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In his memoir about growing up in Liverpool, Paul McCartney sings:
“My father was a salesman
“My mother was a saint
“We work every minute given to us by God
“To make money to pay the rent.”‘
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Sir Paul McCartney is still trying to entertain us more than sixty years after Beatlemania first hit the American airwaves. (Getty Images)
Yes, she’s a saint — remember “Mother Mary comes to me,” from Let It Be — and McCartney is not in that category. But before his 84th birthday, more than half a century after his band broke up, he produced one of his best works since the Beatles.
A few songs fall flat, partly due to Paul’s all-the-time taste in double-tracking his accompaniment. On some songs, Chrissie Hynde provides backup vocals.
It’s well produced and McCartney uses some of his old Beatles and Wings tricks. One song starts with spoken word and then goes into the stratosphere, with McCartney playing different guitars. The rest is all acoustic. His voice ranges from crooner to rocker to falsetto to, in short, a regular growl. In others, he suddenly changes the tempo and sound nix, an old trick of the Beatles.
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Sir Paul, in short, is still trying to please us, and himself. “When I’m 64” seems a long way off.
On The Boys of Dungeon Lane, McCartney plays 17 instruments, including a harpsichord and recorder, but that ends up giving you some consistency. There are all kinds of changes, in movement and instruments, for one song on an acoustic guitar. Powerful orchestral arrangements appear out of the blue. About half of the tracks are polished rockers and ballads, others are flat or dull.
For many of us, it’s hard to remember a time when McCartney wasn’t a part of our lives. (Jim Dyson/Getty Images)
In one song, McCartney recalls looking up at a girl’s window:
“I saw your silhouette in the blind
“Are you thinking about me?
“Have I crossed your mind?”
The answer – with new generations of Beatles fans, sold-out stadium concerts and The Beatles Channel on Sirius XM – yes, you are part of the spirit. Perhaps even inevitable.
For many of us, it’s hard to remember a time when Paul McCartney wasn’t in our lives.
On the recently released album, there is a gem of a duet with Ringo Starr about his hometown, and the drummer is also touring as an octogenarian.
But I think the important point is this.
Despite being so popular for so long, McCartney remains humorous and kind to his fans, deliberately putting them at ease because he knows his presence can feel intimidating.
Contrast that with the long list of rock stars from the 60s and 70s who don’t give fans a chance as long as they buy tickets to these nostalgia-tour stadium concerts. Or fall victim to their self-destructive behavior and various addictions (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison).
At the height of Beatlemania, McCartney did bad things. He dumped his long-term fiancée, actress Jane Asher, who insisted on pursuing her career, and cheated on him.
Was he overbearing? Definitely. But as Ringo said, if it wasn’t for Paul driving them into the studio, the Beatles wouldn’t have made more than two albums.
It was McCartney who came up with the idea of Sgt. Pepper, gaudy uniform and all, a record that changed music forever. And he was able to write the theme for a James Bond film.
McCartney fell in love with American photographer Linda Eastman, and after their wedding, when he made Wings, he made her part of the group – despite his limited talents – so he could travel with her. Early reviews of Wings were harsh, but the couple spent a lot of time on his farm in Scotland, hanging out with horses and sheep.
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After the Beatles broke up, McCartney was very depressed and drank heavily. He also received a lot of bad press for suing his bandmates – but that was directed at their handsome new manager, Allen Klein, who McCartney had warned his friends, turned out to be a scoundrel.
Linda’s subsequent death was a tragedy for him. He is now married to Nancy Shevell, a member of the New York transit association and heiress to a trucking fortune.
Given his recent appearance on “SNL” and as Stephen Colbert’s last guest, there has been much discussion about whether his voice is now strong.
Maybe a little bit, but I can tell you after seeing him perform a three-hour concert last year that he is still very powerful. Not to mention its durability.
McCartney has released many albums, and not all of them are good. He made a lot of what he called “nonsensical love songs.” So it was easy to dismiss him as the prince of pop, compared to the heavy political songs, many of his longtime partner, John Lennon.
But the range of songs he wrote – from Yesterday to Michelle, from We Can Work It Out to Lady Madonna, from May I’m Amazed to Band on the Run – is astonishing.
The Beatles wouldn’t have made more than two albums if McCartney hadn’t pushed them into the studio, former bandmate and drum icon Ringo Starr said. (David M. Bennett/Dave Bennett/WireImage)
McCartney played bass for the Beatles because no one else would, and his lilting lines revolutionized their use as a driving force in rock.
He even played the rousing intro to John’s Strawberry Fields Forever on a brand new and heavily tested Mellotron.
The new album has references to Lennon (“their secret code”) and George Harrison (guitars talking on the bus), “before we learned to twist and scream.” It’s not all hindsight, but unfortunately there’s no standout hit.
McCartney will suddenly come up with drums or an amazing organ in ways that conjure up memories of that first band.
“The place where we used to live
“You could say it wasn’t much
“But it was home to us,” he sings with Ringo.
That is, before lightning struck, before Ed Sullivan appeared, and before screaming girls became the sound of their lives. Paul’s most personal and most vulnerable album.
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“People say why are you doing it? I’m just doing it because I love you,” he said in an interview.
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As Ringer puts it: “McCartney doesn’t need to come back because he never left.”
I think the highest compliment I can pay Paul McCartney is that he has aged well. And you can’t say that about many old-time rockers.
