being light as a feather does dissipate after you get used to it. It's pretty seamless from his Beatles stuff to this, especially on things like story-song 'Teddy Boy' and the waltz-time instrumental 'Singalong Junk', which does suggest it's in need of a lyric. However, he must be the original beatboxer on 'That Would Be Something', even though he does appear to have a perfectly adequate percussion section on the song too. There's a few more instrumentals, the first of which 'Valentine Day' very much reminds me of 'Cinnamon Girl' in the intro, with some more hints later on too. The Neil Young song does pre-date this although coincidentally he released the song as a single only 3 days after this album. 'Maybe I'm Amazed' is probably held up as the standout track on this, but I like 'Every Night' better. It seems like the more complete song. There's something about 'Maybe I'm Amazed' that hints that he never quite got over how clever he'd been with the title and didn't pay enough attention to getting the song right, and his 'angry voice' feels too forced on it. McCartney's great talent was and is harnessing simple tunes that you are certain you've heard before. At it's worst it can begin to sound trite. 'Man We Was Lonely' bears more than a passing resemblance to the theme tune to Postman Pat, and he cannot resist falling into the Jagger trap of overdoing the C&W inflection as the song progresses. 'Oo You' is much harder edged and 'Momma Miss America' is a good bass guitar led instrumental groover. You can imagine Lennon was snorting with derision at more 'granny music' on this, but McCartney is not above a little 'experimental' music of his own. 'Kreen-Akrore' is just about held together as a piece of music, but monkey noises and drum-accompanied heavy breathing are the thin end of the wedge Paul old son. Snap out of it.Side 1
The Lovely Linda
That Would Be Something
Valentine Day
Every Night
Hot As Sun
Junk
Man We Was Lonely
Side 2
Oo You
Momma Miss America
Teddy Boy
Singalong Junk
Maybe I'm Amazed
Kreen-Akrore
Release Date: 25th September 1970
Ringo Starr
It seems like Ringo is definitely making the most rational decisions of the four of them. Despite the title, not a Blues album as I expected, but a country album, and a pretty good one too. He stays just the right side of pastiche and has clearly teamed up with musicians who really know their business. As I understand it these are not cover versions either, but songs specially written for the album (according to my usual impeccable source), and written in the course of a few days to boot. The personnel are nothing to be sniffed at either, including Charlie Daniels and a duet with Jeannie Kendall. Recorded in 3 days in Nashville too, just to add a few more levels of authenticity. Once again, Ringo plays it straight and a love of the genre and his material does come through. The old RockOdyssey complaint about British artists mangling their vowels to sound American definitely does not apply to Starr. Not one millimeter of concession is made to his scouse drone, but that's fine, it really works in this context, it's just another form of country drawl. As noted, you never get the feeling he's being arch about this stuff, the closest he comes is the almost comically tragic 'Love Don't Last Long', which takes in a dying mother rejected by her son, a boy who hangs himself after his politician father refuses to bail him out of jail and a man coming home to his wife and her lover and killing them before topping himself too. 'Woman Of The Night' is a quite touching and gentle love song, despite the premise. Just before the end we get the most Beatlish thing here, 'Coochy Coochy', but then he and his mates treat us to a rather brilliant six and a half minutes of improvisation in 'Nashville Jam'. Nothing wrong with this at all, and, in fact, a bit of a triumph.
Side 1
Beaucoups Of Blues
Love Don't Last Long
Fastest Growing Heartache In The West
Without Her
Woman Of The Night
I'd Be Talking All The Time
Side 2
$15 Draw
Wine, Women And Loud Happy Songs
I Wouldn't Have You Any Other Way
Loser's Lounge
Waiting
Silent Homecoming
Coochy Coochy (Bonus)
Nashville Jam (Bonus)
ALL THINGS MUST PASS
Released: 27th November 1970
George Harrison
Well it's a masterpiece isn't it? Which may be a problem in itself. If you were sitting pondering the future of the fragmented fabs in late 1970 and this suddenly came along, you'd be thinking that George was the one with the bright future ahead of him and John and Paul had missed the boat. But this is SO good that in hindsight he probably spent the rest of his career trying to live up to it. It's not really a surprise that this is so accomplished. When I ran through the Beatles back catalogue, it was often the George song that stood out as having the most craft and interest on any album. McCartney could, and reputedly did, do tunes in his sleep and Lennon had the turn of phrase, but George produced often gentle but complex songs. The theory goes that he always looked good as a songwriter because only his very best got on the album. But this is that rare thing, an album with not only not one bad track, but one where every song is incredibly good. When Oasis swaggered onto the scene in the mid-nineties, the accusation was that they were trying to ape Lennon/McCartney at every turn, but this sounds like the album that the Gallagher brothers were really trying to emulate. Pink Floyd owe it a lot too, listen to 'Help Me Lord' at the end of Side 4. Gilmour and Waters did. In fact it sounds so timeless that it could have been recorded last week. The Spector treatment helps. The sound is full and either like a crashing wave on 'Wah Wah' and or orchestral on the slow build of 'Isn't It A Pity (v.1)'. Tambourines galore. Of course we have to mention the fly in Harrison's herbal ointment, the copyright infringement case around 'My Sweet Lord'. These things pivot around chord progressions and whatnot, and no-one can deny the similarity to 'He's So Fine', even a US district court judge could hear it. Harrison was judged to have subconsciously nicked it. I seem to recall a similar accusation being bunged years later at Phil Collins over 'Sussudio' and Prince's '1999'. He certainly wouldn't have consciously done it, the original was too well known in the first place. There's the all-out joy of 'What Is Life' and the subtle melding of Indian sitar influences and pedal steel guitar on Dylan's 'If Not For You' and 'Behind That Locked Door'. He makes the whimsy credible with 'Apple Scruffs' and manages to get plenty of his beloved spiritualism into the mix without compromising on the commerciality of the music. 'Awaiting On You All' is the acceptable face of happy-clappyness. There's the dizzying swirl of 'Art Of Dying' which moves into the sudden step change of Isn't It A Pity (v.2)'. A stripped down version of the song before anyone talked about stripped down versions of anything, and putting two versions of the same song on an album, even if it is a triple, is a brave move at any time. The jams on sides 5 and 6 are energetic and accomplished, but probably unnecessary, they don't add to the rest in any significant way, There's some interesting electronic experimentation on 'I Remember Jeep', at least it's significantly more acceptable that 'Electronic Music'. Post breakup Beatles album artwork must be picked over for hidden meaning. It was the law in 1970. Here George is pictured with four garden gnomes, which is a bit obvious really, but why isn't it only 3? Is the fourth Harrison or the current holder of the official position of Fifth Beatle. In which case it's either Yoko or George Martin or Billy Preston. He just didn't think it through.
Side 1
I'd Have You Anytime
My Sweet Lord
Wah-Wah
Isn't It A Pity (v.1)
Side 2
What Is Life
If Not For You
Behind That Locked Door
Let It Down
Run Of The Mill
I Live For You
Side 3
Beware Of Darkness
Apple Scruffs
Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)
Awaiting On You All
All Things Must Pass
Side 4
I Dig Love
Art Of Dying
Isn't It A Pity (v.2)
Hear Me Lord
Side 5
Out Of The Blue
It's Johnny's Birthday
Plug Me In
Side 6
I Remember Jeep
Thanks For The Pepperoni
JOHN LENNON/PLASTIC ONO BAND
Released 11th November 1969
John Lennon
These days everyone must be categorized, because it's too hard and time-consuming to learn about an individual's merits and judge them on it. Hence we are all split into convenient groups according to our age with simple to understand characteristics. Baby Boomers are leeching off the rest of us, Millennials have the attention span of a gnat, Generation Y are on their uppers. Well I'm firmly in Generation X (surprised and grateful that we made it past 18 without being incinerated in a nuclear firestorm), so I grew up in the 70's and 80's and it means that at my most impressionable age, we were taught that John was The Baddie and Paul was The Goodie (Well, not exactly taught, more received wisdom. My dad didn't sit me down at 13, give me copies of 'Yesterday' and 'I Am The Walrus' and say "Son. Do I have to explain to you what to do with these?"). My point is that my judgement is colored to this day and I am naturally negatively disposed towards John Lennon. It's important because I have problems with some of his most iconic songs, such as 'Love' on this album. There's a triteness to the lyrics that I really struggle with, but I can see that whereas I think they border on sixth-form poetry, a more forgiving mind might say that they are simple and pure. It also means that the first thought that springs into my head on hearing 'Mother' is "Does it really have to be all about you John?". He's fresh out of incomplete primal scream therapy and it seems he's using this album to dot the i's and cross the t's, especially on the throat-ripping 'Mother' and 'Well Well Well'. However I did listen to Yoko's companion piece to this (well, half of it) and in comparison he's a model of restraint. 'Mother' sets the agenda out fairly clearly, rejection by Mum, abandonment by Dad, and he continues the theme in 'Isolation', just expanding it to the rest of the world. I was first introduced to 'Working Class Hero' via the Tin Machine cover, which, though I like it, doesn't really do justice to the original. I was compelled to check if Johnny Cash had ever covered it. It seems right up his street (he didn't, but he should have). 'God' is very reminiscent of that old standard 'Love Letters' and does seem to be a love letter to himself, confirming that he's right to reject everything that has shaped him up to now. Despite the Beatles breakup, everything is quite incestuous. Phil Spector, fresh off producing All Things Must Pass, sprinkles the fairy dust on this, Ringo does the drumming and Preston puts in a shift on the piano on 'God'. So Lennon wasn't tired of the people around him so much as tired of the strictures of being in the Beatles. Probably. I think we know he really did have issues with Paul at the time. The production is very...solid. There's a chunkiness about it, especially on the great 'I Found Out' with it's buzzily distorted overriding bassline. Often on the album the piano sounds like you've got your head pressed against the lid. It's a good, even great album, but like I explained, I have irrational issues. Oh, one last thing, why does Cookie Monster turn up on 'Hold On? It's a nice cameo, but seems incongruous.
Side 1
Mother
Hold On
I Found Out
Working Class Hero
Isolation
Side 2
Remember
Love
Well Well Well
Look At Me
God
My Mummy's Dead
RAM
In which the ex-Beatles start acting like a load of Beatles fans and start looking for hidden meaning in everything. Paul's trying to extricate himself from the whole sorry mess through the courts while he was recording this and so John thinks that the songs 'Too Many People' and 'Dear Boy' are all about him (not true in the case of 'Dear Boy' and partially true in the case of 'Too Many People' - according to McCartney). Mind you, I think we established with Plastic Ono Band that Lennon thought most things were about him at the time. Meanwhile George and Ringo supposedly perceived a slight in '3 Legs'. Plus there's a couple of coupling beetles on the back cover which is interpreted as a statement that Paul is being screwed by the others. Not a bunch of happy bunnies. And it's a shame, because this is a great and varied album that bears up to plenty of repeat listens. You can see that John might have thought what he did about 'Too Many People' as it seems quite a Lennon-esque song. 'Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey' is probably held up as the best thing on the album. One of those mish-mashes of two or three songs that Paul had successfully executed before with his old band. It should be annoying with the changes of style from Paul's soft vocal to start, through the harsher faux megaphone and through to the trumpet/Noel Coward Admiral Halsey section, but it's actually all very satisfying, soothing and enjoyable. It's got a kind of timeless, nostalgic quality to it and is, admittedly, extremely Beatlesy. You get the impression that McCartney enjoys playing with various forms. 'Smile Away' is superficially a standard blues-based glam rocker, that T-Rex or the Bay City Rollers wouldn't have sniffed at, but there's a clever lyrical edge. 'Monkberry Moon Delight' had me climbing the walls for a while, because I knew the intro reminded me strongly of a sports theme tune. Eventually I nailed it, it's Rugby Special. A piece called 'Spinball' by Paddy Kingsland, who appears to have been one of those unsung geniuses who were locked in the basement of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and produced all kinds of weird, wonderful and absolutely cutting edge musical themes. Here's the clip. It's not all that close to Monkberry to be honest, but they share a bit of DNA.
Anyway, 'Monkberry Moon Delight' is an absolute stormer of a song that not even Linda's backing vocal can damage. It has to be said that Linda's contribution is limited, and she's not much of a singer, but oddly McCartney often turns this into a virtue in itself, even if this means pushing her back a little farther in the mix. She's flat as a pancake on 'Long Haired Lady' and yet it sort of works. From this I conclude two things. Firstly, McCartney is showing evidence of his genius and secondly, the monsieur did truly love the mademoiselle. Having never seen the album cover until now I was a bit surprised at it. I had always assumed Ram alluded to an interpretation around aggression and force, rather than...a male sheep. But I guess there is a double meaning and Paul and Linda were enjoying the rustic life on High Park Farm in Kintyre and celebrated in 'Heart Of The Country', so it's not as odd as it first seems.
Release Date: 21st May 1971
Paul and Linda McCartney
In which the ex-Beatles start acting like a load of Beatles fans and start looking for hidden meaning in everything. Paul's trying to extricate himself from the whole sorry mess through the courts while he was recording this and so John thinks that the songs 'Too Many People' and 'Dear Boy' are all about him (not true in the case of 'Dear Boy' and partially true in the case of 'Too Many People' - according to McCartney). Mind you, I think we established with Plastic Ono Band that Lennon thought most things were about him at the time. Meanwhile George and Ringo supposedly perceived a slight in '3 Legs'. Plus there's a couple of coupling beetles on the back cover which is interpreted as a statement that Paul is being screwed by the others. Not a bunch of happy bunnies. And it's a shame, because this is a great and varied album that bears up to plenty of repeat listens. You can see that John might have thought what he did about 'Too Many People' as it seems quite a Lennon-esque song. 'Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey' is probably held up as the best thing on the album. One of those mish-mashes of two or three songs that Paul had successfully executed before with his old band. It should be annoying with the changes of style from Paul's soft vocal to start, through the harsher faux megaphone and through to the trumpet/Noel Coward Admiral Halsey section, but it's actually all very satisfying, soothing and enjoyable. It's got a kind of timeless, nostalgic quality to it and is, admittedly, extremely Beatlesy. You get the impression that McCartney enjoys playing with various forms. 'Smile Away' is superficially a standard blues-based glam rocker, that T-Rex or the Bay City Rollers wouldn't have sniffed at, but there's a clever lyrical edge. 'Monkberry Moon Delight' had me climbing the walls for a while, because I knew the intro reminded me strongly of a sports theme tune. Eventually I nailed it, it's Rugby Special. A piece called 'Spinball' by Paddy Kingsland, who appears to have been one of those unsung geniuses who were locked in the basement of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and produced all kinds of weird, wonderful and absolutely cutting edge musical themes. Here's the clip. It's not all that close to Monkberry to be honest, but they share a bit of DNA.Anyway, 'Monkberry Moon Delight' is an absolute stormer of a song that not even Linda's backing vocal can damage. It has to be said that Linda's contribution is limited, and she's not much of a singer, but oddly McCartney often turns this into a virtue in itself, even if this means pushing her back a little farther in the mix. She's flat as a pancake on 'Long Haired Lady' and yet it sort of works. From this I conclude two things. Firstly, McCartney is showing evidence of his genius and secondly, the monsieur did truly love the mademoiselle. Having never seen the album cover until now I was a bit surprised at it. I had always assumed Ram alluded to an interpretation around aggression and force, rather than...a male sheep. But I guess there is a double meaning and Paul and Linda were enjoying the rustic life on High Park Farm in Kintyre and celebrated in 'Heart Of The Country', so it's not as odd as it first seems.
Side 1
Too Many People
3 Legs
Ram On
Dear Boy
Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey
Smile Away
Side 2
Heart Of The Country
Monkberry Moon Delight
Eat At Home
Long Haired Lady
Ram On (Reprise)
The Back Seat Of My Car
IMAGINE
Release Date:9th September 1971
John Lennon
Well someone got out of bed on the wrong side didn't they? What a crosspatch. No hidden messages here for Paul to puzzle over. John's self-centredness and paranoia is plainly spelt out for all to hear. You do wonder if he caught the irony of the line in 'Gimme Some Truth' of "I've had enough of watching scenes of schizophrenic, ego-centric, paranoiac, prima-donnas". His bitterness is writ large in 'How Do You Sleep', but perhaps some of that came from a realization that he knew he was shouting into the void with the manifesto of the title track. So let's tackle that first, since it opens the album anyway. I alluded to some of the problems I have with Lennon when discussing the Plastic Ono Band album, and 'Imagine' is a song that encapsulates all of them. It's his holier-than-thou, I've got the answer to everything attitude and the banal lyrics. I'd be first in line to sign the petition to abolish religion, but I wouldn't expect it to happen, its too important to too many people. By now it seems that Lennon sees himself firmly in the role of capital-A artist, with Yoko as both muse and mentor. So everything he does has a message and it's usually about him. There's the homespun country of 'Crippled Inside' and the self flagellation of 'Jealous Guy', a song influenced by Rod's 'Handbags And Gladrags' and influential on the Scorpions 'Wind Of Change' - so there's that to blame him for as well. And then there is the all-out assault on McCartney of 'How Do You Sleep'. "Those freaks was right when they said you was dead", "the only thing you did was Yesterday" and "the sound you make is Muzak to my ears", are the choicest snipes that he takes at Paul. However, musically, it's actually quite an interesting song. That slow deep riff on the chorus is great. Funnily enough he seems to have nicked a bit of 'The Long And Winding Road' for 'How?' immediately after it. On a positive note, the closing 'Oh Yoko!' is positive and upbeat, but then it is about his second favorite person in the world. Sorry, it's probably what is increasingly referred to as 'much-beloved' and the music itself is varied and well-executed, but he's still irritating me.
Side 1
Imagine
Crippled Inside
Jealous Guy
It's So Hard
I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die
Side 2
Gimme Some Truth
Oh My Love
How Do You Sleep?
How?
Oh Yoko!
WILD LIFE
Release Date: 7th December 1971
Wings
I started to form a suspicion that Paul might have actually taken note of John's barbs in 'How Do You Sleep' and in a fit of bloody-mindedness decided to live up to the accusation of producing 'muzak'. On a first listen some of this does resemble the kind of thing you might hear in an elevator. 'Love Is Strange' in particular staggers alarmingly close to being rather bland. However my method involves listening to albums over and over, often in short order, and with effort something more engaging begins to emerge. Mind you, 'Love Is Strange' and 'Some People Never Know' don't ever lift themselves above the initial impression. The opening 'Mumbo' has McCartney bawling the vocal like a newborn. The lyrics are virtually unintelligible. The slightly daft doggerel of 'Bip Bop' is weirdly engaging, although it features backing vocals by Linda which are virtually only spoken and still sound out of tune. My feeling up to now is that Linda must have suffered unfair criticism about her musical abilities, it being the curse of the Beatle wives, but there does seem to be some justification for it. More on this later. Protestations about the keeping of animals in game reserves and zoos seems an odd subject for a wailed blues song, but he just about pulls it off in the title track and it's Linda's best singing moment. Her worst singing moment, and possibly a candidate for the Hall Of Fame is on 'I Am Your Singer', ironically enough. It is a song where not even Paul can seem to get the energy up to make a decent effort, so she's only half to blame. But it's only bad, not actively offensive. Considering the title of arguably his most famous song, a song called 'Tomorrow' is on a hiding to nothing and, needless to say, never comes close. The final 'Dear Friend' is the response to Lennon (although it predates Imagine), but the sentiments are measured and concerned, rather than bitter, offended or angry. This is obviously the first incarnation of Wings, my impression has always been that Wings were a Paul McCartney solo project in everything but name, and as long as you were called Denny then you were in. I'd guess that Paul was fully in control of what they were doing and it's hard to see what difference a band dynamic was having on his style, unless it was to water it down. There is good stuff here, 'Mumbo' at least stands up, but you have to dig deep and thoroughly to get at it.
Side 1
Mumbo
Bip Bop
Love Is Strange
Wild Life
Side 2
Some People Never Know
I Am Your Singer
Tomorrow
Dear Friend
SOME TIME IN NEW YORK CITY
Release Date: 12th June 1972
John Lennon, Plastic Ono Band and Yoko Ono
It's hard to know where to start with this car-crash. Not even the fact that Paul had released an equally ill-judged song about the Troubles counts as a silver lining. The other parallel is that both at this time seem to be indulging the missus despite all indications around actual musical talent to the contrary. Suffice to say I don't think Lennon did much to take the causes of feminism nor a united Ireland forward with his efforts here. It's simplistic, heavy handed, musically weak and downright offensive in places. In fact the use of the N-word in the title of the opening song is the least of the problems. In 1972 its use by a rich white Englishman was probably nowhere near as toxic as it would be now. But to requisition it to make a clumsy point about the oppression of women can't have been an acceptable move even back then could it? Yoko wails her way through the appalling 'Sisters, O Sisters' and is back again after an interlude kicking against the law and justice system in 'Attica State' with the dumb-as-hell 'Born In A Prison'. 'New York City' achieves competence but then their contribution to the complex and nuanced debate on the Irish question comes in 'Sunday, Bloody Sunday' (so bad it has you hankering for U2) and 'The Luck Of The Irish', in which, unless I am much mistaken, Yoko attempts to sing in an Irish accent. It's all the fault of a nebulous entity called "the English", who in case Lennon hadn't noticed, included him sitting in his ivory suit at his ivory piano in his ivory New York apartment. After that I just lost patience with the whole thing and barely listened to 'John Sinclair', 'Angela' and 'We're All Water' - although I paid enough attention to the last to know that it is yet another slice of ear-shredding awfulness from Yoko. This just made me angry. Did you guess?
Side 1
Woman Is The Nigger Of The World
Sisters, O Sisters
Attica State
Born In A Prison
New York City
Side 2
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
The Luck Of The Irish
John Sinclair
Angela,
We're All Water
RED ROSE SPEEDWAY
Release Date:30th April 1973
Paul McCartney And Wings
What's wrong with silly love songs? Well you can get too much of a good thing, even when they are as well crafted and produced as these. As with other McCartney albums encountered so far, it doesn't really come in with a bang. It's not quite that you have to work at McCartney's work at this stage of his career, but you have to be prepared to give it time to sink in. This in particular creeps up on you very softly. There are moments of catchy genius, like the 'Hands Of Love' section of the closing medley, but by and large it's not all that memorable. 'My Love' is the one that grabs your memory by the horns and reminds you of his capability for effortless classics. But admit it, we all think he sings something like 'over water' in the chorus. Disappointingly the real lyrics reveal it is the couldn't-be-more-mundane "wo,wo, wo, wo; wo, wo, wo, wo". Damage limitation on Linda's contribution is successfully executed throughout. I complained recently that the godawful and the inspirational are equally good blog post fodder, but that the unspectacularly competent can be a real problem. Well this is one where McCartney produces good solid commercial product that you'd have to be a warped curmudgeon like, say, John Lennon to pick fault, but I reckon he could have done better at the time (and the evidence of RAM backs me up). No-one is going to object to 'Little Lamb Dragonfly' and 'Single Pigeon' is the kind of small but beautifully formed musical painting that seem to come naturally to him, but it could all do with a bit more oomph really. 'Loup (1st Indian On The Moon)' is a bit more like it. A kind of weird, bass-led instrumental soundscape.The final medley is good and he's been making a habit of them since Abbey Road, but is it because he can't be bothered to finish off the whole songs or a way of cramming more ideas onto a single album?You have to credit him with not watering it down by following the double album route I suppose, but there's something about it which feels like he's short-changing you by trying out a few experimental bits at the end.
Side 1
Big Barn Bed
My Love
Get On The Right Thing
Only One More Kiss
Little Lamb Dragonfly
Side 2
Single Pigeon
When The Night
Loup (1st Indian On The Moon)
Medley: Hold Me Tight/Lazy Dynamite/Hands Of Love/Power Cut
LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD
Release Date: 30th May 1973
George Harrison
Not on a level with All Things Must Pass, but he did set the bar high for himself. Some of the frustrations of the extended fab fallout come through as well, most notably on the fairly clear fed-uppedness of ‘Sue Me, Sue You Blues’. Overall this is a quieter, more considered effort than ATMP. It feels much more personal, but it IS a difficult proposition. It’s crafted, beautifully done, admirable in every way, but for me it doesn’t have even one moment that urges me to go back and listen again. First we get the wistful ‘Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)’ Having burnt his fingers with ‘My Sweet Lord’ it’s interesting that he ran the gauntlet of plagiarism risk against MacArthur Park on the piano riff, although I accept that it’s much more of a passing resemblance, and I spend a lot of my time trying to make these connections so I may even be imagining it. This was a good choice of single, (although the title track must have been a contender too) as it is the one that grabs you most, but it’s a grasp where the fingers are numb and the reach is short. He hasn’t given up on the spiritualism either, nor did he ever I think to his dying day, and good on him for it, so the Harrison manifesto is delivered loud and clear on ‘The Lord Loves The One (That Loves The Lord)’. Of course this does mean that there is a hint of the trendy young vicar with his acoustic guitar pitching up at Sunday School. When he did it on All Things… (and he did it a lot) it was uplifting and satisfying, here it feels like something you know is good for you, but you’d prefer the full fat version instead. Can’t fault the artwork either, modern and innovative, but like the rest of it, just the wrong side of exciting.
Side One
Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)
Sue Me, Sue You Blues
The Light That Has Lighted The World
Don’t Let Me Wait Too Long
Who Can See It
Living In The Material World
Side Two
The Lord Loves The One (That Loves The Lord)
Be Here Now
Try Some Buy Some
The Day The World Gets ‘Round
That Is All
RINGO
Release Date: 2nd November 1973
Ringo Starr
Ringo decides for his third album to abandon sticking to one genre and also seems to have some autobiographical content to share. Of course his singing is still terrible and this album only shines where the tunes are particularly good or when they suit him (country-style is the best fit). What Ringo does have going for him is that he has retained his sense of humor. So while the opening, Lennon-penned 'I'm The Greatest' is fairly dire, it does have something to say and he does it in an engaging, self-aware and self-deprecating way of which at least one of his former colleagues can only dream. Clearly he realizes he's not the greatest, and is not even thought of as particularly great, but is presumably asking the question - if you were in the band that really were considered the greatest, how does that sit with your own personal limitations - and where do you go afterward if all you want to do is "boogaloo"? That's my reading anyway, he might just be a raving egomaniac. His Billy Shears alter-ego gets a mention. There's plenty of input from the other Beatles in this. Lennon and Harrison are both on that opening track and 'Photograph' was co-written with George, and it sounds like it too, a standout on the album because the crash and drag of the song's flow suits his singing style. Harrison also contributes the bluegrass of 'Sunshine Life For Me', which Ringo pulls off pretty well and the closing 'You and Me (Babe)', which was maybe not such a good idea, especially with the cheesy name-checking sign-off. Even Paul and Linda contribute a song, 'Six O'Clock', which is as McCartneyish as 'Photograph' is Harrison-esque. Maybe they were all so entangled with the Apple label, it made financial sense for them to continue to work together, but it seems more likely that the post-Beatles Venn diagram only really forbade the placement of John and Paul in the same overlapping sectors. Most people would probably agree that Sherman Brothers songs are fairly indestructible, but give him his credit, Ringo does stress-test 'You're Sixteen, You're Beautiful (And You're Mine)' to breaking point. Ever the complete percussionist, Starr gives the spoons an outing on 'Step Lightly' and namechecks Sexy Sadie in 'Devil Woman', which suffers the ignominy of making you want to listen to the Cliff Richard song of the same name. Not on the original release, but included in the 1991 reissue is the excellent 'It Don't Come Easy', where Ringo somehow transcends his limitations. In the 'what songs would have appeared on a post 1970 Beatles album?' game, this would definitely have been the obligatory Ringo song. Also on the reissue is 'Early 1970', which is a quite open, possibly affectionate, pisstake on the other Beatles The artwork has a whiff of Sgt Pepper about it, but the people in the audience are not readily recognizable from the tiny version I can view. Ringo is definitely rocking the dungaree look though.
Side 1
I'm The Greatest
Have You Seen My Baby
Photograph
Down And Out
Sunshine Life For Me
You're Sixteen, You're Beautiful (And You're Mine)
Side 2
Oh My My
Step Lightly
Six O'Clock
Devil Woman
You And Me (Babe)
MIND GAMES
Release Date: 16th November 1973
John Lennon
The anticipation of hearing an album for the first time is usually exciting. During this run, I've learned to look forward to the slow-burn of a new McCartney release, the moments of starting brilliance from a Harrison album or the relaxed enjoyment of Ringo's next effort. Lennon is the exception and I'm beginning to get a sinking feeling whenever he comes around. That helps this album which is certainly not awful, although it's nowhere near a Ram or a Living In The Material World, let alone an All Things Must Pass. John continues to strive to mesh his life and his music into an overriding artistic statement with him at the centre. This time he's suffering a temporary separation from Yoko, although you might be forgiven for thinking that she had merely engaged the services of a sexual Q-bot called May Pang for 18 months just as a placeholder for her return. So there's a lot of moping about the estranged missus on this. The opening title track is fine. Quite memorable and with some interesting noises going on in the background, but 'Tight A$' pushes the treble entendre too far and he comes across like a schoolboy who can't get over how clever he thinks he is. He seems like a ghost of Harrison in particular in many of the songs, there are hints of George's influence in 'One Day (At A Time)' and 'Bring On The Lucie (Freda People)'. In fact on the latter Harrison might have indulged in some cathartic legal action to banish the memory of the 'My Sweet Lord' debacle (probably the last thing any of them wanted to do to be honest - legal wrangles were the bane of their lives by then). The light playful funk of the side 2 opener 'Intuition' is refreshingly good and 'Out The Blue' is a touching love song to Yoko - not sure about "Like a UFO you came to me" as a line though. There are plenty more romantic things you could call on. "Like a dove of peace"?, "Like a gentle breeze"? or "Like a crashing wave" even? Alien spaceships are rarely harbingers oflove and fulfillment in my experience. The closing 'Meat City' shows a bit of intent, but it feels like he's throwing too much into the mix. On the artwork, Yoko may be out of the picture, but she's not out of the picture. John is shown isolated and lost in the desert as he wanders away from her mountainous influence. Or is that Ozzy Osbourne?
Side 1
Mind Games
Tight A$
Aisumasen (I'm Sorry)
One Day (At A Time)
Bring On The Lucie (Freda People)
Nutopian National Anthem
Side 2
Intuition
Out The Blue
Only People
I Know (I Know)
You Are Here
BAND ON THE RUN
Release Date: 5th December 1973
Wings
At Flaxhill Junior school in the late '70s we had a couple of teachers who sometimes took it upon themselves to get into a tizzy about the standard of singing at school assembly and as a result hauled us all into the hall just before hometime for 'hymn practice' (Look, you must have realized by now that this stuff is as much personal memoir as a tribute to the great rock artists of the last 60 years). These scholarly sadists were music teacher, (a position that may have simply been gained by an ability to play the piano) Mr. Edmunds and Deputy Head, Mr. Towne, probably the only man I saw in a three-piece suit in the first 10 years of my life. Towne could sneeze for Britain and Edmunds seemed to have a colossal chip on his tweed jacket shoulder. Anyway, their roles during hymn practice were bashing away at the joanner (Edmunds) and child-haranguer-in-chief (Towne). One of the vital pieces of advice on singing that we were given was that you must E-NUN-CI-ATE, and therefore the last letter of any word needs to be emphasized (they also encouraged us to open our mouths more - as if THAT was going to help). Have you seen where this is going yet? Well 'Jet' is a fine song, but it seems that at times McCartney takes the terrible twosome's advice too far, and spins out the 't' of "Jet" well beyond it's welcome, and at others ignores it completely and drops the end of e.g. 'suff-er-a-geh'. Such is genius I guess. In order to break the rules you have to first know them. Anyway, the slurry, slovenly "jettttsssh" has always annoyed me, so there. There are other things that jar with me as well, like the odd vagueness in the title track of "And the first one said to the second one there". Nevertheless this deserves it's reputation as a McCartney highpoint. Both 'Band On The Run' and 'Jet' are out and out classics - and if I'm honest, those annoying quirks are also the things that raise them above the norm. McCartney is fairly unique in his willingness to completely change course in the middle of a song as he does in 'Band...', but that's what confers greatness. 'Bluebird' seems like a kind of sequel to 'Blackbird', almost as if he was planning a set of songs like a range of collectible plates from the Franklin Mint. He follows it with the jogalong pop of 'Mrs Vanderbilt', which is obscenely enjoyable, and what can only be described as pop-blues, 'Let Me Roll It'. No, that's not 'ammonia' he's singing about next, but 'Mamunia'. Deep research of the first site that came up on Google tells me that Mamunia is a hotel in Marrakesh and the word means Safe Haven. It shows McCartney's musical ear I guess that he noticed the inherent rhythm within the word and so based the song's meaningless refrain around it. After all, rain, umbrellas and plastic macs don't really chime with Morocco do they? 'No Words' has an almost drowsy Lennonish quality, but is obviously way better than anything John was coming up with at the time. American readers might be expecting me to mention 'Helen's Wheels' next, but it wasn't on the original UK release and I cannot find it anywhere on Spotify, so for the sake of purity, I can say no more. I'm sure others have opinions. Maudlin drinking songs next with 'Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me)', which rather appropriately lurches drunkenly into a reprises of 'Jet' and 'Mrs Vanderbilt'. The closing 'Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five' starts with a Monkberry-ish piano groove, veers all over the place, chucks in a killer guitar riff and finishes with a full blown orchestra and a little coda of the title track. It's wonderful.
If McCartney released this album today, you'd suspect that the cover, which looks like it should be off a Madness album, was created using clever photoshopping. But no, that must really be Christopher Lee, Parky, John Conteh, James Coburn, Clement 'Minced Morsels' Freud and Kenny Lynch (a man who defines the term 'famous for being famous') in person making up the numbers.
Release Date: 5th December 1973
Wings
At Flaxhill Junior school in the late '70s we had a couple of teachers who sometimes took it upon themselves to get into a tizzy about the standard of singing at school assembly and as a result hauled us all into the hall just before hometime for 'hymn practice' (Look, you must have realized by now that this stuff is as much personal memoir as a tribute to the great rock artists of the last 60 years). These scholarly sadists were music teacher, (a position that may have simply been gained by an ability to play the piano) Mr. Edmunds and Deputy Head, Mr. Towne, probably the only man I saw in a three-piece suit in the first 10 years of my life. Towne could sneeze for Britain and Edmunds seemed to have a colossal chip on his tweed jacket shoulder. Anyway, their roles during hymn practice were bashing away at the joanner (Edmunds) and child-haranguer-in-chief (Towne). One of the vital pieces of advice on singing that we were given was that you must E-NUN-CI-ATE, and therefore the last letter of any word needs to be emphasized (they also encouraged us to open our mouths more - as if THAT was going to help). Have you seen where this is going yet? Well 'Jet' is a fine song, but it seems that at times McCartney takes the terrible twosome's advice too far, and spins out the 't' of "Jet" well beyond it's welcome, and at others ignores it completely and drops the end of e.g. 'suff-er-a-geh'. Such is genius I guess. In order to break the rules you have to first know them. Anyway, the slurry, slovenly "jettttsssh" has always annoyed me, so there. There are other things that jar with me as well, like the odd vagueness in the title track of "And the first one said to the second one there". Nevertheless this deserves it's reputation as a McCartney highpoint. Both 'Band On The Run' and 'Jet' are out and out classics - and if I'm honest, those annoying quirks are also the things that raise them above the norm. McCartney is fairly unique in his willingness to completely change course in the middle of a song as he does in 'Band...', but that's what confers greatness. 'Bluebird' seems like a kind of sequel to 'Blackbird', almost as if he was planning a set of songs like a range of collectible plates from the Franklin Mint. He follows it with the jogalong pop of 'Mrs Vanderbilt', which is obscenely enjoyable, and what can only be described as pop-blues, 'Let Me Roll It'. No, that's not 'ammonia' he's singing about next, but 'Mamunia'. Deep research of the first site that came up on Google tells me that Mamunia is a hotel in Marrakesh and the word means Safe Haven. It shows McCartney's musical ear I guess that he noticed the inherent rhythm within the word and so based the song's meaningless refrain around it. After all, rain, umbrellas and plastic macs don't really chime with Morocco do they? 'No Words' has an almost drowsy Lennonish quality, but is obviously way better than anything John was coming up with at the time. American readers might be expecting me to mention 'Helen's Wheels' next, but it wasn't on the original UK release and I cannot find it anywhere on Spotify, so for the sake of purity, I can say no more. I'm sure others have opinions. Maudlin drinking songs next with 'Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me)', which rather appropriately lurches drunkenly into a reprises of 'Jet' and 'Mrs Vanderbilt'. The closing 'Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five' starts with a Monkberry-ish piano groove, veers all over the place, chucks in a killer guitar riff and finishes with a full blown orchestra and a little coda of the title track. It's wonderful.
If McCartney released this album today, you'd suspect that the cover, which looks like it should be off a Madness album, was created using clever photoshopping. But no, that must really be Christopher Lee, Parky, John Conteh, James Coburn, Clement 'Minced Morsels' Freud and Kenny Lynch (a man who defines the term 'famous for being famous') in person making up the numbers.
Side 1
Band On The Run
Jet
Bluebird
Mrs Vanderbilt
Let Me Roll It
Side 2
Mamunia
No Words
Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me)
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five
Release Date: 4th October 1974
John Lennon
No ex-Beatle releases for nearly a whole year? When you consider that this post starts with Wonderwall Music in November 1968, Band On The Run was December 1973 and we're now on album number 20, that seems quite remarkable. Yoko is still on her sabbatical, but John does seem to have gathered himself for this one. It would be too easy to point out that the quality and accessibility of Lennon's solo output has taken a turn for the better since she buggered off, but I can't deny that it seems to be the case. Anyway, this is all part of the so called Lennon 'Lost Weekend', essentially the 18th month separation from Yoko, but it's a mish-mash. The opening 'Going Down On Love' is a pretty bleak reflection on his personal situation but then he comes straight back with the upbeat and actually quite joyous and optimistic 'Whatever Gets You Thru The Night'. It's credited to Lennon, but I find it hard to believe that Elton's collaboration ended at just playing on it. There's plenty of his trademarks all over it. Dare I suggest that Lennon was just one of those artists who needed someone as a foil to achieve his best work? As if to emphasize the point, next up is the soft, crafted 'Old Dirt Road', a collaboration with Harry Nilsson, who does get a writing credit, although this feels much more like what you'd expect from Lennon on his own. More desperate pleading for Yoko's return on the funk-soul of 'What You Got', which he pulls off pretty well, although you can't help feeling that even now he is trying to live up to McCartney's range of vocal styles. 'Bless You' also reflects on his absent wife. but also implies that she is with someone else. Since the third person in this rather underwhelming love triangle is May Pang, who was in a relationship with Lennon, it seems a little strange. 'Scared' is also related to it all, but is more inward looking. '#9 Dream' is probably held up as the standout from the album, although I think 'Whatever Gets You Thru...' edges it. I think it's reminiscent of 'Across The Universe'. His ego did still require that the backing vocals included sighs of "John!". We must assume that 'Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird Of Paradox)' is about May since she's getting him through the loneliness. 'Steel And Glass' might be a dig at former business manager Allen Klein, as Wikipedia informs me. Using your art to take personal snipes at people is acceptable I suppose, but it is unlikely to gain you a lot of sympathy. Sandwiched between the disposable 'Beef Jerky' and 'Ya Ya' is 'Nobody Loves You (When You're Down And Out)'. More reasonably well executed self pity. Yawn.
Side 1
Going Down On Love
Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
Old Dirt Road
What You Got
Bless You
Scared
Side 2
#9 Dream
Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird Of Paradox)
Steel And Glass
Beef Jerky
Nobody Loves You (When You're Down And Out)
Ya Ya
Release Date: 15th November 1974
Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr must represent the most fun it is possible to have with a toneless drummer. His singing remains largely risible and a fair chunk of the material is at 'Gorgonzola' on the cheese scale. And yet, you can't help loving his albums. At least I can't. I've already said it, but he seems fully bought into the idea that he is here to entertain us. Therefore he sticks to simple catchy tunes, daft jokes and actually quite professional production values. The opening title track (written Lennon would you believe) followed by 'Occapella', and 'Oo-Wee' are irresistibly catchy ("finger-popping good" in fact) If he's willing to rhyme "hades" with "euphrates" for his art then he's got the right idea. As usual he sounds his best on the country track 'Husbands and Wives', a kind of 'Lucille'-like lament in which he occasionally sounds like he's on the brink of tears. The Elton and Taupin penned 'Snookeroo' bowls along nicely. Some of it cannot be excused. He drones his way through the pedestrian 'Call Me' and 'Easy For Me', he's no torch singer, and although the 'No No Song' is pretty funny, he does flirt with mild racism in the way he pronounces some of the lyrics. I mean it's not Jar-Jar Binks, but he wouldn't do it today (I hope). He also misses obvious opportunities for some showbiz endings on some songs. The No No Song should definitely end with a nice conclusive cha-cha-cha. The opening single was a cover of 'Only You (And You Alone)' which is delivered pretty insipidly and has an apparently un-selfconscious talky bit from Ringo in the middle. The final little reprise of 'Goodnight Vienna' has Ringo in full Max Quordlepleen emcee mode. Not on the original release but on the 1992 re-release is the excellent 'Back Off Boogaloo'. Shoulda made the final cut. Your guess is as good as mine regarding the Day The Earth Stood Still cover art.
Side 1
Goodnight Vienna (It's All Down To)
Occapella
Oo-Wee
Husbands And Wives
Snookeroo
Side 2
All By Myself
Call Me
No No Song
Only You (And You Alone)
Easy For Me
Goodnight Vienna (Reprise)
DARK HORSE
Release Date:9th December 1974
George Harrison
Would you like a little insight into my method? Probably not, but you're going to get it anyway. I can usually tell if I'm going to have to put in a lot of repeat listens before I can come up with something worth issuing for free to people whom I trust not to criticize me too much. I avoid reviews before I listen because I tend to find that my own views can be shaped by reading others, but I usually take a look at Wikipedia and AllMusic.com at some point. Alternatively there are times when I hear an album for the first time and decide I just need to get something written and move on. This is the latter case. It's pretty terrible both as an album in its own right and as a basis for any even remotely witty insight. But, I like a challenge and I did do a bit of reading up. Harrison rushed this out in advance of a tour and recorded it while suffering from laryngitis. It shows. It's bland and his voice is not up to it. The opening 'Hari's On Tour (Express)' could be the theme tune to a 70's cop show, like the Rockford Files. I suppose it could be a high-concept job where the TV 'tec is Lootenant Hari Harrison who solves his cases by entering into an altered state through transcendental meditation. Supporting characters would be Captain Derek 'Slowhand' Domino whom Harry has to work with every day whilst knowing full well that he's carrying on an affair with his wife, forensic examiner Doctor Pattie. Sorry. Am I getting distracted? It beats writing about the music believe me. There's a distinctly odd rendering of the Everly Brothers 'Bye Bye Love' which works on no level at all. He even appears to be making a bid for that most niche of musical concepts - the New Year Song (about the only other example I can think of is 'The Perfect Year' by Dina Carroll), which is so lacklustre and lazy that I really hope he's ashamed of it. I was convinced he was singing "he's a policeman" instead of "he's a Far East Man", until I looked at the title of the song in question. There is even a wobble board on 'It Is 'He' (Jai Sri Krishna)' - the practitioner is not listed - has Wikipedia been redacted regarding the UK's once favorite Aussie?. Reissue tracks include, apparently without irony, 'I Don't Care Anymore'. I think we have to give him the benefit of the doubt and believe that he did, but felt he just had to get this out. And what is it with the Sergeant Pepper pastiche covers? It was moderately amusing when the Stones did it on Their Satanic Majesties, but like the rest of this, it's an idea that has utterly run its course by now.
Side 1
Hari's On Tour (Express)
Simply Shady
So Sad
Bye Bye Love
Maya Love
Side 2
Ding Dong, Ding Dong
Dark Horse
Far East Man
It Is 'He' (Jai Sri Krishna)
Release Date: 17th February 1975
John Lennon
Brace! Brace! Stick your head between your knees - unless you are in an expensive seat and facing backward, in which case lie back and cross your arms over your chest (saves time for the undertaker). John Lennon has made an entertaining and worthwhile solo album. I know! It's incredible. Apparently fraught with much hoo-ha ranging from overstaffing by every musician in LA, legal wrangles dating back to The Beatles 'Come Together' and a gun-toting Phil Spector (although, that, at least, should have been predictable). However, Lennon manages to put his stamp on most of these early rock n roll covers in a sensitive and meaningful way. Although Spector's involvement may have been limited, the guitar break on 'Peggy Sue' is the Wall Of Sound writ large. The legal problems relate to the Chuck Berry track 'You Can't Catch Me', which obviously had it's DNA spliced with 'Come Together' a few years earlier. Therefore the publishers insisted that Lennon cover the original song on this album and a couple more. I have to be honest, the ins and outs of what Lennon was compelled to put on this album to keep them satisfied is not all that clear to me. 'Ya-Ya' seems to have been included for that reason at least (if so, he did a good job on it anyway). What does come through is that these really are songs that shaped his early life and the path he ended up taking. His version of Ben E King's 'Stand By Me' matches the original whilst adding a distinct hint of Lennon. You could accuse him of not having the deeper range that some of these songs need. 'Be-Bop-A-Lula' was a classic because of Gene Vincent's hiccuppy delivery and on 'Ain't That A Shame' he simply can't match Fats Domino. But Lennon and Holly aren't too far apart and 'Peggy Sue' has an urgency that exceeds the original (and that guitar break really is good). Ultimately it sounds like Lennon, it's well done and you can believe that HE believes in it. The cover photo dates back to the Hamburg period. That's McCartney, Harrison and Stu Sutcliffe walking past him, sez Wikipedia.
Side 1
Be-Bop-A-Lula
Stand By Me
Medley (Rip It Up; Ready Teddy)
You Can't Catch Me
Ain't That A Shame
Do You Wanna Dance
Sweet Little Sixteen
Side 2
Slippin' and Slidin'
Peggy Sue
Medley (Bring It On Home; Send Me Some Lovin')
Bonie Moronie
Ya Ya
Just Because
Release Date:27th May 1975
Wings
I've been grappling with this for nearly a week. I think it's fine, but there's also something deeply dissatisfying about it. It's disjointed, despite an obvious effort to establish a flow through the tracks. There's lots of flashes of brilliance, but there are also some annoying traits that McCartney has developed over the years and which you begin to wish he'd finally drop. Like the funny voices. Quirkiness is a good thing and McCartney has used it so far to good effect, but the driving 'Rock Show' ends up rather scuppered by all the cut-glass accents and "Madamoiselle Kitty" stuff in the middle and by a general loss of focus at the end. I wasn't particularly taken with the light twenties jazz of 'You Gave Me The Answer', which is all just that touch too arch and knowing. I was also rather surprised to hear him singing about 'Magneto and Titanium Man', and was even more surprised when I realized I hadn't misheard and he really had penned a tribute to a bunch of Marvel superheroes. But then he also throws in cast-iron classics like 'Love In Song' and "Listen To What The Man Said'. McCartney expanded the band in advance of this record, and Lead guitarist Jimmy McCulloch and drummer Geoff Britton. Stupidly he forgot to check if his two new recruits could get on with each other and Britton soon slung his hook, so they got a temp in to finish it off. It seems slightly odd to be listening to an album that has been included because it is effectively a McCartney piece and then get a couple of songs with lead vocals by other band members. Laine does the honours on the drifty 'Spirits Of Ancient Egypt' and McCulloch sings on 'Medicine Jar'. Both these songs suggest that one of the most influential artists of the time was himself being influenced by the zeitgeist. Either sounds like it could have made it onto Dark Side Of The Moon and the latter in particular might be accused of being a 'Money' clone. 'Listen To What The Man Said' stands out with it's easy rolling guitar lead, And finally, in what might be one of the most incongruous moves by a major artist on a mainstream album, we get a version of Tony Hatch's Crossroads theme tune. Some readers are not from the UK I suspect, so you may need an explanation. Crossroads was a low-budget daily soap opera set in a midlands motel (clip below - note the reference to the skunks in Dudley Zoo). My Nan loved it. It was one of her 'serials' (not 'Soaps' - that was a purely American term back then) along with Coronation Street. I don't think she ever really got with the Emmerdale Farm vibe. Apparently the Wings version was used occasionally at the end of the show, when added poignancy was required.
Side 1
Venus And Mars
Rock Show
Love In Song
You Gave Me The Answer
Magneto And Titanium Man
Letting Go
Side 2
Venus And Mars (Reprise)
Spirits Of Ancient Egypt
Medicine Jar
Call Me Back Again
Listen To What The Man Said
Treat Her Gently
Crossroads
EXTRA TEXTURE (READ ALL ABOUT IT)
Release Date: 22nd September 1975
George Harrison
The last we saw of the Quiet One, he had disappeared with his tail between his legs on a tour with Ravi Shankar promoting the disastrous Dark Horse album. But we should not despair for our self-effacing hero, he's cleared his throat and has an equally good album title in his back pocket. All he has to do now is stage a spectacular return to form and all in the garden will be rosy again. And guess what? He's pulled it off! This is all pretty terrific stuff, although the first impression for me was a little muted. But in my opinion the opening 'You' would be totally at home on 'All Things Must Pass', as would several others on this. It made me think of advertising jingles and sports themes, which is in no way a criticism because both have to be appealing, immediate and catchy. It also features a good dollop of Clemons-like saxophone, which cannot be a bad thing. All boxes ticked here. However recent experience has scarred dear George and he reaches once again for his lachrymose instrument to have a good old moan about the way he's been treated since the last album. There can hardly be any pretense that a song called 'This Guitar (Can't Keep From Crying)' is a sequel to 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' especially since it has the same basic melody. Of course he isn't suggesting otherwise and it's a clever and moving way of gently venting some spleen. He's strong on soft, well-made ballads such as 'Can't Stop Thinking About You', 'World Of Stone' (which also chucks in some Eltonish pop) and the lightly jazzy 'Tired Of Midnight Blue'. There's also quite a lot of piano, characterised by the closing 'His Name Is Legs (Ladies And Gentleman)'. Its a pleasing die-cut cover as well.
Side 1
You
The Answer's At The End
This Guitar (Can't Keep From Crying)
Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You)
World Of Stone
Side 2
A Bit More You
Can't Stop Thinking About You
Tired Of Midnight Blue
Grey Cloudy Lies
His Name Is Legs (Ladies And Gentleman)
WINGS AT THE SPEED OF SOUND
Release Date: 25th March 1976
Wings
As soon as you consider it for a moment, Wings become a puzzling proposition. Are they the current incarnation of Paul McCartney's solo career, or a full blown band in their own right? Or are they even a 'family' act, essentially a way of involving Mrs McCartney in the day job? Both Wikipedia and Spotify struggle with it and variously bill the albums as being by Paul McCartney, Wings or Paul McCartney and Wings. In fact on Spotify you have to search both McCartney and Wings separately. Back To The Egg is not listed under Macca's name, and nor is this, but Band On The Run and Wings Over America are. It seems to arise from him simply not clearly positioning himself in the whole scenario - is he a Springsteen-like 'Boss' with a stranglehold on all the artistic decisions, or more of a Gilmour - basically the artistic heart but only in the sense that he's one of the vital organs. It doesn't help when he keeps handing frontman duties to his possibly subordinate bandmates, as he did a couple of times on Venus And Mars and does again here. Laine, McCulloch, drummer English and even Linda all get a bash. The trouble with all this is that the album only really comes alive when McCartney is singing. He's on the two big hit records. 'Let 'Em In' has it's homely roll-call, I'm sure that there are vast swathes of the internet devoted to the true identities of Uncles Ernie and Ian and Auntie Gin, so I'll steer clear. For me it really is a call back to some of those Beatles records like 'When I'm Sixty-Four' - a kind of English council house vignette. The most likely explanation is that he chose names that fit the music. And then there's 'Silly Love Songs'. A riposte to his fiercest critic? The problem with the song is that it does cross the line between romantic and pathetic puppy dog devotion. I offer the following as exhibit A. An episode of Men Behaving Badly in which Gary comes home drunk and tries to seduce Dorothy with a rendition of the song. Unfortunately I could only find the whole episode, but no need to watch it all, skip forward to 27:30 and cringe as Gary calls on the Macca genius to try and get his leg over.
However, any accusation that Paul is solely a peddler of soppy pap, can be challenged by the excellent and rather dark 'Beware My Love'. It's especially good because with someone else's vocal it might be quite an ordinary song. The two closing songs are the jaunty 'San Ferry Anne', one for the flute lovers, and 'Warm And Beautiful' an onomatopoeia of a song. (Look, I was taught the word in school and I like it, so just allow me to use it once - I could say it does what it says on the tin but I'd like to think I'm not that dull). Of the rest, 'Winko Junko', sung by McCulloch is interesting for the emerging guitar riff which suggests that Jacko wasn't always content to actually pay to acquire McCartney's inspiration. Linda's song is 'Cook Of The House', which starts in the shower of course. It's a pedestrian blues whose only purpose seems to be to reinforce gender stereotypes (perhaps I'm being overzealous with my 21st Century libtard attitudes). Laine does a couple, 'Time To Hide' and 'The Note You Never Wrote' and Joe English gets 'Must Do Something About It. But my point remains, they all manage to draw the sting from songs that, if McCartney had taken the lead, might have been very different. Maybe he was making concessions to hold everything together. I can see the intention of the cover art - to give an impression of a big act coming to a theatre near you - but ultimately it's a bit boring.
Side 1
Let Em In
The Note You Never Wrote
She's My Baby
Beware My Love
Winko Junko
Side 2
Silly Love Songs
Cook Of The House
Time To Hide
Must Do Something About It
San Ferry Anne
Warm And Beautiful
Release Date: 17th September 1976
Ringo Starr
This is the first of the 'lost' Ringo albums, by which I don't mean it is rare and mysterious, I don't think anyone would accuse him of that, but that it is not available on Spotify. This means that I have to resort to YouTube to hear it (I ain't buying the bloody thing) and for that reason it will get less thought and attention than something I can spend time listening to repeatedly. I'll write as I listen. But, if Ringo can't be bothered to allow me to sponge off what we shall call, for sake of argument, his 'talent' for the modest subscription fee of £9.99 per month then the big-nosed droner only has himself to blame. Anyway, this has a sort of claim to fame in that it is the last album before Lennon's death to feature input from all four Beatles. So we start with 'A Dose Of Rock And Roll' which comes in more like a dose of salts before settling down into a kind of doo-wop effort. Then he turns his hand to 'Hey! Baby', which better artists than him have murdered, he just makes it shambolic and raucous, which is about the best you can do with it. McCartney's contribution is 'Pure Gold', which might be a good song, your guess is as good as mine, but that old Ringo magic renders it rather humdrum. The self-penned 'Cryin'' could have been done in his sleep, and might well have been. At this point, it's worth pointing out that the YouTube option means you sometimes get to see the great man in action, so 'You Don't Know Me At All' sees him wandering around some unnamed Southern European city with bald pate and striped shirt. It's nice because it distracts from the song. He starts side 2 with a song from John Lennon, 'Cookin' (In The Kitchen Of Love)'. Fairly typical Lennon rock'n'roll-by-numbers. Then George's contribution, 'I'll Still Love You' comes in. A great opening guitar intro is unceremoniously slapped down by Ringo's unmistakable drawl. What bewilders me is why all these great songwriters blow good songs on him. You can only conclude that he must be a thunderingly great mate to have and therefore you'll happily donate some of your intellectual property for him to squander. Next in line is Clapton - who gives him 'This Be Called A Song' (not one of his best mind you). He goes all mariachi on 'Las Brisas', which he partially wrote, as he did the wretched 'Lady Gaye'. Just to cap it all off there's this thing called 'Spooky Weirdness'. Least said, soonest mended. I'd probably have found more to like if I'd given this a fair hearing, although the last album I had to do this with was Tin Machine II, and you could understand why Bowie wanted that out of the public eye. Just for the record, since I had to look it up, a rotogravure is a printing machine.
Side 1
A Dose Of Rock And Roll
Hey! Baby
Pure Gold
Cryin'
You Don't Know Me At All
Side 2
Cookin' (In The Kitchen Of Love)
I'll Still Love You
This Be Called A Song
Las Brisas
Lady Gaye
Spooky Weirdness
THIRTY THREE AND 1/3
Release Date: 19th November 1976
George Harrison
Ah. When George Harrison is good, he's very good indeed. The bright and breezy cover artwork accurately advertises the content. This is as easy going and enjoyable as it is ever likely to get. I'm writing this on the 1st October, Autumn is well and truly here and this is just what I needed as I wave the summer goodbye. Harrison has always had a good ear for a tune and he captures quite a lot of the feel of previous classics like 'Something' and 'My Sweet Lord'. He'd kind of abandoned any spiritual themes in Extra Texture, which now seems more like an exercise in getting back on the rails in preparation for this, but now he reapplies them with a lighter touch than he has managed before. 'Dear One' and 'Beautiful Girl' almost seem slight, and run the risk of falling into the Easy Listening category, but this is complex music which is simply easy to listen to. There's a Steely-Dannish feel to some of the songs - the piano in 'It's What You Value' in particular reminded me of them. He also exorcises some of those My Sweet Lord demons by having a good laugh about it with 'This Song'. The video is pretty good too.
He threw me a curveball with his cover of 'True Love', because I immediately assumed it was his song that had been subsequently covered by others, but it's actually a Cole Porter standard. It's good though, Harrison makes it his own. There's a thread of smooth funk running through the whole thing, 'Pure Smokey' is the clearest example.There's also a great video for the sublimely goofy 'Crackerbox Palace' (Why wasn't it a massive hit? Well, not even released as a single in the UK, it got to 25 on the Billboard charts) where you get to see him not get out of his pram. Directed by Eric Idle, you can sort of see that the seeds of his Handmade Films ventures were being sown. That's Neil Innes as the nanny, so those links with the Pythons and Gilliam were clearly being formed.
It finishes with 'Learning How To Love You' which has been maddening me every time I hear it. There is a hint of another song. It's the line in the chorus, "and left alone with my heart", but it's just a hint. I'm sure I'll hear the song I'm thinking of again eventually and the veil will fall, but any suggestions are gratefully received. I loved this. Did you guess? It's just perfectly formed.
Side 1
Woman Don't You Cry For Me
Dear One
Beautiful Girl
This Song
See Yourself
Side 2
It's What You Value
True Love
Pure Smokey
Crackerbox Palace
Learning How To Love You
RINGO THE FOURTH
Release Date: 20th September 1977
Ringo Starr
The Wikipedia entry for this album commences as follows, "Ringo The Fourth is the sixth studio album by English musician Ringo Starr", which must tell us something about his career trajectory since the breakup of the Beatles. Whether in his own mind a couple of the previous five albums need to be dropped from the canon, or he's just lost count, I guess we'll never know. This is another of what I am calling the 'lost' Ringo albums, which means I am once again reliant on others who can be bothered to transfer entire albums to YouTube. It also means that it gets minimal attention. I've just spent a week having my brain fried by Frank Zappa for the live albums post, so I am not in the mood to make great efforts with this. I'm aware that this is regarded as something of a disaster for Ringo, as it embraces disco to a greater extent than is advisable for most people. YouTube means videos, so the opening 'Drowning In The Sea Of Love' has him in casinos, on beaches and ligging about Mediterranean villas with various 'chicks' in attendance. However Ringo, or the video director, or both, are really only interested in their legs. And yes, it is disco. And yes, it is quite disastrous. No video for 'Tango All Nght', just lots of parpy synths and castanets. It's not even a tango. Weirdly there is what appears to be quite a modern video for 'Wings' with a puppet in it. It does help the song, which is a fairly straight-up op effort. Slow ballad time, with the simultaneously nostalgic and awful 'Gave It All Up'. 'Out On The Streets' is agitated funk combined with Ringo's usual lugubrious delivery. 'Can She Do It Like She Dances' is a shambolic shouty affair. Ringo has come this far on a wave of goodwill in that he hasn't taken himself as seriously as JP&G, but he really, really has no singing voice. The backing musicians, and singers, are all above competent, so he has no-one to blame but himself. 'Sneakin; Sally Through The Alley' might be the least disappointing thing on this, but it's a tough call. He finishes side 2 with 3 of his own compositions with his usual writing partner Vini Poncia. There's the Glen Campbell-ish easy country of 'It's No Secret', 'Gypsies In Flight (which I could only find buried in the middle of a 'Best Of' YouTube' post - I must contest the idea that it belongs on anything bearing the adjective 'best'). These two and 'Sneakin Sally' are, in fact the only things which achieve clearance from rock bottom. The last track, 'Simple Love Song' is nowhere to be found, even on the ubiquitous You Tube. I'll live with the disappointment.
Side 1
Drowning In The Sea Of Love
Tango All Night
Wings
Gave It All Up
Out On The Streets
Side 2
Can She Do It Like She Dances
Sneakin Sally Through The Alley
It's No Secret
Gypsies In Flight
Simple Love Song
LONDON TOWN
Release Date 31st March 1978
Paul McCartney
Perhaps there are two basic schools of thought about Paul McCartney. He's either a songwriter who writes simple songs, or he's a songwriter who writes deceptively simple songs. It's an important distinction because if you believe the former, the you probably dismiss him as a lightweight. You're also probably someone who only values deeply complex, difficult music and felt that all popular musical progression stopped after In The Court Of The Crimson King. You'd also be wrong. Tunes with the memorability and repeatability of a nursery rhyme that McCartney achieves would be ten-a-penny if that were the case. London Town is a perfect example of how he stands head and shoulders above nearly everyone else. Every song on this is effortless and while he plays around with lots of styles, it still seems to form into a perfect, meaningful whole. There's the smooth falsetto soul of motown vocal groups in 'Girlfriend', McTell-like gentle folk of the Laine-sung 'Children, Children', a Mott The Hoople-ish rock out in 'Cafe On The Left Bank', synth-pop in 'Cuff Link' and the fuzzy, Nutbush inspired guitar funk of 'I've Had Enough'. It's the opening tracks of each side of the album which distill the essence of McCartney though. 'London Town' is another beautifully drawn visualization in words (point of order though Paul - there are no 'sidewalks' in London), and 'With A Little Luck' is the exemplary, seemingly featherlight disposable product that would have the King Crimson devotees thumbing their flared-nostrilled noses. 'Famous Groupies' borders on the Ron Moody - 'You Gotta Pick a Pocket' of Oliver! in style and he does get tempted into his funny-voice habit again. The following 'Deliver Your Children' almost seems like a reprise of the melody but tends towards light C&W. There's a bit of Elvis/Orbison on 'Name And Address', Andean pan-pipery on 'Don't Let It Bring You Down' and, yes, disco/sea-shanty fusion on 'More Moose And The Grey Goose'.
However, there is something we must address at this point in our post-Beatles journey. This album followed on from the obscenely high-selling 'Mull Of Kintyre'. A waltz-time tribute to a Scottish peninsula featuring a pipe band. Of course it was going to be the UK's first 2 million seller! But my objections are much more personal. No-one ever thought to insert a 'K' in the name MacIntyre before Xmas 1977. And my schoolmates had a song they could adapt around that same name too. Happy days. It was so ubiquitous we even had a copy in our house. It was a double A-side with a flat out rocker 'Girl's School', which you can't even find on Spotify these days. I will admit that the artwork on the single was great, but I hate the song with a passion.
As for the album artwork. I really wanted to find the exact spot and take a selfie with me as Linda, wearing Tower Bridge like a crown, but I think it must have been taken from the East Side on the north bank of the Thames, probably towards Limehouse, so it was a bit far for me to go to try and pull off a weak joke that probably wouldn't work anyway. There is no way that the skyline would be that blank today, from any angle.
Side 1
London Town
Cafe On The Left Bank
I'm Carrying
Backwards Traveller
Cuff Link
Children Children
Side 2
Girlfriend
I've Had Enough
Famous Groupies
Deliver Your Children
Name And Address
Don't Let It Bring You Down
Morse Moose And The Grey Goose
BAD BOY
Release Date:21st April 1978
Ringo Starr
In the early days of this post, way back in the mists of time, Ringo was the one that I could rely on to break the sequence of below par mucking around and sub-Beatlian efforts. However, his ex-colleagues have moved on, even John, and Ringo is stuck in a rut. The goodwill that his cheerful, keep-em-entertained approach encouraged is now dwindling. He has nothing new to offer and much that is old and decrepit. Add to this that this is his third lost-to-Spotify album in a row and his chances of getting anything complimentary from me is quite remote. The only upside is that some YouTube saint has posted the entire album as a single clip, so I need make minimal effort to listen to it through. In my book Karl Jang deserves more than 168 subscribers, but hey, if you post albums as poor as this on your channel, maybe you get the following you deserve. Prominent amid the awfulness is the title track, in which Ringo sings as if he is oscillating on a bungee cord. One of Mrs Rockodysseys choicer dry criticisms of singers she does not rate is: "well he's not straying far from the stave". Ringo maintains a good margin of error between the basic upper and lower limits of the musical notation and himself. He covers Gallagher and Lyle's 'Heart On My Sleeve', an insipid song at the best of times from which Ringo deftly removes any lingering hint of spice. To add insult to injury he then wrecks Lamont-Dozier-Lamont's 'Where Did Our Love Go'. You feel the need to go straight to The Supremes version just to wash the bad taste away. If I had to be positive about anything, it's that the musical arrangements and execution are fine, but then Ringo has access to the best (that's Dr John on keys FFS!), it's just that they're wasted on him. The artwork is OK too. But by the time we get to the final maudlin waltz of 'A Man Like Me' I'm glad to see the back of it and move on.
Side 1
Who Needs A Heart
Bad Boy
Lipstick Traces (On A Cigarette)
Heart On My Sleeve
Where Did Our Love Go
Side 2
Hard Times
Tonight
Monkey See - Monkey Do
Old Time Relovin'
A Man Like Me
Release Date: 20th February 1979
George Harrison
Just a quick progress check, this is number 32 out of a total of 65 albums (if I don't include the McCartney/Fireman albums, which many have suggested I should), so this is already the longest blog post I've done and I'm not even halfway. Anyway, George, at least appears to be in a happy place at this point in the journey. If McCartney is making the difficult look easy, Harrison appears to be just drifting along producing very pleasant, gently anthemic pop hits, sort of like a cool Burt Bacharach. He still has a penchant for nods to the past, so we get the yang of 'Here Comes The Moon' to the yin of 'Here Comes The Sun'. There is also a material nod to the past with the inclusion of 'Not Guilty' which was originally cut from the White Album. The lead single and best known track here is 'Blow Away', which starts in quite a low key way before kicking into a classic catchy George melody. It's quite perfect. At this time George has been embracing the rockstar lifestyle to the full, which in his case means hanging around with racing drivers and writing songs about them. 'Faster' includes literally whizzy sound effects and manages to transmit a sense of fun about the pursuits of rich thrill-seekers. On another day I might dismiss 'Dark Sweet Lady' as pretty drippy, but it's a Sunday afternoon and the sun's shining brightly, so instead I found it sweet and touching. That's the thing with the whole album really, easy to dismiss as competent and inoffensive, but in many ways the essence of what makes Harrison great.
The art department's elevator pitch for the cover photo was "caveman hiding in the bushes". George gave a smart salute as they ran it up the flagpole.
Side 1
Love Comes To Everyone
Not Guilty
Here Comes The Moon
Soft Hearted Hana
Blow Away
Side 2
Faster
Dark Sweet Lady
Your Love Is Forever
Soft Touch
If You Believe
BACK TO THE EGG
Release Date: 8th June 1979
Paul McCartney and Wings
Wings' last album and the last ex-Beatle album of the 70s. It's less than 10 years since they broke up, and now we find Paul limping away from the Punk Rock Wars, more or less defeated despite a dogged final stand at the Mull Of Kintyre. This was not well received on release and I've struggled to get a grip on it despite repeated listens. It's as if Macca has gone on a trolley dash in the Rock and Pop supermarket. Grabbing all sorts of styles off the shelves to see what works, resulting in not having the right ingredients to even knock up a decent family dinner. The most memorable thing is 'Old Siam, Sir' which has just a hint of ill-judgement about it, like the oriental whiff of the musical style is slightly offensive. I find McCartney always sends me heading to the reference sites to work out if he was first with a particular musical phrase or has copied someone else. Here the intro to 'Spin It On' predates 'Ace Of Spades' (well - Ace Of Spades on mogadon), but 'Again And Again And Again' could be a copy of 'Proud Mary'. 'Arrow Through Me' was felt to be good enough for a US single release, but it's a bland piece of time-marking really. And then there's 'Rockestra Theme' and 'So Glad To See You Here' which feature a good chunk of the British rock aristocracy at the time (look it up, I can't be bothered to list them all out). To be honest, they're fine, but it don't amount to the sum of their parts. I refer you back to the recent unpleasantness with the likes of Messers Rotten, Vanian and Weller - it feels like the old guard living on past glories. None of it is utterly terrible though, not even the closing easy-listening jazz of 'Baby's Request', and I really did enjoy the spoken part in 'The Broadcast'.
Side 1
Reception
Getting Closer
We're Open Tonight
Spin It On
Again And Again And Again
Old Siam Sir
Arrow Through Me
Side 2
Rockestra Theme
To You
After The Ball/Million Miles
Winter Rose/Love Awake
The Broadcast
So Glad To See You Here
Baby's Request
MCCARTNEY II
Released: 16th May 1980
Paul McCartney
Well, it's quite...experimental isn't it. If you take from that that I'm saying that it isn't very good then I can be content that my intended meaning has been conveyed. If you were being uber-generous (and of course many latter day revisionists are and now consider it groundbreakingly important to the development of British electronica) you can say that it is ahead of its time and therefore a brave endeavour by McCartney, but Kraftwerk were already forging ahead along that path and Paul's efforts sometimes amount to no better than weak imitations. It opens with 'Coming Up' which was a hit at least, reaching number 2 in the UK. The video featured Macca playing all the roles in the notional band 'The Plastic Macs', with Linda appearing on backing vocals. Wings had not quite been dissolved yet by the way. What is baffling to me, and rather unsettling, is that the second track on the album, the godawful 'Temporary Secretary' was the third single release. A blippy, really quite offensive concoction that failed to trouble the top 40. If the gear changes on Back To The Egg were jarring, then following that with the slow, spaced-out blues of 'On The Way' seems perverse. The other single off the album is 'Waterfalls', and NEWSFLASH! we had this in our house back in the day. Rockodyssey Major purchased the 7 inch single. Good artwork and possibly the best thing on the album (although 'Coming Up' does achieve a level of catchiness and memorability that redeems it). Now, R&B toosh-shakers TLC also had a single called Waterfalls back in 1995, and the lyrics are suspiciously close to the McCartney song. When it came out I was convinced that, at the very least, Macca must have picked up on some obscure, but established linguistic metaphor about how jumping waterfalls was a bad idea, but it really doesn't seem to. That in turn means that Lisa 'Left-Eye' Lopes actually just shamefacedly ripped it off. I've read somewhere since that McCartney regarded the TLC song as somewhat cheeky. It's a funny old song anyway. The similes down't quite work, but I can't put my finger on why - 'Like a raindrop needs a shower, like a garden needs a flower'? So do you mean you feel a small part of a large thing? Or a large thing that needs a small, but vital part? Or maybe both and you're a lot cleverer and creative than me Paul (undoubtedly true). There's one-man-bandery on the ramshackle 'Nobody Knows' and horrible tinny robotic fluff on the oddly named 'Front Parlour'. 'Summer's Day Song' is kind of ambient, but ends up rather like a Christmas carol. The you-couldn't-get-away-with-it-today titled 'Frozen Jap' is supposedly considered, by the revisionists at least, a precursor of 'Computer Love' and in fairness you can hear it. But it's also a precursor of Aneka's 'Japanese Boy', which is not such a great selling point. Let's just pass over the Elvis impersonations on 'Bogey Music', and 'Darkroom' while we're at it. He finishes off with 'One Of These Days' which is completely out of place because it's a gentle strummed ballad. It's not particularly remarkable, but it is by far the most McCartneyish thing on here. Paul looks puzzled on the cover, as well he might.
Side 1
Coming Up
Temporary Secretary
On The Way
Waterfalls
Nobody Knows
Side 2
Front Parlour
Summer's Day Sog
Frozen Jap
Bogey Man
Darkroom
One Of These Days
DOUBLE FANTASY
Release Date: 17th November 1980
John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Double Fantasy. It immediately made me think of Beyonce and 'Are you a sweet dream or a beautiful nightmare?'. Well it's both, and it surprised me as an album that is accomplished and enjoyable, something that I have not come to associate with Lennon's output, especially when Yoko gets a significant oar in. In fact the Yoko songs are a positive asset here, as, firstly, they aren't awful, and secondly they do set off the John songs. And that's not to say that Yoko is merely a garnish, in a way her songs are just as much enhanced by John's contribution. It's interesting to hear some of Lennon's most familiar songs framed in this way. So we get the familiar '(Just Like) Starting Over', 'Beautiful Boy', 'Watching The Wheels' and 'Woman' interspersed with stuff like Yoko's 'Kiss, Kiss Kiss', which even Bowie might have shown an interest in. She also sings quite well on this, tuneful but still with an accented edge. 'Give Me Something' achieves a level of Siouxie-ish punkiness. 'Yes, I'm Your Angel' pitches her somewhere between Marilyn Monroe and Snow White and is quite funny. Intentionally, I'm sure. 'Watching The Wheels' is the song that 'Imagine' should have been "People say I'm crazy" replacing "You may say I'm a dreamer". The songs are similar but the latter is so much more self-aware. 'Starting Over' could possibly be Lennon's high point for me. You would swear it's a cover of a sixties classic. He did learn his rock and roll lessons well in those sweaty German clubs after all.
Lennon was killed three weeks after this was released but I don't think I'm being generous out of any kind of sentimentality to say that this is about his best solo effort - although Rock n Roll was also worthwhile. As I recall, at the age of 13 and on hearing of his death, I was kind of nonplussed. I guess I must have been aware of him, but he didn't seem a significant figure to me. He hadn't put anything out for over 5 years, while McCartney had been pretty ubiquitous. In the 1970's an artist who wasn't keeping the handle turning and ploughing out an album at least once every two years counted as some kind of weird recluse (and John and Yoko do fit that category to some extent), but he appears to have been sorting out his priorities, and you can hear it in the songs on this album, from them both. 'I'm Moving On' by Yoko and 'Watching The Wheels' show them both to be in a fairly sane, settled place. There is also a lot of love pouring out of this record too, in a way that in the past might have manifested itself as neediness on John's part and control on Yoko's. 'Woman' is heartfelt, Yoko clearly adores the two men in her life on 'Beautiful Boys' and the only problem with the gentle and sweet 'Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)' is what the hell must Julian have thought? Also, to have such an explicit document of the state of her relationship with the man she loved from the exact time she lost him must be a mixed blessing for Yoko.
Would the Beatles have ever shared a stage or a recording studio if the events of December 8th 1980 had not occurred? I would think it is fairly certain, Live Aid at least might have done the trick, although it's likely that George would have proved a bigger sticking point - he allegedly rather grumpily turned down the chance to do Let It Be with Paul for the finale. But there was a willingness to revisit the Beatles at the time of the Anthology releases, so I think we would have seen them together again at some point.
Side 1
(Just Like) Starting Over
Kiss Kiss Kiss
Cleanup Time
Give Me Something
I'm Losing You
I'm Moving On
Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)
Side 2
Watching The Wheels
Yes, I'm Your Angel
Woman
Beautiful Boys
Dear Yoko
Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him
Hard Times Are Over
Release Date: 1st June 1981
George Harrison
One thing about George is plain. He wears his heart on his sleeve with his songs. All the way back to 'Taxman' he hasn't been afraid to air his own personal gripes in song. At this point he's reportedly quite disgruntled with the whole industry and presents his complaints front and centre in 'Blood From A Clone'. "They don't have time for the music, they want the blood from a clone" sings he. Well quite. Are you listening Simon Cowell?. It's also quite indicative of how prescient and on the money Harrison is in general. 'Save The World' may express it's sentiments fairly simplistically, but as a song it is pretty much as relevant today as it was in 1981. Maybe that isn't saying much really and just tells us that we were, and remain, incapable of making the changes that he thinks are needed. Since I do these chronologically it's no revelation that this is the first ex-Beatle release since Lennon's death, and they all get behind his tribute 'All Those Years Ago', with Ringo on drums (across the whole album in fact) and Paul, Linda and Denny Laine on backing vocal. It's a fitting salute as it captures just a hint of Lennon's spikiness, and it's a good, catchy song too. For the rest, it feels like he's marking time a little. 'Teardrops' is a nice piece of cheerful disco, but there is much that is not particularly memorable. I give you two versions of the artwork. The rather good cover with him superimposed with a map of Great Britain was initially replaced by the rather poor one taken at the Tate Gallery. The original cover was eventually reinstated on reissue.Side 1
Blood From A Clone
Unconsciousness Rules
Life Itself
All Those Years Ago
Baltimore Oriole
Side 2
Teardrops
That Which I Have Lost
Writing's On The Wall
Hong Kong Blues
Save The World
STOP AND SMELL THE ROSES
Released: 20th November 1981
Ringo Starr
If you need any evidence of the importance and influence of the Beatles, then you only have to look at Ringo's solo output to date. It's awful, and yet people are lining up to keep it on the rails. And not just any people. Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Harry Nilsson, Ronnie Wood, Steven Stills, even Keith Richards contributes a backing vocal on this. The songwriting pedigree is impeccable, although you do wonder if he was being thrown all the offcuts, and yet Ringo just sucks any craft or artistry from everything. One of Nilsson's is 'Drumming Is My Madness', which we must assume was written especially for him and yet it poaches the line "Do you think I'm sexy". When you're referencing late seventies/early eighties era Rod, you are in BIG trouble. As usual, there is a brush with acceptability when Ringo goes Country on 'Sure To Fall', and 'Back Off Boogaloo' is a good enough song to survive the reworking It's just possible that the Starr tongue is planted firmly in his cheek, but the joke is really wearing thin now. Another theory is that Ringo is like the mice in Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, and is performing beautiful elegant experiments on the rest of the human race to see how long they will tolerate this dross before they suss him out. If so, this album provided a kind of readout to his study. It failed to trouble the charts anywhere, the record company dropped him straight after and he will not now be bothering us for another 10 years. He looks pretty creepy in the cover photo too.
Side 1
Private Property
Wrack My Brain
Drumming Is My Madness
Attention
Stop And Take Time To Smell The Roses
Side 2
Dead Giveaway
You Belong To Me
Sure To Fall
Nice Way
Back Off Boogaloo
TUG OF WAR
Release Date: 19th April 1982
Paul McCartney
Ah. Blessed relief. McCartney produces a better than decent album to wash away the bad taste left by Ringo's last dronefest. It also has a couple of collaborations with Stevie Wonder including 'Ebony And Ivory', a song which I can't help feeling was intended as some kind of metaphor? The black keys on a piano are the flats and sharps and the white keys are the natural notes, but the exact message that they are trying to convey just eludes me. Anyway, whatever, after one listen I found I was singing it to myself, so, simplistic it may be, but it's a great pop song too. Mind you, I always found some of the vocal interjections mildly annoying ("there is good and bad (mmm-huh!)"). Anyway that's right at the end of the album, first of all we get the title track, which is measured and seems to feature a craftily placed foghorn, and then the excellent 'Take It Away'. I love the way he flows from one pace to the next on it. The chorus is just joyous and it has a kind of big band orchestra feel to it. You don't hear it so much, but take the time to listen to it again, it's just brilliant. The intro to 'Somebody Who Cares' is a little reminiscent of the Mac's 'Rhiannon', but the rest of is is nothing like. Instead a smooth pop song with a hint of Spanish guitar and Andean pan pipes comes forth. 'What's That You're Doing' is the only song co-written with Wonder, and it sounds more like one of his than Macca's. Where his experimentation with electronic sounds was a bit of a dead loss on McCartney II, this is much more successful. It's utterly of it's time though. He tries a bit of the old 'Yesterday' magic on 'Here Today', 'cellos and all. Now here's a funny thing, just like Antz and A Bug's Life were released about the same time, and so were Shark Tale and Finding Nemo, McCartney does a song about 'Ballroom Dancing' at almost exactly the same time as The Kinks released 'Come Dancing'. Spooky. For the record, Ray and the boys take the prize for the better song, but this one is fine too. Maccanomics next, with an in depth analysis of international monetary affairs in 'The Pound Is Sinking'. Plus ca change, although it's nice to be reminded of all those now defunct European currencies. He resurrects his 'Admiral Halsey' Noel Coward voice too. The Billy Joel-ish 'Wanderlust' is plaintive and faintly anthemic and there's just a touch of the still-to-come 'No More Lonely Nights' about it. Nice easy-going picked blues duet with Carl Perkins on 'Get It', Perkins chuckles on at the end, then there's a little segue into the jabbing, stabbing Stax-like funk of 'Dress Me Up As A Robber'. Level 42 pretty much stole the intro riff for 'Hot Water'. I like the colour scheme on the artwork, but he looks like he's cowering in a corner while trapped in a game of Tetris. Maybe Ringo (who drums on this) was clearing his pipes in the studio
Oh. Hang on. Is E&I about racism?!
Side 1
Tug Of War
Take It Away
Somebody Who Cares
What's That You're Doing
Here Today
Side 2
Ballroom Dancing
The Pound Is Sinking
Wanderlust
Get It
Be What You See (Link)
Dress Me Up As A Robber
Ebony and Ivory
GONE TROPPO
Release Date: 5th November 1982
George Harrison
I stalled for the first time on this particular journey on this album, I think it was the combination of a landmark birthday, George's latest effort being not all that remarkable and a rather diverting in-the-flesh sighting of Paul McCartney when he unexpectedly turned up at the Camden Roundhouse at the end of a Little Steven and The Disciples Of Soul gig to tear through 'I Saw Her Standing There'. The upside is that Gone Troppo has received considerably more listens and attention than it probably deserves. But there's nothing wrong with it for all that. Background reading suggests that he was all rather jaded with it all by now and this was the prelude to a five year lay-off before the triumphant return in the Cloud 9/Wilbury's era. The songs are pleasant and well constructed but they slip from your mind as soon as they have finished. The possible exception is the dopey doo-wop of 'I Really Love You', I assume that it is not George doing the bass vocal on it, but a fella called Willie Greene. It's good fun anyway. The pun-tastic 'Greece' is also good and 'Mystical One' is classic George. The layered keyboard intro to the opening 'Wake Up My Love' reminded me of that other great rock spiritualist, Cat Stevens when he remembered the days of the old school yard. He still has an ear for a catchy hook as well, although I can't decide whether the chorus of 'Dream Away' is some kind of mantra or just gibberish. He does a good Bryan Ferry impression on it too. His patchy form on album artwork continues.
So with George disillusioned, Ringo dropped by the record company and John six feet under, the field seems clear for world domination by Paul, except, from nowhere, Ringo is next to squeeze out another effort called 'Old Wave' (although the omens are bad, Spotify doesn't stock it), and of course, death is no barrier to a continuing pop career, so Lennon's Milk And Honey will be with us soon too.
Side 1
Wake Up My Love
That's The Way It Goes
I Really Love You
Greece
Gone Troppo
Side 2
Mystical One
Unknown Delight
Baby Don't Run Away
Dream Away
Circles
OLD WAVE
Release Date: 16th June 1983
Ringo Starr
At the time of writing the big guy in the red suit with the white beard is making a list. In embarking on this grand folly, I also made a list. What sets St. Nick apart from me is that he has the foresight to check his twice. I did not, and so I am shocked and disappointed to discover that Wikipedia was not entirely accurate in suggesting that Ringo was off the scene for a good decade. I HAD listed Old Wave however. Witness the screen shot of my Excel sheet which provides irrefutable evidence.
Note also that I had even established that it wasn't available on Spotify, hence the strikethrough. Of course this combination of circumstances means that the album gets a perfunctory listen and I approach it with unrestrained bigotry and prejudice. I also cannot listen to it in its entirety since even YouTube won't touch some of these tracks.
As we have come to expect from Ringo's albums, the musicianship is pretty good and the singing is pretty poor. 'In My Car' could even be an attempt to ape Springsteen, in both theme and style, but it's too light and tinny and falls rather short into the territory of Elt's 'Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting'. Chas and Dave wouldn't have sniffed at 'Hopeless', and would have made it more fun to boot. Third track 'Alibi' cannot be located, although weirdly there is a cover version by '13thBeatle', which may be an accurate rendition of the original, it's certainly bad enough. Some Frampton vocalizer shenanighans on 'Be My Baby' lends a bit of interest, but as usual it's a pale imitation of the musical style it aspires to (in this case funk) and ultimately falls into chaos. He sings 'She's About A Mover' at the uppermost limit of his vocal register, which makes it quite uncomfortable to listen to. He also turned his hand to Lieber and Stoller's 'I Keep Forgettin'', which may be the best thing on the album - although I wouldn't know, it's not available. 'Picture Show Life' exhibits some modernity, and doesn't provide him with too much of a vocal challenge. He delivers maudlin ballad 'As Far As We Can Go' in a way that will bring you to tears for the wrong reasons, although I liked the cascading synths. No original version of 'Everybody's In A Hurry But Me' to be found (with an Entwistle/Clapton co-writing credit no less), but there is a cheesy Japanese electronic instrumental version which I'm almost certain is more worthwhile, and my pleasure is curtailed further by a lack of closing track 'Going Down'. So to compensate, and reward myself for sticking to my completist principles I listened to 'I'm Going Down' by Bruce from BITUSA instead. I feel cleansed. And the cover? To put it bluntly, he looks like a sixties serial killer.
So now I HAVE checked twice and Ringo really does bugger off until 1992. In the meantime he resorted to narrating a tots TV show about the worst run railway in the world - and this was at the height of a nationalised British Rail, so competition was stiff.
Side 1
In My Car
Hopeless
Alibi
Be My Baby
She's About A Mover
Side 2
I Keep Forgettin'
Picture Show Life
As Far As We Can Go
Everybody's In A Hurry But Me
Going Down
PIPES OF PEACE
Release Date: 31st October 1983
Paul McCartney
'Pipes Of Peace' the song, which opens this album is probably one of the clearest pieces of evidence of the absolute sea-change that took place in popular music in the early eighties. MTV was barely two years old when this was released but the song's place in history is almost completely defined by it's promotional video, which has rendered it a Christmas song, despite it not being christmassy at all. In fact the video itself isn't all that festive, it just sets up an association with an historic event associated with December 25th. Mind you, it's easily preferable to 'Simply Having...'. It's a shame really because it is a really interesting, complex song that McCartney pulls of with his usual apparent ease. When you listen to it closely he cherry picks from all over the musical spectrum, amongst the Beatly piano parts there's a little bit of electronica, a kids choir, a march, some Indian tablas, frog chorus style harmonising and a classical sign-off. And all the while he's offering a gently expressed manifesto for a better world. You've got to hand it to him. My one beef is with the line "Songs of joy instead of burn baby burn" - but 'Disco Inferno' IS a song of joy Paul! This is supposedly pretty much a companion piece to Tug Of War, much of it recorded at the same time, and where before he included two songs with Stevie Wonder, here he embraces song-pillaging Jacko to his breast for a couple. 'Say, Say, Say' was the lead off single and is the more successful of the two collaborations. The video had the two of them as a pair of snake-oil salesmen, except they're really Robin Hoods (Robins Hood?), but no, in fact they're travelling vaudevillians. Whatever, it may have relit Macca's taste for acting and led to Broad Street, which is coming soon, so, while it's a fun video, it has a lot to answer for. It's a pretty fabulous pop song though and a good blend of the contributing pair's talents. The other collaboration is 'The Man', which tends more to the Jacko than the Macca, but it's still premium pop. Of the rest, on the languidly catchy 'The Other Me' he claims that he 'acted like a dustbin lid'. I confess I don't really know what that would involve. There's further lyrical dodginess in 'Keep Under Cover' - "What good is butter if you haven't got bread?; What good is art when it hurts your head? he muses. He tries some slow motown falsetto 'So Bad', which is akin to Lionel Richie's 'Penny Lover'. 'Sweetest Little Song' reminded me of Nick Lowe's 'So It Goes' but it's hard to see what he was trying to achieve with the chirpy, but fairly fatuous 'Average Person'. The evidence of the association with Tug Of War is made apparent with the electro-meshing of the title tracks of that album and this one in 'Tug Of Peace'. By now, McCartney was established as the grand old man of British rock and pop (at 41!) as his former colleagues had either literally or figuratively fallen by the wayside. This and Tug Of War are arguably where his power peaked.
Side 1
Pipes Of Peace
Say Say Say
The Other Me
Keep Under Cover
So Bad
Side 2
The Man
Sweetest Little Song
Average Person
Hey Hey
Tug Of Peace
Through Our Love
MILK AND HONEY
Release Date: 27th January 1984
John Lennon and Yoko Ono
This album is a significant point on this journey, as it represents the first final departure of one of the Beatles from the story. You would hope, for that reason, that it is also a half-decent album. Well I'm pleased to report that it is half-decent. The John half. It follows the recent template of interleaved John and Yoko songs, but the John songs (obviously) pre-date his death and were recorded at around the same time as the Double Fantasy material. It's a benefit, because they are 'unfinished' as a result, but that lack of polish helps a lot and they feel looser and more organic than they might otherwise. It's a marked contrast to Yoko's contributions which, in fairness to her, are easily as good as anything she's produced before, but they are sharp, glassy and yes, distinctly oriental in nature. He's also maintaining the interest in a classic rock and roll sound, 'I'm Stepping Out' doesn't push the envelope does it? 'Nobody Told Me' stands out as the first, massively successful, single, but if you'd asked me to differentiate between it and 'Instant Karma', I might struggle. 'Borrowed Time's light reggae is very soothing and the gentle guitar chops on '(Forgive Me) My Little Flower Princess' are really quite pleasing. Yoko's 'O'Sanity' has a kind of charm, (and well done for rhyming 'calamity' and 'sanity'), and 'Let Me Count The Ways' has an almost English folk ballad feel about it. Something you could imagine Madeleine The Rag Doll singing on Bagpuss. Whilst not a cynical inclusion, 'Grow Old With Me' is rather obviously poignant and the raw material of the demo is only barely salvaged by post-production treatment. Yoko closes it with a Roxy-ish 'You're The One' which is her best on the album and a career best too. So, not a disgrace, nor an insult to his memory, but an album loaded with baggage.
Side 1
I'm Stepping Out
Sleepless Night
I Don't Wanna Face It
Don't Be Scared
Nobody Told Me
O'Sanity
Side 2
Borrowed Time
Your Hands
(Forgive Me) My Little Flower Princess
Let Me Count The Ways
Grow Old With Me
You're The One
GIVE MY REGARDS TO BROAD STREET
Release Date: 22nd October 1984
Paul McCartney
No, Google search autofill. It's not called Give My Regards To Broadway. It's also not at all packed with original material. I was surprised that this was so reliant on Macca's back catalogue, going back to the Beatles. He does at least cherry pick his best stuff, so we get Eleanor Rigby, Yesterday and The Long And Winding Road in new versions. I managed to track down the movie and am writing this fresh from sitting though it. There's no way I'm going to endure it again just to fully understand all the nuance. For a start whoever posted it up onto YouTube had to do so in 15 minute chunks, presumably to duck under the copyright radar. The plot is rice-paper thin. Kindly Macca employs an old lag Harry Torrington as some kind of undefined gofer in his organization. When given the task of transporting the master tapes from unspecified point A to unspecified point B he goes missing. Paul believes his charity case jailbird is going straight and has not nicked the most valuable asset of the biggest rock star in the world. Meanwhile, he biffs around London performing songs for no apparent reason including:
A. Ballroom Dancing, where Paul and band perform on stage in blue drapesuits (with Linda sporting a sharp blonde quiff) while the ballroom dancers on the floor are interrupted by someone who appears to be Billy Idol, and a gang-style dance off occurs, somewhere on the West Side Story/Beat It spectrum
B. Silly Love Songs, where Paul and the band are done up in 'futuristic' white outfits, and Breaking Glass type makeup and hairstyles. Meanwhile Jeffrey Daniel mooches about the foreground doing some admittedly impressive robotic dance moves and generally Jacksoning it up like a good un
In a skin-crawling sub-plot, Ringo seduces Barbara Bach's journalist, in a way that suggests that if, as I think we must assume, he is effectively playing himself, then real-life missus Babs has very low standards indeed. Eleanor Rigby leads into an extended Victorian dream sequence which veers in tone from H.G Wells gentility to Dickensian squalor, and when Harry is stabbed it rather barefacedly steals the Psycho shower 'music' as an accompaniment (it's even on the album). Eventually, Paul remembers that Harry mentioned that he was going to Broad Street station (mainly because he just seems to turn up there by chance while touring around London), finds the tapes on a station bench and rescues Harry who has been locked in a shed. Oh, and then it turns out it was all a dream after all. However, McCartney's songs are enjoyable, and any movie that brings together Giant Haystacks, Doctor Legg out of Eastenders, DI Burnside, Tracy Ullman in orange tights and hair and Ralph Richardson with a pet monkey must have something going for it right? Also, I'm a sucker for anything that features lots of London locations being visited out of any logical order, even if it does make the capital in the mid-eighties look even wetter and dingier than it really was. The end credits music is a funk-eh version of 'No More Lonely Nights', which is far better than the one that was released and charted. I really hope that if you've read this far, you'll forgive me for not warning you up front about spoilers, but I'm gambling that if you haven't seen it before now, you never will.
No More Lonely Nights (Ballad)
Good Day Sunshine
Yesterday
Here There and Everywhere
Wanderlust
Ballroom Dancing
Silly Love Songs
Not Such A Bad Boy
So Bad
No Values/No More Lonely Nights
For No One
Eleanor Rigby/Eleanor's Dream
The Long And Winding Road
No More Lonely Nights (Play Out Version)
Goodnight Princess
PRESS TO PLAY
Release Date: 25th August 1986
Paul McCartney
First thing to note is that 1985 was the first year since 1963 in which the Beatles, either collectively or singly, did not issue studio product. It's not surprising since McCartney was the only one at the time with an active career, and he was probably taking stock after the less than enthusiastic reception that Broad Street had received. To try to reconnect with the modern generation, he engaged the services of producer-du-jour Hugh Padgham. I'm not convinced that it was a good idea. Padgham was so dominant that his plush, smooth sheen easily marks anything he touched as being very much of the time. But Paul's knack for an irresistible pop tune hasn't left him yet, and the mini-medley of 'Good Times Coming/Feel The Sun' is pure McCartney magic. It's followed by the slightly disconcerting 'Talk More Talk', which has a spoken intro (and later interjections) from a number of voices that appear, at least in some cases to represent people with learning difficulties. What his reason for this is not entirely clear and the song lyrics are pretty opaque. It's not offensive, but it is puzzling. The song itself is quite compelling musically. I really like the soothing, polished folk balladry of 'Footprints', which I think does gain something from Padgham's input. The flagship ballad, 'Only Love Remains' feels a bit overdone and lead single 'Press' is probably the best example of how Hugh's tinkering threatens to drown out good songs with too much technical wizardy. Another feature which is very much of it's time is the hint of world music/african rhythms across some of this. We were all getting very excited about WOMAD around this time (or at least we were trying to) and this was released on exactly the same day as Paul Simon's Graceland, so it's not surprising that you can hear hints of all that stuff on 'Pretty Little Head'. However due to that surprising fact around the release date, you can't really accuse Macca of leaping on the bandwagon that Simon set rolling. On a different album, 'Move Over Busker' would have a little more rock and roll bite. Here it feels rather like Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow's 'All Night Long' wrapped in a duvet. Same with 'Angry', more like 'Moderately Miffed', and replace Blackmore with Jerry Lee Lewis. The closing track, 'How Absurd' somehow takes a characteristic McCartney/Beatles technique of pushing the vocal back into the mix and therefore giving it a declamatory quality, but going that bit too far, so that the music in the foreground takes over. OK. My one word review of this one is clearly "overproduced". It would be good to hear a stripped back version of this album, I reckon it would then definitely rank as one of his best.
The cover picture of Paul and Linda was taken with an original box camera from the golden age of Hollywood, but I guess you could still get that effect today with your iPhone.
Side 1
Stranglehold
Good Times Coming/Feel The Sun
Talk More Talk
Footprints
Only Love Remains
Side 2
Press
Pretty Little Head
Move Over Busker
Angry
However Absurd
CLOUD NINE
Release Date: 2nd November 1987
George Harrison
Let's develop a theme that we started with Press To Play. The mid-eighties celebrity producer. As well as Padgham, there was also the likes of T-Bone Burnett, Steve Lillywhite, Daniel Lanois and, yes, Jeff Lynne, running around adding their sonic Instagram filters to the latest output from the emerging rock aristocracy. Now, I like Jeff Lynne, and I know there are some die hard devotees out there, but he is the absolute worst offender among all these guys for making every record he produces sounds like a record that Jeff Lynne produced. In fact I should imagine that Amazon's 'if you like this, you might also like this' algorithm probably has a whole subroutine devoted to everything Lynne has tinkered with. All over this are ELO-style harmonies and flourishes. It makes you wonder why they don't just own up and say that this is a Harrison/Lynne collaboration rather than a George solo album. But that’s my moaning over. George was back, back, back and the narrative at the time was "Wow. George Harrison. Remember him? He used to be one of the Beatles you know.". The release of the punchy, uber-commercial 'Got My Mind Set On You' saw him troubling the charts in a serious manner, and Lynne’s style does at least suit him (ELO were as close to the second coming of the Beatles as you’ll ever get anyway). ‘That’s What It Takes’ is a particularly successful blend. In other places it gets even more confusing because both ‘Fish On The Sand’ and ‘Devil’s Radio’ could have come off Tom Petty’s Lynne-produced Full Moon Fever. At the same time, ‘Fish On The Sand’ also sounds like a Squeeze song (maybe ‘Pulling Mussels…’?). There is a sly nod back to his former life in ‘When We Was Fab’ (and “income tax was all they had” – to worry about presumably) and he even manages to slip some sitars in at the end.
There’s the theme tune to Shanghai Surprise as a bonus track here too. Never seen it, but I bet it’s awful. Madonna and Sean Penn before he was any good? Puh-lease! Anyway the song plays with some rather obvious Chinese-y sounds, very like the track ‘Breath Away From Heaven’, which was on the original release of the album. I wondered if the female vocal on ‘Shanghai Surprise’ was her Madgeness herself, but no (and it really doesn’t sound like her) but is in fact one Vicki Brown – hardworking backing singer, wife to cheery cockney rocker Joe and mother to frequent Jools-collaborator Sam. It’s a good song and the richness of her voice is a nice counterpoint to George’s reediness. So now we will stay with George and go on a little diversion down Wilbury Way. Just to break it up a bit.
Side 1
Cloud Nine
That’s What It Takes
Fish On The Sand
Just For Today
This is Love
When We Was Fab
Side 2
Devil’s Radio
Someplace Else
Wreck Of The Hesperus
Breath Away From Heaven
Got My Mind Set On You
TRAVELING WILBURYS VOL. 1
Released: 18th October 1988
The Traveling Wilburys
OK. So this and the follow up album (Volume 3 - what cards they are) are a bit of a cheat. It's hardly a George solo album after all, but at the outset I could see that the later years were going to be very Macca-dominated, so it was attractive to throw in this as a significant part of Harrison's post Beatles career. Also, the recent departure of Tom Petty gives a little more justification. When the Wilburys burst upon an unsuspecting world, it was kind of hard to believe that 5 such A-list stars would have the wherewithal or even inclination to create a collective band project (if I'm honest, I'd say Lynne only just about snuck in to the A-list category at the time, but he was almost certainly the driving force). Also I think the fact that Bob Dylan appeared to have a self-deprecating sense of humour came as a shock to those of us brought up to believe that he was a boring old folkie with a rotten singing voice. The other main talking point of the release of 'Handle With Care' and subsequently this album was the total rehabilitation of Roy Orbison as a giant of rock music. He was more of an easy listening standby that your dad liked before this, which led to the sublime 'Mystery Girl' album one year later and just one month before he died. The choice of 'Handle With Care' as lead single was a stroke of genius (anything on here could and should have charted easily) since it showcased both Harrison's and Orbison's characteristic vocal styles in a superbly catchy, wistful rock song. It's kind of pointless running through tracks and critiquing, just put it on, sit back and enjoy it for what it is. However, I will mention 'Tweeter And The Monkey Man' as it could be a sly tribute/pisstake of Bruce, who was also collaborating with Orbison on the 'Black And White Night' film. "She made secret calls to the Monkey Man from a mansion on the hill; It was out on Thunder Road, Tweeter at the wheel". Also it's always a pleasure to hear Orbison's growl on 'Rattled' (like Dustin from Stranger Things).The five of them took on Wilbury personas for the two albums, on this one Harrison was Nelson, Lynne was Otis, Petty was Charlie T. Wilbury Jr., Orbison was Lefty and Dylan was Lucky. Of course one problem they had was that, as a band, their range of instruments was a bit limited, guitars and keyboards really, so the drumstool was filled by Jim Keltner in the guise of 'Buster Sidebury'.
Side 1
Handle With Care
Dirty World
Rattled
Last Night
Not Alone Any More
Side 2
Congratulations
Heading For The Light
Margarita
Tweeter And The Monkey Man
End Of The Line
Снова в СССР
Release Date: 31st October 1988
Paul McCartney
Cyrillic alphabet. It's a bugger isn't it? You have to search for this as Choba B CCCP but phonetically it's 'Snova V SSSR', and of course, no prizes for guessing that it means 'Back In The USSR'. McCartney's stock was rising in the Soviet market at the time I think. I wanted to think that he was one of the few western rock stars to play in Moscow around that time, but it seems not. He finally made it to Red Square in 2003. So, in fact this album is a bit of an accident, the songs come from a series of jam sessions and his intention was to release it in a fairly standard way, albeit with a hint from the cover art that it was in fact a form of Russian bootleg, but the record company weren't biting so in the end he released it in the Soviet Union as a gesture of peace. The limited run of pressings meant it was soon fetching impressive prices on the Western grey market. All well and good, but is it any cop? It's much in the vein of Lennon's Rock and Roll. Fifties standards performed with love and respect. But these versions hardly add anything to the originals. Rather like a frame by frame remake of a classic movie, there's nothing new here, and I'd rather listen to Elvis doing 'Lawdy Miss Clawdy' or Little Richard doing 'Lucille'. There is just enough of McCartney in the performances that you can tell it's him, but it's just not enough to make it worthwhile. Maybe it can be written off as a vanity project, more so than Broad Street I'd say, since he seems to be doing it just because he can. And it's worth remembering that he didn't really seem serious about releasing it for the edification of his fan base. Back in the late eighties we all thought Soviet Russia was bread queues and getting out of your head on home-made vodka, and it probably was, so he deserves some credit for trying to engage with them.
Kansas City
Twenty Flight Rock
Lawdy Miss Clawdy
Bring It On Home To Me
Lucille
Don't Get Around Much Any More
That's All Right Mama
Ain't That A Shame
Crackin' Up
Midnight Special
FLOWERS IN THE DIRT
Release Date: 5th June 1989
Paul McCartney
It was three tracks into this that caused me to pause. Who was that doing a bad Bob Dylan impression (a tautology - all Bob Dylan impressions are, by their nature, bad)? Then I remembered that this comes from the period where McCartney was collaborating on songwriting with Elvis Costello, who is my mystery Dylan impersonator on 'You Want Her Too'. At the time there was quite a buzz around the prospect of a slew of McCartney/McManus songs with a sense that it could rival his work with Lennon, although probably the most successful thing to come out of it, both commercially and artstically, was Costello's 'Veronica' off his 'Spike' album. Which is not to say that the songs on here are inferior, far from it. I try to avoid talking about 'returns to form' to much. It's a cliche and it is always applied to the kind of artists I spent my precious time on. Anyway, McCartney had hardly lost form really, although he may have made some bad commercial decisions recently, but the online blurb around this album suggests it was received as a r.t.f. It's definitely classic Macca in the best possible way. Simple, catchy tunes that sound like they've been around forever. 'My Brave Face', 'Put It There', 'We Got Married' and 'This One' are easily as good as anything he's done before. Not so sure about the white-boy reggae of 'How Many People', a little too much like Prefab Sprout really. That track includes some Trevor Horn dabbling, as does 'Rough Ride' which has some stylistic similarities. 'Distractions' is a typical gentle McCartney musical musing on procrastination with one lyrical quibble, butterflies do not buzz around your head. They flutter, waft and occasionally glide, but they leave the buzzing to the bees. Third UK single 'Figure Of Eight' is great too although he does have a moment when he seems to struggle to force out the title phrase. There's even a kind of hymnal on 'That Day Is Done' which may be the one collaboration that most clearly shows Costello's influence. So a quiet triumph I'd say, although the partnership with Costello never really went on from here, the co-written 'The Lovers That Never Were' will turn up on the next one 'Off The Ground', but it still dates from this time. There is a demo of it included in the re-release of this which Costello seemingly rates as the best thing they did. McCartney sounds a bit too raw on it for me, but I think that is probably the point.
Side 1
My Brave Face
Rough Ride
You Want Her Too
Distractions
We Got Married
Put It There
Side 2
Figure Of Eight
This One
Don't Be Careless Love
That Day Is Done
How Many People
Motor Of Love
TRAVELING WILBURYS VOL. 3
Released: 29th October 1990
The Traveling Wilburys
This never quite caught the imagination like the first one did, although the formula is fairly consistent. Maybe it was the lack of Orbison that explained it. He added a slightly exotic touch to the rock stalwarts that made up the rest of the band. I seem to recall that there was talk of Del Shannon taking his place but then he upped and died too. Maybe I just imagined that anyway (although there is a version of 'Runaway' on the re-release). Middle aged men are frequently accused today of complaining that their youth is being ruined for them by the current climate of revelations of historical misdemeanors by men in the entertainment industry, and while on the one hand, I enjoyed this for it's pretty joyful, off-the-leash rock and roll fun aspects, you don't want to start analysing the lyrics too closely. George, Bob, Tom and Jeff are quite happy to blame all their woes on the women in their lives. '7 Deadly Sins' is a kind of economical version of '57 Ways To Leave Your Lover'. A leisurely doo-wop, that might steal a whole chord sequence from The Pretenders' '2000 Miles', and the message is, "Woman, you done me wrong". 'Poor House' starts with the pingiest steel guitar you ever heard, but, basically, she's shafting him through a messy divorce. 'Where Were You Last Night?' is an unspectacular rock blues and the title tells you all you need to know about the theme. And in the opening verse of 'Cool Dry Place' Tom is unhappy with his lot, and works his way to his woman, via his lawyer and doctor, who puts him in the titular location. On the other hand, if they'd released 'The Devil's Been Busy' in 2017, you might think they were being bitingly topical: "While you're strolling down the fairway; Showing no remorse; Glowing from the poisons; They've sprayed on your golf course; While you're busy sinking birdies; And keeping your scorecard; The devil's been busy in your back yard." is the opening verse. However, let's ignore the lyrics and attitudes, times move on, the ease of most of this music makes it stand up to multiple listens. The opening 'She's My Baby', 'New Blue Moon' and 'You Took My Breath Away' seem like effortless classics, and they finish with the utterly daft 'Wilbury Twist' which I think was supported by photos showing the moves in the sleeve notes. This time around they are Clayton, Spike, Boo and Muddy Wilbury. Wikipedia alleges that Harrison was the driving force and while they might have eventually reconvened his death in 2001 put paid to any further incarnations of the band.
She's My Baby
Inside Out
If You Belonged To Me
The Devil's Been Busy
7 Deadly Sins
Poor House
Where Were You Last Night
Cool Dry Place
New Blue Moon
You Took My Breath Away
Wilbury Twist
TIME TAKES TIME
Released: 29th June 1992
Ringo Starr
At the time of writing he's due to be dubbed Sir Richard Starkey for 'services to music'. Ahem. Well, I can only surmise that his reputation building comeback starts here. It's not an absurd assumption. He's just had the extremely good idea of The All-Starr Band, possibly inspired by George's work with the Wilburys. Wikipedia describes it as his 'critically acclaimed comeback album', and it is certainly miles better than the half dozen or so previous efforts. Ringo's great strength was always his little black book of rock and roll contacts, which occasionally salvaged his work from the effects of his terrible singing. Here the singing is still not much to write home about, but it's bland rather than actively annoying, and the songs around it are good and produced by an A-list stable of knob-twiddlers, not least ex-Beatle-rehabilitator-in-chief, Mr. Jeff Lynne, but also Don Was, Phil Ramone and Peter Asher. There's a strong start with 'Weight Of The World', a song so good I was staggered to learn that it's a Ringo original (although not written by him). 'Golden Blunders' capers along nicely and Lynne's trademark, easy-going 12-bar blues is all over 'After All These Years'. 'Runaways' too is a good song, but you can't help feeling it would be quite a lot better from another artist. So this definitely is a good comeback, however, the industry and the critics may have decided Ringo had spent enough time out in the cold, but the paying public weren't convinced and didn't think it was worth actually handing over money in order to possess it.
Weight Of The World
Don't Know A Thing About Love
Don't Go Where The Road Don't Go
Golden Blunders
All In The Name Of Love
After All These Years
I Don't Believe You
Runaways
In A Heart Beat
What Goes Around
OFF THE GROUND
Release Date: 2nd February 1993
Paul McCartney
The next effort by McCartney gleams with polish. As a follow up to Flowers In the Dirt it may have suffered in comparison at the time but for simple enjoyment it does the job. The sublime 'Hope For Deliverance' had me wrong-footed for a while. I knew he had contributed music to a recent video game franchise, Destiny and then it seemed that he had, in fact, just recycled this for the project. However the video game song was 'Hope For The Future' and was seemingly composed especially for a first-person shooter (I have male, teenage kids, I know the lingo). They aren't a million miles apart though. 'Mistress and Maid' is a leftover McCartney/McManus composition. There's a gentle acoustic folk guitar loop on the delicate 'I Owe It All To You' and some fairly satisfying pop doggerel on 'Biker Like An Icon'. 'Peace In The Neighbourhood' is a bit weak, it hangs around too long and goes nowhere. Not quite sure about the Kenny Loggins 'Footloose' guitar break in 'Get Out Of My Way' either, although it's a decent rocker. 'Golden Earth Girl' had me foxed lyrically. Why is he singing 'In Excelsis'? Time to look up the lyrics. Oh. it's 'Eggshell finish'. I would say that the scales (presumably from the 'fish in a sunbeam') have fallen from my eyes, but the significance of a reference to the paint he uses on his wooden banisters eludes me. Maybe I'm having a literal day. He has a fairly significant rant about animal testing in 'Looking for Changes'. The sentiment is rather obvious and, whilst it's easy to agree that vivisection should be avoided as much as possible, the idea, given in the song, that the people doing it are gaining malicious enjoyment from it seems to undermine his argument a little. He even uses a second-level swear word, so aroused is his ire. He finishes strongly albeit after the unremarkable plod that is 'Winedark Open Sea', 'CMon' People has a slight air of 'Hey Jude ' about it. A good slice of anthemic Macca. It's the early nineties so everyone is alive to the possibilities that CDs give for a hidden track. Here we get a snatch of 'Cosmically Conscious' which he apparently wrote in 1968 while hanging with the Maharishi. I like the artwork too. The dangling legs are Paul, Linda and the band.
Off The Ground
Looking For Changes
Hope Of Deliverance
Mistress and Maid
I Owe It All To You
Biker Like An Icon
Peace In The Neighbourhood
Golden Earth Girl
The Lovers That Never Were
Get Out Of My Way
Winedark Open Sea
C'Mon People
STRAWBERRIES OCEANS SHIPS FOREST
Release Date: 15th November 1993
The Fireman
So the story goes that Youth was drafted in by McCartney to do some remixes on the Off The Ground material, but as things went along a freer, dance/techno project evolved from the initial idea. The tracks here are presumably assembled from the material from the previous album. Now, this kind of stuff, while not necessarily an acquired taste - it could grab and captivate you on first hearing - is not necessarily everone's c. of t. For my part, I found it pleasant enough and interesting in places, but given the context in which I'm coming to this, which is that it's a progression of McCartney and his ex-colleagues over the years, I guess I'm looking to see where this has come from and where it is going. Can a recognizable McCartney presence be detected in it? Not really I'd say, which maybe exposes the superficial nature of how I approach things. Perhaps with more time I'd begin to detect the nuance and phrasing that shows this to be his work. This is repetitive, which is the intention and I get it, but it doesn't inspire me and I had it on while I was rebuilding some Lego models that had fallen apart and were creating a mess. It's pretty good for that. I think as an odyssey within an odysseys the four Fireman albums will be interesting in their own right. This is as much of its early-nineties time as Sergeant Pepper was of its late sixties time and these albums are spaced sufficiently to reflect the evolution of ambient and trance music over the past 25 years. Maybe Macca's stamp will emerge as we move along too. I understand the latest does feature vocals for the first time, so that will be a bit of a giveaway.
Transpiritual Stomp
Trans Lunar Rising
Transcrystalline
Pure Trance
Arizona Light
Celtic Stomp
Strawberries, Oceans, Ships, Forest
4-4-4
Sunrise Mix
FLAMING PIE
Released: 5th May 1997
Paul McCartney
Four years without any ex-Beatles output? Well, not quite. All the Beatles Anthology stuff was going on in the interim, a substantial enough project that none of the three survivors at the time were able to deliver products off their own bats. This almost feels like the completion of a trilogy that was started with Flowers In The Dirt and I'd be comfortable claiming that I don't reckon he'd put a foot wrong since 1988. This is solid, accomplished, quietly brilliant McCartney. His trademark is the effortless nature of his songs and he claimed that revisiting the Beatles material reminded him of some of the basics that had served them so well as a band. So 'Somedays', once again, recalls the simple melodies and sentiment of 'Yesterday' or 'Eleanor Rigby'. The singles almost fall into the category of forgotten classics. Why don't we hear 'The World Tonight' and 'Young Boy' on the radio more often? In fact the first five songs on this album (completed by 'The Song You Were Singing' and 'If You Wanna') may count as about the most perfect expression of all that McCartney is in one place. I'm getting tired of saying it, but they are songs which astonish because they feel so natural. You just end up thinking he must have ripped off an older song to achieve it, but when you try to think what it is, there's nothing you can clearly trace back to. Mind you, his collaboration with Steve Miller on 'Used To Be Bad' is very Steve Millerish indeed and I'm quite ashamed that it took me so long to place the voice. 'Calico Skies' is one of his 'should-be-but-isn't-a-Christmas-songs', simple, acoustic, but sort of ethereal. The title track disappoints a little, but only because it's a bit of a standard rock chugger and 'Really Love You' is a bit of a meh-moment, but there's nothing on here that he's ever likely to disown. 'Beautiful Night' is, in the best possible way, a Frankenstein's monster of various Beatly body parts, sort of Blackbird meets Your Mother Should Know via Lucy In the Sky. In short, I'm saying this is a good un.
The Song We're Singing
The World Tonight
If You Wanna
Somedays
Young Boy
Calico Skies
Flaming Pie
Heaven On A Sunday
Used To Be Bad
Souvenir
Little Willow
Really Love You
Beautiful Night
Great Day
VERTICAL MAN
Release Date: 16th June 1998
Ringo Starr
Sir Ringo continues to jealousy guard the musical gold that he forges from the base metal of his talent. This is yet another that is clearly too good for Spotify. So it's off to YouTube we go, although in this case there are a couple of complete playlists of the whole album, so the chore of listening to this is slightly alleviated. Needless to say it's not that great but it's not that awful either. In the early part of this post I was quite well disposed toward Ringo. He seemed to get that he needed to please the punters while the rest of them were disappearing up their own rear ends. Now, McCartney is being frustratingly, consistently brilliant and George has taken an extended leave of absence, which means that Ringo, at least, provides material that lends itself to withering despair. The Beatles legacy and much of their subsequent output just throws his efforts into sharp relief. The Ringo voice has not progressed, and he radiates boredom in everything, although I suspect he's actually having a whale of a time. Plus points; it's well produced and generally well performed, although the credibility of the old "Ringo's a much better drummer than people think" thing does get stretched. There's a lot of messy clattering going on in the background to my ear. There's a couple of cover versions here, not least 'Love Me Do' (yes that one), which is rendered as a drunken bar-room carouse, along with 'Drift Away', made famous by Dobie Williams. This latter illustrates his continuing star-pulling power as he has Tom Petty, Steven Tyler and Alanis Morissette helping out with the vocals. Paul and George help out as usual. A hoped-for side effect of the Beatles Anthology was that it might have introduced Ringo to a new, younger audience and so have a positive impact on the performance of this album. Well, you can lead a horse to water, but it doesn't mean you'll sell more than 2000 albums in the UK.
One
What In The...World
Mindfield
King Of Broken Hearts
Love Me Do
Vertical Man
Drift Away
I Was Walkin'
La De Da
Without Understanding
I'll Be Fine Anywhere
Puppet
I'm Yours
RUSHES
Released: 21st September 1998
The Fireman
The second installment of McCartney's ambient collaboration with Youth, five years on from the first is a more satisfying effort. The first album was quite uniform and seemed to be a series of developments on a theme. This is more varied, although if you can spot the transition from 'Watercolour Guitars' to 'Palo Verde' then you are doing better than me. It reminded me a lot of Mike Oldfield, with some Gorillaz thrown in. Influenced by one and influential on the other I'd say. Still not much in the way of vocals, although there are voices and other sorts of noises overlaying the synth loops. The Carnatic tinged 'Auraveda' made me think of the intro to Marillion's 'Assassing', but obviously never makes the jump into thumping beat that characterises that song, although I expected it to all the way through. 'Fluid' is very Tubular Bells (I) era Oldfield-ish, with a piano melody against a very clean but muted guitar sound (although it may well not actually be a guitar), this then mutates into 'Appletree Cinnabar Amber' which has parts which are like those twangy, springy bits in The War Of The Worlds - the Horsell Common and the Heat Ray bit. The voice samples do seem to be alien encounter accounts, so it may even be intentional.'Bison' is what made me think of Gorillaz, it's farty bass is very like the opening of 'O Green World' off the Demon Days album. The opening theme of 'Watercolour Guitars' is revisited at the end in 'Watercolour Rush'. It's relaxing, interesting enough and certainly more preferable than Ringo.
Watercolour Guitars
Palo Verde
Auraveda
Fluid
Appletree Cinnabar Amber
Bison
7 a.m.
Watercolour Rush
RUN DEVIL RUN
Release Date: 4th October 1999
Paul McCartney
Снова в СССР got a Rockodyssey approval rating around the 60% mark. In many ways this is more of the same, although there are 3 McCartney original compositions on here, the title track, 'Try Not To Cry' and 'What It Is'. However, this is a much more satisfying thing than that previous album. McCartney puts his heart and soul into these songs and makes you remember that, for all his songwriting craft, he has a pretty fearsome rock n' roll voice at his disposal. Maybe the passion in the performances is partly a response to the recent loss of Linda, but no-one came here for amateur psychology. The production, particularly on the opening 3 songs, 'Bluejean Bop', 'She Said Yeah' and 'All Shook Up' is thick and crunchy. His own 'Run Devil Run' seems to have been written, or at least placed, to fit with these, a helter-skeltering, Jerry-Lee style rocker with engine-revving guitars. He then slows things down with 'No Other Baby' and 'Lonesome Town' and 'Try Not To Cry'. Then we get a little sequence that is more broadly country-tinged, Carl Perkins' 'Movie Magg', a terrific version of Chuck Berry's 'Brown Eyed Handsome Man' given a zydeco makeover and then the slow southern boogie of 'What It Is'. So it's almost like he's saying, "here's some songs I love, and now here's my take". It sustains interest in a covers album, which always tend to be much less than the sum of their parts. For the remainder, he runs the gamut of rock n roll styles, but finds great examples to cover. Loved the Fats Domino-like 'Coquette' and it seems fairly likely that Macca would never have found an occasion to use the exclamation 'Landsakes!' had he not chosen to cover 'I Got Stung'. Furious flat out rock on 'Honey Hush' is followed by rock-soul howler 'Shake A Hand' and he finishes with the joyous 'Party'.
The drugstore on the cover is located in downtown Atlanta and there's some interesting background on it here.
Bluejean Bop
She Said Yeah
All Shook Up
Run Devil Run
No Other Baby
Lonesome Town
Try Not To Cry
Movie Magg
Brown Eyed Handsome Man
What It Is
Coquette
I Got Stung
Honey Hush
Shake A Hand
Party
I WANNA BE SANTA CLAUS
Release Date: 19th October 1999
Ringo Starr
At the fag end of the twentieth century, we were facing potential apocalypse as we suspected that no-one had thought to tell all the computers that there was a 100-year difference between the years 1900 and 2000. So it is unlikely that the world was holding its breath for the Ringo Starr Christmas Album. But Ringo obviously felt that he had something to offer to the doomed human race to see them through the final festive season. He starts off with the glam rock stomp of the title track of 'Come On Christmas, Christmas Come On', a remarkably successful effort since he basically just has to chant it. He applies the Chas n Dave East End knees up touch to 'Walking In A Winter Wonderland' before inexplicably tacking a doo-wop ending onto it. The title track is about as listless as a song could get, Christmas or otherwise, possibly designed to drive you to the back of the drinks cabinet and dig out the Advocaat. And then, what Christmas song could Ringo simply not have passed up? 'The Little Drummer Boy' of course. Ringo achieves a kind of portentous drone but does, at least, have the instrumental skills to add another dimension. The bagpipes may have been a step too far mind. 'Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer' is disappointingly flat, and Ringo's 'comedic' talky bits (and the sly change of "Rudolph" to "Ringo" at the end) didn't quite have me in festive stitches. 'Christmas Eve' is meant to be a melancholy reflection on a Christmas parted from the one you love, but it sounds like he's resorted to the sherry bottle as a coping strategy. 'The Christmas Dance' scores well for efficiency, and then there is a genuine little Christmas bonus from the dear old fella. 'Christmas Time (Is Here Again)' is actually a old Beatles song, that was released for the fan club. This is a re-recorded version for the album, but it's easily the best thing on here, even the bagpipes kind of work this time. He ups the slide guitar quotient on 'Blue Christmas' and follows it with his own unremarkable but undeniably seasonal 'Dear Santa'. Then there is calypso version of 'White Christmas'. Extraordinary. And finally, Christmas at the ashram with 'Pax Um Biscum (Peace Be With You)'. Best leave that kind of thing to George mate. The artwork redeems the project a little. Ringo The Grinch looking psychedelically jolly.
Come On Christmas, Christmas Come On
Winter Wonderland
I Wanna Be Santa Claus
The Little Drummer Boy
Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
Christmas Eve
The Christmas Dance
Christmas Time (Is Here Again)
Blue Christmas
Dear Santa
White Christmas
Pax Um Biscum (Peace Be With You)
DRIVING RAIN
Release Date: 12th November 2001
Paul McCartney
There's a lot of context around this album. Paul had started his relationship with Heather Mills. George Harrison was dying of a brain tumour and the world had been pretty much turned upside down by the attacks on the World Trade Center in September 2001. As stated before, this is not the place for amateur psychology, but there's a lot of stuff on this album which relates to his situation at the time and his reaction to events. So much of this is about his new relationship and, for the rest of us, hindsight is a wonderful thing. On the evidence of this, you can only conclude that he was fulfilled and happy with Heather Mills. Another good game to play is 'What Would John Lennon Say?'. If we assume that he was still around and a good friend to McCartney, then maybe he would have been casting some cynical doubts over whether committing to a new partner 25 years his junior so soon after losing someone like Linda, who so was so clearly a soul-mate, was a good idea. However, let's stick to the facts that the album presents to us. He starts with 'Lonely Road', a musical letter to Linda that also wrestles with the conflict of taking on a new partner and therefore offering yourself up to loss all over again. He follows it with 'From A Lover To A Friend', which also might be addressed to Linda. A request for permission to move on? Oh, and just as an aside, they're both great songs. 'She's Given Up Talking' once again, shows McCartney to be able to transform the simplest of melodies. This time it's 'Hush Little Baby' that has been McCartney-ized and even the opening to the subsequent title track could be accused of finding inspiration in "One, two, three, four, five; Once I caught a fish alive". 'I Do' is a classic McCartney ballad which manages to mix intimacy and the grandiose use of kettle drums, chime bars and a full brass section. As the album progresses it becomes more about Heather. 'Your Way' is a pretty simple country song which is a statement of happiness at his current state of affairs and 'Spinning On An Axis' is unremittingly optimistic. 'About You' and 'Heather' are directly addressed at the soon-to-be-missus. In the latter he sings that they will dance to a "runcible tune", but since I never quite got to the bottom of what a "runcible spoon" is, I can only guess at what this involves. The sentiments of 'Back In The Sunshine' and 'Your Loving Flame' are spelt out for all to see in their titles. 'Riding Into Jaipur' seems to come from leftfield however. What is it with the Beatles and these constant returns to sitars and tablas? All that business in the mid-sixties clearly left a lasting impression. Then, 'Rinse The Raindrops' comes on like Eminem's 'Lose Yourself', although there's no references to "Mom's spageddy". Tacked on the end of this is 'Freedom', which he wrote in response to the 9/11 attacks. You won't be surprised to hear that I consider Springsteen's The Rising to be definitive in this respect and McCartney's effort was subject to a little political misappropriation apparently. It wasn't on the original release, and rightly so, its a considerably worse fit than even 'Riding Into Jaipur'.
This does not seem to be a well-known nor even well regarded album (it didn't sell well and none of the singles would spring to mind as McCartney classics), and it could be rated as a Tottenham Hotspur of a musical effort - top half, consistently good with moments of brilliance, but probably not going to challenge for honours at the end of the day. Maybe McCartney was being looked at a little askance at the time, an old fool besotted by a much younger woman, and the subsequent messy fallout and divorce could detract from what he achieved here when you look back on it. But it's tender and open. Being Paul McCartney, or anyone with a degree of celebrity and fame, means that you put yourself and your life on show for everyone to comment on (including jaded amateur bloggers who have just come off the back of Ringo's latest abomination). Macca at least has the skills to make a great job of it, even if he was being sucked into what was to become a domestic nightmare.
Lonely Road
From A Lover To A Friend
She's Given Up Talking
Driving Rain
I Do
Tiny Bubble
Magic
Your Way
Spinning On An Axis
About You
Heather
Back In The Sunshine Again
Your Loving Flame
Riding Into Jaipur
Rinse The Raindrops
Freedom
BRAINWASHED
Released: 18th November 2002
George Harrison
George Harrison died on 29th November 2001, and his final years could have gone better for him. Knife assaults in his own home and a series of cancer diagnoses might have alerted him that his luck was running out. This album was released nearly a year later, but at least it does not seem to have been an exercise in building an artifice of the real George from the remaining scraps of his legacy (see some of the 'new' Anthology material, which does give the impression that the Lennon source material that it was built on was a bit thin). This was an intended album, finished off by his son Dhani and Jeff Lynne. However, it does suffer a bit from feeling like an attempt to produce 'l'essence du George'. It's very like what you would expect a George Harrison album to sound like. It's also rather close to The Travelling Wilburys Gold (or whatever arch title they would have given to their third album - just 'Wilburys' perhaps). That's partly the Lynne touch but also probably that the Wilburys were very much a Harrison/Lynne project anyway. There's an instrumental in 'Marwa Blues' but mainly it's fairly safe, tuneful, soft rock balladry. The ukulele cover of the old standard 'Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea' is interesting and engaging and rather pleasingly, the very last track on the very last George album, the title track 'Brainwashed', is sharp, funny and spiky (and surely a snook cocked at the afflication that would take his life) with a quite touching little coda of a Buddhist mantra at the end. Just as it should be.
At the time of writing I've been working through the ex-Beatles output for a solid 7 months. This is album number 59 of 70. In relation to the careers of these four men it's hardly any time at all, but I've developed some kind of superficial relationship with their work. When John went, he had made too many transgressions for me to feel any sense of grief, but there's a sadness about saying goodbye to George. The most surprising of the Beatles for certain, and, whilst McCartney is in a songwriting class of his own, George seemed to have that sensibility to produce just the right thing at the right time. All Things Must Pass was an incredible achievement, and the Wilburys were a joyous, shameless celebration of what rock dinosaurs still had to offer to the world. Now I'm left with show-off and big-nose.
At the time of writing I've been working through the ex-Beatles output for a solid 7 months. This is album number 59 of 70. In relation to the careers of these four men it's hardly any time at all, but I've developed some kind of superficial relationship with their work. When John went, he had made too many transgressions for me to feel any sense of grief, but there's a sadness about saying goodbye to George. The most surprising of the Beatles for certain, and, whilst McCartney is in a songwriting class of his own, George seemed to have that sensibility to produce just the right thing at the right time. All Things Must Pass was an incredible achievement, and the Wilburys were a joyous, shameless celebration of what rock dinosaurs still had to offer to the world. Now I'm left with show-off and big-nose.
Any Road
P2 Vatican Blues (Last Saturday Night)
Pisces Fish
Looking For My Life
Rising Sun
Marwa Blues
Stuck Inside a Cloud
Run So Far
Never Get Over You
Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea
Rocking Chair In Hawaii
Brainwashed
CHOOSE LOVE
Released: 7th June 2005
Ringo Starr
Maybe I'm just getting de-mob happy, I've only got 9 more albums to go after this one, but this and Ringo Rama before it have been perfectly fine albums. This may be a little forthright and unimaginative, but the opening 'Fading In And Out' is not only inoffensive but upbeat and cheery. I mean, he's playing his Beatle cards to the full, but who can blame him? 'Give Me Back The Beat' is so reminiscent of the fab four heyday that you kind of have to admire him for getting it so spot on, even considering who he is. 'Oh My Lord' lays on the rock organ (presumably Billy Preston) and choir to the full and is really quite joyous. There's a nice sixties jangle to 'Some People' and 'Choose Love' itself is heavily self referential with a clear 'Day Tripper' opening riff and mentions of 'The Long And Winding Road' among others. 'Wrong All The Time' stops just short of being maudlin and there's also a collaboration with Chrissie Hynde, 'Don't Hang Up', which has a rather disconcerting break right in the middle (Bugger! Has my bluetooth connection just gone?), as Chrissie, errm, hangs up the phone. No-one ever accused Ringo of being scared of the literal. It's not all slightly above average, 'Me And You' is a bit of a dirge and he won't give up the 'comedic' asides completely, but the closing 'Free Drinks' is almost..edgy?
The album photo brings me to address something that's been niggling me in the background about Ringo all this time. I follow him on Facebook, as a kind of nod to proper research, and he is invariably pictured flicking the V-sign and wishing us Peace and Love. I'm not sure why this puzzles me as much as it does, but it just seems a rather lame piece of schtick that he won't give up on.
RINGO RAMA
Released: 25th March 2003
Ringo Starr
It's quite curious when you listen to this above average Ringo album that you realize that he usually veers away from the personal in his songwriting, but his story and experience is sufficiently interesting that you'd expect him to suck every last morsel of marrow from it. On this album he manages to engage in ways that he so often hasn't before by concentrating on plundering his legacy. From the opening line of the first track 'Eye To Eye', "Remember when I said it don't come easy", through the unexpectedly touching Harrison tribute 'Never Without You', to the inclusion of parts of Paul's 'Let Em In' on 'English Garden', Ringo seeks to remind us that he was indeed part of the biggest, most influential band in the history of popular music. We could all probably do without the humorous asides that he peppers through the album though. Musically it's good too. A harder, rockier edge than what has gone before, with only the occasional club singer/open mic night compere number. One thing we can finally lay to rest however is that Ringo is no visionary. At the end of 'Elizabeth Reigns' he notes that he's now probably out of the running for a knighthood. Well it seems that if you hang around long enough then the British establishment will eventually disregard all transgressions, and in fact, the song itself is so literal that it could well be his pitch for recognition.
As usual, Ringo can snap his fingers and rock legends come running. Appropriately, Clapton does a magnificent turn on 'Never Without You' and he managed to secure a posthumous Orbison 'mercy' growl. Wikipedia alleges that it's on 'I Think Therefore I Rock And Roll', but I suspect it is wrong, because I only detected it on 'Memphis In Your Mind'. Willie Nelson helps out on an entry in one of Ringo's stronger musical genres, the country song 'Write One For Me'.
The last song is 'English Garden' in which he comes as close as he ever has to baring his soul, with a gentle and clearly loving reflection on his marriage and his dogs. I'm sure Barbara was fine sharing a song with Buster and Monty.
Eye To Eye
Missouri Loves Company
Instant Amnesia
Memphis In Your Mind
Never Without You
Imagine Me There
I Think Therefore I Rock And Roll
Trippin' On My Own Tears
Write One For Me
What Love Wants to Be
Love First, Ask Questions Later
Elizabeth Reigns
English Garden
Released: 7th June 2005
Ringo Starr
Maybe I'm just getting de-mob happy, I've only got 9 more albums to go after this one, but this and Ringo Rama before it have been perfectly fine albums. This may be a little forthright and unimaginative, but the opening 'Fading In And Out' is not only inoffensive but upbeat and cheery. I mean, he's playing his Beatle cards to the full, but who can blame him? 'Give Me Back The Beat' is so reminiscent of the fab four heyday that you kind of have to admire him for getting it so spot on, even considering who he is. 'Oh My Lord' lays on the rock organ (presumably Billy Preston) and choir to the full and is really quite joyous. There's a nice sixties jangle to 'Some People' and 'Choose Love' itself is heavily self referential with a clear 'Day Tripper' opening riff and mentions of 'The Long And Winding Road' among others. 'Wrong All The Time' stops just short of being maudlin and there's also a collaboration with Chrissie Hynde, 'Don't Hang Up', which has a rather disconcerting break right in the middle (Bugger! Has my bluetooth connection just gone?), as Chrissie, errm, hangs up the phone. No-one ever accused Ringo of being scared of the literal. It's not all slightly above average, 'Me And You' is a bit of a dirge and he won't give up the 'comedic' asides completely, but the closing 'Free Drinks' is almost..edgy?
The album photo brings me to address something that's been niggling me in the background about Ringo all this time. I follow him on Facebook, as a kind of nod to proper research, and he is invariably pictured flicking the V-sign and wishing us Peace and Love. I'm not sure why this puzzles me as much as it does, but it just seems a rather lame piece of schtick that he won't give up on.
Fading In And Out
Give Me Back The Beat
Oh My Lord
Hard To Be True
Some People
Wrong All The Time
Don't Hang Up
Choose Love
Me And You
Satisfied
Turnaround
Free Drinks
CHAOS AND CREATION IN THE BACKYARD
CHAOS AND CREATION IN THE BACKYARDReleased: 13th September 2005
Paul McCartney
It's a dog of a title for a terrific album. This is all quite low key and introspective, and so it feels quite heartfelt too. I was going to argue that it's pointless trying to second-guess what is going on in any artist's head on the basis of their output, but that's clearly nonsense, even the most humdrum office worker is affected in their professional life by the personal, so it's probably valid to note that the McCartney-Mills marriage was reaching it's final throes. However it's hard to detect any overriding mood on this. Possibly a little sad. 'How Kind Of You' and 'At The Mercy' are gently touching and 'Jenny Wren' is sweet and simple. He might be taking the piss out of his own tendency for whimsy on 'English Tea', but he absolutely nails the gentle latin beat of 'A Certain Softness'. There's a bitter undertone to the lyrics of 'Riding To Vanity Fair' - "The definition of friendship, apparently ought to be; Showing support for the one that you love; And I was open to friendship, but you don't seem to have any to spare; while you were riding to Vanity Fair". You could definitely see Sting covering it. 'Promise To You Girl' starts like a companion piece to 'In My Life', but it soon veers off into some light, up tempo piano work. The last two songs, third single 'This Never Happened Before' and 'Anyway' are both classy but a little dull.
All of the songs are stripped back, gawd knows what a Padgham would have done with it. McCartney plays most of the instruments too. The lushest is the opening track and first single 'Fine Line'. It just about tugs at the the back of my mind as a memory of it's original release, but then that might just be the assumed familiarity that you get with so many of McCartney's songs.
The cover picture is himself in his family backyard (note Americans, that 'backyards' are empty, with a hard surface and fences around them - anything which features greenery is probably a 'back garden') taken by his brother Mike, who you have to concede had a good eye for framing an image back then
Fine Line
How Kind Of You
Jenny Wren
At The Mercy
Friends To Go
English Tea
Too Much Rain
A Certain Softness
Riding To Vanity Fair
Follow Me
Promise To You Girl
This Never Happened Before
Anyway
MEMORY ALMOST FULL
Released: 4th June 2007
Paul McCartney
This sounds really fresh and innovative to me. Much of it is like McCartney and yet not quite him at the same time. His ear for a catchy tune is fully functioning, 'Ever Present Past' is a beautifully efficient light pop song, and if the opening 'Dance Tonight' is one of the most simple sounding things that he has ever come up with, then it just confirms his genius. He goes from flat out rocker 'Only Mama Knows' to torch song 'You Tell Me' in one seamless step. But the one that grabs you by the lapels is 'Mr Bellamy'. Choppy piano, 10cc 'Wall Street Shuffle' vocals and a lyrical theme somewhere along the lines of 'Harold The Barrel' (Perhaps. Apparently 'the fans' - a nebulous group at the best of times for any artist - thought it was about the d*i*v*o*r*c*e, which seems a stretch).
There's an alleged medley in the second half, going from Vintage Clothes, through to 'The End Of The End', although you could have fooled me, they sound like a succession of separate songs with no gap between them to my ear. There's a little Bowie riff in Vintage Clothes, it's either 'Queen Bitch' or 'Suffragette City' or maybe somewhere in between. He refers to "sweating cobwebs in the cellar" as he reminisces about his days in the Cavern on 'That Was Me', but I've always said "sweating cobs", with "cobs" referring to round bread rolls and therefore you would be sweating very large, round droplets. The internet backs me up, cobs are round things, but maybe Paul is deliberately playing with the phrase (the "cob" of cobwebs refers to the spider and its round body - here endeth the etymology lesson). 'Feet In The Clouds' manages a weird meshing of Beatlish psychedelia and electronica and 'House Of Wax' is as unsettling as its title suggests it might be, it's almost Waters-dominated-era Floyd. The final 'End Of The End' is much more conventional Macca, which is a relief, no-one wants to leave him in a Rodge frame of mind. Since the medley ends there, the final 'Nod Your Head' seems rather tacked-on, but it's fine in its own right, a fairly standard Macca rock screamer.
This came out on Starbuck's 'Hear Music' label, so maybe Paul suffered some anti-globalization backlash by association with the peddlers of bland coffee, and sales in Starbucks didn't count toward chart position, although it did OK in the UK and US charts at 5 and 3 respectively. Rubbish artwork.
Dance Tonight
Ever Present Past
See Your Sunshine
Only Mama Knows
You Tell Me
Mr. Bellamy
Gratitude
Vintage Clothes
That Was Me
Feet In The Clouds
House Of Wax
The End Of The End
Nod Your Head
LIVERPOOL 8
Released: 14th January 2008
Ringo Starr
As I approach the end, it becomes harder and harder to find something to say about Ringo's efforts - and I still have 3 more to get through before the end. He has at least settled into a level of unobjectionable competence in his output, but the same problems remain. Can't sing, thinks he's funny, living on past glories. The opening title track is actually classic Ringo, a pedestrian plod through the history of Ringo, reminiscing on his time with Rory Storm, the Hamburg days and the height of Beatlemania. But he never forgot his roots see? So the song is all about his love for his home city, which explains why he has homes in Surrey, LA and Monte Carlo, and none in Dingle, L8. It finishes with what amounts to a football chant, which sent me on a little voyage of discovery regarding the Beatles team preferences. After exhaustive research involving putting "Ringo Starr football team" into Google and and going to the top answer, I can report that Macca's nose is blue and George is quoted as follows, "There are 3 teams in Liverpool and I prefer the other one", which is actually ambiguous enough to either mean he's just not interested or he leans toward Tranmere Rovers (I'm not convinced they really count. Merseyside, yes, but Liverpool?). Lennon was notionally red, but of course, with him, there's a whole mystery that has been built up around something he scribbled once. There's a sketch on the Walls And Bridges artwork of the 1952 Newcastle - Arsenal FA Cup Final and debate has raged ever since (scroll up if you can be bothered). As for the Liverpool-loving Ringo? North London's Arsenal most likely. If you want to explore football tribalism among musicians, I got all of that from here. So I've written a good chunk of stuff and haven't really had to discuss the album yet. I'm doing well. Ringo often sings as if his voice is stretched to the limit, the problem being is that his limit lies quite close to his centre, but generally I think these songs are actually mostly quite good. Take 'Harry's Song' for example, an amiable, lounge singer plod that would probably sound quite good in the hands of a Connick or Buble (or maybe Roger Whitaker, there's some whistling at the end that would suit him down to the ground. That's immediately followed by 'Pasodobles', which is in fact a rumba, of course, but is well performed by the musicians. He finishes on a strong point, a little bluegrass ditty called 'R U Ready?'. He was always quite good at that stuff.
Liverpool 8
Think About You
For Love
Now That She's Gone Away
Gone Are The Days
Give It A Try
Tuff Love
Harry's Song
Pasodobles
If It's Love That You Want
Love Is
R U Ready?
ELECTRIC ARGUMENTS
Released: 24th November 2008
The Fireman
We're down to two remaining Beatles and it's worth taking a moment to consider how they are building on the legacy of long careers that started with an extraordinary period in which they pretty much defined popular music culture to the present day. Ringo is churning out unremarkable and frankly quite lazy rock and roll with lyrical content that shows he is happy to live on past glories. Paul, on the other hand produces this at the age of 66, possibly the most inventive and interesting thing that any of them has done since Revolver. The first two Fireman albums left me a little nonplussed. I'd been encouraged to include them, but they didn't seem to be a true part of the McCartney story. More of a side project and collaboration that was mostly of interest to himself.
However this is a completely different proposition and it goes beyond the fact that for the first time McCartney sings on it. The opening 'Nothing Too Much, Just Out Of Sight' seems like a statement of intent, jumping out of nowhere to assault with a crazed, scratchy blues. It's almost as if he's trying to capture some of the larynx-scorching style of those early performances in Hamburg. It has to be said that the running order of the album makes it seem like he recorded the next track, 'Two Magpies' straight afterwards, because his vocal cords sound knackered. The acoustic guitar and brushed drums sound great though, not really something you'd expect Youth to be involved with. Then he gives us a soaring, chiming, jubilant 'Sing The Changes' - yet another McCartney composition that sounds so familiar that it might have been around on the ark. It's the sort of thing U2 wish they could come up with. He veers off into ethereal folkiness on 'Travelling Light' before lurching back to Weller-esque rock-funk on 'Highway' and then going on to ramshackle gospel-blues on 'Light From Your Lighthouse'. But the magic of it is, that none of it feels disjointed or that it doesn't flow, and it all sounds like McCartney simply coming up with something new. And they aren't soundscapes, they are proper songs. Maybe Youth was happy to push the ambient stuff to one side and make way for the master on this one? Or at least the balance is different here, Macca almost certainly would not have come up with anything like this without him.
Probably the most 'ambient' tracks are 'Universal Here, Everlasting Now', 'Lovers In A Dream' and 'Lifelong Passion' but even the latter is more like a modern secular hymn. There's simple pop on 'Sun Is Shining' (is it a coincidence that this and another song, 'Is This Love' share titles with Bob Marley songs?) and there's definitely a Spector-ish feel to the transcendent 'Dance Til We're High'. It finishes with the African-chant-tinged 'Don't Stop Running' (with hidden track tacked on the end). The whole thing is a triumph really and could well be his best post-Beatles effort, Band On The Run notwithstanding.
However this is a completely different proposition and it goes beyond the fact that for the first time McCartney sings on it. The opening 'Nothing Too Much, Just Out Of Sight' seems like a statement of intent, jumping out of nowhere to assault with a crazed, scratchy blues. It's almost as if he's trying to capture some of the larynx-scorching style of those early performances in Hamburg. It has to be said that the running order of the album makes it seem like he recorded the next track, 'Two Magpies' straight afterwards, because his vocal cords sound knackered. The acoustic guitar and brushed drums sound great though, not really something you'd expect Youth to be involved with. Then he gives us a soaring, chiming, jubilant 'Sing The Changes' - yet another McCartney composition that sounds so familiar that it might have been around on the ark. It's the sort of thing U2 wish they could come up with. He veers off into ethereal folkiness on 'Travelling Light' before lurching back to Weller-esque rock-funk on 'Highway' and then going on to ramshackle gospel-blues on 'Light From Your Lighthouse'. But the magic of it is, that none of it feels disjointed or that it doesn't flow, and it all sounds like McCartney simply coming up with something new. And they aren't soundscapes, they are proper songs. Maybe Youth was happy to push the ambient stuff to one side and make way for the master on this one? Or at least the balance is different here, Macca almost certainly would not have come up with anything like this without him.
Probably the most 'ambient' tracks are 'Universal Here, Everlasting Now', 'Lovers In A Dream' and 'Lifelong Passion' but even the latter is more like a modern secular hymn. There's simple pop on 'Sun Is Shining' (is it a coincidence that this and another song, 'Is This Love' share titles with Bob Marley songs?) and there's definitely a Spector-ish feel to the transcendent 'Dance Til We're High'. It finishes with the African-chant-tinged 'Don't Stop Running' (with hidden track tacked on the end). The whole thing is a triumph really and could well be his best post-Beatles effort, Band On The Run notwithstanding.
Nothing Too Much, Just Out Of Sight
Two Magpies
Sing The Changes
Travelling Light
Highway
Light From Your Lighthouse
Sun Is Shining
Dance 'Til We're High
Lifelong Passion
Is This Love?
Lovers In A Dream
Universal Here, Everlasting Now
Don't Stop Running
The significant facts in the Wikipedia entries get weaker and weaker for Ringo with every album. In this case "In the US, the release of the album perpetuated the fact that The Beatles, either as a group, or as solo artists, have released or charted at least one song or album every calendar year since 1964.". Well whoop-de-doo. Really Ringo, you shouldn't have bothered just to keep the unbroken line intact. However, this meets the acceptance criteria for a modern Starr solo album - it's not awful and actually has some nice moments, thanks mainly to the guest stars which include his old mucker Macca playing bass on 'Peace Dream' and singing on 'Walk With You' (I swear that he's stolen the Thomas The Tank Engine and Friends theme tune in the middle of that one) and Joss Stone on the marginally creepy 'Who's Your Daddy'. On this last, the 22-year old Stone quite understandably rejects romantic advances from the 60-year old Starr with lines such as "You gave me chicken wings, But baby I want solid rings". The old smoothie.'Everyone Wins', 'Mystery Of The Night' and 'Can't Do It Wrong' are all perfectly acceptable. The title track is a bit of a rock plodder that incorporates an Indian female vocal but is fine too. So overall this one is OK, and at least he keeps his hands in his pockets on the cover photo.
Y NOT
Released: 12th January 2010
Ringo Starr
Ringo has this idea for a song. He originates from Liverpool, you see, maybe you didn't know that, and he spent a lot of his early life ligging around in various bands on Merseyside learning his drumming craft. Wouldn't it be great to write a song about that? I don't think he's tried that before has he? Oh well, just in case he has, and to set it apart, he can call it 'The Other Side Of Liverpool'. That might lead the listener into thinking that he has some new insight to share. I could have looked up who Dave, Roy, Eddy and Brian Briscoe were, but well, I'm just not really interested. And your dad leaving you and your barmaid mum when you were three is sad, but it worked out alright in the end didn't it?
The significant facts in the Wikipedia entries get weaker and weaker for Ringo with every album. In this case "In the US, the release of the album perpetuated the fact that The Beatles, either as a group, or as solo artists, have released or charted at least one song or album every calendar year since 1964.". Well whoop-de-doo. Really Ringo, you shouldn't have bothered just to keep the unbroken line intact. However, this meets the acceptance criteria for a modern Starr solo album - it's not awful and actually has some nice moments, thanks mainly to the guest stars which include his old mucker Macca playing bass on 'Peace Dream' and singing on 'Walk With You' (I swear that he's stolen the Thomas The Tank Engine and Friends theme tune in the middle of that one) and Joss Stone on the marginally creepy 'Who's Your Daddy'. On this last, the 22-year old Stone quite understandably rejects romantic advances from the 60-year old Starr with lines such as "You gave me chicken wings, But baby I want solid rings". The old smoothie.'Everyone Wins', 'Mystery Of The Night' and 'Can't Do It Wrong' are all perfectly acceptable. The title track is a bit of a rock plodder that incorporates an Indian female vocal but is fine too. So overall this one is OK, and at least he keeps his hands in his pockets on the cover photo.
Fill In The Blanks
Peace Dream
The Other Side Of Liverpool
Walk With You
Time
Everyone Wins
Mystery Of The Night
Can't Do It Wrong
Y Not
Who's Your Daddy
RINGO 2012
Released 31st January 2012
Ringo Starr
Calling this album Ringo 2012, suggests this is a continuation of the work of a much respected and loved artist, but re-booted and brought up to date for a new audience. Think Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049. Well, don't be deceived. I feel slightly icky and appalled at myself that I've even come close to drawing a parallel between Ringo and Scott's masterpiece. Just so we can be clear that this is, in no way, a reinvention, there is a song about, can you guess? Growing up and his early career 'In Liverpool'. And he starts with a straight chant of his rather tiresome 'Peace And Love' manifesto with 'Anthem' See that tin? See what it says on it? Can you guess what's inside? But, like all these later Ringo albums, it falls short of being awful. 'Think It Over' is a perfectly good piece of surf pop (although the subsequent 'Samba' is rather more Southend Pier than Big Sur) and if 'Rock Island Line' seems like a pale imitation of Lonnie Donegan's skiffle classic, 'Cumberland Gap', I guess we at least have to admit that Ringo is old enough to justify doing it. 'Step Lightly' might be an attempt at the lightest of light ska. Who knows? Ringo contrives to baffle by being utterly obvious. I did quite like 'Wonderful', which is upbeat and catchy. The inevitable trip down Memory Lane that is 'In Liverpool' did actually have me scanning back through the track listings of his last few albums just to check that he simply hadn't had another go at one of his previous songs, but no, Ringo feels that there are new angles and memories that can be mined. He's a bit less specific on this one than he has been before, focusing on the whole 'following my musical dreams' side of things. But the most disappointing thing about this album? He's back to the Victory V signs on the cover.
Anthem
Wings
Think It Over
Samba
Rock Island Line
Step Lightly
Wonderful
In Liverpool
Slow Down
KISSES ON THE BOTTOM
Released: 7th February 2012
Paul McCartney
It's quite difficult to see what McCartney was trying to achieve with this. His twin assets are a great rock and roll voice and almost peerless songwriting ability, and this serves neither of them. It's not as if there was a need to introduce these kind of songs to a new generation, and with all due respect, if you did feel that such a need existed then Paul McCartney might not be your top pick for old-standard-bearer. His fan base will have known them already, so unless you wanted this particular collection of songs sung not quite as well as the originals, you'd be better off looking up Crosby, Sinatra and Kaye and compiling a playlist. McCartney is no crooner, which is perhaps the style of singing with the biggest differential between how easy it sounds and how difficult is actually is. It's all played utterly straight - low key jazz, throaty double bass, brushed drums and tinkling piano - but there are only odd occasions where McCartney doesn't sound like he's struggling. 'My Valentine' and 'The Glory Of Love' are OK for example but elsewhere there are a lot of songs, like 'The Inch Worm' and 'Home (When Shadows Fall)' that sound like he's stretching for too a high a vocal register and exposing his ageing vocal cords. I'm not keen on the name of the album either. It's taken from the lyrics of the opening 'I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter', but taking it out of context and naming this collection after it seems rather schoolboyish and completely out of keeping with the tone, which, if nothing else is sincere and respectful.
I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter
Home (When Shadows Fall)
It's Only A Paper Moon
More I Cannot Wish You
The Glory Of Love
We Three (My Echo, My Shadow And Me)
Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive
My Valentine
Always
My Very Good Friend The Milkman
Bye Bye Blackbird
Get Yourself Another Fool
The Inch Worm
Only Our Hearts
POSTCARDS FROM PARADISE
Released: 31st March 2015
Ringo Starr
This is his 18th studio album (despite it feeling otherwise, he hasn't been the most prolific of the four, that's Paul with 24, but then he's had a lot of different incarnations along the way) and I believe I've finally worked it out. I think he's actually just waiting for the jukebox musical of his post Beatles legacy to be green-lit. It'll be called Ringo! and will focus heavily on the early Liverpool years. There's plenty of material. This one starts off with more Ringo-centric nostalgia, 'Rory And The Hurricanes'. It's all about being on the road, picking up girls and playing the drums. Insightful. The other recurring Ringo trait is leveraging the reflected glory of his more able former bandmates. So the lyrics of the one-note title track is effectively a list of loads of Beatles songs (admittedly he does chuck in 'Back Off Boogaloo") in which his contribution amounted to supplying the beat.
A by-product of how I do this that when you get to the end of the album-proper, Spotify switches over to artist radio, and the first track is always an old one from the act you've just been listening to. It often reminds you that Ringo did once have a clue and was holding his own against the other Beatles. Latterly though, he's been content to work off the back of his All-Starr Band projects and line up great musicians to play on his below average solo output. Actually selling albums appears to be a non-starter as far as he's concerned, this one performed best in Spain, where it reached the heady heights of number 88. But, he's allowed to please himself, it's my own fault for committing to listening to every one of his albums and, whilst not spectacular, songs like 'Not Looking Back' are sufficiently heartfelt that you can forgive him. 'Island In the Sun' is even a reasonably well executed reggae track. The backing musicians are, as always, great as well. Utterly wasted on this, but great nonetheless. Regular collaborators Dave Stewart and Todd Rundgren put in a shift and our old mate Peter Frampton also turns up.
NEW
Released: 14th October 2013
Paul McCartney
It's a relief that I'm waving goodbye to Paul McCartney for now on what is an absolutely cracking album that represents the best of what he is capable of. Kisses On The Bottom was hardly a disaster, but it wasn't a showcase for what makes him so special. Wikipedia tantalisingly indicates TBA 2018 as the next studio album in his chronology, so maybe I'll be adding to this later this year. This sounds exactly like Paul McCartney should sound like in the present day. 'On My Way To Work' for example combines a kind of everyday, everyman touch with a combination of lush chugging in the style of Pink Floyd's 'Learning To Fly' and an uplifting anthemic feel. He taps into the distant past with songs like 'Queenie Eye' and especially the title track, which would be happily placed on any album by the Beatles. He's clearly picked his producers well too, Mark Ronson, Ethan Johns, Paul Epworth and Giles Martin are almost the antithesis of the likes of Padgham and Lilywhite who were operating in the eighties and graffiti-ing their own style over everything. They seem to genuinely have the artist's best interests at heart - producing something that truly represents the person they are working for. The Johns produced songs tend toward the epic and echo-ey while Ronson plays things quite straight. He draws on his recent ambient Fireman adventures on songs like 'Appreciate' and 'Looking At Her'. Still gently experimenting at the age of 70. It's more than you can say for Ringo when he was 30. One small point, the album cover says MEW doesn't it?
So McCartney's part in this story finally ends, but he's in good nick. I can personally attest to the fact that he could still scream out 'I Saw Her Standing There' only last November. Even though Lennon was dismissive of his 'granny songs', it's been apparent throughout his career that he has an ear for a melody that cannot be matched and he's continued to innovate even in the later part of his career.
Save Us
Alligator
On My Way To Work
Queenie Eye
Early Days
New
Appreciate
Everybody Out There
Hosanna
I Can Bet
Looking At Her
Road
Scared (Hidden Track)
Released: 31st March 2015
Ringo Starr
This is his 18th studio album (despite it feeling otherwise, he hasn't been the most prolific of the four, that's Paul with 24, but then he's had a lot of different incarnations along the way) and I believe I've finally worked it out. I think he's actually just waiting for the jukebox musical of his post Beatles legacy to be green-lit. It'll be called Ringo! and will focus heavily on the early Liverpool years. There's plenty of material. This one starts off with more Ringo-centric nostalgia, 'Rory And The Hurricanes'. It's all about being on the road, picking up girls and playing the drums. Insightful. The other recurring Ringo trait is leveraging the reflected glory of his more able former bandmates. So the lyrics of the one-note title track is effectively a list of loads of Beatles songs (admittedly he does chuck in 'Back Off Boogaloo") in which his contribution amounted to supplying the beat.
A by-product of how I do this that when you get to the end of the album-proper, Spotify switches over to artist radio, and the first track is always an old one from the act you've just been listening to. It often reminds you that Ringo did once have a clue and was holding his own against the other Beatles. Latterly though, he's been content to work off the back of his All-Starr Band projects and line up great musicians to play on his below average solo output. Actually selling albums appears to be a non-starter as far as he's concerned, this one performed best in Spain, where it reached the heady heights of number 88. But, he's allowed to please himself, it's my own fault for committing to listening to every one of his albums and, whilst not spectacular, songs like 'Not Looking Back' are sufficiently heartfelt that you can forgive him. 'Island In the Sun' is even a reasonably well executed reggae track. The backing musicians are, as always, great as well. Utterly wasted on this, but great nonetheless. Regular collaborators Dave Stewart and Todd Rundgren put in a shift and our old mate Peter Frampton also turns up.
Rory And The Hurricanes
You Bring The Party Down
Bridges
Postcards From Paradise
Right Side Of The Road
Not Looking Back
Bamboula
Island In The Sun
Touch And Go
Confirmation
Let Love Lead
GIVE MORE LOVE
Released: 15th September 2017
Ringo Starr
It's kind of appropriate that it is Ringo with whom I limp over the finish line of this marathon. Tired and weary, 8 months on from when it seemed like a good idea to run through the entire post-Beatles output, I've portrayed Ringo as the lame duck of the foursome. Predictable, not a very good singer, reliant on both his rock and roll buddies and his early career to justify his continuing output. All that is fair as far as I'm concerned, but I'm determined not to finish this on a note as bum as most of Ringo's sung ones. So even if this was terrible, I'd be looking for redeeming features. Fortunately it probably ranks as one of his better albums, not a sow's ear, and so while a silk purse may be out of the question, a sturdy, fine leather wallet might just be possible. He offers me choices too, so I can either choose to play on the track 'Laughable' ("It would be laughable if it wasn't sad") or the title track "Give More Love". While it's tempting to take the dolly-drop that Ringo serves me with the former and smash it out of the park, I'm going to follow the advice of the latter. It's also like a reunion of all the old lags as well, so Dave Stewart, Frampton, Don Was, Jeff Lynne and, yes, Paul McCartney are back again to lend a hand. Although they're never billed as such, these last few albums are pretty much All-Starr Band studio albums anyway. There's a nice mix of styles too, from a rather good poodle-rock-out in the opening 'On The Road Again' (whoever is doing the Kiss-style backing vocals - could be Joe Walsh or Steve Lukather or possibly even Macca himself, but my money is on Edgar Winter - does a great job) through maudlin ballads like 'Show Me The Way', light blues MOR driving songs like 'Speed Of Sound' - featuring perhaps the return of Frampton's voice box thingy (why keep a dog and bark yourself?) and Ringo's personal forte, C&W ('Standing Still' and pedal steel guitar heavy 'So Wrong For So Long')
'King Of The Kingdom' is a bit of an oddity. Hefty on the wah-wah pedal and guitar chops, it seems to start as a straight love song (although why you'd describe a woman as a 'King' is slightly puzzling), but then goes down a completely different route and becomes a tribute to Bob Marley. As ever, Ringo shows no shame in pillaging the lyrics of 'One Love'.
Oh, and of course, we get a song about being in Rory And The Hurricanes in the early days in Liverpool, 'Electricity'. I guess he must be keen to remind us that he had a life before Beatlemania. Maybe in his mind he was the experienced old hand who guided John, Paul and George through the minefield of being a young band in the early sixties (and maybe there's some truth in it too). I'm not entirely sure who he is referring to as "Johnny Guitar" though.
The very last song on this particular odyssey (for now) is the title track of this album. It's kind of appropriate, at least from Ringo's point of view since it summarizes his oft-repeated "Peace and Love" manifesto. He doubles down on it with the cover art as well. No V-sign thankfully but plenty of CND symbols. Do you think he had to stand there while they wrote all that stuff on the wall behind him? When he walked away there must have been a Ringo-shaped space left over. Just like there will be in my life from now on.
WHAT'S MY NAME
Released 18th December 2020
'King Of The Kingdom' is a bit of an oddity. Hefty on the wah-wah pedal and guitar chops, it seems to start as a straight love song (although why you'd describe a woman as a 'King' is slightly puzzling), but then goes down a completely different route and becomes a tribute to Bob Marley. As ever, Ringo shows no shame in pillaging the lyrics of 'One Love'.
Oh, and of course, we get a song about being in Rory And The Hurricanes in the early days in Liverpool, 'Electricity'. I guess he must be keen to remind us that he had a life before Beatlemania. Maybe in his mind he was the experienced old hand who guided John, Paul and George through the minefield of being a young band in the early sixties (and maybe there's some truth in it too). I'm not entirely sure who he is referring to as "Johnny Guitar" though.
The very last song on this particular odyssey (for now) is the title track of this album. It's kind of appropriate, at least from Ringo's point of view since it summarizes his oft-repeated "Peace and Love" manifesto. He doubles down on it with the cover art as well. No V-sign thankfully but plenty of CND symbols. Do you think he had to stand there while they wrote all that stuff on the wall behind him? When he walked away there must have been a Ringo-shaped space left over. Just like there will be in my life from now on.
We're On The Road Again
Laughable
Show Me The Way
Speed Of Sound
Standing Still
King Of The Kingdom
Electricity
So Wrong For So Long
Shake It Up
Give More Love
All done. It took over 8 months at a rate of 2-3 albums per week. I look for musical progression and for that, McCartney wins hands down, although he does have the advantage of longevity. Lennon leaves lots of unasked questions about what he would have eventually done and what part he might have played in the world in the years since his death. George seems almost tragic. From the start he was always not just the Quiet One, but the Underrated One too. 'All Things Must Pass' may be the best album of all in this list - and he got it off his chest very early on in the story. And Ringo? I nearly left him out altogether, but his contribution had value in the end, even if it was just for comic relief.
EGYPT STATION
Released: 7th September 2018
Paul McCartney
These blog posts are never completely done, and with Macca and Ringo still on active duty it was inevitable I'd have to add to it eventually. This was released nearly 5 years after McCartney's previous album 'New', so he's certainly slowed the pace but I'm pleased to report he hasn't lost his touch, even down to the fact that I was kind of ambivalent about it to start with - it seemed like he was playing it well within his abilities - and then bgan to realize that it was all extremely enjoyable stuff which, as usual feels effortless. Stick with it and it will inevitably grow on you in the way only a Paul McCartney album can.
So we have fairly meaningless party chants ('Come On To Me' and 'Fuh You'), simple-sounding ditties ('Happy With You' and 'Confidante'), the odd blues-rocker ('Who Cares') and stuff that wouldn't disgrace his former band ('Dominoes'). There's even a bit of woozy pschedelia in 'Caesar Rock'. Macca still can't resist a cobbled together medley though, presumably just to hoover up the scraps of some songs he couldn't quite get finished, so 'Despite Repeated Warnings' goes off in a different direction at least 3 times in the course of it's seven minute running time (I jest - it all hangs together just fine).
The whole thing is sort of bookended by some short instrumentals 'Opening Station' and 'Station II', but don't despair, although he has claimed it is a concept album, it wears that mantle quite lightly. I say "sort of" because he loses his nerve after 'Station II' and adds on yet another composite song, 'Hunt You Down/Naked/C-Link' which also comes in at a hefty 6:22.
One thing that can't be denied is that the Macca voice isn't quite what it was. He's a bit croaky, and those high notes on 'Hand In Hand' sound like a struggle, but in fairness he doesn't make much concession and still tries to belt them out when the song calls for it.
As a little aside, I mentioned above in the Gone Troppo piece that I saw McCartney come on and do 'I Saw Her Standing There' with Little Steven and The Disciples Of Soul at the Camden Roundhouse in November 2017, so here's that performance just to show that there's life in the old dog yet.
Released: 7th September 2018
Paul McCartney
These blog posts are never completely done, and with Macca and Ringo still on active duty it was inevitable I'd have to add to it eventually. This was released nearly 5 years after McCartney's previous album 'New', so he's certainly slowed the pace but I'm pleased to report he hasn't lost his touch, even down to the fact that I was kind of ambivalent about it to start with - it seemed like he was playing it well within his abilities - and then bgan to realize that it was all extremely enjoyable stuff which, as usual feels effortless. Stick with it and it will inevitably grow on you in the way only a Paul McCartney album can.
So we have fairly meaningless party chants ('Come On To Me' and 'Fuh You'), simple-sounding ditties ('Happy With You' and 'Confidante'), the odd blues-rocker ('Who Cares') and stuff that wouldn't disgrace his former band ('Dominoes'). There's even a bit of woozy pschedelia in 'Caesar Rock'. Macca still can't resist a cobbled together medley though, presumably just to hoover up the scraps of some songs he couldn't quite get finished, so 'Despite Repeated Warnings' goes off in a different direction at least 3 times in the course of it's seven minute running time (I jest - it all hangs together just fine).
The whole thing is sort of bookended by some short instrumentals 'Opening Station' and 'Station II', but don't despair, although he has claimed it is a concept album, it wears that mantle quite lightly. I say "sort of" because he loses his nerve after 'Station II' and adds on yet another composite song, 'Hunt You Down/Naked/C-Link' which also comes in at a hefty 6:22.
One thing that can't be denied is that the Macca voice isn't quite what it was. He's a bit croaky, and those high notes on 'Hand In Hand' sound like a struggle, but in fairness he doesn't make much concession and still tries to belt them out when the song calls for it.
As a little aside, I mentioned above in the Gone Troppo piece that I saw McCartney come on and do 'I Saw Her Standing There' with Little Steven and The Disciples Of Soul at the Camden Roundhouse in November 2017, so here's that performance just to show that there's life in the old dog yet.
Opening Station
I Don't Know
Come On To Me
Happy With You
Who Cares
Fuh You
Confidante
People Want Peace
Hand In Hand
Dominoes
Back In Brazil
Do It Now
Caesar Rock
Despite Repeated Warnings
Station II
Hunt You Down/Naked/C-Link
Released 25th October 2019
Ringo Starr
At the time of writing (the arse end of 2020) Paul McCartney has just released McCartney II, so I knew I had to update the Solo Beatles post, which I had last revisited for Macca's 2018 'Egypt Station'. But hold on, I thought, Ringo isn't dead yet. It's possible he snuck out a new offering in the interim. It would be true to form after all. It has to be said that I normally do not go out actively seeking new Ringo albums. Imagine my dismay when I discovered he'd knocked out another in October 2019, so now I have to give it the once-over before the much more edifying task of considering McCartney III.
McCartney is on this too, doing bass and backing vocals on a cover of Lennon's 'Grow Old With Me' from Milk and Honey. Ringo sucks out whatever life was in the original song with his usual aplomb. In fact this is a Ringo-ish an album as he's ever done. It sounds lazy and half baked.
One might also suspect that the veteran v-signer has been taking inspiration from Mr. Springsteen in his song titles. We have both 'Magic' and 'Better Days' on this, and they aren't covers. There's ahint of E-Streety-ness on the arrangement of 'Send Love Spread Peace' bu the similarity goes no further than that. 'Money (That's What I Want)' is a cover but Ringo's unique take seems to be to apply autotune to his voice. Not a bad idea in itself but it's hardly going to introduce the song to a new generation.
'Life Is Good' plays like a geriatric version of Blondie's 'Maria' as it limps along and he plays well within his limits on the utterly uninspirational 'Thank God For Music'. They are kind of like the renditions of modern pop hits that Peter Glaze and Don McLean used to do in the sketch at the end of Crackerjack. And you'll never guess the sung repsonse to the question in the title track 'What's My Name'.
The musicianship is fine, he's got all his old cronies on the case after all, but he really doesn't need to be doing this any more and it begs the question of who actually buys it?
Gotta Get Up to Get Down
It's Not Love That You Want
Grow Old with Me
Magic
Money (That's What I Want)
Better Days
Life Is Good
Thank God for Music
Send Love Spread Peace
What's My Name
McCARTNEY III
Paul McCartney
So the rationale behind this being a completion of the McCartney trilogy is that he recorded at home and played all the instruments on I and II and since he does the same here it forms a set. That sort of makes sense, but you don't get the impression that he planned it that way back in 1970 (and he did much the same on some of the intervening albums too). You could also think that they are linked by being recorded amid turbulent times. McCartney I followed the Beatles break-up and McCartney II was in the midst of the dissolution of Wings. The approach taken to McCartney III has been dictated by Coronavirus although his explanation has tended toward that he was just mucking around at home and the album kind of emerged.
Whatever the reasons, it's something of a corker. He may be reaching back to his work as The Fireman, he's happy enough to play around with beats and slightly trancy repeated lyrics, as in the eight and a half minute 'Deep Deep Feeling' and 'Deep Down'
He's also happy to go right back to the kind of stuff he was doing in the mid-sixties when he was in a band. 'Lavatory Lil' sounds like a Beatles song in every sense. While 'Women and Wives' resembles a latter day Johnny Cash song.
The falsetto on songs like 'The Kiss Of Venus' exposes his age a little, but it doesn't detract and when he goes into it in the chorus of the ultra-catchy 'Find My Way' it seems perfectly right.
Looking back, Egypt Station now seems a little underwhelming in comparison and this suggests that Macca really is best left to his own devices.
Long Tailed Winter Bird
Find My Way
Pretty Boys
Women and Wives
Lavatory Lil
Deep Deep Feeling
Slidin'
The Kiss of Venus
Seize the Day
Deep Down
Winter Bird / When Winter Comes
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