The Beatles Evolver Part XXXI: 1982-1986
When I was first brainstorming how I would approach writing about the Beatles after their break-up, I toyed with just following their solo careers one Beatle at a time. But the idea of wading through 4 decades of McCartney lyrics in a row gave me the strong urge to hurl myself off the nearest bridge. However, one of the biggest delights of exploring the Beatles' solo careers was finding out some really wonderful McCartney tunes that I'd been missing out on. For the most part, I find his 1980's work a lot more intriguing than the Wings era. I don't always like the results....but I get a charge out of watching the experiment.
George's album output went down big time in the 80's. In 1983 he put on "Gone Troppo" and we wouldn't hear from him again until 1987. He got busy producing movies, and dealing with how freaked out he was by John Lennon's murder.
Ringo put out one abysmal album in the 80's. Then he tended to focus more on acting gigs, and making the occasional appearance on somebody else's album.
John Lennon proved that in the Beatles Saga, just like any good science fiction, just because somebody is dead does not mean they are out of the story with the posthumous release of "Milk and Honey."
Here's the playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=8061FED8D031588C
Tug of War
Tug of War was Paul's first album after the death of John Lennon. I think it's his strongest solo effort since "Band on the Run."
Tug of War - This song has been called McCartney's equivalent of "Imagine." That's a statement I think is as ridiculous as calling one of John's songs "Lennon's 'Band on the Run'." Separately as composers the two were too different to make that sort of comparison. That was part of what made them such an amazing team to begin with.
Take It Away - My main point of interest with this song is the video which includes Ringo, and one of my all time favorite actors, John Hurt.
Here Today - Paul's song about John. I love how, if you didn't know the background, it could be mistaken for a love song....which in a way it is. I also love the contrast between this song and George's "All Those Years Ago." George focused on John's ideals. Paul focused on the friendship of two men. To this day, Paul still has a hard time getting through this song when he performs it live. I felt rather ghoulish watching a youtube video where he broke down in the middle of singing it. In the video I've included on the playlist, Paul talks about how he wrote "Here Today."
Ballroom Dancing - Fun catchy piano riff on this one.
Wanderlust - What an absolutely breathtaking song! I'd never heard this one before researching "Tug of War" and it is easily one of my favorite McCartney solo tunes. The inspiration came from a boat ride on a boat called "Wanderlust."
Ebony and Ivory - Easily the most famous song on the album. Paul and Stevie Wonder wrote this together. Two senior citizens, one black, one white, who were both partially paralyzed from a stroke, took their nickname from this song. They would play duets together. One could play the left hand and the other the right hand part.
Gone Troppo
This album was pretty much George hurrying up and getting the contractual obligation out of the way. He would not release another album until "Cloud Nine." It's not one of his strongest efforts. I also can't say I'm crazy about the 1980's style instrumentation on some of the songs. Still...it does have a couple catchy tunes.
Wake Up My Love - One of said catchy tunes. :)
That's the Way It Goes - And another...
Gone Troppo - It comes from the Australian expression which means gone crazy. I also figured the title referred to the overall tropical feel of the song.
The Girl is Mine - As if Paul wasn't on enough of the best selling albums of all time, he also made a cameo on "Thriller." Sadly I couldn't find the uber-creepy video that goes with the song....with Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson both pursuing LaToya Jackson. Eeeeeew!
Old Wave - Ringo's 1982 album....a play on words referring to the New Wave music style at the time. Ringo wouldn't release another album until the early 90's....and hearing this album I more than understand why. Yikes!
In My Car - This was one of the more listenable songs on the album. This very 1983 sound permeates most of the songs on the album. It is interesting just how many obscure Ringo songs are showed on youtube with footage from "Shining Time Station."
Hopeless - This song I thought was probably the most classic Ringo song on the album. It's not as blatantly pandering to the 80's, and has the sort of goofy lyrics and the sort of sound I've come to expect from Ringo.
Pipes of Peace - McCartney's 1983 album. Not as strong an album as "Tug of War" but does have some good songs on it. The title track has an interesting video that is based on an incident in World War I where the troops stopped fighting on Christmas Eve and joined together to sing and talk to each other.
Say Say Say - I recently discovered a marvelous book called "Eight Arms to Hold You" which is about each of the Beatles' solo careers from 1970-2000. Now as for me, I can't say Paul's collaborations with Michael Jackson were some of my favorites, although "Say Say Say" is definitely a catchy tune. The author's of "Eight Arms" refer to the collaboration as a "deal with the devil" pointing out the song definitely has more of a Michael Jackson than a McCartney feel. Regardless, the McCartney-Jackson friendship went south quickly in 1985 when Michael Jackson bout the rights to most of the Beatles' songs. (It was around that time we started seeing things like the song "Revolution" used for a Nike ad.) The video for "Say Say Say" includes more creepy flirting with LaToya.
On the Wings of a Nightingale - In the mid 1980's the Everly Brothers had a brief comeback. This song was written specifically for them by Paul McCartney. So for me, it's the first McCartney song I remember. It was many a weekend when the marvelous opening riff of this song would come soaring out of my parents' stereo. Don and Phil's song writing, and close harmony style of singing had been a huge influence on Lennon and McCartney. On the Anthology version of "Two of Us", Paul at one point says "Take it, Phil!" which is referring to Phil Everly. The Everly Brothers were also a major influence on Simon and Garfunkel. One of the more entertaining experiences of my life was when the Everly Brothers made a surprise appearance at a Simon and Garfunkel concert. I was treated to 70,000 baby boomers all going ape shit at the same time.
Give My Regards to Broad Street - The idea behind this ill-conceived film starring McCartney's ego was to show a day in the life of Paul. The film Paul had in mind to emulate was "A Hard Day's Night." Unfortunately the Beatles movie it most resembles is "Magical Mystery Tour." While parts of it work quite well as a music video, the "plot"...and I use the term very loosely...was quite weak. Although in the ending part of the movie it is interesting how it was Paul's hamfisted way to express his issues with John leaving the Beatles, and grief over his murder. In the hands of an actual screenwriter it could have been very effective. Nonetheless, for most of the film I was wishing with all my might that the ghost of John Lennon would show up and start mocking what was or wasn't going on. The film was a flop, but the soundtrack did very well.
Yesterday/Here There and Everywhere/Wanderlust Medley - The most startling aspect of this medley for me is Paul sang "Yesterday" in G instead of F. Leave it to Paul McCartney to take a song he first sang 20 years ago, sing it a whole step HIGHER and still knock it out of the park. I do like this combination of three of Paul's best melodys. Also good seeing producers George Martin and Geoff Emerick on screen.
Silly Love Songs - The dancer in this song is supposed to be a reference to Michael Jackson. Clearly an attempt to be modern....but it's pretty bizarre.
No More Lonely Nights - The only new song on the soundtrack. It was a hit.
The Long and Winding Road - Paul must have gotten a lot of satisfaction out of releasing this version of The Long and Winding Road. What Phil Spector had done to the version on "Let It Be" had been a sore spot. This version showed his original vision for it.
Yesterday - I just love this goofy version of Yesterday. Ranks right up there with the Lennon Anthology version: "Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be. That's because I am an amputee."
Milk and Honey - When John and Yoko started recording in 1980 the idea was that they'd be creating a double album. The first part would be "Double Fantasy" and the second part would be "Milk and Honey." Yoko commented the the title for the album came from her referring to the U.S. as "the land of Milk and Honey." However "... in the Scripture, the land of milk and honey is where you go after you die, as a promised land...so it's very strange that I thought of that title. Almost scary - like someone up there told me to call the next album Milk and Honey."
Ordinarily I probably wouldn't have included all of John's songs from this album on the playlist. But as it's the last Lennon material we'll see in this blog series until the Beatles Anthology, thought we should soak it up while we can.
I'm Stepping Out - John pokes a bit of fun at his househusband experiences.
I Don't Wanna Face It - Not much analysis needed with this one.
Nobody Told Me - This one was originally going to be used on Ringo's album. However when John died, RIngo didn't feel right using it. This is easily the breakout hit of the album. "There's a little yellow island to the north of Kathmandu" is referencing the poem "The Green Eye of the Yellow God." "There's UFOs in New York and I ain't too surprised" is a reference to a UFO sighting John Lennon had with May Pang in 1974.
Borrowed Time - John had taken a vacation on a boat to Bermuda. The crew all got severe sickness, but John did not. (He thought it was a side effect from his recovery from his heroin addiction. No more seasickness...) For a length of time John needed to steer the boat himself. Later he heard the line "living on borrowed time" from a Bob Marley song, and that inspired him. Of course the fact that a song with this title was released posthumously gives it an extra poignancy.
(Forgive Me) My Little Flower Princess - Another song where it doesn't take much inferring to figure out what it's about.
Grow Old With Me - Another one that had the extra level of poignancy because of John's death. Yoko had written a song called "Let Me Count the Ways" based on the Elizabeth Barrett Browning poem. John was delighted with it, and decided to do a Robert Browning style response. The idea was that this would become a standard to be used at weddings. (And heck, I'd use it at my own if it wasn't weighed down so much by the fact that the composer never grew old at all.)
This was one of the songs Yoko offered to the other 3 Beatles during the Anthology recordings. I've read more than one reason why it was never recorded. One version was that George Harrison felt uncomfortable using it because of how John died. In another version, the recording was in too shoddy shape to really be used.
Alice in Wonderland - Nonsense
In 1985, when I was in 3rd grade, CBS had a two part special of Alice in Wonderland with an all celebrity cast. I loved it. We taped it and I watched it repeatedly. I still have a soft spot for Lloyd Bridges because of his portrayal of the White Knight.
At the time, I had no idea who Ringo Starr was, and didn't really know about the Beatles yet either. Now his partner in the scene, Sid Caesar...I'd seen him on Sesame Street, and probably also on Your Show of Shows...because my daddy raised me right.
I loved this part of the show. Although I found Ringo expelling blue smoke to be a bit unsettling. Nonetheless...I'm sure he's had weirder things come out of his lungs.
We All Stand Together (a.k.a. The Frog Chorus) - A McCartney song written for the cartoon "Rupert and the Frog Song." Paul is backed by the King's Singers and the choir from St. Paul's Cathedral. (Pretty lofty bunch for a goofy children's film!)
Spies Like Us - The Paul McCartney song from the soundtrack of, you guessed it, "Spies Like Us!"
I Don't Want to Do It - A George Harrison song that was used on the "Porky's Revenge" soundtrack.
Press To Play - So when it comes to McCartney music this entry started with a bang and ends with a whimper. Press to Play was not one of his best. Now for me, of course, a big issue I have is how 80's it is trying to sound. I have a definite anti-80's bias. But the masses (for a change) must have agreed with me because it had really low sales.
Stranglehold - One of the songs released as a single. A little weird having the setting for the video taking place in a country-western bar.
Shanghai Surprise - In 1986 George Harrison's movie company released "Shanghai Surprise" starring Madonna and Sean Penn. The movie bombed. George Harrison himself acknowledged the movie was full of problems. He stated one of them was trying to make a comedy with Madonna, who had no sense of humor.
Think this blog entry may have suffered somewhat from a lack of George? Fear not fair readers. The Dark Horse will ride again with some of his greatest work ever. Stay tuned. :)
George's album output went down big time in the 80's. In 1983 he put on "Gone Troppo" and we wouldn't hear from him again until 1987. He got busy producing movies, and dealing with how freaked out he was by John Lennon's murder.
Ringo put out one abysmal album in the 80's. Then he tended to focus more on acting gigs, and making the occasional appearance on somebody else's album.
John Lennon proved that in the Beatles Saga, just like any good science fiction, just because somebody is dead does not mean they are out of the story with the posthumous release of "Milk and Honey."
Here's the playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=8061FED8D031588C
Tug of War
Tug of War was Paul's first album after the death of John Lennon. I think it's his strongest solo effort since "Band on the Run."
Tug of War - This song has been called McCartney's equivalent of "Imagine." That's a statement I think is as ridiculous as calling one of John's songs "Lennon's 'Band on the Run'." Separately as composers the two were too different to make that sort of comparison. That was part of what made them such an amazing team to begin with.
Take It Away - My main point of interest with this song is the video which includes Ringo, and one of my all time favorite actors, John Hurt.
Here Today - Paul's song about John. I love how, if you didn't know the background, it could be mistaken for a love song....which in a way it is. I also love the contrast between this song and George's "All Those Years Ago." George focused on John's ideals. Paul focused on the friendship of two men. To this day, Paul still has a hard time getting through this song when he performs it live. I felt rather ghoulish watching a youtube video where he broke down in the middle of singing it. In the video I've included on the playlist, Paul talks about how he wrote "Here Today."
Ballroom Dancing - Fun catchy piano riff on this one.
Wanderlust - What an absolutely breathtaking song! I'd never heard this one before researching "Tug of War" and it is easily one of my favorite McCartney solo tunes. The inspiration came from a boat ride on a boat called "Wanderlust."
Ebony and Ivory - Easily the most famous song on the album. Paul and Stevie Wonder wrote this together. Two senior citizens, one black, one white, who were both partially paralyzed from a stroke, took their nickname from this song. They would play duets together. One could play the left hand and the other the right hand part.
Gone Troppo
This album was pretty much George hurrying up and getting the contractual obligation out of the way. He would not release another album until "Cloud Nine." It's not one of his strongest efforts. I also can't say I'm crazy about the 1980's style instrumentation on some of the songs. Still...it does have a couple catchy tunes.
Wake Up My Love - One of said catchy tunes. :)
That's the Way It Goes - And another...
Gone Troppo - It comes from the Australian expression which means gone crazy. I also figured the title referred to the overall tropical feel of the song.
The Girl is Mine - As if Paul wasn't on enough of the best selling albums of all time, he also made a cameo on "Thriller." Sadly I couldn't find the uber-creepy video that goes with the song....with Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson both pursuing LaToya Jackson. Eeeeeew!
Old Wave - Ringo's 1982 album....a play on words referring to the New Wave music style at the time. Ringo wouldn't release another album until the early 90's....and hearing this album I more than understand why. Yikes!
In My Car - This was one of the more listenable songs on the album. This very 1983 sound permeates most of the songs on the album. It is interesting just how many obscure Ringo songs are showed on youtube with footage from "Shining Time Station."
Hopeless - This song I thought was probably the most classic Ringo song on the album. It's not as blatantly pandering to the 80's, and has the sort of goofy lyrics and the sort of sound I've come to expect from Ringo.
Pipes of Peace - McCartney's 1983 album. Not as strong an album as "Tug of War" but does have some good songs on it. The title track has an interesting video that is based on an incident in World War I where the troops stopped fighting on Christmas Eve and joined together to sing and talk to each other.
Say Say Say - I recently discovered a marvelous book called "Eight Arms to Hold You" which is about each of the Beatles' solo careers from 1970-2000. Now as for me, I can't say Paul's collaborations with Michael Jackson were some of my favorites, although "Say Say Say" is definitely a catchy tune. The author's of "Eight Arms" refer to the collaboration as a "deal with the devil" pointing out the song definitely has more of a Michael Jackson than a McCartney feel. Regardless, the McCartney-Jackson friendship went south quickly in 1985 when Michael Jackson bout the rights to most of the Beatles' songs. (It was around that time we started seeing things like the song "Revolution" used for a Nike ad.) The video for "Say Say Say" includes more creepy flirting with LaToya.
On the Wings of a Nightingale - In the mid 1980's the Everly Brothers had a brief comeback. This song was written specifically for them by Paul McCartney. So for me, it's the first McCartney song I remember. It was many a weekend when the marvelous opening riff of this song would come soaring out of my parents' stereo. Don and Phil's song writing, and close harmony style of singing had been a huge influence on Lennon and McCartney. On the Anthology version of "Two of Us", Paul at one point says "Take it, Phil!" which is referring to Phil Everly. The Everly Brothers were also a major influence on Simon and Garfunkel. One of the more entertaining experiences of my life was when the Everly Brothers made a surprise appearance at a Simon and Garfunkel concert. I was treated to 70,000 baby boomers all going ape shit at the same time.
Give My Regards to Broad Street - The idea behind this ill-conceived film starring McCartney's ego was to show a day in the life of Paul. The film Paul had in mind to emulate was "A Hard Day's Night." Unfortunately the Beatles movie it most resembles is "Magical Mystery Tour." While parts of it work quite well as a music video, the "plot"...and I use the term very loosely...was quite weak. Although in the ending part of the movie it is interesting how it was Paul's hamfisted way to express his issues with John leaving the Beatles, and grief over his murder. In the hands of an actual screenwriter it could have been very effective. Nonetheless, for most of the film I was wishing with all my might that the ghost of John Lennon would show up and start mocking what was or wasn't going on. The film was a flop, but the soundtrack did very well.
Yesterday/Here There and Everywhere/Wanderlust Medley - The most startling aspect of this medley for me is Paul sang "Yesterday" in G instead of F. Leave it to Paul McCartney to take a song he first sang 20 years ago, sing it a whole step HIGHER and still knock it out of the park. I do like this combination of three of Paul's best melodys. Also good seeing producers George Martin and Geoff Emerick on screen.
Silly Love Songs - The dancer in this song is supposed to be a reference to Michael Jackson. Clearly an attempt to be modern....but it's pretty bizarre.
No More Lonely Nights - The only new song on the soundtrack. It was a hit.
The Long and Winding Road - Paul must have gotten a lot of satisfaction out of releasing this version of The Long and Winding Road. What Phil Spector had done to the version on "Let It Be" had been a sore spot. This version showed his original vision for it.
Yesterday - I just love this goofy version of Yesterday. Ranks right up there with the Lennon Anthology version: "Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be. That's because I am an amputee."
Milk and Honey - When John and Yoko started recording in 1980 the idea was that they'd be creating a double album. The first part would be "Double Fantasy" and the second part would be "Milk and Honey." Yoko commented the the title for the album came from her referring to the U.S. as "the land of Milk and Honey." However "... in the Scripture, the land of milk and honey is where you go after you die, as a promised land...so it's very strange that I thought of that title. Almost scary - like someone up there told me to call the next album Milk and Honey."
Ordinarily I probably wouldn't have included all of John's songs from this album on the playlist. But as it's the last Lennon material we'll see in this blog series until the Beatles Anthology, thought we should soak it up while we can.
I'm Stepping Out - John pokes a bit of fun at his househusband experiences.
I Don't Wanna Face It - Not much analysis needed with this one.
Nobody Told Me - This one was originally going to be used on Ringo's album. However when John died, RIngo didn't feel right using it. This is easily the breakout hit of the album. "There's a little yellow island to the north of Kathmandu" is referencing the poem "The Green Eye of the Yellow God." "There's UFOs in New York and I ain't too surprised" is a reference to a UFO sighting John Lennon had with May Pang in 1974.
Borrowed Time - John had taken a vacation on a boat to Bermuda. The crew all got severe sickness, but John did not. (He thought it was a side effect from his recovery from his heroin addiction. No more seasickness...) For a length of time John needed to steer the boat himself. Later he heard the line "living on borrowed time" from a Bob Marley song, and that inspired him. Of course the fact that a song with this title was released posthumously gives it an extra poignancy.
(Forgive Me) My Little Flower Princess - Another song where it doesn't take much inferring to figure out what it's about.
Grow Old With Me - Another one that had the extra level of poignancy because of John's death. Yoko had written a song called "Let Me Count the Ways" based on the Elizabeth Barrett Browning poem. John was delighted with it, and decided to do a Robert Browning style response. The idea was that this would become a standard to be used at weddings. (And heck, I'd use it at my own if it wasn't weighed down so much by the fact that the composer never grew old at all.)
This was one of the songs Yoko offered to the other 3 Beatles during the Anthology recordings. I've read more than one reason why it was never recorded. One version was that George Harrison felt uncomfortable using it because of how John died. In another version, the recording was in too shoddy shape to really be used.
Alice in Wonderland - Nonsense
In 1985, when I was in 3rd grade, CBS had a two part special of Alice in Wonderland with an all celebrity cast. I loved it. We taped it and I watched it repeatedly. I still have a soft spot for Lloyd Bridges because of his portrayal of the White Knight.
At the time, I had no idea who Ringo Starr was, and didn't really know about the Beatles yet either. Now his partner in the scene, Sid Caesar...I'd seen him on Sesame Street, and probably also on Your Show of Shows...because my daddy raised me right.
I loved this part of the show. Although I found Ringo expelling blue smoke to be a bit unsettling. Nonetheless...I'm sure he's had weirder things come out of his lungs.
We All Stand Together (a.k.a. The Frog Chorus) - A McCartney song written for the cartoon "Rupert and the Frog Song." Paul is backed by the King's Singers and the choir from St. Paul's Cathedral. (Pretty lofty bunch for a goofy children's film!)
Spies Like Us - The Paul McCartney song from the soundtrack of, you guessed it, "Spies Like Us!"
I Don't Want to Do It - A George Harrison song that was used on the "Porky's Revenge" soundtrack.
Press To Play - So when it comes to McCartney music this entry started with a bang and ends with a whimper. Press to Play was not one of his best. Now for me, of course, a big issue I have is how 80's it is trying to sound. I have a definite anti-80's bias. But the masses (for a change) must have agreed with me because it had really low sales.
Stranglehold - One of the songs released as a single. A little weird having the setting for the video taking place in a country-western bar.
Shanghai Surprise - In 1986 George Harrison's movie company released "Shanghai Surprise" starring Madonna and Sean Penn. The movie bombed. George Harrison himself acknowledged the movie was full of problems. He stated one of them was trying to make a comedy with Madonna, who had no sense of humor.
Think this blog entry may have suffered somewhat from a lack of George? Fear not fair readers. The Dark Horse will ride again with some of his greatest work ever. Stay tuned. :)