McCartney

[The Big Guy]

Released in 1970.

[Kylenz]

This is the album that contains my favourite McCartney song of all time - Maybe I'm Amazed

...and Every Night must be close to 2nd favourite song! The other songs have this wonderful homemade sound that somehow rock - Oo You, Momma Miss America, Valentine Day. And then you have the charming acoustic songs like The Lovely Linda, That Would Be Something, Junk. Teddy Boy is another favourite of mine. The strangest track is the last one, Kreen-Akrore - but my oh my - what a drumming performance by Paul!

[mervap]

Of all of Macca's solo works, this one has taken me the longest to understand. At first, I dismissed the majority of this album as sloppy, sometimes downright careless....here was a guy, with more talent in his big toe than most of his contemporaries, and this is how he chose to kick off his solo career. "Maybe I'm Amazed", "Every Night" and "Man We was Lonely" were the only tunes that felt as if he'd spent any time at all on...

I am now willing to give the man the benefit of the doubt...perhaps when he began this project, he was just doing a few demos, maybe not. What I hear now is a young man having fun in his home studio, getting away from the pressures of being in the most famous band on earth, a band that is disintegrating by the day. I have particularly warmed to the instrumentals....but I have yet to find a use for the meandering "Kreen-Akore"-sorry, Kyle, but different strokes for different blokes, I always say!

[Kylenz]

....but I have yet to find a use for the meandering "Kreen-Akore"-sorry, Kyle, but different strokes for different blokes, I always say!

Here's another way to look at it - forget the drum workout jam side to it for now - and just think of the way that lead guitar break comes busting through - like rays of sunshine breaking through the cool crisp clouds, revealing blue sky! That to me is the lynchpin, the glue to the track that binds it all together. I love hearing Paul huffing and puffing his way through his drum chops - like you say, it's like listening to this guy at home jamming out a bunch of music.

[Paperback Writer]

I have always considered this to be a great album, but over time, it has grown in stature, even more, as I focus more on the instrumentals, giving them equal attention with the vocal songs.  Staggering work of art!

[EddieV]

This album really has some great songs.

Maybe I´m Amazed, Junk and Every Night.

I think you can hear that it is Paul alone who is playing on this album it really misses something...

[mervap]

but I have yet to find a use for the meandering "Kreen-Akore"-sorry, Kyle, but different strokes for different blokes, I always say.

Mr. Kyle, I am pleased to report that I have indeed reconsidered my thoughts on "Kreen Akrore"...I listened on headphones for the first time and found a couple of neat things. First, his bizarre mixing on this track reveals several different drum takes, not just a single take...second, the guitar breaks you mentioned do indeed have the effect you described. Lastly, if there are any ladies(who love Macca) who've listened to this track from about 2:30 thru around 3:36 on headphones and not had some impure thoughts, I would challenge their membership in that club! 

[lampie1970]

Lastly, if there are any ladies(who love Macca) who've listened to this track from about 2:30 thru around 3:36 on headphones and not had some impure thoughts, I would challenge their membership in that club! 

being in the target audience that you speak of, i can say, without a doubt, it is a very nice bit to the song...my CD is a little worn out there ;)

p.s. it's about 2:43...ha ha

[MeanMrMustard]

I always felt McCartney to be his finest solo moment.. granted, it does have an impromptu feel to it...maybe in parts "sloppy" and tentative, but --as we all know--it was made in the wake of the Beatles own swan song period, not to mention all the subsequent legal warfare that followed. I think Macca needed a creative refuge during this trying period of personal and artistic estrangement...hence his first solo effort (made wholly or partly at his Scottish farm, if I recall correctly) I loved this album from the minute I purchased it back in 1970 when I was a mere lad of 17, coming down off my "Stones phase". I remember feeling awed by how Paul played all the instruments on these tracks and how he adroitly overdubbed his own vocal parts (w/ the occasional help from Linda, of course)This record brought me right back into the McCartney "fold", if you will (sheep pun, notwithstanding) People either love or hate the album and its seeming narcissism--I count myself among the former. It was just Paul trying to liberate himself--can't blame a guy for that. Besides the more well known tracks (e.g., "Maybe I'm Amazed" & "Junk"), I found numbers like the underappreciated "Everday" and "Man We Was Lonely" to be fervant bright spots on the disc, always have. I never tire of the album's unbridled enthusiastic spontaneity. Many of his later albums have fine moments,(though generally sporadic) but his first album, I feel, is far superior in it's entirety.For my two cents, he's yet to top it, although he has come close a few times.

-MMM

[chris]

having just listened to the newly remastered mccartney, i have to say...i love this album. as i grow older, i have come not only to appreciate his instrumentals, but to look forward to them. this album sounded great. better than i remembered. and with the exception of man we was lonely, it is filled with very good, and fun tunes.

and what a stark difference paul's first solo album was from his former song writing partner's was. john chose to not only be revealing, but invited you to peek into his being with a confessional album. paul, as aloof as ever, reveals not a thing.

and to the debate of kreen-akore, i can do without the sloppy drum solo, but the guitar work is going to be my new ringtone very soon.

looking back, paul had many moments just like this thru the years. but this was the first...a very un-beatly approach to music making. he took a chance. and after all these years, i'd say he just might have a career in music after all.

[mervap]

I'd been hoping someone would review the remastered "McCartney".....sounds like you were impressed. 

[Kylenz]

and with the exception of man we was lonely, it is filled with very good, and fun tunes.

Ouch! 

[Greg]

The whole mother-teddy boy thing always struck me as weird.  It just sounded kind of creepy to me.  Maybe it shouldn't have; maybe it is I who is creepy and not the line.  It also always made me think of Lennon,  idk it was just a weird line.  The song is cool, and I like the melody a lot.  I also used to play along with Momma Miss America when I first started learning bass

(I always wondered why the order on this website goes Paul, John, George, Ringo.)

[mervap]

(I always wondered why the order on this website goes Paul, John, George, Ringo.)

Perhaps in the order of expected activity? Never thought about that.....hmmmmm.