What in the world is he on about anyway?
Here's the essential, existential problem with Paul McCartney:
He can be so effortlessly brilliant that it seems like he's not even trying.
Or he can be so annoyingly sloppy that he seems like the worst kind of hack (albeit a hack with the most amazing sense of melody you've ever encountered).
For example:
When I met you at the station, you were standing with a bootleg in your hand...
Maybe the problem isn't getting Hi-Hi-Hi, it's that you were already Hi-Hi-Hi when you wrote this.
Sweet Banana.
Or should I call you "My Salamander."
Which, incidentally, doesn't rhyme with "oh no, don't answer."
Just saying.
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5 comments:
Sheesh. Good thing he's the cute one.
And a melodic genius, I guess.
You hit the nail on the head. Though truth be told, both of your examples rock like nobody's business. "Getting Closer" may be lacking in the lyrics, but I always loved it because it was a real return to rock'n'roll by the last incarnation of Wings.
And the flip side of "Hi Hi Hi" - "C Moon" - besides being a happy silly reggae fest - has some of Paul's juiciest harmony work.
You're right Mister P. And that's probably what's so damn frustrating!
Or other times when he just can't come up with words - "Bip Bop" and the chorus to "Another Day" (Do do do do do do..."
And yet I LOOOVE Bip Bop.
His most free form stuff is often the most inspired. His sense of songcraft is really limited, but his musicality -- not just the melody stuff, but the rhythmic play as well -- is just through the roof. And there are always deliriously weird nuggets of genius to find, even amid the dreck. Keeps me coming back, that's for sure.
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