THE FAMOUS DOOR JUNE 11, 2010
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I am little enriched for having listened over the past week to most (though not all) of more than 90 songs published with Paul and Linda McCartney credited jointly as co-writers. In fact, I almost wish that President Obama had never given Sir Paul the Gershwin Prize and stirred me to reconsider this remarkably unmemorable work, much of which I had heard at one time or another over the years and appropriately forgot. After hunting through the MP3 playlists of Beatles-related music that I've accumulated (with help from several Beatlehead friends in bootlegging circles), I gave a good listen to most of the songs released on the first five Wings albums and on Ram, the only record issued jointly in the names of Paul and Linda, as well some singles, B-sides, and unreleased tracks. I found goofy, tuneful pop such "Bip Bop"; empty ballads such as "Let's Love"; some almost-convincing rockers such as "Soily" and "Letting Go"; and some wondrously ridiculous, tossed-off oddies such as "Norton" (recorded by McCartney's brother, Mike McGear).
Not long into the process, I thought of the time Marion McPartland, the jazz pianist, sat me down at her piano and took me note for note through "Day Dream," the jazz ballad credited to Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. "If Ellington wrote a single note of this, I'd like to know which note it is," she said, pointing out how Strayhorn had left his musical fingerprints on every bar of the music. I listened to the McCartney recordings for possible signs of Linda's handiwork, and I found them in every song: tunes so corny, chord changes so obvious, and words so dumb that they might well have been the work of an ungifted near-amateur. In musical terms, there's no reason to doubt that Linda, in her incompetence, contributed significantly to much of the music we associate with Paul. For good or bad and despite the fact that he was awarded the Gershwin Prize on his own, McCartney has always done his most interesting work in collaboration—from the Beatles songs he wrote with John Lennon (or with John near enough to cast his critical shadow), to the superb songs he wrote with Lennon's surrogate Elvis Costello in the late '80s and early '90s, to his one-off duet with Allen Ginsberg, to the three experimental albums he made with Youth under the pseudonym of the Fireman. It is perhaps fitting that the award McCartney won this month is called the Gershwin Prize, which leaves unspoken the first names of the two collaborators—George and Ira—that it honors.
7 comments
In my comment to Hajdu's last post about the two McCartneys, I expressed relief that the damage done to music by the Beatles was the result of a woman's influence not two men. Not very funny but I have to repeat my larger point (the damage done to music by the Beatles). In the late 1950s and early 1960s, music was going through a very creative period, as jazz and blues and American folk and blue grass and other influences were being fused into a very complex (and adult) sound. And much of the creative work was happening in England among American musicians in collaboration with their English hosts. And then came the Beatles and their bubble gum and it swept the music scene clean for several generations. The influence of the Beatles is almost unbearable as I think back to those days, as Beatlemania swept across America and then Europe. What was the low point? Herman's Hermits? Brittney Spears? Sure, Paul McCartney's music evolved and matured in later years. But nothing can make up for the damage already done.
- rayward
June 11, 2010 at 7:37am
Next on TNR we revisit Simon Townshed's "Sweet Sound" produced by brother Pete. Brotherly love or sibling rivalry?!?!
- Lymon1
June 11, 2010 at 10:03am
Rayward. I think you're being a terrible snob. I think one should 'allow' the unlettered their " just because they call me Shine, get yer ya-ya's out " embrace. That's why the call it pop. Because it is popular. Bye, Bye Blackbird....You Are My Sunshine (not Lennon-McCartney songs) to..... When I'm Sixty-Four...Lady Madonna.... Here Comes the Sun ( Harrison) all very clever and deserve their station across the decades as timeless. All relatively simple construction... but that is their point and charm. I certainly don't hold it against the Fab Four that they hit this sweet spot amidst a very friendly zeit-geist which gave umbrella to their flowering talents. If anything is to blame for the inattention to music proper it is the Zeit-Geist itself. Mass Man. ( Now don't tell anybody but I actually like an Andrew LLoyd Weber tune upon occasion) Things are coming full circle though. I'm sensing a dissatisfaction with the State off Affairs and submit that aspiring serious musicians are going to find their ways to contribute and even make a buck or two along the way. Hey... If Jeff Beck can find space in the imagination of 2010 then something has really changed.
- jacko
June 11, 2010 at 10:11am
The whole Ram album really deserves more appreciation than this.
- jaltcoh.blogspot.com
June 11, 2010 at 2:17pm
Personally I think Hajdu is right on the money referencing Lennon's shadow.
- jacko
June 11, 2010 at 4:22pm
As noted above, this post completely ignores the awesomeness of Ram. No, not all the songs are lyrical masterpieces, but then again, neither were many of the songs of the Beatles. Ram does contain some incredible melodies and jawdropping musical and vocal performances though; "Smile Away," "Heart of the Country," "Uncle Albert," "Monkberry Moon Delight." Plus, it contains the lyric "You took your lucky break and broke it in two," which alone, is worth the price of admission.
- josh_y
June 11, 2010 at 7:52pm
Rayward what do you think of the Temps, the Four Tops, Martha and the Vandellas, Smokey Robinson with or without the Miracles, the early Stevie Wonder, Clyde Mcphatter, Diana Ross, Mary Wells, the inestimable Arlene Smith, the Chantels, the Shangri-Las, the Shirelles, the Crystals, the Chiffons, the Jaynetts, Kathy Young and the Innocents, Marvin Gaye, the Marvelettes, the Supremes, the Isley Brothers, the Contours, Jr. walker with or without the All Stars, Tammi Terrell with or without Marvin Gaye, Franki Valli with or without the Four Seasons, the Commodores with or with Lionel Ritchie, the Pointer Sisters, Mary Wilson, Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Carla Thomas, Booker T. & the MGs, Wilson Pickett, Jackie Wilson, The Bar-Kays, Johnnie Taylor, Dion with or without the Belmonts, Johnny Maestro with or without the Crests, the Del-Vikings, the Capris, the Moonglows, the Dovells, the incomparable Frankie Lymon with or without the Teenagers, the Marcels, Earl "Speedo" Carroll with or without The Cadillacs, the Coasters, the Ink Spots, the Diamonds, Small Change, the Drifters, Little Anthony with or without the Imperials, the Platters, Hank Ballard with or without the Midniters, the Flamingos, the Crows, the Chords, and so on? A few words on each will suffice. All of these groups and individual artists fall into genres relevant to your dismissal of the Beatles. If you reject them all, all I say, then you are, as Jacko says, but I say it with derision, "a terrible snob." If you like many, or even just some, of them but reject the Beatles, then you don't know what the hell you're talking about, even though you hold in the greatest esteem what you are saying.
- basman
June 12, 2010 at 2:25pm