---INTERLUDE – McCartney II (1980)---
WE DID IT! We made it to what might be the wackiest record in Paul’s catalog, and which also happens to be one of my favorites.
With Wings sputtering, Paul returned to his roots…or at least his roots of ten years earlier, when he had recorded his first solo album,
McCartney, alone in his home studio. For a total of six weeks first at his estate in Sussex and then his farm in Scotland, Paul recorded only himself on all of the vocals and instruments. He rented a 16-track recorded and plugged the mics directly into the back, as he had with
McCartney (though this came out sounding nothing like its predecessor!). Each day, Paul first recorded a drum track – changing location to get the effect he wanted, such as playing in the tile kitchen for an echo - and then throughout the day added overdubs of other instruments and vocals, fiddling with the machine to provide whatever sound he wanted, and determining at the end of the day whether to keep or pitch it. Other than “Waterfalls,” each song he recorded during these sessions was made up as he went along day-to-day. Paul described it: “I’d go along on my bike and a song might spring out of what I had seen on TV the night before. It was like being a sculptor, chopping and changing as I went along… It was definitely an experiment. It was me at home, multi-tracking, like
McCartney had been.”
Paul initially did not intend to release this material publicly. He was simply experimenting, having fun, seeing what he could do. Paul described this as his desire to “blow the cobwebs away” after getting fed up with “churning out albums” with Wings. He recorded 20 songs during these sessions but didn’t immediately do anything with them, instead turning back to preparations for the upcoming Wings tour in Japan and China. That tour was not to be, however, for upon arrival in Japan in January 1980, Paul was arrested when authorities discovered over 200 grams of the evil weed in his luggage. After his release following nine days in a Tokyo jail, Paul canceled the tour, returned to his farm in Scotland, and revisited these recordings. After playing them for a couple of people who said, “There’s your next album,” Paul decided to give them a broader audience.
Upon its release, the album initially did reasonably well with the public, reaching #3 on the US charts powered by the #1 hit single, “Coming Up,” but it was fairly consistently derided by critics at the time. In large part, the criticism seemed to emanate from the reviewers being surprised and befuddled by the experimental nature of what they were hearing. This was not a Wings sound, instead incorporating heavy use of synths and sequencers, along with vari-speed recording to alter pitch. Its styles were also new for a Paul album, representing Paul’s interest in new wave, synth-pop, and electronica. While he has said he didn’t have direct influences for the record, Paul admittedly had been a fan of Talking Heads at the time and admired David Byrne’s attitude and eccentricity, and he had attended concerts by experimental composers such as John Cage.
Looking back now, we can see that this album actually fit well within the progression of Paul’s experimentation and inventiveness, beginning with the tape loops in “Tomorrow Never Knows” and continuing through to his later works in The Fireman and Liverpool Sound Collage. And in retrospect, this record is now often considered a “techno-pop classic” as a “milestone in early British electronica” that is “remarkable in its prescience of the lo-fi and bedroom-pop movements.” It’s a cult favorite that has been highly influential to numerous future bands, including Throbbing Gristle and Super Furry Animals, and the keyboard motif at the beginning of the unfortunately title “Frozen ***” has been said to directly link to Kraftwerk’s “Computer Love” the next year.
The latter point has not only been noted by professional rock critics, but by pre-eminent household rock critic OH when he heard “Frozen ***” (which I’m quoting here because the song did not make my countdown):
“Kraftwerk emerged from the same kraut rock psych scene, that super experimental stuff that produced Can and Amon Düül, so they’re rooted in a movement. Their thing was to make music that’s meaningful and human, that does all the things that music does, while removing all the human elements of it, making it as cold and crystalline as possible. Paul McCartney sounds really warm by comparison. That snare was somebody hitting a drum. I don’t think they come from the same place. But you can’t deny how similar the melody is, and they clearly had the same equipment, the same synths. Yeah, it’s amazing that it didn’t sound like somebody ####### around with synthesizers. He clearly had a music idea – a thesis and an antithesis – and it resolved however it resolved. I like that around that time, when synths and drum machines and sequencers were becoming more prevalent, when people did so much to try to make that stuff sound like a piano or a horn section or a drummer, the bands like Paul McCartney here was not making it sound like humans. He’s emphasizing the coldness of it, is the point of it. Frozen in the title for a reason, because it’s emphasizing the starkness of it, to advance the song rather than making it sound like something else.”
We’ll be visiting many songs from this album on my countdown, but it’s also worth listening to as a whole, as I think it works well in sequence.
I was unable to find information about the
cover of this album, but my educated guess is that it’s a photo of Paul McCartney.
Track listing:
- Coming Up
- Temporary Secretary
- On The Way
- Waterfalls
- Nobody Knows
- Front Parlour
- Summer’s Day Song
- Frozen ***
- Bogey Music
- Darkroom
- One Of These Days
This album is Wings finding their groove, as Henry McCullough had just joined the band, and this was a bigger sound than they’d had on the first album. The band was trying to figure out if it was a rock band or a softer easy-listening outfit. As it turned out, they could do both, but after adding McCollough they toughened up and eschewed soft-rock, with more success, until returning to some of it again in London Town. 
I'll listen to both tomorrow and make it a Twofer Tuesday.
