McCartney on Letterman

I also like Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, and no one hatred and venom toward that tune will sway me otherwise.

Perhaps I need to send Bubbler a butter pie.

And personally, I'll take McCartney's Wings catalog over Lennon's 70s work.

 

Sirs, Madames,

I liked Uncle Albert but hated Admiral Halsey.

And I don't think that Macca made a solo/Wings album as good as Ringo's first, which had the two better singles than anything Wings managed.

o-<

 

No interview will every be as awesome as the Farley one. But he was good on Dave, especially the part about not reading his cards.

Thought it was a neat tough to play Get Back. And liked the Firemen song.

He still has that same look on his face when he's playing as he did when he was 22.

 

1970s Lennon included 'Cold Turkey,' 'Working Class Hero,' 'Oh Yoko,' 'Imagine,' 'God,' 'Jealous Guy'

 

The Paul-Yoko feud has been over for years and was never nearly as bitter as most fans would like to believe.

To my knowledge (and I pay pretty good attention to ex-Beatles news), Yoko never said anything to the effect that she was "happy" Michael Jackson ended up with the songs -- that would have been nuts, since the alternative would have been SHE would have had partial control over them.

The proposed deal, as best I understood it, would have had Paul contributing more than half of the purchase price (which made sense, because he had/has more money than Yoko) and thus having majority control (George - still alive at the time - and Ringo would have been in for small oercentages). Apparently Yoko didn't feel like spending a hundred or so million to be a minority owner of songs she herself didn't write.

While Paul is usually portrayed as the good-natured good guy in this whole discussion, he did ring up major dick points about 10 years ago when he suggested that the songs HE wrote be rebranded "McCartney-Lennon" songs as opposed to the "Lennon-McCartney" which has been customary since the beginning of their formal songwriting partnership in 1962.

This was pretty much universally shouted down by the fan base, and Sir Paul quite wisely dropped the idea quickly. Everybody who cares knows you wrote "Yesterday" and "Hey Jude," Paul -- don't worry about it.

 

Wings/Paul McCartney solo were extraordinarily spotty, but those songs are kind of like candy. Not good for you, but fun to listen to anyway.

Band On The Run, Silly Love Songs, Listen To What The Man Said, Junior's Farm, Goodnight Tonight, Live And Let Die all fall into that category.

Like Dools said, Another Day is a damn good song, as are the great Jet and, for me, My Love, which was Mrs. Bubbler and I's wedding song, a song I've always loved.

I like Lennon and Harrison solo too, and have albums/greatest hits by both, but I'd by lying if I didn't say I've listened to McCartney solo stuff from that period far more often.

And the thing to remember about Harrison and Ringo Starr's best solo stuff is that much of it was recorded with criminally underrated Badfinger as their backup band.

 

Mr Bubbler,

I saw Badfinger years back (not long before Pete Ham's suicide). About 500 of us (or less) at the Victory Burlesque on Spadina. Day After Day, Baby Blue, Come and Get It, pop perfection, deserved far greater success.

All Things Must Pass is George's glory and Badfinger played on it (apparently rhythm guitar and percussion) but there was a shitload of session players who had a lot more to do with the sound: Clapton, Dave Mason, Peter Frampton, Billy Preston, Gary Wright, Ringo, Ginger Baker, Jim Gordon, Phil Collins and, yes, John.

Similarly Ringo's eponymous album, his best, was another super-session deal. Robbie Robertson, Levon, Garth, Danko, three other lads from Liverpool, Mark Bolan, Harry Nilsson, Martha Reeves, Merry Clayton, Klaus Voorman and numerous others. I don't see members of Badfinger on the list of players.

o-<

 

Actually, "Cold Turkey" came out in 1969.

Wings had a lot of schlock, but also had "Live and Let Die," "Listen to What the Man Said," "My Love," "Band on the Run," "Jet," "Silly Love Songs" and "With a Little Luck," all of which are infinitely more listenable than "Oh Yoko."

Captain Kirk and dools are also both right about "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey," and dools is especially right about "Just Another Day." Great, great song.

 

I can't find the source of the quote, but Yoko reportedly said after Jacko got the songs that she felt "like a friend has them and will do right for John."

I believe he proposed it specifically for "Yesterday," but I can't be certain of that.

As for the order of the names, the eight original songs on their debut album, "Please Please Me," were all credited to "McCartney-Lennon," for what that's worth.

 

Times were a LOT different then. These guys had no idea what would happen in the future. It was a time when Rod Serling sold his entire interest in Twilight Zone as soon as the show ended. No one knew just how much money there was to be made in future nostalgia. They simply figured they'd just keep writing songs and 6that would take care of itself. Or they were just young guys, stoked to have a contract at all.

Hell, until Led Zeppelin, it was a challenge for bands to reap the lion's share of their tour money.

(Leaves before pulling the standard "The one who lived gets to control the message" rips on McCartney)

 

Hahahaha....nice parting shot.....and it's true - but it's also true that, in dying young and suddenly, Lennon in martyrhood reclaimed for all time the mantle of "leader of the Beatles" that McCartney had more or less taken away from him in 1967.

As to your earlier point, times were a lot different then, it's very true. But there were still all kinds of people (like Dick James, who set up and controlled Northern Songs) who knew how to make money off young and naive kids like John and Paul. Or like Buddy Holly, who had to do things like the Winter Dance Party tour because he needed the money, thanks to the Norman Petty style of management and song publishing that ensured Petty got paid first and everyone else got theirs after, if they got it at all.

 

Absolutely true point re: Lennon's early martyrdom.

To me, both Lennon and McCartney get more love than their solo material merits. Each has a double-CD worth of good tunes, a single-CD worth of really, really good tunes. And a lot of filler.

Also true about the dudes taking advantage of the artists. Pretty commonplace back then. I'm surprised the Springsteen wonks haven't noted the questions about his first contract.

Now, artists are less naive. Note I didn't say "smarter."