saintsfan
Footballguy
I actually haven't, so I'll leave this one to Godsbrother.
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The Beatles (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter saintsfan
- Start date
BroncoFreak_2K3
sucker for Orange
If you have Netflix Instant Streaming (free month right now), its on there...
saintsfan
Footballguy
Thanks
Godsbrother
Footballguy
Great write up. Only thing I will add is regarding My Mummy's Dead. John placed it as the closing song on the album as a companion to the opening track (Mother). On "My Mummy's Dead", John expresses the pain and sadness of losing his mother (who was hit by a car driven by a drunk offduty policeman).
Godsbrother
Footballguy
I haven't seen it either.
saintsfan
Footballguy
OK, so BroncoFreak, you are the expert on this one. What did you think of the movie??I haven't seen it either.
BroncoFreak_2K3
sucker for Orange
Like I said, I thought it was really well done, because it is so hard to do a movie about anything Beatles-related that hasn't been already done a million times.The movie is not really about the Beatles. It does show John meeting John and Paul, and then George and the beginning of the Quarrymen, but these events are really incidental to the main story. The main story is John's relationship with his Aunt Mimi and Uncle Alf and of course his mother, Julia. Dont go into this thinking you are going to hear a bunch of Beatles songs, that isnt the point ofthe movie.The movie really focuses on the years around the time he re-met his mother to the point just past the time when she was killed in a car accident, which coincided with the time he formed the Quarrymen and eventually went to Hamburg. The movie condenses these 5-7 years into only a couple years, so many Beatles fans may find this disturbing and say it is "not accurate". Well, I guess you just have to remember that this is a movie first and foremost and sometimes these types of changes have to be made in order to make the movie "work" as a movie, ie, "artistic license" by Hollywood. The movie is definitely an emotional one about a dysfunctional, broken family. I would think any Lennon fan will at least like it. The actor that plays John (Aaron Johnson) did an excellant job I thought in his portrayal, as did the Aunt (Kristin Scott Thomas-superb in this role I thought ) and his Mum (Anne-Marie Duff - suberb as well).I'd definitely recommend it.I see Netflix only has it as a CD, not available on Instant Streaming yet....OK, so BroncoFreak, you are the expert on this one. What did you think of the movie??I haven't seen it either.
saintsfan
Footballguy
George Harrison after the Beatles
Harrison's solo efforts are kind of like Lennon's, in a way. Mostly, I think his first two are the best of the early ones, then he declined a bit, takes 5 years off, then comes back with some good stuff. Unlike Lennon, however, Harrison was involved in a ton of side projects. He writes songs and plays with Ringo. He plays on John's Imagine album. He forms the Travelling Wilbury's. He organizes the Concert For Bangladesh, which kind of becomes the model for all big concert benefits. He works with Eric Clapton. He works with Bob Dylan. He works with Monty Python. He does movie soundtracks. He produces other artists. He's very active, until the early 80s when he takes about 5 years off.
Out of all the Beatles, George was probably the one most glad to be out of the Beatles. In the early 60's, John and Paul wrote most of the songs. George played guitar, mostly. He would write a song here or there, but it wasn't something he had a lot of practice at. George always said that Paul and John wrote all their bad songs before anybody knew who they were. George wrote his when he was one of the most famous people in the world. So, that's kind of what it was like for George. Learning to write songs on the fly.
His early efforts weren't terribly impressive, but he continued to get better. I think around Rubber Soul or Revolver in 1965/1966 time frame, George really starts writing pretty good songs. Then, he gets into the sitar and really stops playing the guitar. Although the Indian thing gives the Beatles something unique, it is not terribly commercially viable, so his pop songwriting grows kind of stays stagnant, that is, until the White Album. George writes 4 songs for that album, the most he's ever had on an album, including While My Guitar Gently Weeps, which is one of the albums better tracks. Abbey Road is George's real breakthrough, however, as his two songs, Something and Here Comes The Sun are every bit as good as anything else on the album. Clearly, George was growing as a songwriter and it's entirely possible that had the Beatles continued into the 70's the politics within the group would have changed with George having a greater say in what ended up on the albums. His early solo success certainly indicates that he was beginning to peak as a songwriter. Clearly, George would have been the one most glad to be free of the limitations of being in the Beatles.
Next...Early success with All Things Must Pass and Living In The Material World
Harrison's solo efforts are kind of like Lennon's, in a way. Mostly, I think his first two are the best of the early ones, then he declined a bit, takes 5 years off, then comes back with some good stuff. Unlike Lennon, however, Harrison was involved in a ton of side projects. He writes songs and plays with Ringo. He plays on John's Imagine album. He forms the Travelling Wilbury's. He organizes the Concert For Bangladesh, which kind of becomes the model for all big concert benefits. He works with Eric Clapton. He works with Bob Dylan. He works with Monty Python. He does movie soundtracks. He produces other artists. He's very active, until the early 80s when he takes about 5 years off.
Out of all the Beatles, George was probably the one most glad to be out of the Beatles. In the early 60's, John and Paul wrote most of the songs. George played guitar, mostly. He would write a song here or there, but it wasn't something he had a lot of practice at. George always said that Paul and John wrote all their bad songs before anybody knew who they were. George wrote his when he was one of the most famous people in the world. So, that's kind of what it was like for George. Learning to write songs on the fly.
His early efforts weren't terribly impressive, but he continued to get better. I think around Rubber Soul or Revolver in 1965/1966 time frame, George really starts writing pretty good songs. Then, he gets into the sitar and really stops playing the guitar. Although the Indian thing gives the Beatles something unique, it is not terribly commercially viable, so his pop songwriting grows kind of stays stagnant, that is, until the White Album. George writes 4 songs for that album, the most he's ever had on an album, including While My Guitar Gently Weeps, which is one of the albums better tracks. Abbey Road is George's real breakthrough, however, as his two songs, Something and Here Comes The Sun are every bit as good as anything else on the album. Clearly, George was growing as a songwriter and it's entirely possible that had the Beatles continued into the 70's the politics within the group would have changed with George having a greater say in what ended up on the albums. His early solo success certainly indicates that he was beginning to peak as a songwriter. Clearly, George would have been the one most glad to be free of the limitations of being in the Beatles.
Next...Early success with All Things Must Pass and Living In The Material World
saintsfan
Footballguy
Sounds good and you are right. It's a unique take on the Beatles story, which has been done to death both in print and on screen.Like I said, I thought it was really well done, because it is so hard to do a movie about anything Beatles-related that hasn't been already done a million times.The movie is not really about the Beatles. It does show John meeting John and Paul, and then George and the beginning of the Quarrymen, but these events are really incidental to the main story. The main story is John's relationship with his Aunt Mimi and Uncle Alf and of course his mother, Julia. Dont go into this thinking you are going to hear a bunch of Beatles songs, that isnt the point ofthe movie.The movie really focuses on the years around the time he re-met his mother to the point just past the time when she was killed in a car accident, which coincided with the time he formed the Quarrymen and eventually went to Hamburg. The movie condenses these 5-7 years into only a couple years, so many Beatles fans may find this disturbing and say it is "not accurate". Well, I guess you just have to remember that this is a movie first and foremost and sometimes these types of changes have to be made in order to make the movie "work" as a movie, ie, "artistic license" by Hollywood. The movie is definitely an emotional one about a dysfunctional, broken family. I would think any Lennon fan will at least like it. The actor that plays John (Aaron Johnson) did an excellant job I thought in his portrayal, as did the Aunt (Kristin Scott Thomas-superb in this role I thought ) and his Mum (Anne-Marie Duff - suberb as well).I'd definitely recommend it.I see Netflix only has it as a CD, not available on Instant Streaming yet....OK, so BroncoFreak, you are the expert on this one. What did you think of the movie??I haven't seen it either.
saintsfan
Footballguy
All Things Must Pass and Living In The Material World
George had a backlog of songs, so he went into the studio with Phil Spector to record All Things Must Pass (ATMP). Interesting that Spector produced the spare sound on John's Plastic Ono Band, which is totally not what Phil Spector is known for. For Harrison, ATMP got the full Spector treatment. Loud, in your face, Wall of Sound producion. It was a triple album, but really just two of the albums had recorded music on it. The third disk was a bunch of jams.
The album went straight to No 1 along with the first single off the album My Sweet Lord. Interestingly, several of the songs on ATMP were turned down by the Beatles for inclusion on Beatles albums, including the title track. This is the album that George first became known for his slide guitar work, which to my recollection, he never did with the Beatles. The Beatles didn't use slide guitar much and the only song I can think of that uses slide is For You Blue, off of Let It Be, but ironically, John played slide on that one.
Anyway, the slide is really heard on the first single from ATMP called My Sweet Lord. It's a song about God talking about how George wants to see and be with God with background vocals saying Alleluia or Hare Krishna or other things. To me, one of the most magical moments of any record that I have ever heard occurs right at the beginning of this song. George starts with the acoustic guitar playing the chords to the song, then, the slide comes in. It's a moment that gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. Great song. Of course, by now, everybody knows that George got sued for copying He's So Fine. What's interesting is that Allen Klein was George's manager at this time. He started playing both sides of the fence when he bought the publishing company that owned He's So Fine. A shady character that Allen Klein. Did George plagarize?? He claimed he never did it consciously. I don't know. I do know that if you sing "he's so fine" instead of "my sweet lord" it fits perfectly. It's still a great song, however. Much better, IMO, than He's So Fine.
The rest of the album is much the same. Mostly about God. My favorite tracks are Beware of Darkness (featuring Eric Clapton), What Is Life, All Things Must Pass, Isn't It A Pity (which kind of rips off the coda to Hey Jude, but what the heck, if you can't steal from friends who can you steal from. Paul repays the favor by stealing ding dong ding dong ding dong on Wonderful Christmas Time), and Wah Wah. But really, most of the songs are very well done.
George's next album Living In The Material World kind of continues the spirit of ATMP. The big single from Material World was Give Me Love(Give Me Peace). A very catchy song with a great message. The title track of the album is kind of a fast rocker and is also solid. The lyrics for this album are even more on the preachy side which is why people were initially disappointed with this album. In reality, after something as huge as ATMP, this was bound to be a disappointment, but it was still a #1 album, even if it didn't sell like ATMP. The tour to support this album was also a huge letdown because George was suffering from laryngitis. The lead vocals sounded bad. Although he would have some moments, in many ways this was the end of George's status on the top of the musical heap. He would start a slow decline before checking out for 5 years in the early 80s.
In between these two albums, George put together a benefit concert called the Concert for Bangladesh. Now a rock benefit seems kind of commonplace, but in the days before Live Aid, it really hadn't been done before. George got a bunch of his friends, including Dylan, Clapton, Badfinger, Ringo, Billy Preston, and Ravi Shankar. I read somewhere that he asked John to appear, but John wouldn't appear without Yoko and George didn't want Yoko. He also asked Paul who said no because they just broke up. Anyway, there was an album and everything recorded for this event and they earned money for Bangladesh which went to UNICEF. There were two shows. George sung a combination of Beatles songs and solo stuff. There was controversy over this because it took a long time for the money to get to the Bangladesh refugees. It was tied up because they didn't apply for tax exempt status or something.
However, for all the messiness, it was the first on of it's kind a full decade before Live Aid.
Next... George sales decline to semi retirement
George had a backlog of songs, so he went into the studio with Phil Spector to record All Things Must Pass (ATMP). Interesting that Spector produced the spare sound on John's Plastic Ono Band, which is totally not what Phil Spector is known for. For Harrison, ATMP got the full Spector treatment. Loud, in your face, Wall of Sound producion. It was a triple album, but really just two of the albums had recorded music on it. The third disk was a bunch of jams.
The album went straight to No 1 along with the first single off the album My Sweet Lord. Interestingly, several of the songs on ATMP were turned down by the Beatles for inclusion on Beatles albums, including the title track. This is the album that George first became known for his slide guitar work, which to my recollection, he never did with the Beatles. The Beatles didn't use slide guitar much and the only song I can think of that uses slide is For You Blue, off of Let It Be, but ironically, John played slide on that one.
Anyway, the slide is really heard on the first single from ATMP called My Sweet Lord. It's a song about God talking about how George wants to see and be with God with background vocals saying Alleluia or Hare Krishna or other things. To me, one of the most magical moments of any record that I have ever heard occurs right at the beginning of this song. George starts with the acoustic guitar playing the chords to the song, then, the slide comes in. It's a moment that gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. Great song. Of course, by now, everybody knows that George got sued for copying He's So Fine. What's interesting is that Allen Klein was George's manager at this time. He started playing both sides of the fence when he bought the publishing company that owned He's So Fine. A shady character that Allen Klein. Did George plagarize?? He claimed he never did it consciously. I don't know. I do know that if you sing "he's so fine" instead of "my sweet lord" it fits perfectly. It's still a great song, however. Much better, IMO, than He's So Fine.
The rest of the album is much the same. Mostly about God. My favorite tracks are Beware of Darkness (featuring Eric Clapton), What Is Life, All Things Must Pass, Isn't It A Pity (which kind of rips off the coda to Hey Jude, but what the heck, if you can't steal from friends who can you steal from. Paul repays the favor by stealing ding dong ding dong ding dong on Wonderful Christmas Time), and Wah Wah. But really, most of the songs are very well done.
George's next album Living In The Material World kind of continues the spirit of ATMP. The big single from Material World was Give Me Love(Give Me Peace). A very catchy song with a great message. The title track of the album is kind of a fast rocker and is also solid. The lyrics for this album are even more on the preachy side which is why people were initially disappointed with this album. In reality, after something as huge as ATMP, this was bound to be a disappointment, but it was still a #1 album, even if it didn't sell like ATMP. The tour to support this album was also a huge letdown because George was suffering from laryngitis. The lead vocals sounded bad. Although he would have some moments, in many ways this was the end of George's status on the top of the musical heap. He would start a slow decline before checking out for 5 years in the early 80s.
In between these two albums, George put together a benefit concert called the Concert for Bangladesh. Now a rock benefit seems kind of commonplace, but in the days before Live Aid, it really hadn't been done before. George got a bunch of his friends, including Dylan, Clapton, Badfinger, Ringo, Billy Preston, and Ravi Shankar. I read somewhere that he asked John to appear, but John wouldn't appear without Yoko and George didn't want Yoko. He also asked Paul who said no because they just broke up. Anyway, there was an album and everything recorded for this event and they earned money for Bangladesh which went to UNICEF. There were two shows. George sung a combination of Beatles songs and solo stuff. There was controversy over this because it took a long time for the money to get to the Bangladesh refugees. It was tied up because they didn't apply for tax exempt status or something.
However, for all the messiness, it was the first on of it's kind a full decade before Live Aid.
Next... George sales decline to semi retirement
DawgPoundNJ
Footballguy
My Sweet Lord is a magical song and I forgot all about the He's So Fine hoopla until you mentioned it. Even Billy Preston did a great job covering it in the Concert for George. Also, I can listen to All Things Must Pass over and over again, and if you listen to the Concert for Bangladesh, the rawness gives the songs a new meaning.
George is my favorite Beatle, and even simple songs like When We Was Fab and I Got My Mind Set On You were classics.
There's always something new with the Beatles for me, which is remarkable how new nuances keep popping up from such an old catalogue. I'm stuck on Paul's "For No One" off of Revolver right now, and the John Lennon Acoustic album, especially Watching the Wheels.
BroncoFreak_2K3
sucker for Orange
Totally agree on George They truly are the best (bolded)
My Sweet Lord is a magical song and I forgot all about the He's So Fine hoopla until you mentioned it. Even Billy Preston did a great job covering it in the Concert for George. Also, I can listen to All Things Must Pass over and over again, and if you listen to the Concert for Bangladesh, the rawness gives the songs a new meaning.
George is my favorite Beatle, and even simple songs like When We Was Fab and I Got My Mind Set On You were classics.
There's always something new with the Beatles for me, which is remarkable how new nuances keep popping up from such an old catalogue. I'm stuck on Paul's "For No One" off of Revolver right now, and the John Lennon Acoustic album, especially Watching the Wheels.
Godsbrother
Footballguy
Agreed that George was definitely ready to move on as he clearly had a huge backlog of songs waiting to be recorded. While he didn't write much early on I really enjoyed all of his early compositions: Don't Bother Me, I Need You, You Like Me Too Much, Think For Yourself and If I Needed Someone were great.
Godsbrother
Footballguy
The tour where Harrison's voice was shot was for the Dark Horse album in 1974. Actually his voice was pretty bad as he was recording the album although it is a pretty good LP, certainly underrated.
saintsfan
Footballguy
Decline and semi retirement
The problem with George as a solo artist began to show themselves with the albums released from 1974's Dark Horse through 1982's Gone Troppo. Namely, George is, IMO, probably the greatest third banana is the history of pop music. In other words, in a band with Lennon and McCartney where only George's very best song send up on an album, he is really great, but when it is just him that has to come up with material, a lot of the material isn't that great. IMO, George is the perfect songwriter for a band with other good songwriters. A contributor, but not responsible for coming up with most or all of it. ATMP is different because George had this backlog of songs from his Beatles period and it all came out at once. If it sounds like I'm bashing George, I'm not. Lennon and McCartney, although to a smaller extent, had some issues with this as well during their solo careers at times. IMO, one of the main differences between the Beatles and the solo albums is, although there are some great solo albums, most of the albums don't have the consistent greatness even the weakest Beatles albums display. That's the magic of the Beatles, not anything against them as individuals. Most other solo artists have the same problem.
Anyway, George released several albums during this period. Dark Horse, Extra Texture, 33&1/3, George Harrison, Somewhere in England, and Gone Troppo. For the most part, each album sold worse than the one before it. Gone Troppo was ignored, not even reaching the top 100. Somewhere in England didn't even go gold, despite having All Those Years Ago, which was a hit and a tribute to John Lennon. Good songs are sprinkled throughout, but there are also many more not so good moments on these albums. The essential tracks (at least IMO) are:
Blow Away
All Those Years Ago
Crackerbox Palace
That's The Way It Goes
You
This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)
Not Guilty
Dark Horse
This Song
Love Comes To Everyone
Here Comes The Moon
Life Itself
When you add that to the ATMP and Living in the Material World songs, not a bad haul for a guy who was considered the third banana in the Beatles. There are many people in the HOF with less to their name than that. But now, disillusioned with the music industry and unable to sell records anymore, he takes some time away from recording. Nobody expected it, but he would be back.
Next... Cloud 9 and Travelling Wilburys
The problem with George as a solo artist began to show themselves with the albums released from 1974's Dark Horse through 1982's Gone Troppo. Namely, George is, IMO, probably the greatest third banana is the history of pop music. In other words, in a band with Lennon and McCartney where only George's very best song send up on an album, he is really great, but when it is just him that has to come up with material, a lot of the material isn't that great. IMO, George is the perfect songwriter for a band with other good songwriters. A contributor, but not responsible for coming up with most or all of it. ATMP is different because George had this backlog of songs from his Beatles period and it all came out at once. If it sounds like I'm bashing George, I'm not. Lennon and McCartney, although to a smaller extent, had some issues with this as well during their solo careers at times. IMO, one of the main differences between the Beatles and the solo albums is, although there are some great solo albums, most of the albums don't have the consistent greatness even the weakest Beatles albums display. That's the magic of the Beatles, not anything against them as individuals. Most other solo artists have the same problem.
Anyway, George released several albums during this period. Dark Horse, Extra Texture, 33&1/3, George Harrison, Somewhere in England, and Gone Troppo. For the most part, each album sold worse than the one before it. Gone Troppo was ignored, not even reaching the top 100. Somewhere in England didn't even go gold, despite having All Those Years Ago, which was a hit and a tribute to John Lennon. Good songs are sprinkled throughout, but there are also many more not so good moments on these albums. The essential tracks (at least IMO) are:
Blow Away
All Those Years Ago
Crackerbox Palace
That's The Way It Goes
You
This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)
Not Guilty
Dark Horse
This Song
Love Comes To Everyone
Here Comes The Moon
Life Itself
When you add that to the ATMP and Living in the Material World songs, not a bad haul for a guy who was considered the third banana in the Beatles. There are many people in the HOF with less to their name than that. But now, disillusioned with the music industry and unable to sell records anymore, he takes some time away from recording. Nobody expected it, but he would be back.
Next... Cloud 9 and Travelling Wilburys
saintsfan
Footballguy
Godsbrother
Footballguy
Hopefully people aren't thinking that I am nitpicking. You're doing such a fine job I am just trying to add a few notes here and there.
DawgPoundNJ
Footballguy
Can't wait!
saintsfan
Footballguy
No. That's what happens when you try and do things from memory. Sometimes I remember something that isn't true.
Godsbrother
Footballguy
Dark Horse, as I stated before, was a pretty good LP and unjustly underrated IMO. Extra Texture was a disapointment for me although I liked a couple songs. 33 & 1/3 is an excellent LP, easily my 3rd favorite from George'e catalog behind ATMP and Cloud Nine. The LP George Harrison is decent but Somewhere in England and Gone Troppo were worse than Extra Texture.The problem with many of George's solo albums is that he often surrounded himself with average musicians in the studio and as great as he was, George desperately needed a producer to bounce ideas off of.
saintsfan
Footballguy
33&1/3 is easily the best of the rest. I don't like Dark Horse that much. George's voice was distracting. By the time of Somewhere in England and Gone Troppo, he was burnt out and needed a break. Think about it. Almost non stop since 1962. That's 20 years of playing music. He needed to step away. In his case, the music came back to him, which we'll see here in a little bit.
saintsfan
Footballguy
Cloud 9 and the Wilburys
OK, so George was basically a non entity on the charts, so he takes five years off. I say “off”, but he did some movie soundtracks during this time and worked with Madonna and Sean Penn on Shanghai Surprise. However, he took a break from making records. He did gardening, raced cars, ect.
So, in 1986, he started to get the itch again, so he called Clapton, Ringo, Jeff Lynne, Jim Keltner, ect to help him with a new album. Nobody expected that George would have one of the greatest comebacks ever, but that’s exactly what happened with the release of Cloud 9. In fact, Cloud 9 probably started a host of comebacks from a bunch of geezers. The Stones, McCartney, Clapton, and the whole Travelling Wilbury’s thing became a big deal in the late 80’s/early 90’s.
Cloud 9, a top 10 album, was driven by the surprise #1 song Got My Mind Set On You and another top 30 hit, When We Was Fab, about his time with the Beatles. However, the album is filled with solid pop songs. This Is Love was released as a single and wasn't a huge hit, but it's a great song. The title track features Eric Clapton and George Harrison trading guitar licks and is a great way to open the album. Breath Away from Heaven is also a solid song.
An interesting story that leads to the next thing in Harrison's career, is that during the recording of Cloud 9, Harrison was at a meal with Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne at Bob Dylan's house to record an additional track as a B side to This Is Love. Well, Harrison left his guitar at Tom Petty's house, so he went over to get it and Petty came back nwith him. They decided the resulting song was too strong to throw away as a B Side, so they decided to hold on to it. That's how the Traveling Wilbury's started.
The song that started it was Handle With Care. They decided to make an album together that they called Traveling Wilbury's Vol 1. They each gave themselves Wilbury names. Kind of funny since these were 5 very famous people. I had this album back in the day and I loved it. Besides Handle With Care, they had End Of The Line, another Harrison written song. All of them contributed a song or so. It's a very relaxed album. Lots of acoustic guitars. Kind of a folky album. What's interesting is that none of the songs got in the top 40 in the charts, but the album got all the way to #3 in the charts and was triple platinum.
The great Roy Orbison died of a heart attack during the hoopla of Vol. 1 and the video for End Of The Line featured Roy's guitar in a rocking chair as his vocal part played on the soundtrack.
A second album was release called Vol. 3. It was George's idea to skip Vol. 2, kind of to confuse people. It didn't do nearly as well, but still reached #11 in the charts and went platinum. Interestingly, they all adopted different Wilbury stage names for Vol. 3 and it was dedicated to "Lefty Wilbury", none other than Roy Orbison.
Interestingly, the two Wilbury albums went out of print for quite a while. They were rereleased in a box set in 2007 with a DVD and it sold very well on both sides of the Atlantic. Something about the Wilburys people just loved.
Nobody knew it at the time, but these would be George's last albums released during his lifetime. After George died, an album called Brainwashed was completed by Dhani Harrison and Jeff Lynne that got pretty positive reviews.
Next...Ringo
OK, so George was basically a non entity on the charts, so he takes five years off. I say “off”, but he did some movie soundtracks during this time and worked with Madonna and Sean Penn on Shanghai Surprise. However, he took a break from making records. He did gardening, raced cars, ect.
So, in 1986, he started to get the itch again, so he called Clapton, Ringo, Jeff Lynne, Jim Keltner, ect to help him with a new album. Nobody expected that George would have one of the greatest comebacks ever, but that’s exactly what happened with the release of Cloud 9. In fact, Cloud 9 probably started a host of comebacks from a bunch of geezers. The Stones, McCartney, Clapton, and the whole Travelling Wilbury’s thing became a big deal in the late 80’s/early 90’s.
Cloud 9, a top 10 album, was driven by the surprise #1 song Got My Mind Set On You and another top 30 hit, When We Was Fab, about his time with the Beatles. However, the album is filled with solid pop songs. This Is Love was released as a single and wasn't a huge hit, but it's a great song. The title track features Eric Clapton and George Harrison trading guitar licks and is a great way to open the album. Breath Away from Heaven is also a solid song.
An interesting story that leads to the next thing in Harrison's career, is that during the recording of Cloud 9, Harrison was at a meal with Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne at Bob Dylan's house to record an additional track as a B side to This Is Love. Well, Harrison left his guitar at Tom Petty's house, so he went over to get it and Petty came back nwith him. They decided the resulting song was too strong to throw away as a B Side, so they decided to hold on to it. That's how the Traveling Wilbury's started.
The song that started it was Handle With Care. They decided to make an album together that they called Traveling Wilbury's Vol 1. They each gave themselves Wilbury names. Kind of funny since these were 5 very famous people. I had this album back in the day and I loved it. Besides Handle With Care, they had End Of The Line, another Harrison written song. All of them contributed a song or so. It's a very relaxed album. Lots of acoustic guitars. Kind of a folky album. What's interesting is that none of the songs got in the top 40 in the charts, but the album got all the way to #3 in the charts and was triple platinum.
The great Roy Orbison died of a heart attack during the hoopla of Vol. 1 and the video for End Of The Line featured Roy's guitar in a rocking chair as his vocal part played on the soundtrack.
A second album was release called Vol. 3. It was George's idea to skip Vol. 2, kind of to confuse people. It didn't do nearly as well, but still reached #11 in the charts and went platinum. Interestingly, they all adopted different Wilbury stage names for Vol. 3 and it was dedicated to "Lefty Wilbury", none other than Roy Orbison.
Interestingly, the two Wilbury albums went out of print for quite a while. They were rereleased in a box set in 2007 with a DVD and it sold very well on both sides of the Atlantic. Something about the Wilburys people just loved.
Nobody knew it at the time, but these would be George's last albums released during his lifetime. After George died, an album called Brainwashed was completed by Dhani Harrison and Jeff Lynne that got pretty positive reviews.
Next...Ringo
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Godsbrother
Footballguy
Great writeup, as usual.Brainwashed is damn good, my 4th favorite George solo LP (not including the Wilburys). In fact it sounds a lot like a Wilburys record, which shouldn't come as a surprise considering it was produced by Lynne.
Overall I would rank George's LPs as follows:
All Things Must Pass - 1970
Cloud Nine - 1987
33 & 1/3 - 1976
Brainwashed - 2002
George Harrison - 1979
Dark Horse - 1974
Living In the Material World - 1973
Extra Texture - 1975
Somewhere in England - 1981
Gone Troppo - 1982
saintsfan
Footballguy
Ringo
OK, guys. I have to be honest. I love Ringo as a drummer and as a Beatle, but I don't own a lot of his solo material. I have the Ringo album, which has most of his good songs on it. The version I have of Ringo actually has It Don't Come Easy and Early 1970 as bonus tracks, so those two along with Photograph, Six O'Clock, I'm The Greatest, and You're Sixteen are on that album. I also own Back Of Boogaloo, which I kind of like, other than that, I can't really go through an exhaustive overview of Ringo's solo material intelligently. However, I can say a few things about Ringo.
Ringo, in many ways, was the glue that held the Beatles together. People laugh when I say that, but I need only use the solo careers as an example. The other three, at any one time, weren't speaking to each other, trading barbs in the press, writing nasty songs about each other, ect, but for Ringo, they all came together. John, Paul, and George all contributed songs and musicianship for most of Ringo's albums. In fact, the Ringo album was almost a Beatles reunion, even though it took place mostly on tape, there are contributions from all four Beatles on it.
To me, this fact has always spoken to the importance of Ringo in the Beatles. Even if you don't respect his drumming (which I disagree with), he represented, in many ways, the Beatles identity as a group. I don't think it's any coincidence that With A Little Help From My Friends was given to Ringo to sing. It really defines him as a Beatle and as an artist.
Ringo's best solo work was, IMO, the Ringo album and it's followup Goodnight Vienna. His commercial fortunes started to sink a bit after that. He continued to record and still records to this day with his All Starr Band. If nothing else, Ringo will always be in demand as a drummer as he has played on many many songs since the Beatles breakup as a celebrity drummer.
In addition, Ringo was easily the most accomplished actor in the Beatles, really the center of attention in A Hard Days Night and Help and was in a bunch of movies in the 70s and a TV show in the 80s including Thomas the Tank Engine. Kids always loved Ringo. He's been on commercials from Pizza Hut to Charles Schwaub.
Thankfully, this writeup doesn't end with a dead Beatle. Ringo's still around and whenever somebody needs Mr Backbeat, he's there.
Next...Paul after the Beatles
PS: Godsbrother, if you have more of Ringo's material and would like to go through it, I would be fine with that.
OK, guys. I have to be honest. I love Ringo as a drummer and as a Beatle, but I don't own a lot of his solo material. I have the Ringo album, which has most of his good songs on it. The version I have of Ringo actually has It Don't Come Easy and Early 1970 as bonus tracks, so those two along with Photograph, Six O'Clock, I'm The Greatest, and You're Sixteen are on that album. I also own Back Of Boogaloo, which I kind of like, other than that, I can't really go through an exhaustive overview of Ringo's solo material intelligently. However, I can say a few things about Ringo.
Ringo, in many ways, was the glue that held the Beatles together. People laugh when I say that, but I need only use the solo careers as an example. The other three, at any one time, weren't speaking to each other, trading barbs in the press, writing nasty songs about each other, ect, but for Ringo, they all came together. John, Paul, and George all contributed songs and musicianship for most of Ringo's albums. In fact, the Ringo album was almost a Beatles reunion, even though it took place mostly on tape, there are contributions from all four Beatles on it.
To me, this fact has always spoken to the importance of Ringo in the Beatles. Even if you don't respect his drumming (which I disagree with), he represented, in many ways, the Beatles identity as a group. I don't think it's any coincidence that With A Little Help From My Friends was given to Ringo to sing. It really defines him as a Beatle and as an artist.
Ringo's best solo work was, IMO, the Ringo album and it's followup Goodnight Vienna. His commercial fortunes started to sink a bit after that. He continued to record and still records to this day with his All Starr Band. If nothing else, Ringo will always be in demand as a drummer as he has played on many many songs since the Beatles breakup as a celebrity drummer.
In addition, Ringo was easily the most accomplished actor in the Beatles, really the center of attention in A Hard Days Night and Help and was in a bunch of movies in the 70s and a TV show in the 80s including Thomas the Tank Engine. Kids always loved Ringo. He's been on commercials from Pizza Hut to Charles Schwaub.
Thankfully, this writeup doesn't end with a dead Beatle. Ringo's still around and whenever somebody needs Mr Backbeat, he's there.
Next...Paul after the Beatles
PS: Godsbrother, if you have more of Ringo's material and would like to go through it, I would be fine with that.
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saintsfan
Footballguy
Paul after the Beatles
Other than Ringo, the one that wanted the Beatles to end the least was Paul. After the Beatles split, Paul himself said that he spent weeks in bed, depressed. He didn't know what to do with himself. It took him awhile to pull himself up by the boot straps and get to work, but that's what he did and out of all the Beatles, Paul worked the longest with not too many breaks. In the mid 80's he took a couple of years off. Other than that, he has remained pretty busy.
Like John and George, Paul finally came to terms with his Beatle past and began, IMO, writing very Beatly (if that's a word) songs in the late 80's which, IMO, is when he started to have a career rebirth.
Paul was sort of the opposite site of the same coin as John. Whereas John's solo material often missed some of Paul's optimism and musicianship, Paul's solo material often missed some of John's edge. As a solo artist, Paul could sound all too light and happy. It's like John and Paul gave each other a little bit of what they each were lacking. Just another example of the magic of the Beatles.
Anyway, Paul had the most accomplished of the Beatle solo careers, IMO. Paul was probably the top selling artist of the 70s solo and with Wings. Initially, George sold the most with ATMP, but Paul's star really started to rise with Wings as George was going down. Paul's albums are kind of like George's and John's in that compared to most artists, the albums are pretty solid, but they don't really compare to the Beatles in terms of overall quality. However, great songs and great melodies come out of Paul seemingly naturally so most of the albums have very strong points, many of which rival the music he recorded with the Beatles.
Next...McCartney to the beginning of Wings
Other than Ringo, the one that wanted the Beatles to end the least was Paul. After the Beatles split, Paul himself said that he spent weeks in bed, depressed. He didn't know what to do with himself. It took him awhile to pull himself up by the boot straps and get to work, but that's what he did and out of all the Beatles, Paul worked the longest with not too many breaks. In the mid 80's he took a couple of years off. Other than that, he has remained pretty busy.
Like John and George, Paul finally came to terms with his Beatle past and began, IMO, writing very Beatly (if that's a word) songs in the late 80's which, IMO, is when he started to have a career rebirth.
Paul was sort of the opposite site of the same coin as John. Whereas John's solo material often missed some of Paul's optimism and musicianship, Paul's solo material often missed some of John's edge. As a solo artist, Paul could sound all too light and happy. It's like John and Paul gave each other a little bit of what they each were lacking. Just another example of the magic of the Beatles.
Anyway, Paul had the most accomplished of the Beatle solo careers, IMO. Paul was probably the top selling artist of the 70s solo and with Wings. Initially, George sold the most with ATMP, but Paul's star really started to rise with Wings as George was going down. Paul's albums are kind of like George's and John's in that compared to most artists, the albums are pretty solid, but they don't really compare to the Beatles in terms of overall quality. However, great songs and great melodies come out of Paul seemingly naturally so most of the albums have very strong points, many of which rival the music he recorded with the Beatles.
Next...McCartney to the beginning of Wings
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DawgPoundNJ
Footballguy
Great discussion again saintsfan.
Don't have time to get into great detail but Photograph is probably in my top 5 favorite Beatles solo works. Just in case anyone cares, here's my list:
1) My Sweet Lord - George
2) Watching the Wheels - John
3) Photograph - Ringo
4) Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth) - George
5) Jealous Guy - John
6) Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey - Paul (Just to get Paul in there)
Don't have time to get into great detail but Photograph is probably in my top 5 favorite Beatles solo works. Just in case anyone cares, here's my list:
1) My Sweet Lord - George
2) Watching the Wheels - John
3) Photograph - Ringo
4) Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth) - George
5) Jealous Guy - John
6) Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey - Paul (Just to get Paul in there)
saintsfan
Footballguy
I like Photograph, but It Don't Come Easy, to me, is Ringo's best song.For Paul, Maybe I'm Amazing is an unreal song.For John, I kind of like Nobody Told MeAnd for George, my favorite is What Is Life
Godsbrother
Footballguy
Ringo's first effort was Sentimental Journey, a collection of old standards (kinds like Rod Stewart has done) that he dedicated to his mom. His second was a C&W album called Beacoups of Blues. Neither one is recommended to all but the most dedicated Ringo fan.It Don't Come Easy was his first pop single and it was a smash. It was credited to Ringo but in reality it was almost entirely composed by George (there is a bootleg with George singing it and the vocals singing Hare Kirshna were mixed way doen in Ringo's version but you can still faintly hear it). Ringo's second single was "Backoff Boogaloo" which was a succesful effort and it was Rigno's turned to take a shot at Paul.Ringo's first pop LP was the self titled "RINGO" produced by Richard Perry. It was as close to a Beatles reunion as would ever be as all four Beatles performed on the record. The LP produced three top 10 singles (Photograph, You're Sixteen and Oh My My) and was excellent throughout.His next LP, Goodnight Vienna, was recorded in a similar theme and was a big success though not quite as good as RINGO. After Goodnight Vienna, Ringo lost his way and recorded several truly awful albums. One notable exception was the album "Stop and Smell the Roses" which features an excellent song written by George ("Wrack My Brain") and several good contributions from Paul: "Private Property" and "Attention".Since then I admit that I haven't paid too much attention to Ringo though I do have a later single called "Weight of the World" which is pretty good and "Liverpool 8" was decent as well.
Godsbrother
Footballguy
There is no question that Paul was saddened the most by the breakup of the Beatles. While John was the leader of the group in the early days of touring, Paul was the leader in the studio from the very first sessions acccording to Geoff Emerick and George Martin. This becomes very obvious when you listed to bootlegs that contain control room chatter.After the death of Brian Epstein, the group had no direction and would have broken up much sooner had it not been for Paul's drive. Sgt. Pepper, Magical Mystery Tour, Get Back and Abbey Road were all initially Paul's idea and while they weren't always entirely successful they did serve to keep the group alive for a few more years.
John had lost interest in the band once he became involved with Yoko and George wanted desperately to get out of Paul & John's shadow. Paul on the other hand was trying to revitalize the group to go back on the road and tour and once it became clear the Beates were finished he was devastated.
DawgPoundNJ
Footballguy
I forgot about Maybe I'm Amazed. That's a great song. Paul's solo stuff in the 80's got to the point of embarrassment I thought. Say Say Say and Ebony and Ivory were awful!
saintsfan
Footballguy
McCartney to early Wings
Paul released an album in 1970 called McCartney with a kind of self interview in it where Paul basically announces the breakup of the Beatles. The other Beatles are furious and Paul becomes estranged from them for a few years. John especially was pissed because he felt like he had already split up the band, but Paul announcing made it seem like it was Paul that had split the group up.
Anyway, so McCartney is not nearly as praised as ATMP or Plastic Ono Band, but to me, it's a solid debut. Paul played every instrument on the album. At that time, not many people did that. Maybe I'm Amazed is one of Paul's best songs, with or without the Beatles. That Would Be Something is good. Junk is beautiful. I also like Teddy Boy and Every Night. It's a very homemade sounding album, because it WAS a very homemade album. Paul recorded it himself with Linda providing some backing vocals. Very subdued album compared to George and John's debuts. It didn't sell as well as ATMP, but it did sell well.
Having done the whole homemade album, Paul then decided to do a more proper album and the result was Ram. As is the case with most of McCartney's 70's albums, some hated it, some loved it, but, it sold. The singles with Ram were Another Day and Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, both big hits. Lots of great songs on here. Too Many People, Dear Boy, The Back Seat of My Car. Interestingly, this is the album that John said he heard some veiled shots at he and Yoko on. Also, the picture of two beetles fornicating on the back cover is meant to represent what the other three Beatles were doing to him. John responded with How Do You Sleep? and mocking the cover of Ram with Paul holding a Ram by the horns with John grabbing a pig by the ears on the back cover of Imagine. At this point, they were kind of behaving like monkeys throwing crap at each other but, oh well. They are human and are entitled to act like children occasionally.
Now, Paul had expressed a desire, as far back as the Let It Be sessions, for the Beatles to start touring again. His idea was to show up at a small club unannounced and do a live show of songs from the new album. John and George weren't interested in that, so it turned into just doing the songs on the roof. However, the idea never left Paul and starting another band and building it up from nothing (well, as much nothing as a band with Paul McCartney in it can be). So Paul started auditioning people to be in this band which would surround he and Linda and the result was Wings.
Now, Wings was a band, kind of, but not a band like the Beatles. The musicians in Wings were basically paid McCartney employees. Other than Denny Laine, who more or less was there throughout, the roster was a revolving door of musicians, so IMO, it's difficult to separate Paul's solo career from his time in Wings. It's really almost the same thing. But, anyway, for whatever reason, Paul wanted to have the facade of a band around him and he wanted to tour, so he started it playing at college student unions and small clubs. I can imagine the look on some of these people's faces when Paul friggin' McCartney showed up to play in their 200 seat hall or something.
Anyway, so the first Wings album was called Wild Life. It's not one of my favorite albums. Critics hated it, but it sold pretty well. The one notable thing is the song Dear Friend ended Paul and John's sparring on record, so that's a good thing.
The next album was called Red Rose Speedway and it was much better. During the sessions for Red Rose Speedway, Hi Hi Hi (a song that was bound and determined to be banned, for drugs and sexual content), C Moon, kind of a Jamaican feel, and Live and Let Die were also recorded. On the album, My Love was a smash hit. Overall, it was a pretty solid album. It would have been even better if all the singles recorded around it ended up on the album. Oh well.
Next...Wings really gets cranking and records one of the decades most famous albums.
Paul released an album in 1970 called McCartney with a kind of self interview in it where Paul basically announces the breakup of the Beatles. The other Beatles are furious and Paul becomes estranged from them for a few years. John especially was pissed because he felt like he had already split up the band, but Paul announcing made it seem like it was Paul that had split the group up.
Anyway, so McCartney is not nearly as praised as ATMP or Plastic Ono Band, but to me, it's a solid debut. Paul played every instrument on the album. At that time, not many people did that. Maybe I'm Amazed is one of Paul's best songs, with or without the Beatles. That Would Be Something is good. Junk is beautiful. I also like Teddy Boy and Every Night. It's a very homemade sounding album, because it WAS a very homemade album. Paul recorded it himself with Linda providing some backing vocals. Very subdued album compared to George and John's debuts. It didn't sell as well as ATMP, but it did sell well.
Having done the whole homemade album, Paul then decided to do a more proper album and the result was Ram. As is the case with most of McCartney's 70's albums, some hated it, some loved it, but, it sold. The singles with Ram were Another Day and Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, both big hits. Lots of great songs on here. Too Many People, Dear Boy, The Back Seat of My Car. Interestingly, this is the album that John said he heard some veiled shots at he and Yoko on. Also, the picture of two beetles fornicating on the back cover is meant to represent what the other three Beatles were doing to him. John responded with How Do You Sleep? and mocking the cover of Ram with Paul holding a Ram by the horns with John grabbing a pig by the ears on the back cover of Imagine. At this point, they were kind of behaving like monkeys throwing crap at each other but, oh well. They are human and are entitled to act like children occasionally.
Now, Paul had expressed a desire, as far back as the Let It Be sessions, for the Beatles to start touring again. His idea was to show up at a small club unannounced and do a live show of songs from the new album. John and George weren't interested in that, so it turned into just doing the songs on the roof. However, the idea never left Paul and starting another band and building it up from nothing (well, as much nothing as a band with Paul McCartney in it can be). So Paul started auditioning people to be in this band which would surround he and Linda and the result was Wings.
Now, Wings was a band, kind of, but not a band like the Beatles. The musicians in Wings were basically paid McCartney employees. Other than Denny Laine, who more or less was there throughout, the roster was a revolving door of musicians, so IMO, it's difficult to separate Paul's solo career from his time in Wings. It's really almost the same thing. But, anyway, for whatever reason, Paul wanted to have the facade of a band around him and he wanted to tour, so he started it playing at college student unions and small clubs. I can imagine the look on some of these people's faces when Paul friggin' McCartney showed up to play in their 200 seat hall or something.
Anyway, so the first Wings album was called Wild Life. It's not one of my favorite albums. Critics hated it, but it sold pretty well. The one notable thing is the song Dear Friend ended Paul and John's sparring on record, so that's a good thing.
The next album was called Red Rose Speedway and it was much better. During the sessions for Red Rose Speedway, Hi Hi Hi (a song that was bound and determined to be banned, for drugs and sexual content), C Moon, kind of a Jamaican feel, and Live and Let Die were also recorded. On the album, My Love was a smash hit. Overall, it was a pretty solid album. It would have been even better if all the singles recorded around it ended up on the album. Oh well.
Next...Wings really gets cranking and records one of the decades most famous albums.
saintsfan
Footballguy
Those aren't among my favorites, either. It's funny how you can get such talent in a room as Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson or Stevie Wonder and that's what comes out.
Godsbrother
Footballguy
Paul was erratic in the 1980s but Tug of War (1982) and Flowers in the Dirt (1989) were exceptional LPs. I am sure we'll get into them in more detail later so Ill just leave it at that.
Godsbrother
Footballguy
I've always loved McCartney. I wouldn't say it is better than ATMP or Plastic Ono Band but I like it probably as much.RAM is a GREAT album and has aged very well. Every bit as good as John's second solo album, Imagine, and maybe better.
Wild Life was recorded in one week and it sounds like it although it contains a few gems like Tomorrow, Dear Friend and the underrated Some People Never Know.
Red Rose Speedway has better production than Wild Life and contains the monster hit "My Love" but the LP just doesn't do it for me. It contains some great melodies but like Wild Life comes up a bit lightweight, a criticism that would haunt McCartney for years.
Missing from your analysis of this period are some notable singles that did not appear on LPs:
Another Day - a pretty good pop song with a great B-side (Oh oman Oh Why)
Give Ireland Back to the Irish - a rare political statement from Paul that was banned by the BBC. Not a half bad rocker though.
Mary Had A Little Lamb - awful but Paul did it in response to the above being banned by the BBC
Hi, Hi, Hi - excellent rocker. The B side was C-Moon, a concert favorite
Live and Let Die - to me it was THIS song that marked the beginning of Paul's comeback in the 70s. Great song and impeccable production by George Martin.
saintsfan
Footballguy
We happen to agree on that and yes, more on that later.
Other than some of Paul's solo stuff, what songs has Ringo played drums on?
saintsfan
Footballguy
He played with Tom PettyHe played on Plastic Ono BandHe played on some of George's stuff.Harry NilsonGodsbrother might know more. That's what I have off the top of my head.
Godsbrother
Footballguy
He also played drums on records by Carly Simon, Bob Dylan, the Beach Boys, Paul Simon and on Keith Moon's one and only solo LP. There are probably a few others but these I know for sure.saintsfan said:
saintsfan
Footballguy
Wings takes off
OK, so Paul, being a former Beatle, decided that recording in England wasn't good enough. He wanted to go to some far off, exotic place and record Wings' next record. So, they decided upon a country called Lagos in Nigeria. One small problem. Actually, several small problems. The recording "studio" was little more than a shack and the recording equipment wasn't fitting a main stream artist, or really almost any artist. Add to the fact that there was a military government in charge and the fact that Paul got robbed at knifepoint, this was less than paradise. Oh yeah, I forgot, except for Denny Lane, Linda, and Paul himself, the other members of Wings quit right before recording started. Yeah, this is the makings of a classic album, I can just feel it.
Remarkably, that's exactly what Paul did. He made a classic album that is, to this day, still considered his best post Beatles work and among the best of any of the solo Beatles work. Paul ended up playing lead guitar, bass, and drums and lead vocals for most of the album while Linda handled background vocals and keyboards and Denny Laine handled rhythm guitar and background vocals. The album was an immediate critical and popular success. Jet, Band On The Run, and Helen Wheels were the singles from the album. Really, the entire album is great, but some of the other tracks which are essential are Let Me Roll It and Bluebird, but like I said, it's good throughout. The cover is also interesting as it's kind of like a Pepper redo. Not as many faces as Pepper, but Paul, Linda, and Denny Laine, plus other famous people, including most notably Christopher Lee.
The next album is called Venus and Mars and it is also a very strong album. It was recorded in my hometown, New Orleans, Louisiana. Paul added a couple of new musicians to the Wings lineup and they recorded the album. The big single off of Venus and Mars was Listen To What The Man Said and a lesser hit was Venus and Mars/Rock Show. The tracks on the album are linked together like on the B Side of Abbey Road. Medicine Jar (sung by Jimmy McCulloch) is great. Letting Go rocks. This album shows a more rock side of McCartney. Of course, on a Paul album, there are ballads, like Love In Song and a 20s style number (how many more of these does Paul need) called You Gave Me The Answer.
V&M is another solid album, but I don't think it's quite as good as Band On The Run. The critics agreed it wasn't as good as Band On The Run, but reviews were generally positive. The public ate the album up as it was a smash hit and Wings went out of tour to promote it. This tour eventually resulted in the Wings Over America live album. a few years later. Another interesting thing about Venus and Mars is Denny Laine and Jimmy McCulloch each had a lead vocal on the album, not something that had not really happened much on Wings albums before. This trend would continue with the next album.
Next...At The Speed of Sound to the end of Wings
OK, so Paul, being a former Beatle, decided that recording in England wasn't good enough. He wanted to go to some far off, exotic place and record Wings' next record. So, they decided upon a country called Lagos in Nigeria. One small problem. Actually, several small problems. The recording "studio" was little more than a shack and the recording equipment wasn't fitting a main stream artist, or really almost any artist. Add to the fact that there was a military government in charge and the fact that Paul got robbed at knifepoint, this was less than paradise. Oh yeah, I forgot, except for Denny Lane, Linda, and Paul himself, the other members of Wings quit right before recording started. Yeah, this is the makings of a classic album, I can just feel it.
Remarkably, that's exactly what Paul did. He made a classic album that is, to this day, still considered his best post Beatles work and among the best of any of the solo Beatles work. Paul ended up playing lead guitar, bass, and drums and lead vocals for most of the album while Linda handled background vocals and keyboards and Denny Laine handled rhythm guitar and background vocals. The album was an immediate critical and popular success. Jet, Band On The Run, and Helen Wheels were the singles from the album. Really, the entire album is great, but some of the other tracks which are essential are Let Me Roll It and Bluebird, but like I said, it's good throughout. The cover is also interesting as it's kind of like a Pepper redo. Not as many faces as Pepper, but Paul, Linda, and Denny Laine, plus other famous people, including most notably Christopher Lee.
The next album is called Venus and Mars and it is also a very strong album. It was recorded in my hometown, New Orleans, Louisiana. Paul added a couple of new musicians to the Wings lineup and they recorded the album. The big single off of Venus and Mars was Listen To What The Man Said and a lesser hit was Venus and Mars/Rock Show. The tracks on the album are linked together like on the B Side of Abbey Road. Medicine Jar (sung by Jimmy McCulloch) is great. Letting Go rocks. This album shows a more rock side of McCartney. Of course, on a Paul album, there are ballads, like Love In Song and a 20s style number (how many more of these does Paul need) called You Gave Me The Answer.
V&M is another solid album, but I don't think it's quite as good as Band On The Run. The critics agreed it wasn't as good as Band On The Run, but reviews were generally positive. The public ate the album up as it was a smash hit and Wings went out of tour to promote it. This tour eventually resulted in the Wings Over America live album. a few years later. Another interesting thing about Venus and Mars is Denny Laine and Jimmy McCulloch each had a lead vocal on the album, not something that had not really happened much on Wings albums before. This trend would continue with the next album.
Next...At The Speed of Sound to the end of Wings
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Can you list a few of the song titles? Are they songs I might have heard on the radio, or are they album tracks that most of us aren't familiar with?
saintsfan
Footballguy
Wings At The Speed of Sound to the end of Wings
Ok, so McCartney was in the Beatles, which was a democratic a rock band as has ever existed. The talent of the individual members made it so it worked out fine, in fact, better than fine. When McCartney started Wings, basically, it was rock and roll's version of a monarchy. Paul was the king and he had total control. He wrote, he sung, sometimes, he even played most of the instruments. Honestly, it had worked out pretty well that way. Wings was one of the top selling bands in the world and the critics loved the last two Wings albums.
I don't know if it was because he wanted to try and keep this version of Wings together longer or what, but on the album Wings At The Speed of Sound, he started to share some control, or at the very least, he started to let his sidemen sing some leads and write some songs of their own. Kind of strange since none of these guys were John Lennon or George Harrison, but hey who am I to criticize?
Anyway, the critics reactions were lukewarm, but the public loved it. Shot straight to #1 in the US based on the strength of the two singles, Let 'Em In (not one of my favorite McCartney songs) and Silly Love Songs. Silly Love Songs is one of those songs that people seem to hate. I love it, though. First of all, the song is kind of making fun of people who claim to hate "silly love songs", so I think it's kind of clever. Second of all, how can anyone hate a record with that bass line. You might be so distracted by the lyrics or whatever you don't like, so do this. Don't listen to any of that, just listen to Paul's bass. It's not so difficult to hear because it's practically the lead instrument. Phenomenal bass playing and as good a bass line as McCartney ever played. The other song I really like is Beware My Love. The intro is kind of long and tedious, but once Paul kicks it in, holy crap. His best screeching vocal since Oh Darling, IMO.
In 1977, Linda became pregnant with Mary and all that was recorded that year was Mull of Kintyre, which was a smash in the UK and remains the top selling non charity single in UK history. Huge hit. Not promoted much in the US, so most Americans don't know the song. After that, they started recording an album called London Town. Once again, critics hated it, public loved it, although it didn't have the staying power in the charts that the previous 3 albums had. With A Little Luck became the huge hit off of it. Kind of an experimental album, I guess. Not one of my favorites.
Paul didn't know it at the time, but in 1979 he went into the studio to record the final Wings album called Back To The Egg. Lineup changed continued as they had a new drummer and guitarist. Goodnight Tonight was recorded and released ahead of Back To The Egg and was a smash hit. Kind of like London Town, to me. A couple of songs I like, but this continues McCartney's downward slide.
Next...McCartney II starts the 80s
Ok, so McCartney was in the Beatles, which was a democratic a rock band as has ever existed. The talent of the individual members made it so it worked out fine, in fact, better than fine. When McCartney started Wings, basically, it was rock and roll's version of a monarchy. Paul was the king and he had total control. He wrote, he sung, sometimes, he even played most of the instruments. Honestly, it had worked out pretty well that way. Wings was one of the top selling bands in the world and the critics loved the last two Wings albums.
I don't know if it was because he wanted to try and keep this version of Wings together longer or what, but on the album Wings At The Speed of Sound, he started to share some control, or at the very least, he started to let his sidemen sing some leads and write some songs of their own. Kind of strange since none of these guys were John Lennon or George Harrison, but hey who am I to criticize?
Anyway, the critics reactions were lukewarm, but the public loved it. Shot straight to #1 in the US based on the strength of the two singles, Let 'Em In (not one of my favorite McCartney songs) and Silly Love Songs. Silly Love Songs is one of those songs that people seem to hate. I love it, though. First of all, the song is kind of making fun of people who claim to hate "silly love songs", so I think it's kind of clever. Second of all, how can anyone hate a record with that bass line. You might be so distracted by the lyrics or whatever you don't like, so do this. Don't listen to any of that, just listen to Paul's bass. It's not so difficult to hear because it's practically the lead instrument. Phenomenal bass playing and as good a bass line as McCartney ever played. The other song I really like is Beware My Love. The intro is kind of long and tedious, but once Paul kicks it in, holy crap. His best screeching vocal since Oh Darling, IMO.
In 1977, Linda became pregnant with Mary and all that was recorded that year was Mull of Kintyre, which was a smash in the UK and remains the top selling non charity single in UK history. Huge hit. Not promoted much in the US, so most Americans don't know the song. After that, they started recording an album called London Town. Once again, critics hated it, public loved it, although it didn't have the staying power in the charts that the previous 3 albums had. With A Little Luck became the huge hit off of it. Kind of an experimental album, I guess. Not one of my favorites.
Paul didn't know it at the time, but in 1979 he went into the studio to record the final Wings album called Back To The Egg. Lineup changed continued as they had a new drummer and guitarist. Goodnight Tonight was recorded and released ahead of Back To The Egg and was a smash hit. Kind of like London Town, to me. A couple of songs I like, but this continues McCartney's downward slide.
Next...McCartney II starts the 80s
Godsbrother
Footballguy
I could list the songs he played drums for the solo Beatles pretty easily but it would take a lot of digging for me to find out the others.
Godsbrother
Footballguy
I am pretty sure Paul's decision to share the limelight on Speed of Sound was to quiet the critics that were saying that Wings wasn't a real band. It didn't work.saintsfan said:
It is worth noting that Wings were reduced to just Paul, Linda & Denny Laine for London Town. Recorded on a yacht, it has a very British feel to it which isn't surprising considering the title of the LP. I think it is very underrated: the title track, Cafe on the Left Bank, I'm Carrying, I've Had Enough, With A Little Luck, Deliver Your Children and Don't Let It Bring You Down are all solid songs. It is a bit of a laid back album though.I never understood why Mull of Kintyre didn't get more play on the radio in the States. It was a great song that set sales records in pretty much every country in Europe but you rarely heard it here.
Back to the Egg was never one of my favorites but no McCartney album is ever completely bad. Getting Closer, Old Siam Sir, Arrow Through Me and Winter Rose/Love Awake are pretty good.
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DawgPoundNJ
Footballguy
Wanted to jump in and say that SF is doing a great job laying out the info, and GB - as usual, even if he is a towel-waving heathen- is bringing the knowledge. I'll hop in when I have more time to throw my solo-B opinions.
I thought I knew a lot of deep stuff about the Beatles but these gentlemen are schooling me.
Leroy Hoard
Footballguy
Little known Beatles facts culled from the internets:
"Boys" - This song was originally performed by the all girl group The Shirelles. The Beatles were concerned that recording the song would lead to accusations that they were homosexual. For this reason, they made sure Ringo was the one who sang on it.
This lead to a joke between John, Paul and George that John was the "smart one", Paul the "cute one", George the "quiet one" and Ringo the "gay one" On Mondays, they would often ask Ringo how his date with the construction worker went. They bought him dildos each Christmas.
"Happiness is a Warm Gun" - John Lennon wrote this song after he shot a man in the Bahamas and threw his body into the Atlantic.
"Why Don't We Do It In The Road" - The original title was "Why Don't We Do It With Ringo's Mom." Paul McCartney has always maintained that he was forced to change the title and lyrics because it made Ringo Starr cry. In interviews about the song, he would do an exaggerated imitation of Ringo weeping and peeing his pants.
"Eleanor Rigby" - This was based on an old woman who lived alone in the woods near one of the band's favorite vacation spots. Due to her isolation, the band felt free to often knock over her trash, steal her many cats and set small fires on her lawn.
"Boys" - This song was originally performed by the all girl group The Shirelles. The Beatles were concerned that recording the song would lead to accusations that they were homosexual. For this reason, they made sure Ringo was the one who sang on it.
This lead to a joke between John, Paul and George that John was the "smart one", Paul the "cute one", George the "quiet one" and Ringo the "gay one" On Mondays, they would often ask Ringo how his date with the construction worker went. They bought him dildos each Christmas.
"Happiness is a Warm Gun" - John Lennon wrote this song after he shot a man in the Bahamas and threw his body into the Atlantic.
"Why Don't We Do It In The Road" - The original title was "Why Don't We Do It With Ringo's Mom." Paul McCartney has always maintained that he was forced to change the title and lyrics because it made Ringo Starr cry. In interviews about the song, he would do an exaggerated imitation of Ringo weeping and peeing his pants.
"Eleanor Rigby" - This was based on an old woman who lived alone in the woods near one of the band's favorite vacation spots. Due to her isolation, the band felt free to often knock over her trash, steal her many cats and set small fires on her lawn.
saintsfan
Footballguy
McCartney II starts off the 80s
So, as I said, Paul didn't intend to break up Wings at this point. However, Denny Laine left Wings when Paul got busted in Japan for having pot in his luggage. Apparently, Japan had refused Paul entry for years because of past pot busts, so why Paul figured he could get weed into Japan in his luggage is beyond me. I guess when people have given you whatever you wanted since you were 20 years old, you think you are immune to this sort of thing.
Without Denny Laine, I guess Paul figured that any appearance of Wings being a band was kind of over. However, the Wings live version of Coming Up in Scotland became a smash #1 hit around this time.
So, Paul started working on a new album alone and he decided to go back to his first solo record and called it McCartney II. II was mostly synth based. Once again, critics were mixed, but the public loved it as it got to #1 in the UK and #3 in the US. Coming Up was on McCartney II, but this was the studio version. I don't know if you can find the video on You Tube, but if you can, it's pretty funny. It's basically a band playing the song, but the band has Paul dressed up in various costumes, including Paul dressed up as a Beatle playing his trademark Hofner and Paul dressed as Buddy Holly. Linda is on there and also in drag as a background singer. Paul called the band the Plastic Macs. Probably a little nod to John.Another interesting song on McCartney II is Waterfalls, which was released as a single, but didn't do anything much. One of those melodic ballads that Paul seemingly can do in his sleep.
Overall, I'm going to have to say it was another rather weak effort from Paul. As Godsbrother pointed out, Paul always has a few good ones on every album, but there's lots of throwaway on this one.
Paul probably realized this wasn't his best effort, so for his next album, he brought it some help. He called in George Martin to help him and things were going OK, until December 9th when Paul hears John was killed. An unfortunate thing happened. Minutes after finding out one of his best friends and former partner was killed, some reporter stuck a mic in Paul's face and asked him what he thought. Paul said "It's a drag." Of course, the press went crazy thinking that Paul just gave this flip answer because he didn't care. Personally, I find that to be a little unfair. If someone had stuck a mic in my face minutes after someone close to me had died, I don't know that I would have done any better. In reality, John's death destroyed Paul. The sessions for the album immediately stopped and Paul mourned for weeks over John. John and Paul had mended their fences over the past few years and things were good between them again. Unlike George, who never got to fix things with John before he died, at least Paul didn't have that hanging over his head.
So, they got back to recording the album and George Martin helped Paul focus himself and the result was one of McCartney's best solo works, Tug Of War.
Next...Tug Of War to some time off in the mid 80s
So, as I said, Paul didn't intend to break up Wings at this point. However, Denny Laine left Wings when Paul got busted in Japan for having pot in his luggage. Apparently, Japan had refused Paul entry for years because of past pot busts, so why Paul figured he could get weed into Japan in his luggage is beyond me. I guess when people have given you whatever you wanted since you were 20 years old, you think you are immune to this sort of thing.
Without Denny Laine, I guess Paul figured that any appearance of Wings being a band was kind of over. However, the Wings live version of Coming Up in Scotland became a smash #1 hit around this time.
So, Paul started working on a new album alone and he decided to go back to his first solo record and called it McCartney II. II was mostly synth based. Once again, critics were mixed, but the public loved it as it got to #1 in the UK and #3 in the US. Coming Up was on McCartney II, but this was the studio version. I don't know if you can find the video on You Tube, but if you can, it's pretty funny. It's basically a band playing the song, but the band has Paul dressed up in various costumes, including Paul dressed up as a Beatle playing his trademark Hofner and Paul dressed as Buddy Holly. Linda is on there and also in drag as a background singer. Paul called the band the Plastic Macs. Probably a little nod to John.Another interesting song on McCartney II is Waterfalls, which was released as a single, but didn't do anything much. One of those melodic ballads that Paul seemingly can do in his sleep.
Overall, I'm going to have to say it was another rather weak effort from Paul. As Godsbrother pointed out, Paul always has a few good ones on every album, but there's lots of throwaway on this one.
Paul probably realized this wasn't his best effort, so for his next album, he brought it some help. He called in George Martin to help him and things were going OK, until December 9th when Paul hears John was killed. An unfortunate thing happened. Minutes after finding out one of his best friends and former partner was killed, some reporter stuck a mic in Paul's face and asked him what he thought. Paul said "It's a drag." Of course, the press went crazy thinking that Paul just gave this flip answer because he didn't care. Personally, I find that to be a little unfair. If someone had stuck a mic in my face minutes after someone close to me had died, I don't know that I would have done any better. In reality, John's death destroyed Paul. The sessions for the album immediately stopped and Paul mourned for weeks over John. John and Paul had mended their fences over the past few years and things were good between them again. Unlike George, who never got to fix things with John before he died, at least Paul didn't have that hanging over his head.
So, they got back to recording the album and George Martin helped Paul focus himself and the result was one of McCartney's best solo works, Tug Of War.
Next...Tug Of War to some time off in the mid 80s
Uruk-Hai
Footballguy
I think the whole quote was something like "yeah, it's a drag isn't it?". But I agree that the media misread it completely. I tend to think the best of people and I believe Paul was in shock - not to mention full of guilt for whatever his part in the John/Paul "divorce" was.In any event, Paul's gotten - in my opinion - too much of the blame for the split. Sure, he was a ##### and a meglomaniac - but he was also the one who tried to keep the Beatles (& Apple) alive after the others gave up (there are stories about Paul making sure there was enough toilet paper in the restrooms while all the while there were 89,000 Rolls Royce's missing).
saintsfan
Footballguy
Oh, he was definitely in shock. His eyes just looked empty.Yeah, Paul has often said that John became the martyr he never wanted to be when he died. People will be saying all kinds of good things about Paul when it's his time to go. He gets too much blame for the breakup. Truth be told, John broke up the group. Paul just announced it.In any event, it was time for the Beatles to breakup. You had three HOF solo artists in that group. Eventually they were going to want to do their own thing. Add the pressure of just being a Beatle and you have a situation that wasn't going to last forever.
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