A blog about Paul McCartney's first solo album

Please excuse this change to the usual proceedings where I just waffle on.  I have so many ideas for Blogs, but because of time constraints, I can't really do them.  This is a taste of one that I would do...

Now I know that everyone isn't a fan of The Beatles, or particularly of Paul McCartney, but I've been thinking of the first album he released as a solo artist, the self-titled McCartney.  I've been thinking more about it lately because firstly it is being reissued in less that two weeks time, and a couple of podcasts I have listened to have made me think about it more, especially the John Lennon Rolling Stone magazine interview where he said that he thought Macca's first album was terrible, and that McCartney would be "unlikely to repeat it."

Now, for the most part, I think it has songs that probably could have been put aside to make room for other songs, but in another way it highlights the laid back approach, and is a forerunner of lo-fi, which is very much a thing nowadays.

I am looking forward to the reissue in a way, because it will be interesting to see what songs he did leave off the album.

There are thoughts over the years that I've had, which some people may be interested in.  Although maybe they won't?  My first one is why on earth wasn't Maybe I'm Amazed issued as a single?  It is a big wasted opportunity, and he would surely have been the first ex-Beatle to have reached number one with that, in my opinion.

That song is obviously one of those worked on at Abbey Road rather a home recording like the rest of the album?  So I'm wondering if it was floating around during the Abbey Road album recording time, and why then wasn't it a Beatles song and single?  Of course keeping it for himself made it a highlight on his first album, but would have made more of a point as a single.

Another song that I'm surprised wasn't on that first album is Back Seat Of My Car, which was on the follow-up album Ram.  As a geek, and an owner of some bootlegs (yes, bring the handcuffs and arrest me), I have a six-disc set that features absolutely hours and hours of material from the sessions that were eventually used to make up the Let It Be album.  During these sessions there is a snippet of Paul at the piano playing around with this song, while waiting around to do Let It Be or The Long And Winding Road.  That means that he had at least started to write it around at least started to write it around the end of 1968.  Another song that could have been a great single in my opinion.

I would love to catch Macca live for this tour to be honest, because I can see him including some great lost tunes, such as the bluesy Oo You, the aformentioned Maybe I'm Amazed, and perhaps one or two more from his first album.  I know that his present guitarist/bassist Brian Ray likes Oo You and Momma Miss America, so who knows.

And there we have a blog that just scratches the surface of what I would do in a specific blog if I had the time to do it - blog about the solo material of the ex-Beatles, but I would probably go into a lot more detail.  If I had the time I would look into each song maybe, and that would be awesome.  Here's to a lottery win to allow me the time to do that.

Thank you for reading, please take care.

4 June 2011 (40 years, 6 months, and 9 days old)