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John, Paul, George and Ringo. The one and only Fab Four
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Paul McCartney
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Paul McCartney can lay claim to being the greatest ever songwriter to come out of the UK. Born in Liverpool on June 18th, 1942, McCartney, along with John Lennon, wrote songs which will surely last as long as popular music itself.
Whilst Lennon and McCartney songs had both names in the credits, it was often obvious which songs were mainly John's, and which were mainly Paul's. 'Yesterday' was, when Beatlegate was at its most bitter, mentioned by John Lennon in his withering 'How Do You Sleep?' attack on Macca, as the only good song McCartney ever wrote. Paul responded later with: "I was sleeping very well at the time." Most songwriters would have died happy having written 'Yesterday' - it was voted the Song of the Century in a 1999 BBC Radio 2 poll of music experts, musicians, and listeners. Both McCartney and Lennon lost their mothers when they were teenagers, and that no doubt created a common bond, and gave them an unusual depth for young men, which would surface in songs such as Paul's 'Eleanor Rigby', and John's 'In My Life'. While John had a certain, understandable bitterness because of the loss of his mother, Paul mostly seemed to be chirpy, but this didn't always come out in his songs. McCartney was the master of the wistful ballad, and, along with 'Yesterday', these included 'Here, There And Everywhere', 'She's Leaving Home', 'The Fool On The Hill', 'Let It Be', and 'The Long And Winding Road'. He wrote arguably the greatest singalong song - 'Hey Jude', showed his avant-garde inclination with 'Revolution 9', and penned one of the first, if not the first, genuinely heavy rock songs in 'Helter Skelter'. On 'Revolver' he showed his soul influence on 'Got To Get You Into My Life', and with 'When I'm Sixty-Four' and 'Honey Pie', his ability to write in an old-fashioned Music Hall style. 'Blackbird' showed Paul McCartney's love of nature, and 'Penny Lane' his fine storytelling. His songs were often bright and sparkling, too - 'Good Day Sunshine', 'Lovely Rita', or just rocked - 'Back In The U.S.S.R.', 'Birthday', and 'Get Back'. He wrote, and co-wrote, so many others - 'All My Loving', 'Your Mother Should Know', 'She Loves You', 'Can't Buy Me Love', 'I Want To Hold Your Hand', 'And I Love Her'. In fact it's not easy finding a duff Lennon and McCartney song (for more on Paul's songs post Beatles see Angelo Gravity's article below). With all the acrimony of The Beatles dissolution, it's to the credit of the four Beatles that the best solo work of all of them came within the first few years of the split. Three albums - George Harrison's 'All Things Must Pass', John Lennon's 'Imagine', Paul's 'Band On The Run' with Wings, and Ringo Starr's US number one singles, all proved that the four could make it on their own. Paul McCartney's solo work, and work with Wings, is said by critics to not match up to his work with The Beatles, but that's not exactly surprising. Lennon and McCartney were two geniuses who spurred each other on to great heights, and though Lennon's early solo work was superior, he may have later lost the drive to make music without McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr around. Paul McCartney has written more good pop songs than anyone, and though he should show his teeth more often, as Pete Townshend once affectionately hinted, he can't help being a likeable guy, and his work for animal welfare, with his two wives Linda and Heather, should be commended and not sneered at. - Paul Rance/booksmusicfilmstv.com (reproduced with permission) Originally published here: http://www.booksmusicfilmstv.com/PaulMcCartney.htm |
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