It would appear that “Every Night” tells of the two lives Paul was living at the time. Like “Momma Miss America,” this improvised instrumental was recorded “with more concern for testing the machine than anything else.”īut for all the casual nature of “Valentine Day,” it’s immediately followed by the first genuine McCartney classic of the collection. If these two songs set an earthy atmosphere, “Valentine Day” establishes the record’s casual feel. Of particular note are the drum fills, which Paul sings rather than plays. George Harrison declared it to be “great.” It’s an effortless breeze of a song, its country roots emphasized by Paul’s southern drawl. Next up is “That Would Be Something,” which, like “The Lovely Linda,” was written by McCartney on his Scottish farm in 1969. McCartney opens with a doodle of a song called “The Lovely Linda.” Coming in at well under a minute in length, McCartney admitted that this was the first thing he’d recorded when the Studer was installed, “to test the machine.” In his notes, Paul promises that “the song is a trailer to the full song, which will be recorded in the future.” Fifty years on, we’re still waiting to hear it. Working without even a mixing desk, Paul plugged straight into the tape machine. At the time, however, it was unheard of for a major artist to use such basic methods. Today, McCartney’s modus operandi has become an entire field of music-making, known as lo-fi. The album was finished at Morgan Studios in the northwest London suburb of Willesden, and Abbey Road. As Neil Young put it when inducting Paul into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, “There was no attempt made to compete with the things he had already done.”Īlongside the Q&A, Paul included a track-by-track breakdown of the songs on his debut album, which he recorded largely on a Studer four-track tape machine in his Georgian townhouse in London’s leafy St John’s Wood, a short walk from Lord’s Cricket Ground, London Zoo and, more importantly, EMI’s studios at Abbey Road. With hindsight, however, by not attempting to compete with his former group with a well-produced record that he’d labored over, Paul stepped out from their shadows. “I had all these rough things and I liked them all and thought, Well, they’re rough, but they’ve got that certain kind of thing about them.”Īt the time of McCartney’s release, however, the reception was mixed, with many critics finding the songs half-finished and under-produced. In the half-century since its release, McCartney has been praised for its homemade nature, which gives it the charm that Paul saw in it all along. The next day’s Daily Mirror ran the front-page headline “Paul Quits The Beatles.” If Paul wanted to ensure that his debut solo album didn’t go unnoticed, he could hardly have done more. Q: Do you foresee a time when Lennon-McCartney becomes an active songwriting partnership again? Temporary or permanent? I don’t really know. Q: Is your break with The Beatles temporary or permanent, due to personal differences or musical ones?Ī: Personal differences, business differences, musical differences, but most of all because I have a better time with my family. Being a solo album means it’s “the start of a solo career…” and not being done with The Beatles means it’s just a rest. Q: Is this album a rest away from The Beatles or the start of a solo career?Ī: Time will tell. Q: Are you planning a new album or single with the Beatles? As well as talking about the new album, he spoke about The Beatles’ future – or lack of it. In this press release, which was sent with promotional copies of his self-titled debut solo album, Paul answered questions he assumed he would have been asked had he done a press conference. What McCartney failed to mention to Lennon was that he had just sent a “self-interview” to the nation’s press, all but informing them that The Beatles were over.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |