Wednesday, March 3, 2021

Reviewing the Beatles Solo Albums in Order - part 6

And things don't get better from here, since Paul follows it with McCartney II. This album feels like Paul just discovered John and George did experimental electronic records years ago so he cobbled together his own version to catch up. "Coming Up" has been re-recorded by Paul since and is a good song, but you wouldn't know it from the original version, with its Alvin & the Chipmunks-like refrain. "Temporary Secretary" is ...comedy? A few years back I got to finally see Paul in concert and was floored when he actually performed "Temporary Secretary" as part of the show. He must like it! "Waterfalls," if you listen closely to the lyrics, could be mistaken for a joke song too. There are two verses that seem like just placeholders (don't go ...chasing polar bears? What?), but the first verse and the refrain and the melody are so gorgeous that these flaws can be overlooked; "Waterfalls" is the one gem on this album -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbvdQBz65tM -- and I was so pleased he performed this one too! Side B is a complete waste, though "Bogey Music" might have been one of his competent retro songs had he not cranked the reverb up to 11.  

John Lennon's Double Fantasy has high highs and low lows, and you'll never guess who's doing the vocals on each of them. Yes, it's a "double fantasy" because Yoko gets just as many songs as John and, true to form, most of hers are pathetic exercises in egoism masquerading as art -- with one exception, "Yes, I'm Your Angel" is a simple, retro song she sings with her normal voice instead of her screechy obnoxious voice.  That doesn't make it good, but it's ...actually not bad. They also try to make this synergy between the songs, so that Yoko's songs tie in to the John song before it, or answers one of John's earlier songs on the album. John, meanwhile, produces the best songs of his solo career, "Beautiful Boy" -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt3IOdDE5iA -- , "Watching the Wheels," and "Woman." With nothing but these three songs on it, no filler, this would still be a must-have album. "Starting Over" and "Dear Yoko" are B-grade songs, either deep or catchy, but neither both.    

How lucky we are that we got this one last album from him. John was, in life, a terrible person on so many levels, but as a musician he truly achieved greatness. 

I never hear anyone say George Harrison's Somewhere in England is their favorite album, but it is indeed a good album. "All Those Years Ago" is, of course, the big hit on this album and an excellent song -- basically a Beatles song in almost every sense, with all three remaining Beatles on it, and John there at least in spirit. "Unconsciousness Rules" is apparently seen as such a slight song that it has no Wikipedia entry, but I really like it. "Life Itself" is also good, though I don't seem to like it as much as some critics did. I really thought George wrote "Baltimore Oriole" as a more whimsical sequel to "Blue Jay Way," but apparently I was way off. That, and "Hong Kong Blues," are covers of Hoagy Carmichael songs. Of the two of them, "Hong Kong Blues" is the one I like. I think side B is even stronger than side A; there's not a song I didn't like on side B. None of them are great, but they're all good. There is, apparently, been some effort to overinflate the reputation of the three songs cut from this album and only released years later, but of them, "Lay His Head" and "Sat Singing" are only pretty good, and "Flying Hour" is subpar. The obvious choice for the song to share from this album is still "All Those Years Ago," but since I like to defy expectation, I'm going to go with the extra-catchy "Teardrops" -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN2Sbcu6BN0&list=PLnif9Rfb5AdlIne-lnuIc-XpgkJ26t8nf&index=6 -- instead. 

 Ringo is back to full strength again on Stop and Smell the Roses. Rather than stretch in new directions and challenge us to follow again, Ringo retreats to the familiar territory of fun songs and dishes up the lovely "Wrack My Brain," "Drumming Is My Madness," "Stop and Take the Time to Smell the Roses" -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4mcNIqnX_8 -- and an expanded version of "Back Off Boogaloo" that adds a winking Beatles medley into it. Though the rest of the tracks are just of average quality, these four are so enjoyable that I don't understand why this album did not do better. "Attention" was apparently written for Ringo by Paul, but Paul rarely gave out his best material to Ringo and this song is no exception. There are two covers on Side B and one of them, Carl Perkins' "Sure to Fall" has a lot of history with the Beatles and could have been better, but Ringo goes full-on country on this track and the song suffers for it.

Following that new release was a best of album for Ringo, Blast from Your Past. At a brief 10 songs, it was clearly meant to re-whet fans' appetites and leave them wanting more again. By then, it should have been easy to fill a two-disc album with his best songs. "Early 1970" is probably the weakest link on this album, but there's not a bad song to be found here, and most are truly great.

Paul's Tug of War is a pretty good album. "Take It Away" and "Here Today" are great songs. I should probably not like "Ballroom Dancing" as much as I do; it's a retro song, in topic but not style, and specific to something I never experienced. But it's super-catchy and nostalgic for me in a different way, as the filmed segment of this in Give My Regards to Broad Street -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwOxAtnQomM -- is the only part of it I remember watching when this was on cable TV back in the '80s. I probably also like "The Pound Is Sinking" more than it warrants. Is it a silly song with random lyrics, or an anti-capitalistic screed? I can't tell, but I think I like it better thinking of it as the latter. "The Pound Is Sinking" and "Wanderlust" sound so similar, I wonder if they were originally meant to form one of Paul's medleys -- which I think would have added strength to both of them here. What really shocks me is reading about this album afterwards and how it was heralded as Paul's masterpiece and a return to form for him at the time. Sure, it's much better than Back to the Egg, but nothing on here measures up to "Waterfalls" in my estimation. The title track, "Tug of War," does nothing for me and the many duets are just so-so. Kudos to doing one with Carl Perkins -- though, like Ringo covering Carl, it comes across as more country than rock-a-billy -- and "Ebony and Ivory" is too cliched (and I'm not a big Stevie Wonder fan). 


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