THE MANY SIDES OF MACCA
This is an article I wrote for The Independent in 2006, to mark Paul McCartney's 64th birthday. Unfortunately it never ran so I'm posting it here to mark Macca's 71st birthday on 18 June. It's not intended to be definitive, nor is it a list of my personal favourites; just an illustration of the variety of music Paul has written over 50 years, from rockers and romance to ambient and comedy.
Maybe I’m Amazed (1970, 1977)
If this is all Paul McCartney had ever written, we would still know his name. The inspiration for this proud ballad was of course Linda Eastman, who Paul married in 1969. Regularly voted one of the greatest love songs ever, it evaded single release until a live version made the charts in 1977 and has since been covered by, amongst others, Rod Stewart and Joe Cocker.
Find it on: McCartney and Wings Over America
Helter Skelter (1968)
Find it on: The Beatles (White Album)
Liverpool Oratorio (1991)
In the 90s, McCartney’s side projects took centre stage. The Liverpool Oratorio, written in eight movements as a repertory piece and loosely autobiographical, was premiered by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra on 28 June 1991. This was followed in 1997 by Standing Stone, galvanised by an interest in his Irish roots and written with the help of the composers Richard Rodney Bennett and David Matthews. It’s all a long way from his first orchestral work, the score for the 1966 movie The Family Way.Find it on: Liverpool Oratorio
I’m the Urban Spaceman (1969)
In 1968/9 McCartney the producer sat behind the studio glass for a number of mates. Neil Innes’s jaunty, nonsense song, by the Bonzo Dog [Doo-Dah] Band, bears a rhythmic resemblance to “When I’m Sixty-Four”. In a vain attempt to protect his identity, McCartney had his production work credited to Apollo C. Vermouth. He also plays ukulele on the track. "What's that - a poor man's violin?" he was asked by one on-looker in the studio. "No," quipped McCartney. "It's a rich man's ukulele."
Find it on: History of the Bonzos
Letting Go (1975)
While Lennon was cutting “rock and roll at different speeds”, as he described his output at the time, McCartney was spreading his wings. Band on the Run, Venus and Mars and his theme for the Bond film, Live and Let Die, were his 70s group in full flight. Although the albums are uneven, there are some terrific fillers: “Let Me Roll It” and this respectable grunge rocker, a half-forgotten hit single with a big-band horn riff, are among the best.Find it on: Venus and Mars
Jenny Wren (2005)
McCartney's output over the last two decades has been seen as something of a return to form. Flaming Pie, Driving Rain and Chaos and Creation in the Backyard contain some more-than-half-decent tunes and much thoughtful songwriting, This track, partly inspired by baby Beatrice, was an odd choice for a single, a minor-chord classic of the kind that Macca excels at.
Find it on: Chaos and Creation in the Backyard
We Can Work It Out (1965)
McCartney's five-year relationship with the actress Jane Asher was behind a number of Beatles songs, such as this hit, penned as Asher announced she was off to join the Bristol Old Vic theatre. It was written at the mock-Tudor pile McCartney bought for his father at Heswall, Cheshire. Lennon finished off the middle-eight, which George Harrison suggested should be in a waltz time. A great example of how The Beatles could collaborate.
Find it on: The Beatles Past Masters II
Watercolour Guitars (1998)
In the 90s, McCartney teamed up with the producer Youth to issue two electro-ambient albums, under the moniker The Fireman. By the release of the second, Rushes, his cover had been blown. Sitars blend with trance electronics and spacey guitars collide with computer-generated bleeps. This track is a subliminal experience. The Frog Chorus it ain't.
Find it on: Rushes
The Long and Winding Road (1969, 2003)
As the 60s turned, the long and winding road led to the door of the American financial manager Allen Klein, which, for the Beatles, meant see you in court. Let It Be was the final album to be released, recorded in early 1969. As far as McCartney was concerned, it was ruined by Phil Spector’s over-dressed production. Thirty-three years later he got around to rectifying matters and one his last great Beatles songs was reinstated in all its naked glory.
Find it on: Let It Be… Naked
Coming Up (1980)
McCartney’s second solo album was originally intended for personal consumption at chez Macca. Released a decade after the first, it was recorded at his Scottish farm, with the man playing everything. Although the onomatopoeic “Coming Up” was a chart hit, its most significant contribution was, apparently, inspiring Lennon to get back into the studio.Find it on: McCartney II
Give Ireland Back to the Irish (1972)
As a piece of agit-prop, it does what it says on the label. “I thought we were Irish,” McCartney commented. “So it was a home problem for me … Liverpool being the capital of Ireland.” He succeeded not only in having this single banned by the BBC (who refused even to announce the song’s title), but getting “Hi Hi Hi”, released the same year, off the playlist for alleged drug and sex references. Not even Lennon at his most provocative achieved that.
Find it on: Wings Wild Life
We All Stand Together (1984)
McCartney has long had an interest in children’s music and literature (try Wirral the Squirrel) and acquired the rights to the Nutwood Village’s most famous resident, Rupert the Bear, in order to produced the Bafta-winning animation Rupert and the Frog Song. From it came this irritating ditty, credited to Paul McCartney and the Frog Chorus and an unlikely hit single.Find it on: Pipes of Peace
She's Leaving Home (2003)
On stage, Sir Paul can still muster an impressive rock show. The various tour albums, official bootlegs and covers collections released in the 90s have been superseded, for live excitement, by the Back in the World/US CD and DVD. Backed by a quartet of well-rehearsed young players, the 60-year-old breathes new life into a mixture of Beatles and Wings classics. Writing credits on some Beatles numbers are switched, much to Yoko Ono’s chagrin, to McCartney-Lennon.
Find it on: Back in the World - Live
Hope of Deliverance (1993)
Ever the optimist, McCartney can make the half-empty glass sing like a blackbird. This thumbs-up single was written in the attic of his farmhouse. The sound of his 12-string guitar was the starting point. “I don’t know where the tune came from,” he said. “I released this as the first single [from Off the Ground] because it’s catchy, bright and memorable. It’s good to have a song that is spiritually uplifting.”Find it on: Off the Ground
Love Me Do (1962)
This, of course, is where it all began. The Beatles’ first single was mainly written by McCartney, although Lennon often took lead vocals in live versions and contributed its trademark harmonica line. In the studio, George Martin rightly mixed McCartney’s vocals up front. Recorded in June 1962 at EMI’s studios in Abbey Road, it was released the following October, backed with McCartney’s “P.S. I Love You”, and pop music was changed forever.
Find it on: The Beatles Past Masters I
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