Paul McCartney

Certain Songs #1454: Paul McCartney – “Turned Out”

February 12, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: New (Deluxe Edition)
Year: 2013

And then, suddenly, it’s 2013 — 35 years later — and somehow Sir Paul McCartney is 70 years old.

Yeah, OK, not suddenly. One or two things might happened in the intervening years. The duets with Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder. Wings dissolving. The Rutles. John being assassinated. His very own feature film. Songs with Elvis Costello. Linda dying. Being knighted. George dying. Classical albums. Electronic albums. Ringo living. Beatles reissues, repackages, anthologies, films, TV shows, books and books and books and books.

Certain Songs #1453: Paul McCartney & Wings – “Girls’ School”

February 11, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Single, 1977

In 1977, Paul McCartney had a massive massive world-wide hit single with a song called “Mull of Kintyre,” an acoustic guitar and bagpipe driven ode to a Scottish farm he’d owned since the Revolver days which is still one of the all-time biggest selling singles in the U.K.

Meanwhile, here in North America, “Mull of Kintyre” was deemed too Scottish? I guess? And so instead they released the b-side, an admittedly slight rocker called “Girls’ School,” that quite naturally I loved to death.

Certain Songs #1452: Paul McCartney & Wings – “Venus and Mars/Rock Show”

February 10, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Venus and Mars
Year: 1975

Despite the fact that James Paul McCartney hadn’t actually attended a rock show as a casual fan for well over a decade, his single of the same name did kinda capture the anticipation of a fan. Two album tracks stitched together as as a single, “Venus and Mars” provided an acoustic overture while “Rock Show” was the electric heart of the track.

Taken together, “Venus and Mars/Rock Show” is also McCartney at his most playful, both lyrically and musically, and also a sly commentary on the the musical trends of the day.

Certain Songs #1449: Paul McCartney & Wings – “Band on the Run”

February 7, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Band on the Run
Year: 1973

It’s entirely possible, if you adjust for 2019 dollars, that “Band on the Run” might just be my all-time favorite song.

At the very least, it’s one of the most important songs in my life, as I loved it more than any song I’d previously encountered, to the point where I went out and got the Band on The Run album and listened to it in the obsessive way only a pre-teen can do. In my room, very loudly, over and over and over again. To the point where, 45 years later, I still know every single nook and cranny. “Band on the Run” can no longer surprise me.

Certain Songs #1448: Paul McCartney & Wings – “Jet”

February 6, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Band on the Run
Year: 1973

JET!

So, spoiler alert: With one exception, all of the 1970s Paul McCartney songs that I’m writing about are going to be part of the run of singles he released during that decade. (And hell, that exception was a b-side, though I really learned to love it as an album track.)

Certain Songs #1447: Paul McCartney & Wings – “Live and Let Die”

February 5, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Single, 1973

Of course, the James Bond films have always been ridiculous. That’s part of the fun, and while a half-century and gaps between production has lessened the impact, part of the ridiculousness has always been the foofaraw surrounding the theme song.

For reasons, I guess, it’s always been a thing, so when in 1973, the producers were able to convince an ex-Beatle to provide the theme song for the first film where Roger Moore played Bond, it was a huge huge thing indeed.

Certain Songs #1446: Paul & Linda McCartney – “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey”

February 4, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Ram
Year: 1971

I know, I know: a lot of you probably can’t stand this song, and now I’ve gone and stuck it in your head for the rest of the day.

But I fell in love with “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” because it seemed to be on the radio all the time when I was a kid, and while it’s silly as all fuck, nobody involved is pretending that its anything but Paul stitching a bunch of different things together with sound effects and studio wizardry.

24 Musical Moments To Die For, Part 2

August 29, 2008 by Jim Connelly

NOTE: Because of a godsdammed bug between Flash and Firefox for Windows, I’ve had to break this up into two parts in order for the players to work for those with that particular configuration. Stupid internets.