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Paul Is Still Not Dead
Macca soars on quick and dirty new album.
McCartney, back when he still had the use of both thumbs.
Listen to this:
The Fireman -- "Nothing Too Much Just Out of Sight"
I'm sure he can always turn to his wallet for comfort, but poor old Paul McCartney has been taking it on the chin for decades. The most talented of the men they once called the Fab Four has long been the least fab, at least in fashionable circles, for failing to get himself shot, or for otherwise maintaining a public demeanour of chirpy-winky-thumbs-uppiness that always sat at a slightly nauseating angle to the constitutional honesty of either John Lennon or George Harrison.
McCartney's obstinate taste for comfy sweaters and cheerfully silly love songs perhaps didn't help either, but his long and busy back catalogue as an ex-Fabber contains more pure moments of wonder than those of his former comrades, and there's been a welcome critical thaw in the last few years over some of those lost gems. Not that we're all required to recognize the ostentatious brilliance wrapped up inside the otherwise tooth-rotting kitsch of "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" -- it's a taste thing, after all. But if you want me to, I will.
Being that Macca was always the most jealous guardian of official Beatles history (watching him marshal the testimony of the other two still-living Beatles in the 1995 doc Anthology can be an uncomfortable experience), I'm sure it's no accident that the 40th anniversary of the White Album coincides so neatly with the sudden release this Tuesday (Nov. 25) of a new album under his formerly super-secret identity as the Fireman.
Absent an explicit statement to that end, let's just take it that the Cute One is signaling as much with the blazing electric blues that kicks off Electric Arguments. "Nothing Too Much Out of Sight" seems to keep "Helter Skelter," "Yer Blues," "Birthday," and a touch of "Why Don't We Do It In the Road" very much in it sights, while the rest of the album -- which can be streamed here -- is loosey-goosey, playful, and occasionally messy in the spirit of both that towering work, and some of Sir Paul's most beguiling solo moments.
The rest of Electric Arguments. is hit and miss, as you'd expect of an album that was written and recorded on a day-to-day basis over two weeks. But in the empirically perfect pop of "Sun Comes Up," the exertion-free melodiousness of "Two Magpies," the new-agey waltz "Travelling Light," the polite Wings-y rock of "Highway," and especially the yawning great rush of "Sing the Changes," Electric Arguments. soars. Credit Macca for having the gusto to still let it blurt. In other words, thumbs up.
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4
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Bobb999
3 years ago
Homage to George Martin
George Martin deserves much of the credit for helping make the Beatles songs and recordings groundbreaking and great. Not just due to his innovative recording techniques, but because he co-wrote tons of Beatles songs without asking for or receiving any writing credits!
It's really a travesty that Macca and the rest ended up with huge fortunes while George Martin presumably did not!
Martin wrote Beatle song guitar solos, keyboard sections, and orchestration with horns and strings, but received no credit beyond "producer", which way understates his contribution.
Some like to claim Macca and Lennon solo rarely rose to prior Fab heights because they were no longer partners pushing each other to excel. But that's only half the story. The other missing ingredient was George Martin, a 5th and essential Beatle, who's received far less glory and remuneration than he deserved!
Yammer
3 years ago
Macca th' Artiste
My favourite Beatles song is Penny Lane; a more bizarre structure and orchestration is difficult to envision, yet it is so whimsical and flowing that it seems to have been made without effort. Whereas John is the one credited for deep thoughts.
In his recent authorized biography, Macca has made somewhat egotistical but defensible arguments that is was he who was the avant-garde Beatle, funding eccentric publications, turning the others on to modern atonality and electronica, art galleries, experimental film, and of course the shapely Oriental herb.
His body of work would seem to bear this out; silly love songs (indeed, lyrical puerility) aside, he is overwhelmingly ambitious across genres and media. McCartney may be an example of a fellow who, apart from his unpleasant public divorce, seems to have lived a charmed life and is therefore lacking in gravitas.
As for George Martin, he was an excellent and innovative producer, a perfect fit for the boys, but let's not have too much pity. He got his CBE, his publishing house, AIR Studios, scads of work over some fifty years, and an autobiography -- he did all right out of the Beatles.
de Falla
3 years ago
Some suggest he is
Yes, it is a taste thing after all:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/nov/21/fireman-electric-arguments
Bobb999
3 years ago
Penny Lane
Penny Lane's a perfect example of George Martin's indispensible touch. Without the somewhat psychedelic horn parts George M. undoubtedly wrote, it would be a lesser song. Surely he deserved a co-writing credit on that one!
Sure, Martin's done alright for himself in this life, but by rights he should be richer from much fatter royalty cheques he's been denied, even if the denying's his own doing for his not demanding
writing credits!
Macca claims he turned the rest on to pot?
Odd, 'cause Bob Dylan biogs. credit Bob with turning the Beatles on when he met them in NYC in Aug. '64. And the Beatles' dentist reportedly turned them on to LSD, He's immortalized in the song "Dr. Robert".
The Guardian's 1-Star rating of the new The Fireman l.p. seems rather harsh, imo.
I find it listenable enough, if not outstanding. Speaking of The Fireman, "the fireman" in the song Penny Lane is a main character, who "rushes in from the pouring rain", among other things. "Very strange"
...Some correlation, perhaps?
Picking a single favourite Beatles song is too hard a choice! I can venture to say my fave song off the (perhaps too overly celebrated) Sgt. Peppers isn't a Lennon/McCartney song, and it isn't R&R, it's Harrison's "Within you, Without You".