Comments on: McCartney

By: per

per — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 00:29:50 +0000

Kreen Akrore is emotionally strong. I have always imagined that McCartney was showing his feelings of frustration and desperation over his life situation in this song, after the Beatles´ break up. It could have been a good start to an alternate and much better early LP than his original ones:

Kreen Akrore
Every night
Maybe I´m amazed
Junk
Teddy boy (with better lyrics)

That would be something (as a finished song)
Another day (with better lyrics)
Uncle Albert
Man we was lonely
The back seat of my car (with better music between the verse refrains)

By: robert

robert — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 23:56:33 +0000

Hey, I don’t think anyone has posted this, but you’ve got the record cover backwards and the disk isn’t placed in the front fold – the album cover was designed LEFT-HANDED because Paul is left handed. This is how it was described when the record first came out. When you make it a left-handed album then the word McCartney is on the front and the disk is in the back. Check it out Joe.

By: Iain

Iain — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 21:20:07 +0000

Keith – you’re spot on. This album was totally unlike anything else in early 1970, and only started making sense when punk came along. The only person who realised what he was doing was John Lennon who proceeded to do his version of it later that year

By: Bachman

Bachman — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 02:13:51 +0000

McCartney at his best, this was simple and great..Paul treated us to his creative genious at work..yes some of the material not finished or polished..but that is the door he opened for us…as if we were in the Studio with him…as he was creating and recording.

By: Sal

Sal — Sun, 09 Aug 2015 01:00:17 +0000

I disagree Mr. Sun King, , Abby Road was superior musically and vocally compared to “McCartney”. This album was put together very quickly in haste.
His second album “Ram” was written well.

By: Graham Paterson

Graham Paterson — Thu, 16 Apr 2015 10:28:48 +0000

With the fullness of time, this album is rightly now seen in a better light than when it was first released. John Lennon and George Harrison came out with masterpieces in 1970. Whilst McCartney was not, two of his best songs are on this. Every Night and Maybe I’m Amazed are beautiful songs and Paul McCartney at his best. I know a live version of the latter was released on 45, a few years later, but the studio version of Maybe I’m Amazed would have been a massive hit if it had been a single. Which I believe it should have been.

By: Billy Shears

Billy Shears — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 12:59:28 +0000

Well spoken Art. I always liked “Every Night” and thought it could have made its way onto a Beatle album along with “Maybe I’m amazed” and the single “Another day”. All three seem to work together and compliment each other. The rest of the songs from Paul from that specific time period often don’t seem to make the grade. Although I must say that I still prefer Paul’s stuff on “McCartney” and “Ram” to much of Lennon’s anger, self-lothing and political angst on his albums within the same time period. ( There are exceptions such as “Love” and “Imagine”).

By: Albert Cunning

Albert Cunning — Mon, 29 Sep 2014 21:35:46 +0000

I just got the idea into my head that they’re not cherries, but cranberries, and that the cover was meant as an allusion to the Paul-is-dead rumours at the time. Cranberry sauce on a zebra crossing line. I might be wrong.

By: Art

Art — Sun, 14 Sep 2014 21:56:30 +0000

I don’t have a contemporaneous impression of the album (I was only nine at the time but was a big Beatles fan and can recall listening to their music from about age four) but hearing the material in full for the first time some 40 years after release I understand both the criticism and praise of it. I can imagine it may have been underwhelming and disappointing to many who plunked down $5 to buy it at the time. Even today I wonder why Paul didn’t bother to work some of what are barely past motives into fuller/complete songs. On the other hand no matter how consciously he went about it, this is the only document he left reflecting how he felt and what he produced on his estrangement from the group after its practical breakup and pending the formal acknowledgement or announcement of that fact. I think it has some fascinating sounds on it and it has a lot of merit from this perspective. “Charmless” is a word I seen mention in connection with the album but it sounds quite the opposite to me. It sounds very charming – as if you’d been invited to tea at Paul and Linda’s and he demoed a bunch of tunes for you during the visit.

By: J. Allen Crute

J. Allen Crute — Thu, 01 May 2014 20:52:20 +0000

Like many, either involved in the music industry or just enjoying the sounds, I looked forward to the individual albums to hear their own voices. Both John and Paul surprised me by producing albums that suggested they were tired of impressing us with slick, polished, commercialized works. They, too, were human. Lying on a couch, listening to McCartney for the first time with headphones, I felt as if I had been invited into his home – a home of genuine love. Forgive me for sounding dramatic, but that day changed my life.

Like the film, “Across the Universe,” my own life of peace, love and flowers in our hair had fallen into a dark hole of job hopping, broken relationships, friend’s overdoses, and anger over all of the world problems that were everyone else’s fault. “McCartney” was a wake-up call for me.
I walked out of my friend’s house, sans leather colors and weapons. I moved into my own apartment, got a better job, better friends, and reunited with a forgotten spiritual life of genuine love, joy and fellowship. Even two FBI agents came for a friendly visit, curious about the changes.

No, I didn’t start a McCartney Cult Fan Club. Ironically, however, I met Linda’s sister ten years later when we both worked for the same broadcasting company. While I neglected to take advantage of that to finagle a meeting across the pond, I was able to share my thoughts with her; we both shared similar changes and each other’s company.

Just saying – some albums go beyond chords, riffs and mixes. Music was our medium for personal, spiritual and social changes, and McCartney continued that in a surprising way of suggesting that everything doesn’t have to be “great.” Imperfect simplicity, while basking in love and family intimacy, makes “good” even better.

By: James Ferrell

James Ferrell — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 04:19:31 +0000

And I always thought it was interesting that both Paul’s and John’s first post-Beatles albums were so raw and intimate. It’s like they were both still in sync. Warm and intimate in Paul’s case, angstful and intimate in John’s. Both great records.

By: swozzWoz

swozzWoz — Thu, 04 Jul 2013 17:39:17 +0000

You hit the bulls-eye there. I do believe this album is an ear-popper for many reasons, all of which you mention.

By: Surfeast

Surfeast — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 20:19:04 +0000

This is one of my all time favorite albums, probably due to the raw and primitive tracks which counter the polished sounds of the last Beatles albums and future Wings efforts. It shows that the recording techniques while revolutionary at that time were only a part of the real mix with such talented guys like McCartney creating memorable grooves.

By: Keith Bates

Keith Bates — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 10:50:06 +0000

This album gave 1970s musicians a blueprint for multitracking and home recording, one of the most famous musicians on the planet producing a successful album at home, with roughcuts being displayed alongside polished gems. The album allows you to hear bad edits and tape machine glitches, outtakes, half-baked ideas and unfinished tracks all spliced in together. It comes across as heartfelt and intimate. And an object lesson in sound-sketching and experimentation; close-miked mouth-music, overdubbed yet still sounding spontaneous, and a collage approach to songwriting and compiling album tracks. This was do-it-yourself punkiness in sharp contrast to Phil Spector’s overproduction that ruined the Let It Be recordings.

By: Ian Ferguson

Ian Ferguson — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:44:06 +0000

I’ve always thought Every Night was a really good song, probably my favourite on the album. Phoebe Snow thought so. Check out her version.

By: Dave Schulps

Dave Schulps — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:12:00 +0000

I’ve always interpreted it as a play on the idea of “life is just a bowl of cherries,” with the implication being that at that time the cherries were out of the bowl, therefore, no bowl of cherries for him.

By: Tweeze

Tweeze — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:00:36 +0000

The thing that is forgotten in the history of all of this, mostly by people who didn’y live through it, was that Paul was considered by all who believed they knew him to be some kind of musical genius and, unfortunately for him, he threatened to unleash upon the world music that would put the world ‘on its ear’ once he was free from the Beatles. So, having that, and because he threw such a fuss to get this collection to market, we were all quite hyped. Perhaps we should not have allowed ourselves to be subject to expectations. George said it best in the article. Perhaps Paul believed his own hype? You can’t possibly live as he and the others did for all of those years and not get caught up.

By: Jake

Jake — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 23:40:56 +0000

I’m guessing is was done more out of anger or maybe a feeling that he was trapped in the Beatle implosion and he had to do something. So he did it all on his own. I’m looking forward to “Mccartney” I love it. It’s very listenable. “Ram” even better.

By: robert

robert — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 02:15:03 +0000

Great article Joe – a couple of thoughts – when the album first came out most of us thought the reversed placement of the actual disk was based on McCartney being left-handed so he made a left-handed album.

The cherry cover we always heard represented a broken cherry – meaning Paul’s first solo album.

Just something to think about.

By: mr. Sun king coming together

mr. Sun king coming together — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 13:45:50 +0000

This album is written off quite easily, because Abbey Road to this isn`t great, but this album might reveal the most about Paul`s state of mind at this time. I love it!!