McCartney (1970)
1. The Lovely Linda
2. That Would Be Something
3. Valentine Day
4. Every Night
5. Hot as Sun/Glasses
6. Junk
7. Man We Was Lonely
8. Oo You
9. Momma Miss America
10.Teddy Boy
11.Singalong Junk
12.Maybe I'm Amazed
13.Kreen-Akrore
 
In many ways, this is a very odd
choice for a first solo album from a well established artist - or any
solo album from an established artist. This album is basically a very
rough, almost demo, recording in its entirety. It features only Paul and
his wife Linda performing all of the instruments, and the whole thing
sounds a bit thrown together - as if it's not really Paul's intention
that anyone take this thing too seriously.
A bit of a real surprise since the fan could freshly recall well crafted
masterpieces from the Beatles such as "Abbey Road" and "Sgt. Pepper". It's very easy to listen once
or twice and wonder "what is exactly the point?", yet the real joy in this
album is after multiple listens. Listening to this
album reminds you a bit
of when an artist re-releases a compact disc with "bonus demo
recordings" of their hits. You don't really feel like you're listening
to the finished product (think of most of the songs from The Beatles
"Anthology" releases), yet ideas that haven't been
quite fleshed out. The good news is that this was James Paul
McCartney, and if anyone could pull something like this off, well, he
was the one.
Glancing at the track listing, only about half of what is listed could
be classified as actual "songs" - and even that many is debatable. The
obvious two are Every Night and Maybe I'm Amazed. After
that it can be a bit fuzzy. Junk and That Would Be
Something, for example, are both very easily accessible, pleasant
and fun to sing and/or hum along. They both sound too incomplete,
though, and they're both prime examples of what this album could
have sounded like had McCartney taken these ideas, hired some quality
musicians and crafted into a "legitimate" album. I'm convinced it would
have been a masterpiece. As it is, many fans regard this album
already as a masterpiece, so maybe the rough treatment is
preferential?
A lot of the other "songs" are really nothing more than mini-jam
sessions. I'm not sure I could hum the bits to such songs as
Valentine Day or Kreen-Akore because they really don't
have any sort of substantial melodies or hooks going through them.
Again, though, that obviously wasn't the point. It needs to be said
that as much of a perfectionist as McCartney was (something that could
drive the other Beatles nuts), in many ways he never took some of his
music all that seriously. As a member of the Beatles, many of these simple ideas
would obviously be fleshed out a bit more thoughtfully with other band
members, but as a solo artist doing his first album, he probably just
was too burned out, and just put this one out as is.
The public took awhile to warm up to it. It didn't help things back in 1970
(the year this was released) when Paul
basically stated in the album packaging that The Beatles were officially
"through" (something everyone really already knew, but no one wanted to
admit). Give this one some time, though. It will grow on you.
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