M is for McCartney – the early solo years

Thursday 13th June

At the time it was seismic; the Beatles were no more.  For eight frantic years they had dominated both Music and increasingly the news.  And now they were no more.  What on earth would we do without them, and more to the point what would they do without each other?  We soon found out; an outpouring of creativity, which had maybe been constrained by the group format.

Paul released a solo album simply called McCartney even before the Beatles officially broke up.  It was self-made, Paul playing everything, and was like a scrap book of ideas.  Gentle melodic songs like ‘Lovely Linda’, atmospheric moody ones like ‘Kreen Akrore’, and a couple of real gems that would have been great hits with the Beatles – ‘That Would Be Something’ and ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ (later covered brilliantly by Rod) which if worked on more would have been outstanding.  It was almost a throwaway album, tossed off in his spare time.

His first album proper was Ram, which despite all the rumours of niggles at John was simply brilliant, great songs – any of which would have sat on any Beatles album.  It was in the charts for over a year, and is still a great favourite, ‘Back seat Of My Car’ is sublime.

Then came Wings, which despite Paul’s protestations that he was simply a member of, were just a substitute Beatles, but without any other competing songwriting talent.  What was he trying to prove; that he was a great songwriter; that he was The Beatles; that he didn’t need John.  Who knows, but despite a dreadful debut album, they were really very very good.  Maybe what the Beatles would have been if…..or what the Beatles might have been if Paul could have gained complete artistic control.  Anyway, for the record my favourite Wings album was London Town, which seems both spontaneous and mature at the same time. By this time it was labeled as Paul McCartney and Wings.

Then of course Paul decided to dispense with Wings altogether…..

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