Live in New York City is a live album of John and Yoko performing, thankfully concentrating on John and leaving out some Yoko songs from the concert, including that "Prison" song which I unfortunately heard because I watched the video rather than limiting myself to the record tracks (ugh, I had that stuck in my head like an "ear worm" after listening to it again, though!). It's essentially a best of album, but there is one new cover -- "Hound Dog" -- that makes you wish the Beatles had not been so respectful of the "king" and recorded more Elvis covers. But then Yoko starts screeching over it and -- sigh, even if she had made dog noises it would have made more sense than her screeching.
Press to Play was a Paul album that had completely escaped my notice all this time. It's not going to become one of my favorites; there are no real winners on this album, but there are certainly good ones here. I really like the bluesy rock of "Stranglehold," even if I'm normally not a fan of horns on rock n' roll songs (this is extra rare because I'm so often not impressed with the first songs on Beatles solo albums). I love it while I'm listening to it, but unfortunately it's not a catchy tune; 10 minutes later, I can't remember the tune anymore, and I've listened to it several times now. I know it's been awhile since Paul's done a medley and maybe thought he was due, but...is "Good Time Coming/Feel the Sun" really a medley, or just talking leading into the next song? Speaking of talking, I really like the chorus on "Talk More Talk," but the rest of it is pretty weak and longer than it deserves to be -- I also don't like all the actual talking in it, even though I get that is the point of the song. "Footprints" is easy listening, maybe too easy. I like the instruments on it, but the effect of the song is calming as Muzak. "Only Love Remains" starts similar, but kicks it up a notch mid-song, becoming catchier, and has a simple but more obvious message. "Press" has an '80s dance song vibe similar to "Say Say Say," but full of playful references to physical contact. I do not get why Oklahoma gets two mentions in the song, unless Paul was just lazily filling beats. Not my favorite song on the album, but the music video was nice. The same lazy beat-filling happens on "Pretty Little Head," where there's really no lyrical reason for the "Ursa Major, Ursa Minor" refrain; the song isn't even about constellations -- though it sounds like it would be a better song if it was. "Angry" starts out promising -- ooo, we haven't had a real rocker from Paul in awhile! But then it doesn't really go anywhere...sort of like being angry doesn't really get you anywhere...could that have been intentional?
"Spies Like Us" isn't actually on that album, but it sometimes gets lumped in with it. I haven't heard it in a long time. I remembered liking it, and the movie, way back then, but it doesn't hold up now, sounding like it's trying too hard to be "Live and Let Die." So I'm going to share "Stranglehold" with you, in the hopes that maybe this time I'll remember the tune 10 minutes later! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxH6Kgul-Ss&list=PLNZ4pVtD8MsGjXbimbkOcDViYu_YP5PBK&index=1
Menlove Avenue is a real treat I didn't know existed; a sort of 'John Lennon Anthology' with all previously unreleased material. By an interesting coincidence, just the day before I had heard "Rock and Roll People" on the Sirius XM Beatles Channel and wondered, where did this come from? Right here. "Here We Go Again" and "Rock and Roll People" are both good rockers, but the covers of "Angel Baby" and "To Know Her Is to Love Her" are just amazing (and the version of the latter is even better on Beatles Anthology vol. 1; it's a shame it was not on an album for so long!) -- and make me wish his earlier album, Rock n' Roll, had been a double album to include more of this magic. Side B is not as magical; it's all variants of tunes from the Walls and Bridges album. All good stuff, but somehow John's own music just isn't as satisfying as when he's belting out classics; it seems to be done with more love for songs he grew up with than for his own material. Here's my favorite version of "To Know Her Is to Love Her" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzUKcn5auuU
And now, this is where I came in. I grew up with the Beatles music from before I was born, not the solo albums they were putting out at the time -- until George's Cloud Nine. It was the creative music video for "Got My Mind Set on You" that sucked me in; I still remember the pizza place in Batavia I was at with my dad and sister when I saw this on the television there, and suddenly I couldn't ignore the solo Beatles anymore. I asked for a copy of the cassette tape version for Christmas. I now understand that Jeff Lynne was instrumental in helping George get his groove back, his love for the music. "Cloud Nine" is a good song like we hadn't had from him in awhile. "When We Was Fab" is a great song. The rest of the songs are filler -- but all good filler. And here's that video that so wowed me when I was 16 -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_71w4UA2Oxo. Still such a rocker. Ooo, I didn't know this was a cover song until writing this!
Next up is All the Best, yet another "best of" album from Paul. But a lazily made one, as it mostly duplicates the previous "best of" Wings compilation. A side game in this project has been rethinking the "best of" albums. Could I have done better? By this time, there were about 170 post-Beatles Paul songs, not counting variations on the same ones. To pare it down to 20 - no, let's make it 24 songs -- that's 1 song for every 8. What would that album look like? Arranged in chronological order, one song from every eight in a row, they would be:
"Every Night""Maybe I'm Amazed"
"Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey"
"The Back Seat of My Car"
"Tomorrow"
"My Love"
"Jet"
"Let Me Roll It"
"Magneto and Titanium Man"
"Call Me Back Again"
"Silly Love Songs"
"Warm and Beautiful"
"With a Little Luck"
"Mull of Kintyre"
"Arrow through Me"
"Daytime Nighttime Suffering"
"Waterfalls"
"Goodnight Tonight"
"Ballroom Dancing"
"Pipes of Peace"
"We All Stand Together"
"Simple As That"
"No More Lonely Nights"
"Press"
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