Paul's "Memory Almost Full" Debuts at No. 3!

[Teasing the Korean]

Because his fan base, which hasn't been to a record store for the past 20 years, regularly shops at Starbucks...

[Chuck Nessa]

No! His "fan base" is trying to find a record store and stop at Starbucks to rest.

[GregK]

based on the discussions of it at the Hoffman forum (something like 5 threads on it!), you'd think it's the greatest record ever released in the history of music!

[Alexander]

I got it. I think it's pretty darn good. Look, the fact is that Paul hasn't been anywhere near the top of his game since the break-up of the Beatles. Even his best solo/Wings work ("McCartney," "Ram," "Band on the Run," "Venus and Mars, etc) is substandard compared to almost any given Beatles album. His work is usually tuneful, but slight at best. Lyrically, he's more "Hello, Goodbye" than "Eleanor Rigby" most of the time. But, if you adjust your expectations accordingly, no solo McCartney work has ever been anything less than enjoyable. Fact is, "Memory Almost Full" is a damn sight better than "Chaos and Creation" (which was supposed to be his return to form, although I found it lacking). It's got snappy tunes with good hooks, McCartney's in better voice than he's been in some time, and it doesn't promise anything it can't provide. It's a very, very good effort from a man who's been coasting on his reputation for longer than he deserves to. Give the man his due.

[Teasing the Korean]

...Give the man his due.

I'm not knocking the guy. I just think there's something inherently funny about his being signed to Starbucks Records and Tapes.

Years ago, when I first saw his fat, tattooed and pierced drummer, I joked, "That guy looks like he just finished his shift at Starbucks." Now I wonder if there wasn't something to my theory after all.

[.:.impossible]

Arrah Through Me

[zen archer]

I got it. I think it's pretty darn good. Look, the fact is that Paul hasn't been anywhere near the top of his game since the break-up of the Beatles. Even his best solo/Wings work ("McCartney," "Ram," "Band on the Run," "Venus and Mars, etc) is substandard compared to almost any given Beatles album. His work is usually tuneful, but slight at best. Lyrically, he's more "Hello, Goodbye" than "Eleanor Rigby" most of the time. But, if you adjust your expectations accordingly, no solo McCartney work has ever been anything less than enjoyable. Fact is, "Memory Almost Full" is a damn sight better than "Chaos and Creation" (which was supposed to be his return to form, although I found it lacking). It's got snappy tunes with good hooks, McCartney's in better voice than he's been in some time, and it doesn't promise anything it can't provide. It's a very, very good effort from a man who's been coasting on his reputation for longer than he deserves to. Give the man his due.

I think lyrically his last 3 albums have been anything but slight. He seems to be grappling with

Linda and George dying and his own mortality. Especially chaos which seemed a little too downtrodden

at times. I think he has put out a fantastic string of albums dating back to flaming pie in 97.

[Teasing the Korean]

Arrah Through Me

Pleasant tune, unfortunate hair.

[JSngry]

You know what's really unfortunate about McCartney? His eyebrows. Those arches that could have been used as the model for the one in St. Louis. Great for teen-idol "Hold Me Tight" shit, but already undermining by the time of "Yesterday" (see the Sullivan video).

I betcha that with different eyebrows, McCartney would have gotten a better critical shake.

[Teasing the Korean]

You know what's really unfortunate about McCartney? His eyebrows.

Yeah, there's sometheing weird about senior citizen still trying to look cute...

[Alexander]

That video is really funny! Apparently, everybody but the drummer played keyboards in this edition of Wings...

[Alexander]

Check out Paul's circa 1979 mugging in this clip for the disco puff-piece Goodnight Tonight.

[Alexander]

Too many Pauls!

[JSngry]

...the disco puff-piece Goodnight Tonight.

There was a 12" of that that sounded really good on the radio back in the day. Remixed to be more of a pure dance record. More disco, less puff.

Check it out though - McCartney has consistently been a better bassist than generally given credit for. No, he's not a "heavyweight" or anything like that, but his basslines are quite often interestingly quirky. Like in this one, he emphasizes the b9 on the V chord. Not something that would "generally" be done.

McCartney's a lot like Sinatra in this respect - his "image", his place in popular consciousness has gotten so large for both his fans and his dtractors that their fundamental musicianship is seldom examined the way it maybe should be. And for both of them, there's enough there to make blanket dismissals very, very difficult.

The guy's stayed on the chronic for waaaaay too long, that's what I think. Still functional, still in touch with his creativity, but unwilling/unable to shake his residual silliness. The chronic'll do that to a man with eyebrows like that...

[Alexander]

...the disco puff-piece Goodnight Tonight.

There was a 12" of that that sounded really good on the radio back in the day. Remixed to be more of a pure dance record. More disco, less puff.

Check it out though - McCartney has consistently been a better bassist than generally given credit for. No, he's not a "heavyweight" or anything like that, but his basslines are quite often interestingly quirky. Like in this one, he emphasizes the b9 on the V chord. Not something that would "generally" be done.

McCartney's a lot like Sinatra in this respect - his "image", his place in popular consciousness has gotten so large for both his fans and his dtractors that their fundamental musicianship is seldom examined the way it maybe should be. And for both of them, there's enough there to make blanket dismissals very, very difficult.

The guy's stayed on the chronic for waaaaay too long, that's what I think. Still functional, still in touch with his creativity, but unwilling/unable to shake his residual silliness. The chronic'll do that to a man with eyebrows like that...

I agree that Paul's a wonderful bass player. His bass lines are part of what made those Beatles songs so great. I also agree that even on a song like "Goodnight Tonight," Paul manages to be very creative (I was thinking that as I watched the video, actually). His musicianship *is* too often overlooked. But that doesn't change the fact that the man's been coasting since 1970...

[Eric]

It is funny how his solo stuff generally sounds much better today than it did 20-30 years ago. Back then it was all about missing expectations. No, his solo stuff is not "great", but a good chunk of it is quite enjoyable, some of it in a guilty pleasure vein, some standing on its own.

I hated London Town when it came about, but now I really, really like it.

Edited June 18, 2007 by Eric

[Chalupa]

Happy 65th Birthday wishes to Macca!

[Johnny E]

How Do You Sleep?

John Lennon

So Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise

You better see right through that mother's eyes

Those freaks was right when they said you was dead

The one mistake you made was in your head

Ah, how do you sleep?

Ah, how do you sleep at night?

You live with straights who tell you you was king

Jump when your momma tell you anything

The only thing you done was yesterday

And since you're gone you're just another day

Ah, how do you sleep?

Ah, how do you sleep at night?

Ah, how do you sleep?

Ah, how do you sleep at night?

A pretty face may last a year or two

But pretty soon they'll see what you can do

The sound you make is muzak to my ears

You must have learned something in all those years

Ah, how do you sleep?

Ah, how do you sleep at night?

That about sums it up right there. Don't get me wrong. I love the Beatles. I'm like one of these people that can't trust anyone who doesn't like the Beatles. But let's be frank, Paul is a lightweight. Without someone else to bounce ideas off of in order to give his tunes some edge (Lennon, Lane, Costello, etc.) he's no more than a Barry Manilow type. Great bass player, great voice, good song writer. But the minute he started believing that he was a genius and didn't need the Beatles anymore, that's when his music started to take a turn for the worst. And the way Paul sued everybody and left the Beatles was lame. Let us not forget, it wasn't Yoko that broke up the Beatles, it was Paul.

Edited June 18, 2007 by Johnny E

[Guy Berger]

I wonder if John Lennon's murder has granted him some immunity to criticism.

Guy

[J Larsen]

Yes, but also the fact that he at least appeared to clean up his act in his final years.

Whether it was misinterpreted or not, I think McCartney's reaction to Lennon's murder ("it's a drag") turned a lot of fans off Paul and put them in Lennon's camp.

Edited June 18, 2007 by J Larsen

[Guy Berger]

Yes, but also the fact that he at least appeared to clean up his act in his final years.

What do you mean?

Guy

[J Larsen]

Yes, but also the fact that he at least appeared to clean up his act in his final years.

What do you mean?

Guy

No more running around with various women, no more getting in the news for getting kicked out of nightclubs for stealing maxi pads from the ladys' room and wearing them on his head, becoming a father (and I don't mean having a kid, I mean being a dad), etc.

[JSngry]

Yeah, the whole "Saint Lennon" trip is a bunch of bullshit. Sorry.

Don't get me wrong, some great, honest music there, but also some overwrought, oversimplistic, self-indulgent bullshit as well. I mean, anything more than a month or so after the fact, "How Do You Sleep" is...silly. Meow. meow meow, who gives a shit anyway?

When Lennon hit the bullseye, as he often did, he hit it hard, but when he didn't, as he often didn't, it could get...silly. Or ugly. Or both. Paul got shit for "Silly Love Songs". Well, ok, "Whatever Gets You Through The Night" is a Silly Hedonism Song. Silly is silly, period.

They, all four of 'em, were better, much better, together than apart. And they, all four of 'em, did post-group solo work of widely varying quality.

And now, two of 'em are dead, one of 'em's not really "active" except as an occasional "attraction", and one, only one, of 'em's still making music on an ongoing basis. Let it be indeed.

[J Larsen]

They, all four of 'em, were better, much better, together than apart. And they, all four of 'em, did post-group solo work of widely varying quality.

Yes, absolutely. It is really uncanny how much greater the whole was than the sum of the parts.

And while I agree that the post-Beatles work of all four is of widely varying quality, I think there is a clustering of points at the "low" end of the scale, and really not too much at the high end.

[BruceH]

They, all four of 'em, were better, much better, together than apart. And they, all four of 'em, did post-group solo work of widely varying quality.

Yes, absolutely. It is really uncanny how much greater the whole was than the sum of the parts.

And while I agree that the post-Beatles work of all four is of widely varying quality, I think there is a clustering of points at the "low" end of the scale, and really not too much at the high end.

That's for damn sure.