Friday 29 April 2016

No Paul Mccartney hasn't died!  (That would be a bit much wouldn't it after all the others this year? ) But in preparation for whenever that happens I've just finished my Paul Mccartney music marathon c/o Spotify!  Its nice to appreciate our great Brits while they are still with us.

In his post Beatles catalogue there's some great stuff,  some not so great stuff and some stuff I'm undecided about. The guy is a musical genius but like all geniuses , eg David Bowie,  some of the stuff he tries doesn't come off. The huge breadth of the musical genres he has covered means there's something for pretty much everyone in there somewhere: from straightfoward rock n roll in Run Devil Run to his several classical albums (yes proper classical with loud boomy bits and light whispy bits - you can tell I'm a real classical music buff! ),  his ambient techno albums with the Fireman (the first two left me cold but their third album is surprisingly good),  swing/ jazz on Kisses on the Bottom ,  disco/soul numbers with the likes of Michael Jackson & Stevie Wonder and the classic rock pop blend of the best of his Wings and solo albums that at times are every bit as good as the Beatles.

 Some of these albums were old cherished friends (and one an old enemy ! ) , some were old acquaintances that I'd lost touch with since we'd met in my dad's car in the late 70s.  But many I'd never met before ,  including his classical albums all of which I serendipitously rather enjoyed. His best two albums were in the early mid 70s with Wings (when he also wrote the Bond classic theme Live and Let Die) but his catalogue is scattered with some excellent albums through the 80s ,  90s and OOs.  Sadly judging from his last two studio albums and his dreadful Olympic performance his voice is now rather shot .  You're well passed 64 now Paul- in fact nearly 74- and you're not losing your hair but you are losing your voice!  I would suggest you stick to the classical stuff which you're actually pretty good at  (or find a singer) rather than spoil the memory of what was once a fine voice.

Anyway I do now need to clear some space in my Spotify music library .  In chronological order I list the Mccartney albums and my rating according to whether I'm going to keep,  delete or I'm not sure about .

1967 The Family Way ( not on Spotify! )
1970 Mccartney 1 possibly keep (includes the may be amazing May be I'm Amazed)
1971 Ram probably keep (includes the brilliant Admiral Hallsey/Hands across the water)
1971 Wings Wildlife delete (pretty rubbish)
1973 Wings Red Rose Speedway probably keep  (includes the excellent My Love)
1973 Wings Band on the Run keep (brilliant especially the opening tracks)
1975 Wings Venus & Mars keep (equally brilliant and again particularly the opening tracks)
1976 Wings at the speed of sound keep (not quite so brilliant  but still very good)
1978 Wings London Town probably keep (quite but not very good)
1979 Wings Back To The Egg probably delete (disappointing. )
1980 Mccartney 2 delete (rubbish -someone bought Paul a new synth for Xmas and he's not afraid to use it! )
1982 Tug of War keep (excellent thank God)
1983 Pipes of Peace keep (very good)
1984 Give my regards to broad street delete (mostly just rehashes so not really new album but one good new track)
1986 Press to play delete (rubbish)
1988 Choba b cccp probably delete (ok  and welcome return to classical old rock n roll after disastrous previous album but mostly just covers)
1989 Flowers in the Dirt keep (excellent Only time I saw him live during tour of this album)
1991 Liverpool Oratoria probably keep (classical choral album rather,  panned by the critics,  but on first listen I quite liked it Worth another listen)
1993 The Fireman Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest delete (the musical equivalent of watching paint dry)
1993 Off The Ground keep (very good)
(He then got quite busy ,  occupying himself to cope with Linda dying?)
1997 Flaming Pie keep (excellent)
1997 The Standing Stone (second classical offering which I really liked)
1998 The Fireman Rushes delete (an improvement on previous Fireman LP but I still don't get it)
1999 Run Devil Run possibly keep (mainly old rock n roll covers but I quite liked it)
2001 Driving Rain keep (first time heard but some excellent stuff ,  some of it quite gritty First album after Linda)
2005 Chaos and Creation in the Back yard keep ( possibly his last really good rock pop album in his own name)
2006 Ecce Cor Meum keep (classical choral It means Sacred Heard Remember Paul is sort of a catholic Won Brit classical album of the year and sounded pretty good to me)
2007 Memory Almost Full probably keep (on first listen some good stuff and some not so good stuff Probably worth another listen)
2008 The Fireman Electric Arguments keep (last album of his I physically bought Really good so it makes me even more puzzled what those first 2 Fireman albums were all about! )
2011 Ocean Kingdom keep  (last classical album and again really enjoyed on first listen which possibly means it's a rubbish classical album technically! )
2012 Kisses on the Bottom delete (sort of swing jazz album Mostly covers Would probably be quite nice if Paul's voice hadn't gone ,  as we all heard at the Olympics)
2013 New possibly keep (Inspired by his new wife Nancy apparently I'm unsure on first listen Some good stuff like opening stuff and some not so good stuff.  Voice still not great,  though not as bad as on previous album. )