Paul McCartney Archives - Page 6 of 9 - Hey Dullblog, the Beatles fan blog

Solo Beatles: Good stuff from this millenium?

By Nancy Carr|2013-09-09T08:30:34-07:00January 28, 2013|George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, solo|

These CDs don't NEVER EVER sell. NANCY CARR • In the "Blue Sway" thread, Commenter J.R. remarked that he hasn't sought out Paul McCartney's work since 1999's Run Devil Run. Then I came across this blog post by Todd Pack, which reprints the "Do Not Never Ever Buy" list reproduced above. (It's from the Laurie's Planet of Sound music store in Chicago.) The list includes "60s/70s Artists CD's from the 80s/90s/2000s" as a category comprehensively to be avoided when buying CDs to resell. (This isn't a list of music the record store clerks snobbishly hate, a la "High Fidelity," but a list [...]

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Current favorite song: "Blue Sway"

By Michael Gerber|2013-08-03T04:46:58-07:00January 26, 2013|1980, McCartney, McCartney II, Paul McCartney|

From McCartney II (1980). Paul McCartney is an amazing dude. Here I am, positively obsessing over his stuff for 40 out of my 43 years, and yesterday I stumbled upon this great tune, which I'd never heard. "Blue Sway" has proceeded to dominate my consciousness for 36-going-on-48 hours. Paul, please promise to use this awesome power only for good, never for evil. Whatever else you want to say about the man (and there's a lot to say, and we say it here) pop music just pours out of him. I feel very lucky to be living at the same time, [...]

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Posted without comment

By Michael Gerber|2014-07-23T11:57:43-07:00January 23, 2013|Paul McCartney|

When you go to the URL at the bottom, all it says is, "There are seven levels."

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"The mopheads or whatever"

By Ed Park|2013-08-05T04:35:07-07:00January 21, 2013|1966, John Lennon, Paul McCartney|

Yoko Ono and an apple, 1966. Browsing in a used bookstore last night, I came across this quote in Rolling Stone Raves: What Your Rock & Roll Favorites Favor (1999): Yoko Ono: "No, I didn't know any of [the Beatles' music when I met John Lennon.] I had heard about the band, the mopheads or whatever. I knew that they were making a big impact on people, like a social phenomenon. I just never got around to listening to their music." [1992] My first reaction was "Wow." I mean, I knew Yoko was no Beatles fan when she met Lennon, [...]

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Batman Joins In

By Michael Gerber|2012-09-12T23:03:00-07:00September 12, 2012|Paul McCartney|

From "This Isn't Happiness."

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McCartney’s Songs of Empathy

By Michael Gerber|2022-06-01T07:11:17-07:00August 6, 2012|Paul McCartney, solo, Wings|

Paul McCartney, possibly empathizing NANCY CARR • Over the years, and especially as a solo artist, Paul McCartney has written many songs expressing empathy toward others. Being the analytical list-making obsessive I am, I've created a catalog of them. Note that I'm not arguing that writing such songs shows McCartney to be a better or more empathetic human being than his former bandmates; I'm interested here in the way his imagination works. John Lennon's written a couple of songs I'd put in the empathetic category ("Whatever Gets You Through the Night" and "Bless You" spring to mind), but often his [...]

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Review: RAM (Paul McCartney Archive Collection)

By Devin McKinney|2016-12-04T18:27:45-08:00July 31, 2012|1970s, 1971, Paul McCartney, solo|

DEVIN McKINNEY • Can anyone think of another pop record whose qualities have been so vindicated, and whose reputation has been so rehabilitated, by time? Though I’ve fought bravely on this site against massed resistance (well, one or two people) to call it something just less than a masterpiece—can’t get past a certain emotional vacuity at the core of things—RAM is so bountifully queer and cleanly, gracefully executed, the beautiful song crowded by the gargoyle-ugly, that finally masterpiece doesn’t matter. I’ve loved RAM since I first heard it. It is Paul’s best solo record by a distance, and one of my favorites [...]

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Keep ‘Em Out vs. Let ‘Em In: An Angle on Lennon & McCartney

By Michael Gerber|2013-10-15T15:17:24-07:00May 23, 2012|John Lennon, Paul McCartney, solo|

John and Paul face off, 1969 Some thoughts about an aspect of Lennon's and McCartney's solo music, prompted by some recent re-listening. -- Nancy After the break up, each Beatle pursued his own musical sensibilities pretty much unchecked. Here I want to look at a difference between Lennon’s and McCartney’s solo music that hasn’t gotten much critical attention: Lennon’s tendency to write songs of rejection and McCartney’s tendency to write songs of invitation. Since we’re considering Lennon and McCartney, everything is maddeningly complicated. Presenting them as opposites or complements overlooks all the ways their music overlaps, and focusing on a [...]

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Re-slamming "Ram"

By Michael Gerber|2014-07-23T12:52:34-07:00May 7, 2012|Paul McCartney|

I thought critical opinion had largely come around to appreciating Paul and Linda McCartney’s Ram, 41 years after its release, but apparently not. It’s true that allmusic.com gives it five stars, having inched its rating up over the years, but a couple of reviews of the remastered album, due out later this month, are déjà vu all over again. The latest issue of Qmagazine gives the remastered album 2 stars. For context, the previous issue included a rapturous 5-star review of the reissues of the Human League’s Dare and Fascination albums, and called Lana Del Ray’s Born to Die a “Must Buy” [...]

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"’Rain’ blows me away"

By Ed Park|2015-01-02T11:51:34-08:00April 9, 2012|1966, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr|

ED PARK • Devin's post about the drumming on "Dear Prudence" spurred me to look up Ringo's comments about his work on "Rain" (reprinted in William J. Dowlding's Beatlesongs): “My favorite piece of me is what I did on ‘Rain.’ I think I just played amazing. I was into the snare and high-hat. I think it was the first time I used this trick of starting a break by hitting the hi-hat first instead of going directly to a drum off the hi-hat . . . . I think it’s the best out of all the records I ever made. ‘Rain’ blows me [...]

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