1970

Looking back on this blog series, I probably should have started differently, since Ringo's Sentimental Journey album was the first release post-Beatles of any of the four members.  Nobody outside of The Beatles' team knew that though, since the general public wouldn't know until McCartney's album was issued exactly three weeks later to the day, which included the now famous press release fake interview sheet that explained about the split of The Beatles.

When I originally started this blog series though, I wasn't sure what I would be doing completely.  I had discussed McCartney's debut album in my other blog as a subject and some people felt that I was giving it too little for it to be in just one basic blog.  I ended up agreeing after much thought and so set about doing the blog that you now see before you.

Initially then I probably just envisioned doing McCartney because, quite honestly, I have a McCartney songbook.  I have since decided to make it tougher on myself though, by looking at the post-Beatles careers of all four ex-members.

The last album that The Beatles had recorded together was Abbey Road, which they had finished work on during the summer of 1969 I think.  They had already decided that The Beatles would be no more, but hadn't officially announced it.

The now ex-Beatles were doing their own thing.  George was apparently holidaying and touring as a guest musician for Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett, Paul was going through a period of depression and recording at home (the fruits of which are too be seen in a few years time officially actually, since the release of multiple volumes of what are called The Rude Sessions have been announced - the name given to his home studio in Scotland), and John was doing the political statements such as the bed-in's and that, whilst recording what are now known as classic solo singles in the way of Give Peace A Chance, Cold Turkey, etc.  He would not release his first post-Beatles album until December of 1970.

Surprisingly, Ringo actually issued two albums in 1970.  Sentimental Journey in March was a set made up of standards such as the title track, Night And Day, and Whispering Grass.  His second release, Beaucoups of Blues, was a set of Country & Western songs that was released in September, with all of the songs written for him specially and recorded using the cream of Country musicians such as Jerry Reed and Pete Drake in Nashville.

In November George absolutely took the world by storm issuing his triple disc opus All Things Must Pass.  George had been very prolific in the latter years of The Beatles, and he had stockpiled an enormous set of songs because of the apparent difficulty with trying to get more songs on albums that were quite frankly written by Lennon & McCartney - a tough job for anyone.  He was, unfortunately, the third songwriter in the group.  Many have said that if he were the sole songwriter in another band then he may have got more acclaim in the sixties.  That is just what some people think, whereas he probably needed the inspiration of working with John and Paul to spur him on.  Who knows?  I do know that he continued to use material that he had written during the sixties on releases throughout the seventies.

John's first post-Beatles album release, Plastic Ono Band, was a very stark and bleak set, made up of tunes that must have been incredibly cathartic for him, because they were all incredibly honest and up front (to say the least).

Looking back on it, I can see that John's use of profanity on the album wasn't all that surprising, because he is after all heard using language in the background on Hey Jude, which if recorded now would have easily have been edited out, possibly even back then?  Back then though it would have surprised people, and it certainly did when I first heard the album.  I didn't hear it until the late eighties if truth be told, but it made an impact.

Paul's first album, as discussed, was a mixed bag of styles, experiments, song fragments (a piece of the unreleased song Suicide tagged on to Hot As Sun/Glasses for instance), and all sorts, recorded in a very lo-fi way to be honest.  The one ex-Beatle that everyone thought would have the most produced and arranged sound.  Something that did come as a shock to people.  It would take time for McCartney to become comfortable again with music.

So, during 1970 every single ex-Beatle issued an album at least.  A full year for me to look at then, albeit with the get-out clause that none of the ex-Beatles actually wrote anything on either of Ringo's first two albums that came out in 1970, so I'll take that as a bit of relaxation.

Now, time to get on with the next part then.

Links (Amazon) -
1. Ringo Starr - Sentimental Journey (UK/US)
2. Paul McCartney - McCartney UK - MP3/CD
3. Paul McCartney - McCartney US - MP3/CD
4. Ringo Starr - Beaucoups of Blues (UK/US)
5. George Harrison - All Things Must Pass (UK/US)
6. John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band (UK/US)

Paul McCartney - McCartney (1970) Part Eleven

Album 1 - Paul McCartney - McCartney (1970)

UK Amazon -

MP3 / CD / SPECIAL EDITION

US Amazon -

MP3 / CD / SPECIAL EDITION

1. The Lovely Linda

2. That Would Be Something

3. Valentine Day

4. Every Night

5. Hot As Sun / Glasses

6. Junk

7. Man We Was Lonely

8. Oo You

9. Momma Miss America

10. Teddy Boy

11. Singalong Junk

12. Maybe I'm Amazed

13. Kreen-Akrore

If I am being honest, this project isn't as easy as I thought it would be.  I never thought that it would be that easy, but I know now that it will be far more tricky than it probably should be.

Paul McCartney is probably the most accessible when it comes to getting hold of the music, evident in the fantastic Paul McCartney Chord Songbook that I keep advertising, but even that isn't a completist set, with some songs missing.  Even though I am technically going through the albums of their careers post-Beatles, I am still surprised that there aren't songbooks available that are more thorough for any of them.

Anyway, on with the blog then.

Here with Paul's first album I had to find alternative means to learn 'Valentine Day', 'Hot As Sun', 'Momma Miss America', and of course 'Kreen Akrore'.  Paul's album after this, Ram, features two more songs not included in the book.

So what we have then with the début album by Macca is, in all truth, a mixed bag.  It has some of his best material in Every Night, Junk, and Maybe I'm Amazed.  It has the sweet innocence of The Lovely Linda, which wouldn't have been the same if he had written and recorded more for the song as originally planned.  It has a song that is so very close to being his best with That Would Be Something, with just a Lennon bit missing (think about the middle eight in We Can Work It Out).  I know that is a controversial opinion, but it is just that - an opinion.  A fun song to play though, with a great groove.

Teddy Boy is one of those songs that he is so well known for from The Beatles' days - the story song.  It does a great job of that as well.  The music is lovely, the lyrics move it along, and it is one of his better story songs to be honest.

There are ideas that he "jammed" in the shape of 'Valentine Day', 'Oo You', 'Momma Miss America' (both parts), and the free form groove of Kreen Akrore.  Hot As Sun is a fantastic instrumental apparently from pre-Beatles times surprisingly.  I say surprisingly because I would have thought that they would have tried to record it themselves, especially as it was included in their set before even being signed.

Finally there is Man We Was Lonely, which is a really good country song.  It's unfortunate that a recording McCartney made with Johnny Cash in the late eighties of the song has never been issued, because that sounds like it would have been a good collaboration.

Anyway, the début album by Macca is a cross section of material, which I have obviously gone into great depth discussing.  Maybe I could have said more on some songs and the like, but still there is a lot for people to read and check out.

I like the set for the most part, and feel that it has a very lo-fi approach to it.  This is very much a sound that is in use today, which is in direct contrast to the glossy production sound that The Beatles became known for, and which today is very much the norm with almost all chart music having an almost overproduced sound to it.

There is so much variation in styles of music on the album as well, going through folk, reggae, rock, and other forms, which shows his obvious love for all forms of music.

In some ways it expands on the feel of the material that McCartney had on The White Album, which was very similar in feel and style.  There is also the fact that a couple of the songs featured on McCartney's début album were written at the same time as the material featured on that album (Junk and Teddy Boy specifically).

When it first came out it went immediately to number two, being held off by the best-selling album of the day, Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel.  To be honest, I don't think that anyone stood a chance of knocking that album off, especially since that is one of the best selling albums of all time, spending 42 weeks at number one.

The actual recording style utilised also shows his extreme creativity, with the fact that he was just laying tracks down so quickly, and just seemed to know what was required.  He had irritated Lennon in the latter days of The Beatles sometimes with his seemingly assuming the role of arranger almost ("Beatle Head" as he jokingly called him).  It was just Paul's mind working so quickly that he wanted to get his ideas out there.  It showed the widening divergent paths where they were all going and, in a way, proved that The Beatles would inevitably have to split anyway, because they were stifling each other essentially.

There had been problems for all involved to get a look in with their compositions and ideas, especially for George Harrison I might add.  They almost needed to go elsewhere for an outlet for their creativity.  It's almost a shame in a way because there are a lot of bands who would allow their members the freedom outside of the group, such as members of Queen, The Rolling Stones, and so many more.  If this had been available as an option in the sixties (soundtracks and the Unfinished stuff of Lennon with Yoko Ono not taken into account), then who knows what might have happened?  This is pure conjecture though.

What this album does show though is that McCartney did need to really knuckle down with his songwriting. There are traces of absolute brilliance, but also some material that could have used a little more time involved.  It does however stand out when held up against the releases of the other ex-Beatles from that period.  It is for the most part a very laid back set, with warts and all on show for all to see.

For many years it was an acclaimed album but, tellingly, a recent review in Q magazine of the album's reissue marked it with I think just three stars.  Lennon, when asked in a 1970 interview for Rolling Stone magazine in the US, said he thought that Paul had "missed an opportunity, and that he wouldn't make the same mistake again."  I do think that Lennon was very bitter at that time though.

I most definitely wouldn't dismiss the album though, because as I said to do so would mean missing some of Paul's best material from the post-Beatles years.  The other titles aren't quite as irritating as you may remember either.  You can take that from someone who used to avoid the album.


Links -
1. Paul McCartney Chord songbook at Amazon UK
2. Another blog about the McCartney album. (It was actually the rock band The Faces who recorded a cover version of Maybe I'm Amazed, who featured Rod Stewart as their lead singer, and not a solo recording by Rod Stewart).
3. A fantastic website that details Paul McCartney's recording sessions called Macca Central.

Paul McCartney - McCartney (1970) Part Ten

Album 1 - Paul McCartney - McCartney (1970)

UK Amazon -

MP3 / CD / SPECIAL EDITION

US Amazon -

MP3 / CD / SPECIAL EDITION

1. The Lovely Linda

2. That Would Be Something

3. Valentine Day

4. Every Night

5. Hot As Sun / Glasses

6. Junk

7. Man We Was Lonely

8. Oo You

9. Momma Miss America

10. Teddy Boy

11. Singalong Junk

12. Maybe I'm Amazed

13. Kreen-Akrore

Now we come to the last song on Paul's début album, and what a distinctive finish it is.  In some ways it highlights the whole approach of the album perfectly.  The whole set is topped and tailed by experimentation essentially.

The album starts with a test of the equipment apparently with The Lovely Linda, and here it is finished by one of the most experimental pieces in his entire solo catalogue.  I put it that way because things such as The Fireman and Twin Freaks are pseudonyms that he hid behind to a point.  Even the Electric Arguments under the pseudonym of The Fireman was pretty much straight McCartney considering that he even went out promoting it as if it were a fully fledged solo album, and in fact it could very easily be seen as McCartney 3 in my book, even featuring the brilliance of Sing The Changes, which is classic McCartney.  But again I digress as per my usual self.

He said that the idea behind this last song (Kreen Akrore) on his debut album came from him watching a programme on television about a Brazilian tribe, where at one point they were doing their native music with the traditional drums, chanting and such.  He took inspiration from this and decided to come up with something in a similar vein.  He even named the piece after the tribe from the television programme that he had watched.

In essence he is experimenting to try and work out where to go now that The Beatles had finished.  The album in a way is just that.  There are obvious left-overs from that time, but for the most part it is made up of tracks like this where he is trying out something to see where it would take him.

To start things off he was recording at Morgan Studios and began this song by just coming up with drum patterns, possibly with ideas in his head as to what he would add.  To this he added piano, guitar and organ to the first part.  A later section of the piece that was similar had the same added, but with two guitars rather than one.  Elsewhere there is multi-tracked vocalised animal noises, chanting and the like from Paul and Linda.  Finally there is an actual bow and arrow sound (the bow broke in the process), a stampeding animals sound that is basically Paul (and maybe Linda) patting a guitar case.  There was a recording made apparently of a fire that was started in the studio, but not used.  Nowadays I think that health and safety would have something to say about that!

Oh, I almost forgot.  The drums on the piece are actually two takes at the same time by the way, which would explain a lot.  This isn't something new, but it does give it a very interesting sound considering the use of stereo on show.

It is an interesting piece, especially if you take it in context as an experimental piece.  McCartney said that the piece is supposed to signify "the sound of a hunt", which I think it does very well.  It isn't supposed to be Yesterday, Eleanor Rigby, She's Leaving Home, or of that sort of ilk.  To compare it to such would be understandable, but not getting the point.  It would be like people sitting down and comparing Lennon's Revolution 9 to In My Life, Norwegian Wood (itself featuring a some lines written by McCartney as Lennon helped McCartney on Eleanor Rigby), and Julia (an underrated gem of a song).


Links -
1. Me performing a section of Kreen Akrore
2. Zongadude performing Kreen Akrore live.
3. Paul McCartney Chord songbook at Amazon UK