Paul McCartney & Wings
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Paul McCartney & Wings |
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McCartney (1970, 35.08) ***/½ |
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| Lovely Linda That Would Be Something Valentine Day Every Night Hot as Sun/Glasses Junk Man We Was Lonely Oo You |
Momma Miss America Teddy Boy Singalong Junk Maybe I'm Amazed Kreen - Akrore |
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Red Rose Speedway [as Paul McCartney & Wings] (1973, 42.17) **/½ |
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| Big Barn Bed My Love Get on the Right Thing One More Kiss Little Lamb Dragonfly Single Pigeon When the Night Loup (1st Indian on the Moon) |
Medley Hold Me Tight Lazy Dynamite Hands of Love Power Cut |
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Venus & Mars [as Wings] (1975, 43.04) ***/T |
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| Venus and Mars Rock Show Love in Song You Gave Me the Answer Magneto and Titanium Man Letting Go Venus and Mars Reprise Spirits of Ancient Egypt |
Medicine Jar Call Me Back Again Listen to What the Man Said Treat Her Gently Lonely Old People Crossroads Theme |
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Wings at the Speed of Sound [as Wings] (1976, 46.42/56.43) ***/½ |
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| Let 'em in Note You Never Wrote She's My Baby Beware My Love Wino Junko Silly Love Songs Cook of the House Time to Hide |
Must Do Something About it San Ferry Anne Warm and Beautiful [CD adds: Walking in the Park With Eloise Bridge on the River Suite Sally G] |
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Wings Over America [as Wings] (1976, 115.53) ***/T |
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| Medley Venus and Mars Rock Show Jet Let Me Roll It Spirits of Ancient Egypt Medicine Jar Maybe I'm Amazed Call Me Back Again |
Lady Madonna The Long and Winding Road Live and Let Die Medley Picasso's Last Words Richard Cory Bluebird I've Just Seen a Face Blackbird |
Yesterday You Gave Me the Answer Magneto and Titanium Man Go Now My Love Listen to What the Man Said Let 'em in Time to Hide |
Silly Love Songs Beware My Love Letting Go Band on the Run Hi Hi Hi Soily |
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London Town [as Wings] (1978, 51.06) **½/T |
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| London Town Cafe on the Left Bank I'm Carrying Backwards Traveller Cuff Link Children Children Girlfriend I've Had Enough |
With a Little Luck Famous Groupies Deliver Your Children Name and Address Don't Let it Bring You Down Morse Moose and the Grey Goose |
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McCartney II (1980, 38.04/58.43) ***/T½ |
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| Coming Up Temporary Secretary On the Way Waterfalls Nobody Knows Front Parlour Summer's Day Song Frozen Jap |
Bogey Music Darkroom One of Those Days [CD adds: Goodnight Tonight Check My Machine Secret Friend] |
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Pipes of Peace (1983, 39.10/50.55) **½/0 (½) |
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| Pipes of Peace Say Say Say The Other Me Keep Under Cover So Bad The Man Sweetest Little Show Average Person |
Hey Hey Tug of Peace Through Our Love [CD adds: Twice in a Lifetime We All Stand Together Simple as That] |
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Flowers in the Dirt (1989, 53.42) ***/0 |
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| My Brave Face Rough Ride You Want Her Too Distractions We Got Married Put it There Figure of Eight This One |
Don't Be Careless Love That Day is Done How Many People Motor of Love Où est le Soleil? |
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Off the Ground (1993, 50.07) **½/½ |
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| Off the Ground Looking for Changes Hope of Deliverance Mistress and Maid I Owe it All to You Biker Like an Icon Peace in the Neighborhood Golden Earth Girl |
The Lovers That Never Were Get Out of the Way Winedark Open Sea C'mon People/And Remember to Be... Cosmically Conscious |
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Flaming Pie (1997, 53.44) **½/0 |
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| The Song We Were Singing The World Tonight If You Wanna Somedays Young Boy Calico Skies Flaming Pie Heaven on a Sunday |
Used to Be Bad Souvenir Little Willow Really Love You Beautiful Night Great Day |
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The In-Laws (2003) **½/T[Paul contributes]Live and Let Die |
Current availability:
Mellotrons used:
Recorded during the prolonged, messy breakup of The Beatles, McCartney is that rare thing, a genuine solo album, with Paul playing everything, bar a few keyboard parts and vocals from 'lovely Linda'. A sparse, underproduced album, some of it was recorded on a 4-track at the McCartneys' new farm in Scotland, as well as the ubiquitous Abbey Road. Many of the songs are no more than sketches, but the whole thing was a canny move on Paul's part, in retrospect, highlighting how overblown the Beatles had become in comparison. The album has produced only one song of any real consequence, Maybe I'm Amazed, a major hit years later in its live form, although Macca fans rate the album fairly highly. MkII Mellotron on one track, Singalong Junk, an instrumental version of the earlier Junk with a background string part, but nothing you couldn't live without, to be honest.
Next up was the first Wings album proper, Red Rose Speedway; in all honesty, it's a horrendously dull album of mid-paced, unexciting early '70s soft-rock, which is probably why they were so fantastically successful, a fact that is largely forgotten these days. Paul plays 'Tron on two parts of the four-part Medley, Lazy Dynamite and Power Cut, although it's effectively inaudible on the former, with only a few string chords towards the end of the latter. Nothing on possibly the best Wings album, Band on the Run, but '75's Venus & Mars features some vaguely 'Strawberry Fields' flutes (and who else is qualified to play them, eh?) on Call Me Back Again. The rest of the album is impeccably produced boredom, lost in the mid-'70s, when writing songs called Rock Show and Magneto And Titanium Man obviously seemed like a good idea.
'76's terribly democratic Wings at the Speed of Sound (all members sing on various tracks) has several bits that could be Mellotron, though the only totally obvious one is the few seconds of choir on Wino Junko. I see this is where Linda's Cook Of The House comes from, but as you can see from the review of her album above, although Mellotron's credited, it's totally inaudible (are these even the same versions?), unless it's providing some (all?) of the sax work. Surprisingly, one really good song in Beware My Love, although both the album's major hits (Silly Love Songs and Let 'Em In) are at least catchy, if infuriating. Wings' only 'serious' use of the instrument, however, was on their next release.
Despite Wings being at their commercial peak in 1976, a triple live album seems a little excessive, though I believe it sold well enough at the time. I presume its near-two hours encompasses a whole gig, although I expect it's taken from several different ones, as is often the way with these things. The band were a five-piece at this point, including Linda on keys; now, she was never going to challenge Oscar Peterson, exactly, but that's probably rather missing the point. McCartney wasn't after stunning musicianship, more a workable group dynamic (while Wings weren't exactly a democracy, I get the feeling there was some band spirit at the time), so having his competent-enough wife on keyboards makes perfect sense in that context. Her backing vocals were another matter, but maybe we should just draw a discrete veil over that issue...
The album's tracklisting looks quaintly anachronistic now, with many of the songs lost in the mists of time; Medicine Jar, Richard Cory, Time To Hide, anyone? Most of the band's hits are on it somewhere, as is guitarist Denny Laine's '66 hit with the pre-Justin Hayward Moody Blues, Go Now. There's even a handful of Beatles songs, in those days before Paul would come to largely rely on them to fill arenas. Essentially, though, it's a Wings set, not an ex-Beatles'. Anyway, alongside the Hammond, Rhodes and MiniMoog, I believe Linda played two Mellotrons (later one Mark V, I think), but makes very little use of them, to be honest. Half a dozen tracks with largely background strings trying to recreate studio string section parts doth not a Mellotron Album make, although the stuff on the excellent Live And Let Die works really well. It's possible that there's flutes on a couple of tracks, too, but I wouldn't put money on it, as it's all buried away in the mix, so don't go buying this hoping to hear some decent 'Tron work. Oh, and all the brass is real.
1978's London Town has an updated sound compared to Macca's mid-'70s efforts, but thirty years later, just sounds tired and cynical. As usual, one cheeso hit (With A Little Luck), and an awful lot of filler, with the album clocking in at over fifty minutes. The only point at which they do anything even remotely innovative is on the album's best track, Morse Moose And The Grey Goose, where they stick a piano through a fuzzbox, alongside a clean one. OK, different... Mellotron choirs on Famous Groupies, and while it's possible it's in the background on one or two other tracks, it's more likely to be one of those new-fangled polysynth things. Paul made one more album under the Wings banner, '79's Back to the Egg, but despite rumours, it appears to be 'Tron-free.
There's Mellotron all over Paul's second solo album proper, McCartney II, from 1980. He plays every instrument on the album, meaning that quite a few things have to be keyboard approximations, and some of those, in those pre-sampler times, have to be 'Tron. I've read that this is a highly eccentric album, and after hearing Temporary Secretary, I don't feel inclined to argue. What was he on? Well, after his '79 Tokyo weed bust, I hardly need to comment... The album has its highlights, even from my perspective; the quite beautiful Waterfalls is excellent, with Summer's Day Song having a similar vibe. Thankfully, nothing else comes close to the infuriating tweeness of Coming Up. Anyway, on the (presumably) Mellotron front, the saxes on the irritating Coming Up have exactly the same 'weak notes' each time round the chorus, and I'm sure I can hear the odd key-click, while the instrumental Summer's Day Song is very clearly 'Tron flute, particularly in the chordal passages. Bogey Music has more saxes, but in a lower register, with yet more saxes on one of the CD's bonus tracks, the interminable Secret Friend.
Paul's last Mellotron use until 1989 is on a bonus track on the CD issue of 1983's Pipes of Peace, although I vaguely wonder about the church organ at the beginning of the album. Overall, it's McCartney-by-numbers, with two major hits in the cheesola title track (wasn't that the one with the 'First World War Christmas Day football match' recreation?) and the even more cheesola Michael Jackson collaboration Say Say Say, in the days when they were still friends, before Wacko bought Northern Songs from under Paul's nose. The rest of the album is typical McCartney, and not too horribly '80s, but not something you're likely to want to track down. As for that bonus track, Twice In A Lifetime, it's an irritating little song with a passably arranged 'Tron strings part kept well in the background.
After a rather uncertain period in the mid-'80s, Flowers in the Dirt is critically regarded as Paul's 'comeback' album. Surprisingly, he collaborated on much of the album with Elvis Costello, at a career peak himself, adding a bit of Lennonesque roughage to McCartney's overly sweet style. Most of the album's keyboards are of the then-current 'very digital' variety, although I'm sure I spotted a Wurly piano at one point. Credited Mellotron, for the first time in years, on the reggaeish How Many People, played by Paul, but I have to say, it's totally inaudible, so Christ knows what he actually did with it.
Four years on, Off the Ground is generally regarded as a similar, though slightly lesser album than its predecessor; Costello collaborated again, though only on the writing front this time. Once again, one credited 'Tron track, and this time you can (wait for it) actually hear the thing, with rather murky-sounding flutes on the intro to I Owe It All To You, making it the first audible McCartney Mellotron since McCartney II. After another four years, and post-the Beatles Anthology project, Flaming Pie (a Lennon reference) is, basically, more of the same; if you're a Paul fan, you'll probably like it, while the rest of us start shifting about in our seats. Yet again, one credited 'Tron track, the ballad Little Willow, although I've no idea what it's supposed to be doing. Paul's massed harmonies? Unlikely. The echoed synth line? I think not. So... what? So what indeed.
Paul apparently toured the States with his Mark V recently, though a thorough study of the tour DVD (by someone else) failed to locate it. If it was there, it should be on Back in the U.S.: Live 2002, but having given the album a good listen, the only time I even remotely thought I might have heard it was on The Fool On The Hill, but it wasn't, so we'll scrap that one.
So... have McCartney/Wings made any albums worth buying for their Mellotron use? Frankly, no, although there's a passable 'Macca/'Tron' compilation to be made by someone with a) the original albums and b) plenty of time. So don't look at me.
See: Beatles | John Lennon | George Harrison | Ringo Starr | Linda McCartney | The In-Laws
