Paul McCartney Solo Discography

I have been thinking about checking Paul McCartney's solo discography for some time already - and time has finally arrived.
Yes, I know some of his big hits from 1970s and 1980s but not much beyond that - all I know is that thanks to his 1960s work he is considered a rock aristocracy and largely lives on former fame. Than again, this is the guy who wrote half of Beatles repertoire so I guess he deserves all the accolades he can get. And its good to see that composer of timeless work can live into old age, wealthy and successful, instead being forgotten and desolate. There is a certain Peter Pan quality about McCartney - the more I listen his music, the more I am aware of it - the guy is cheerful, charming and very likable. I have no preconception about his media image, so this are truly reflections of what I hear in his music.

McCartney (1970)
Critics had a field day with this, but I find it fascinating - in fact, I have been listened it for days and like it very much. The main "fault" everybody pointed at was rugged structure of the album and the fact that McCartney played around with some half-finished ideas. Naturally he did not come up with another "Hey Jude" or "Let it be" so it seems that people were almost offended that he stepped back from any big statements and just played the music for the joy of it. Or perhaps do-it-yourself approach is already a statement enough. If you listen with open ears and without prejudice, this is great fun - he plays all the instruments and whoops with pleasure while drumming on instrumental "Momma Miss America", gets sentimental or simply serves infectious melodies, recycles some of his older work and in general combines odds & ends into extremely playful and listenable album. Sure, lyrics are not the strongest point here, seems that this was intentional - kind of distance from Beatles work, I guess - I love the melody of "Junk" and can't get it out of my head. Critics or not, album was nr.1 in US and nr.2 in UK. I also really appreciate that none of this was geared towards radio play (in other words, nothing was calculated for promo gimmick, novelties or quick hit) so it turns out into one of these rare experiences when music actually grows into a listener with each further playing. Time has been good to this one.

Ram (1971)
Again the big gap between what artist wants to do and what critics think he should do - upon its release, this album was so universally dismissed as lightweight and plain lousy, that listening today from a certain time distance I have nothing but contempt for these critics. (And this goes specially for Jon Landau who I kind of took seriously until now). Forget the critics - they expected earth-shaking, conceptual albums spread over LP box full of life-affirming truths and probably another "Sgt.Pepper's" and instead got Peter Pan goofing around with irresistibly happy, smiling songs about simple life, love, fun and joy. Because I love sunny songs that make me dance and clown around the room, because I think world needs uplifting music more than anything else, because from this perspective I don't care for assumed messages to Ex-Beatles but simply enjoy something sunny and because in McCartney's music I find infectious laughter & happiness, I go against the tide and rate this 4, 5 stars. I am old enough now to find life affirming message in lyrics like "C'mon little lady, let's eat at home" or the song about smelly feet. Feel-good music.

Wild Life (1971)
With all my good-will towards McCartney, I must admit this was ahem, not such a good idea - in fact, I am almost 100% sure that any other musician coming up with this music would be rejected by recording companies. Its only his mythical status that allowed him to actually release collection of such uninteresting songs and why on Earth he simply didn't wait until he got something better, I can't tell. Apparently this was kind of warming-up for future band, but he could just rehearse and play with guys in studio instead actually recording it and showing it to the world. There is absolutely not even one stand-out track, except perhaps cheerful little Mungo Jerry-inspired jingle "Bip bop" that kinds of lingers around but even this is completely lightweight, almost like children TV show theme. The rest is truly uninspired - nothing horrible but nothing memorable either - insisting on Linda's involvement, McCartney heroically fights the windmills and makes us wonder what was he thinking? The album went gold in USA and Canada, which just shows that celebrity status sometimes matters more than product itself. Singles tracks rage from mildly interesting ("Give Ireland Back To The Irish") to awful ("Mary Had A Little Lamb") - B side "Little Woman Love" actually shows more energy and spunk than anything on the album itself. "Mama's Little Girl" is a lilting little melody again lost in a shuffle and wasted as B side.