Product Description

There were few '70s rock albums as widely anticipated as this, McCartney's first solo recording. In the wake of the Beatles' well-publicised acrimony, Paul must have felt like tweaking people's expectations because McCARTNEY turned out to be the most unconventional, resolutely non-commercial recording of his career. Don't be misled by the presence of the megahit "Maybe I'm Amazed". While that piano-based song of self-discovery and romantic devotion is a superb, moving composition, it's the anomaly here. Most of McCARTNEY is taken up by breezy song ideas and sonic experimentation.
McCartneyrecorded this in his home studio, and plays nearly all of the instruments himself. There are strange song fragments, percussion-centred instrumentals, and some spontaneous-sounding toss-offs, but interspersed among these are bona fide McCartney gems, including the light, meditative "That Would Be Something" and the melancholic ballad "Junk". McCARTNEY is the sound of a man trying to cast off the chains of his reputation by indulging in some lighthearted experimentation. In the process he created a record that charms and endures.

Track Listing

1. Lovely Linda
2. That Would Be Something
3. Valentine's Day
4. Every Night
5. Hot As Sun Glasses
6. Junk
7. Man We Was Lonely
8. Oo You
9. Momma Miss America
10. Teddy Boy
11. Singalong Junk
12. Maybe I'm Amazed
13. Kree Nakoorie

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11507 in Music
• Released on: 1993-06-07
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Amazon.co.uk Review
Paul's first solo outing is very much a home-grown affair with him singing and playing everything (apart from a few harmonies by Linda). The expectations were high, and while not everything clicked, there was enough good stuff for the legend to continue. "That Would Be Something", "Man We Was Lonely", "The Lovely Linda" and "Teddy Boy" all make the grade, but everything is eclipsed by "Maybe I'm Amazed", which remains one of his most enduring songs, up there with anything the Beatles released (and which would have sounded quite at home on Let It Be). --Chris Nickson

Customer Reviews

Shame it was poorly received at the time....
While the world, rightly or wrongly, threw olive branches at the feet of the comparatively incendiary releases of "The Plastic Ono Band" and "Imagine", this, the first solo album from Paul McCartney was the recipient of a fair amount of critical opprobrium at the time. "What the hell was he thinking of"......"dear oh dear"....."indulgence".... and so on tended to be the timbre of many comments. This was largely due to the fact that McCartney played all the instruments himself and yes, there was a bit of what could fairly be dubbed "work in progress" on the collection. Nevertheless, it is highly intersting work in progress all the same and encapsulates in microcosm the direction McCartney was to take over the next decade. Of course, the titanic "Maybe I'm Amazed" takes the plaudits (incidentally, The Faces cut a cracking live version in 1971) but "Junk", "Man We Was Lonely" and the sublime "Every Night" are equally as impressive, and McCartney shows all over the album just what an adept multi-musician he could be, something that is often forgotten.

Despite the shortness of some of the cuts, and the seemingly throwaway nature of some of them, one cannot help but enjoy a brisk half an hour or so listening to this offering. It is nowhere near as bad or indulgent as has been the perceived wisdom over the years, and in my opinion it is far superior to the two subsequent Wings albums, "Ram" and "Wildlife". "Valentine's Day" would not be out of place on the old second side of "Abbey Road", and "Oo You" has a Lennon-esque "Yer Blues" quality to it. Even the most obvious piece if "indulgence", "Kreen-Akrore" is listenable in a strange sort of way ! There is an appealing ambience to this collection and the sound quality is pretty impressive considering it was knocked together in McCartney's own studio, I believe. It still gets a play by me every now and again, and that is the mark of more than an "indulgent" album, in my view.

Singalong and Junk
Appearing just before 'Let It Be', this was McCartney's first solo album which he produced himself and rush-released. The album seems to have been constructed around four real songs which are actually somewhere in the league of The Beatles even if their production isn't. However, these classics are padded out with the most obvious of filler material: half-written doodles, general "experimentation", and no less than five instrumentals. And the instumentals are not a drastic new direction, either; merely jams or tunes too forgettable to merit marriage with words.
The highlights are wonderful, though: 'Every Night' sees McCartney almost fit into the confessional songwriter mode where he explores his directionless malaise following the split of the world's greatest group; 'Junk', virtually unchanged since the "Beatles" version that later appeared on 'Anthology 3', features one of his most beautiful melodies which is really saying something (it reappears later in the album without the vocal as 'Singalong Junk' for no apparent reason); 'Teddy Boy' was also good enough to get tried with The Beatles; and 'Maybe I'm Amazed' is probably the finest composition of his solo career.
Ultimately, the impact of the great songs is lessened when watered-down with such careless junk as 'Kreen-Akrore' or 'Oo You'. But this remains one of McCartney's better albums and would've made an ideal five-star EP, if EPs had not gone out of fashion by the end of the sixties. The lesson here is to leave the experiments off the album and wait until you have a full album's worth of songs as good as 'Every Night' or 'Maybe I'm Amazed'. Now, that would be something.

Maybe I'm Amazed At The Way I Really Need You
"Baby Im amazed at the way you love me all the time
Maybe Im afraid of the way I love you
Baby Im amazed at the the way you pulled me out of time
Hung me on a line
Maybe Im amazed at the way I really need you."
Paul McCartney

Remember when we first met the Beatles? They were ours, those boys with the mop heads sang for us. Move on to 1970 and Paul McCartney is sitting and writing in a cottage on the Scottish Coast. He and Lennon are on the outs, and The Beatles as they were, are no more. Paul has lovely Linda and his writing is prolific and a decision is made to record these songs and these times. Thirteen songs that started the debut of Paul McCartney's single career. 38 years ago, is when we first heard 'Baby I'M Amazed', a song that defined the new McCartney.

'Every Night'-Every night I just wanna go out, get out of my head
Every day I dont want to get up, get out of my bed- a man twixt and between, finding his way.

'Junk'- Candlesticks, Building Bricks Some Old and New Memories for You and Me, the lyrics to a life of building memories.

'Man We Was Lonely'-Man we was lonely, Yes we was lonely, And we was hard pressed to find a smile, Man we was lonely, Yes we was lonely, But now were fine all the while. It is OK wot be alone and lonely- lovely tune.

'Teddy boy'-Mommy's gonna see you through" And he said:
"Mommy, don't worry, your Teddy boy's here Taking good care of you
Mommy don't worry, Teddy boy's here Teddy's gonna see you through" The lyrics say it all.

'Singalong Junk'- the most beautiful instrumental-

"Baby Im a man and maybe Im a lonely man
Whos in the middle of something
That he dosent really understand
Babe Im a man and maybe youre the only woman
Who could ever help me
Baby wont you help me understand"
Paul McCartney

One of the most beautiful Cd's of our era. Songs that were written unaware that Paul McCartney was traveling down another new road.

Highly Recommended. prisrob 01-05-08

The McCartney Years

Ram.