|
|
|
|
||
|
||
|
|
 |
McCartney (1970, 35.08) ***/½ (T) |
||
| Lovely Linda That Would Be Something Valentine Day Every Night Hot as Sun/Glasses Junk Man We Was Lonely Oo You |
Momma Miss America Teddy Boy Singalong Junk Maybe I'm Amazed Kreen-Akrore [Special ed. adds: Suicide Maybe I'm Amazed |
Every Night (live) Hot as Sun (live) Maybe I'm Amazed (live) Don't Cry Baby Women Kind] |
|
 |
Red Rose Speedway [as Paul McCartney & Wings] (1973, 42.05) **/½ |
|
| Big Barn Bed My Love Get on the Right Thing One More Kiss Little Lamb Dragonfly Single Pigeon When the Night Loup (1st Indian on the Moon) |
Medley Hold Me Tight Lazy Dynamite Hands of Love Power Cut |
|
 |
Band on the Run [2010 Special Edition] (1973, 41.09/75.31) ***/0 (½) |
|
| Band on the Run Jet Bluebird Mrs. Vandebilt Let Me Roll it Mamunia No Words Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me) Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five |
[2010 Special Edition adds: Helen Wheels Country Dreamer Bluebird (from One Hand Clapping) Jet (from One Hand Clapping) Let Me Roll it (from One Hand Clapping) Band on the Run (from One Hand Clapping) Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five (from One Hand Clapping) Country Dreamer (from One Hand Clapping) Zoo Gang] |
|
 |
Venus & Mars [as Wings] (1975, 43.39) ***/T |
|
| Venus and Mars Rock Show Love in Song You Gave Me the Answer Magneto and Titanium Man Letting Go Venus and Mars Reprise Spirits of Ancient Egypt |
Medicine Jar Call Me Back Again Listen to What the Man Said Treat Her Gently Lonely Old People Crossroads Theme |
|
 |
Wings at the Speed of Sound [as Wings] (1976, 46.42) ***/½ |
|
| Let 'em in Note You Never Wrote She's My Baby Beware My Love Wino Junko Silly Love Songs Cook of the House Time to Hide |
Must Do Something About it San Ferry Anne Warm and Beautiful |
|
 |
Wings Over America [as Wings] (1976, 115.53) ***/T½ |
|||
| Medley Venus and Mars Rock Show Jet Let Me Roll It Spirits of Ancient Egypt Medicine Jar Maybe I'm Amazed Call Me Back Again |
Lady Madonna The Long and Winding Road Live and Let Die Medley Picasso's Last Words Richard Cory Bluebird I've Just Seen a Face Blackbird |
Yesterday You Gave Me the Answer Magneto and Titanium Man Go Now My Love Listen to What the Man Said Let 'em in Time to Hide Silly Love Songs |
Beware My Love Letting Go Band on the Run Hi Hi Hi Soily |
|
 |
London Town [as Wings] (1978, 51.33) **½/T |
|
| London Town Cafe on the Left Bank I'm Carrying Backwards Traveller Cuff Link Children Children Girlfriend I've Had Enough |
With a Little Luck Famous Groupies Deliver Your Children Name and Address Don't Let it Bring You Down Morse Moose and the Grey Goose |
|
 |
7" (1979) **/½ Wonderful Christmastime Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reggae |
 |
McCartney II (1980, 38.04/58.43) ***/T½ |
|
| Coming Up Temporary Secretary On the Way Waterfalls Nobody Knows Front Parlour Summer's Day Song Frozen Jap |
Bogey Music Darkroom One of Those Days [CD adds: Goodnight Tonight Check My Machine Secret Friend] |
|
 |
Pipes of Peace (1983, 39.10/50.55) **½/0 (½) |
|
| Pipes of Peace Say Say Say The Other Me Keep Under Cover So Bad The Man Sweetest Little Show Average Person |
Hey Hey Tug of Peace Through Our Love [CD adds: Twice in a Lifetime We All Stand Together Simple as That] |
|
 |
Flowers in the Dirt (1989, 53.42) ***/½ |
|
| My Brave Face Rough Ride You Want Her Too Distractions We Got Married Put it There Figure of Eight This One |
Don't Be Careless Love That Day is Done How Many People Motor of Love Où est le Soleil? |
|
 |
Off the Ground (1993, 50.07) **½/½ |
|
| Off the Ground Looking for Changes Hope of Deliverance Mistress and Maid I Owe it All to You Biker Like an Icon Peace in the Neighborhood Golden Earth Girl |
The Lovers That Never Were Get Out of the Way Winedark Open Sea C'mon People/And Remember to Be... Cosmically Conscious |
|
 |
Flaming Pie (1997, 53.44) **½/0 |
|
| The Song We Were Singing The World Tonight If You Wanna Somedays Young Boy Calico Skies Flaming Pie Heaven on a Sunday |
Used to Be Bad Souvenir Little Willow Really Love You Beautiful Night Great Day |
|
 |
Memory Almost Full (2007, 42.01) ***½/T |
|
| Dance Tonight Ever Present Past See Your Sunshine Only Mama Knows You Tell Me Mr Bellamy Gratitude Vintage Clothes |
That Was Me Feet in the Clouds House of Wax The End of the End Nod Your Head |
|
 |
 |
New (2013, 46.09) ***/T |
|
| Save Us Alligator On My Way to Work Queenie Eye Early Days New Appreciate Everybody Out There |
Hosanna I Can Bet Looking at Her Road |
||
 |
Egypt Station (2018, 57.27) ***½/½ |
|
| Opening Station I Don't Know Come on to Me Happy With You Who Cares Fuh You Confidante People Want Peace |
Hand in Hand Dominoes Back in Brazil Do it Now Caesar Rock Despite Repeated Warnings Station II Hunt You Down/Naked/C-Link |
|
 |
McCartney III (2020, 45.00) ***½/T |
|
| Long Tailed Winter Bird Find My Way Pretty Boys Women and Wives Lavatory Lil Deep Deep Feeling Slidin' The Kiss of Venus |
Seize the Day Deep Down Winter Bird/When Winter Comes |
|
 |
The In-Laws (2003) **½/T[Paul contributes]Live and Let Die |
Current availability:
Mellotrons used:
Recorded during the prolonged, messy breakup of The Beatles, McCartney is that rare thing, a genuine solo album, Paul playing everything, bar a few keyboard parts and vocals from 'lovely Linda'. A sparse, underproduced album, some of it was recorded on a four-track at the McCartneys' new farm in Scotland, as well as the ubiquitous Abbey Road. Many of the songs are no more than sketches, but the whole thing was a canny move on Paul's part, in retrospect, highlighting how overblown the Beatles had become in comparison. The album has produced only one song of any real consequence, Maybe I'm Amazed, a major hit years later in its live form, although Macca fans rate the album fairly highly. MkII Mellotron on one track, Singalong Junk, an instrumental version of the earlier Junk with a background string part, but nothing you couldn't live without, to be honest. The 2011 two-disc Special Edition adds a handful of tracks, including live versions from almost a decade later and Maybe I'm Amazed from 1974's One Hand Clapping unreleased 'live in the studio' session, complete with Linda's Mellotron strings. Next up was the first Wings album proper, Red Rose Speedway; in all honesty, it's a horrendously dull album of mid-paced, unexciting early '70s soft-rock, which is probably why they were so fantastically successful, a fact that is largely forgotten these days. Paul plays Mellotron on two parts of the four-part Medley, Lazy Dynamite and Power Cut, although it's effectively inaudible on the former, with only a few string chords towards the end of the latter.
 |
After two relative duds, McCartney knew he had to pull out all the stops for Wings' third album, so he decided they needed to record in an 'exotic locale', choosing EMI's studio in Lagos, Nigeria. What could possibly go wrong? Almost everything, in fact, not least losing two band members the week before they flew out, a street robbery and a visit from a furious Fela Kuti, making it all the more amazing that the end result, December '73's Band on the Run, went on (after a slow start) to be his best-selling post-Beatles release. But is it the best? Probably, yes, although if you're expecting anything other than mainstream '70s pop/rock, prepare to be disappointed. Opening with the killer one/two of the title track and Jet (both sizeable hits), other highlights include Let Me Roll It and closer Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five, although Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me) is no more than a five-minute reiteration of some of the album's themes, presumably thrown in to bulk the contents out. The US edition added decent-enough otherwise non-album single Helen Wheels, which would've performed that function nicely on the international edition, also found on disc 2 of 2010's Special Edition, along with two b-sides and more tracks from One Hand Clapping (the complete version has been heavily bootlegged). As you can see, this is the only Wings album without any obvious Mellotron (although it's just about pictured on the inner sleeve, right), but it can be heard on one of those One Hand Clapping tracks, with strings on Let Me Roll It, although the alleged brass on Jet turns out to be MiniMoog.
'75's Venus & Mars features some vaguely 'Strawberry Fields' flutes (and who else is qualified to play them, eh?) on Call Me Back Again. The rest of the album is impeccably produced boredom, lost in the mid-'70s, when writing songs called Rock Show and Magneto And Titanium Man obviously seemed like a good idea. '76's terribly democratic Wings at the Speed of Sound (all members sing on various tracks) has several bits that could be Mellotron, though the only totally obvious one is the few seconds of choir on Wino Junko. I see this is where Linda's Cook Of The House comes from, but as you can see from the review of her album, although Mellotron's credited, it's totally inaudible (are these even the same versions?), unless it's providing some (all?) of the sax work. Surprisingly, one really good song in Beware My Love, although both the album's major hits (Silly Love Songs and Let 'Em In) are at least catchy, if infuriating. Wings' only 'serious' use of the instrument, however, was on their next release.
Despite Wings being at their commercial peak in 1976, a triple live album seems a little excessive, though it sold well enough at the time (I believe it was to counter a double-LP bootleg that had just appeared). I presume its near-two hours encompasses a whole gig, although it's taken from several different dates, as is often the way with these things. The band were a five-piece at this point, including Linda on keys; now, she was never going to challenge Oscar Peterson, exactly, but that's probably rather missing the point. McCartney wasn't after stunning musicianship, more a workable group dynamic (while Wings weren't exactly a democracy, I get the feeling there was some band spirit at the time), so having his competent-enough wife on keyboards makes perfect sense in that context. Her backing vocals were another matter, but maybe we should just draw a discreet veil over that issue. The album's tracklisting looks quaintly anachronistic now, many of its songs lost in the mists of time; Medicine Jar, Richard Cory, Time To Hide, anyone? Most of the band's hits are on it somewhere, as is guitarist Denny Laine's '66 hit with the pre-Justin Hayward Moody Blues, Go Now. No Give Ireland Back To The Irish, though... There's even a handful of Beatles songs, in those days before Paul would come to largely rely on them to fill arenas. Essentially, though, it's a Wings set, not an ex-Beatles'.
Anyway, alongside the Hammond, Rhodes, Clavinet, MiniMoog and ARP Pro-Soloist, Linda played a twin-manual MkV Mellotron, but makes relatively little use of it. At this point, I need to very publicly thank Edd Kolakowski (did I get that right, Edd?), the band's piano tech on the tour, who also helped regular keyboard tech Rocky Morley with Linda's setup. It seems that my original assumption that you can only hear the MkV on half a dozen tracks falls slightly short of the mark. We actually get a brief string part on Spirits Of Ancient Egypt, choirs backing up the harmony vocals on Maybe I'm Amazed, the flutes from the studio version of Call Me Back Again, a major string part on Live And Let Die, a faint string part on You Gave Me The Answer, the 'doorbell' vibes that open Let 'Em In, the opening sound FX and strings on Silly Love Songs and strings on closer Soily; it's possible there are more choirs hidden away, but I wouldn't care to say. Not the most major use ever, then (all the brass and the rest of the flute is real), but slightly more than I'd thought previously. One real gripe, though: why does the album sound so awful? Muffled, badly mixed... Was it the best they could do with the source tapes? Why?
1978's London Town has an updated sound compared to Macca's mid-'70s efforts, but, years later, just sounds tired and cynical. As usual, one cheeso hit (With A Little Luck) and an awful lot of filler, the album clocking in at over fifty minutes. The only point at which they do anything even remotely innovative is on its best track, Morse Moose And The Grey Goose, where they stick a piano through a fuzzbox, alongside a clean one. OK, different... Mellotron choirs on Famous Groupies and, while it's possible it's in the background on one or two other tracks, it's more likely to be one of those new-fangled polysynth things. Paul made one more album under the Wings banner, '79's Back to the Egg, but despite rumours, it appears to be Mellotron-free. Once again, I have the irrepressible Mark Medley to thank (?) for pointing me at something that makes me feel vaguely unclean. Macca's hideous 1979 festive hit, Wonderful Christmastime, 'features' a fourteen-second Mellotron sax solo around the 2.40 mark, for those of you sick enough to wish to investigate. Interestingly, upon actually listening to the song, as against hearing it in a pub in December, some of the synth arrangements are actually very nicely done - there's one short excerpt that you could play to most people without their being aware of its provenance. Still largely shite, though.
There's Mellotron all over Paul's second solo album proper, McCartney II, from 1980. He plays every instrument on the record, meaning that quite a few things have to be keyboard approximations and some of those, in those pre-sampler times, have to be Mellotron. I've read that this is a highly eccentric album and, after hearing Temporary Secretary, I don't feel inclined to argue. What was he on? Well, after his '79 Tokyo weed bust, I hardly need to comment... The album has its highlights, even from my perspective; the quite beautiful Waterfalls is excellent, Summer's Day Song having a similar vibe. Thankfully, nothing else comes close to the infuriating tweeness of Coming Up. Anyway, on the (presumably) Mellotron front, the saxes on the irritating Coming Up have exactly the same 'weak notes' each time round the chorus and I'm sure I can hear the odd key-click, while the instrumental Summer's Day Song is very clearly Mellotron flute, particularly in the chordal passages. Bogey Music has more saxes, but in a lower register, with yet more saxes on one of the CD's bonus tracks, the interminable Secret Friend.
Paul's last Mellotron use until 1989 is on a bonus track on the CD issue of 1983's Pipes of Peace, although I vaguely wonder about the church organ at the beginning of the album. Overall, it's McCartney-by-numbers, with two major hits in the cheesola title track (wasn't that the one with the 'First World War Christmas Day football match' recreation?) and the even more cheesola Michael Jackson collaboration Say Say Say, in the days when they were still friends, before Wacko bought Northern Songs from under Paul's nose. The rest of the album is typical McCartney and not too horribly '80s, but not something you're likely to want to track down. As for that bonus track, Twice In A Lifetime, it's an irritating little song with a passably arranged Mellotron strings part kept well in the background.
After a rather uncertain period in the mid-'80s, Flowers in the Dirt is critically regarded as Paul's 'comeback' album. Surprisingly, he collaborated with Elvis Costello, at a career peak himself, adding a bit of Lennonesque roughage to McCartney's overly sweet style. Most of the album's keyboards are of the then-current 'very digital' variety, although a Wurly and a Hammond turn up on occasion. Credited Mellotron, for the first time in years, on the reggaeish How Many People, played by Paul, but it's totally inaudible, although a handful of flute chords find their way onto Don't Be Careless Love. Perhaps it's a mis-credit? Four years on, Off the Ground is generally regarded as a similar, though slightly lesser album than its predecessor; Costello collaborated again, though only on the writing front this time. Once again, one credited Mellotron track and this time you can (wait for it) actually hear the thing, with rather murky-sounding flutes on the intro to I Owe It All To You, making it the first audible McCartney Mellotron since McCartney II. After another four years and post-Beatles Anthology project, Flaming Pie (a Lennon reference) is, basically, more of the same; if you're a Paul fan, you'll probably like it, while the rest of us start shifting about in our seats. Yet again, one credited Mellotron track, the ballad Little Willow, although I've no idea what it's supposed to be doing. Paul's massed harmonies? Unlikely. The echoed synth line? I think not. So... what? So what indeed.
Paul allegedly toured the States with his MkV in the early 2000s, though a thorough study of the tour DVD (by someone else) failed to locate it. If it was there, it should be on Back in the U.S.: Live 2002, but having given the album a good listen, the only time I even remotely thought I might have heard it was on The Fool On The Hill, but it wasn't, so we'll scrap that one. 2007's Memory Almost Full is, would'ja believe, his best album in many, many years, the work of a man who seems to have rediscovered his mojo. Top tracks? Mandolin-driven opener Dance Tonight, the XTC-ish Ever Present Past, which has more to do with Paul's massive influence on Andy Partridge than the converse, the rocking Only Mama Knows, which has an almost Thin Lizzy vibe about its riffery, the '60s-ish Vintage Clothes, That Was Me, superb lyrics an' all... Barely a duffer here, to my delight and amazement. It's also his first album in a decade to feature some of his collection of Mellotrons, with strings (alongside real ones) on Only Mama Knows and what can only be distorted flutes on Vintage Clothes, although that would appear to be your lot. My favourite Macca album? I think it just might be.
After 2012's mildly bemusing Kisses on the Bottom (because the world needs an album of Macca playing pre-war pop), 2013 brings the rather noncommittally-titled New, recorded with no fewer than four producers, including Ethan Johns and Giles 'son of George' Martin. While this gives the record a slightly disjointed feel in places, it also affords Macca the opportunity to stretch out a little and take on new influences (the inspiration for the title?). I think it's fair to say that the album's a real return to form, not that there's much wrong with Memory Almost Full, top tracks including stomping, ever-so-slightly Queenlike (!) opener Save Us, the sentimental Early Days (one of several tracks referencing Paul's youth), the angular Road and the haunting, unlisted Scared, tacked onto the end of Road on the regular release and Get Me Out Of Here on the deluxe version. Mellotronically speaking, we get just the one track (presumably played by Paul), Queenie Eye, which opens with what sounds like a solo MkII Mellotron string part, complete with that distinctive 'underwater' sound from the built-in spring reverb, reiterating throughout the song.
According to Paul, 2018's Egypt Station isn't a concept album per se, but each song is intended to be a different 'station', Egypt Station itself being a "dream location that the music emanates from". The end result is probably slightly overlong, but the Pen Of McCartney still spits 'em out; Happy With You is far better than its title suggests, other highlights including Confidante and the excellent, lengthy(ish), multi-part Despite Repeated Warnings. A soupçon of Mellotron from Greg Kurstin, with a flute part on the first track 'proper' (actual opener Opening Station being a forty-second instrumental), I Don't Know, while the jury's out on the tape-slipping instrumental solos on Dominoes, which sound more like parts recorded onto tape, then messed with. Once again, better than expected, if not quite up to the standard of Memory Almost Full.
The third in a (very) occasional series, 2020's McCartney III is another entirely solo effort from Paul, although, in fairness, so were 2005's Chaos & Creation in the Backyard and Memory Almost Full. Recorded under pandemic lockdown (let's hope some of you read this long enough after that it's receded into background noise), more notable moments include the mad, atonal, massed recorders on opener Long Tailed Winter Bird, Pretty Boys' sly lyrical asides, Slidin's octave guitars and the vaguely Queenish Seize The Day. Actual highlight? Probably lovely closer Winter Bird/When Winter Comes, displaying Paul's ever-present way with a melody to its best advantage. He plays Mellotron on a couple of tracks, with faint, stabby choirs on Pretty Boys and chordal flutes (and strings?) on Deep Deep Feeling, neither to any great effect, to be honest.
So... have McCartney/Wings made any albums worth buying for their Mellotron use? Frankly, no, although there's a passable 'Macca/Mellotron' compilation to be made by someone with a) the original albums and b) plenty of time. So don't look at me.
See: The Beatles | John Lennon | George Harrison | Ringo Starr | Linda McCartney | Denny Laine | The Fireman | Mike McGear | McGough & McGear | The In-Laws
