The man who saved the honor of silly love songs, who pioneered both home recording and synth-pop, wrote the greatest Bond song in history, spent more time on the US billboard charts in the ’70s Charted when the Rolling Stones and Fleetwood Mac combined and released the top-selling single of the decade in his home country, having sold some 90 million albums and 60 million physical singles since his solo debut in 1970 and topping it in 2021 with the remixed version of his most recent album Number one in the American charts is 80 years old. And of course everyone is writing about the fact that before 1970 he played in the biggest and most influential band in pop history, whose motor he was with his dreams, his ambitions, his work ethic and his talent.
“However, it seems to me that his most impressive achievement is not that of being a Beatle, but that of being an ex-Beatle,” I wrote in my tribute to the current issue of ROLLING STONE. So here’s the proof: An overview of Paul McCartney’s colourful, eclectic, experimental, melodic, eccentric post-Beatles work. Since the late 1980s he has been performing the Beatle Paul on the stages of this world, but on his records he is still an artist with a great urge to create and a spirit of discovery to this day.
38. “Driving Rain” (2001)
Three years after the death of his wife Linda, McCartney and his young girlfriend, the model Heather Mills, seemed to want to show once again in the new millennium that he had retained his youthful freshness. He now wore his hair fashionably short, his feet were in Chucks, he gathered a young band of session musicians around him and recorded this somewhat anemic rock album in format radio sound (produced, by the way, by David Kahne, who, as Vice President of Warner Music at the time, wrote Wilco’s album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot declined). A lot of the songs here sound like McCartney has to convince himself that everything is okay in his life again: It’s the ballads that save “Driving Rain” a bit – the lovely “From A Love To A Friend”, the touching “I Do” with the lines “Please remember this/ After a time it’s through/ And nevermore/ Will there be days/ For me and you” and above all the Beatlesque, casual “Your Way”. The fact that McCartney finally had to put his – let’s put it politely: under-complex 9/11 song “Freedom” on the album as a bonus track unfortunately didn’t increase the attractiveness of “Driving Rain”.
37. Standing Stones (1997)
It was foreseeable that the Mozart of pop would also try his hand at classical music at some point. His first work, the “Liverpool Oratorio”, failed in 1991 because of too much confectionery. He seems to have taken that to heart in his second attempt at electronic music, which he wrote for the 100th anniversary of EMI Records, because “Standing Stone” indulges less in melodies and has more courage for the unconcrete and disruptive. But then too little happens for you to be entertained for 75 minutes or even feel challenged. Rather, “Standing Stone” sounds like score music that could illustrate some battles and romance. Maybe get it out of the basement again for a “Highlander” remake.
36. “Ocean’s Kingdom” (2014)
Why listen to ballet music without seeing the ballet? It’s like film music without a film. In fact, McCartney’s fifth classic album was initially intended to be the score music for the Disney documentary Oceans, but was not used. But once you know that, you have the underwater ballet of the majestic whales seen in the film, the sharks stalking their prey and the rays gliding through the depths in front of you. But unfortunately there isn’t a yellow submarine swimming around anywhere.
35. “Give My Regards to Broad Street” (1984)
It was already evident in the first Beatles film “A Hard Days Night” that McCartney would never become an actor. Admittedly, even Sir Laurence Olivier couldn’t have saved his film Give My Regards to Broad Street had he taken on the leading role. But the fact that the soundtrack was also a disaster was probably due to the fact that McCartney simply had no more songs in stock after producing the albums “Tug Of War” and “Pipes Of Peace” in quick succession and instead had some of his classics and on said predecessor albums newly released songs in new, rearranged and in any case inferior versions. Of the three new tracks, only the power ballad “No More Lonely Nights” with Dave Gilmour on guitar is convincing. Having started the 80s furiously, Paul McCartney, like so many of his contemporaries, seemed to be falling into the great midlife crisis.
34. “Снова в СССР” (1988)
After the commercial failure of Press To Play (1986) and the creative failure of the unreleased follow-up Return To Pepperland, which he worked on with producer Phil Ramone, McCartney re-energized by appearing in two days live in the studio recording some of his teenage rock ‘n’ roll favorites. He was joined by a sort of all-star pub rock band featuring Mick Gallagher, once organist for Ian Dury’s Blockheads, fabulous ex-Pirates guitarist Mick Green and ex-The Motors singer/guitarist Nick Garvey, and the Session -Drummers Chris Whitten and Henry Spinetti. You can tell they had fun shooting it, but the fire doesn’t quite jump out. “Снова в СССР”, Russian for “Back In The USSR”, was first released in 1988 exclusively on the state-owned Soviet label Melodiya.
<!–
–>
<!–
–>