Silly Love Songs is a great song. It might not rock and should not be disqualified because of that. It's a wonderfully played, super catchy, super successful, and one hell of a great recording (as is much of the album). Probably the best recorded Wings album. If V&M only sounded half as good.
It's a beautifully crafted song. Great bass line, the parallel melodies that fit so well together, the drums and percussion. Everything works so well together. OT: I haven't heard Walls in quite a while. I remember liking the record -- No. 9 Dream and Going Down on Love in particular. Never did like "Whatever gets you through the night" though.
I downloaded a DTS-CD transfer of "Walls And Bridges" quad version (mix supervised by John himself "for the 20 or so people who buy quad") on Usenet and it put the album in an entirely new perspective for me. A superb mix! If you'd like to hear it for yourself, try the Usenet newsgroup alt.binaries.sounds.dts. They did a great job of transferring the album from what sounds like the quad master (well, maybe a discrete 8 track 4 channel tape).
I didn't say McCartney wrote Time To Hide, I was careful in choosing my words so as not to indicate he wrote it. Rather it was one of the last two rock songs on a McCartney album.
How does this counter any of what I said? Other than the fact that you "totally disagree," everything you wrote agrees with my comment.
Oh, ok that's not how it reads. It looks like it's implying it's McCartney. Why not just say Laine's Time To Hide?
Well I'd argue that McCartney with it's experimental elements IS a rock album. Ram is a different beast entirely. There he was trying to replicate the pop sheen of Abbey Road.
Well, my point was that McCartney was at least trying to create albums with rock songs. I understand that Denny Laine wrote Time To Hide, but I don't view Wings as a real band. All of the Wings' albums are (in my view) Paul McCartney solo albums in all but name -- thus products of McCartney's wishes, ideas and hands. Paul was a notorious pain-in-the-ass to work for and most likely nothing made it on a McCartney/Wings album without being filtered through his ego. I am actually surprised that Beware My Love, Time To Hide and Wino Junko weren't watered down and over-produced. Those three songs really stand out against the superficial syrup-sweet songs they are sandwiched between.
I have the Cd that includes John doing the radio guest spot on WNEW on 9/18/74. In this he states that Walls and Bridges was being mixed for quadrophonic ("for the 20 people who buy quad"). Wonder if that ever got released in '74? The interview is great - 38 minutes long.
#9 Dream is the standout for me, but he does sound like he's going through the motions on this one. I feel he was running out of ideas, and maybe he did too, since there was nothing else for five years.
There are some good tracks on it, Nobody Loves you in particular, and I listen to it more as an insight into his state of mind in 1974 than anything else. It's a soundtrack to the May Pang period. I think the reason it's not that good, and therefore not universally liked, is because he wasn't a very happy chappy at the time. He really sounds as if he's missing Yoko, and that his new-found liberation isn't actually that liberating.
It's my favorite Lennon solo LP. Hands down. I enjoy the production touches--the horns are gorgeous and funky and soulful--more than those on Imagine and Mind Games, and I think John's voice is incredibly strong on it. Unlike his first two LPs, he actually seems to be having a ton of fun (just look at the promo pics compared to the cover of Imagine where he looks like a zombie). It's a completely different type of album than POB, so those are hard to compare (though "Scared" could easily be a POB track, and a standout at that), but I listen to Walls and Bridges far more, and it's a more consistent listen start to finish than POB (even though POB's heights are VERY high), I think "Remember", "Well Well Well" and "Hold On" are very overrated on POB, making it more uneven than W&B to me. Scratch off My Mummy's Dead ditty and you've got 6 good songs on POB, that's it. W&B has more than 6 great cuts. Side note: I've always wondered about John's messages and connection with Julian on this record. First of all, John had recently reconnected with Julian and spent more time with him at May Pang's encouragement....Now, Julian Lennon was 11 years old when it was recorded and released. John makes the album cover his old childhood artwork from when he was age 11. And it states such on the record. Then John records Ya Ya with Julian and secretly puts it on the album to surprise his son upon hearing it. And Ya Ya is, you guessed it, TRACK 11. Just interesting! I'm wondering if the album title is a reference to their relationship. John had put up a wall and now he was building a bridge to his son...Beautiful.
It's a different style of Lennon on this album, and I think it explains why so many don't like it. It has it's flaws, for sure, but it's certainly got strengths. All in all, the strengths outweigh the limitations.
I couldn't agree more; Speed Of Sound has consistently superb sound quality and that's probably the only seventies McCartney album that can be said for. Red Rose Speedway is too bass heavy and muddy in spots, V and M is overall thin sounding..even the much praised BOTR (in terms of sound) has it's annoying shortcomings (I always thought Jet was a bit of cluttered mess). ...as for Silly Love Songs ....one of the most creative bass lines in all of Rock...and maybe not hard to play in and of itself...but to sing the lead vocal and play it at the same time...'nuff said.
I also don't think it's underrated. It represented John at that particular time in his life. I own all of his solo releases enjoy them all and wish for more.
True. Other than POB, and some moments on Imagine and W&B, there's not much from his solo career that actually approaches even closely his best Beatles work. That being said, I've always been a fan of the man and the musician so I enjoy it for what it is.
For me it was the first time Paul proudly 'went public' as a great bassist. The bass is mixed so loud and so well everybody who thinks of that track is immediately reminded of the bass line, no mean achievement. He did the same on Wings Over America and again, the defining sound of that album is that bass (Rickenbacker of course. Pity he never plays it now, not even when just doing Jet or something).
I think he does play the Rick in the studio still...I read an interview a few years back where he said the Rick is just too heavy for him to play for a 3 hour show at his age (I use a Rick bass quite often myself when I'm recording and I agree, they are heavy...and I'm 6'5"!)..but that sound...
I have to confess that I had no idea that Walls and Bridges was 'underrated'. It's a long time ago, but I think I bought the album because I'd read somewhere that it was second only to Imagine (I wish I could remember where I read that). Anyway, I wasn't disappointed (except by the quality of a naff Canadian pressing). Actually, I prefer Walls and Bridges to Imagine. For me it has a sharper edge, while being lyrically more vulnerable and poetic. Also, its string arrangements don't lapse into the sentimentality of the Imagine album. Oh, and I think it benefits from being more disciplined than John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. I personally consider Wall and Bridges to be John Lennon's finest: '#9 Dream', 'Whatever Gets You Thru The Night', 'Bless You', 'Nobody Love You', etc. - What's not to like?
Imagine has boring paint-by-numbers tracks "It's So Hard" and "How?" plus "Gimme Some Truth" has zero chorus or bridge, it's a good idea that just drones on... "Soldier" and "Sleep?" are both too long and needed editing (and Sleep feels infantile, honestly, so I prefer Steel & Glass as the perfection of this song concept)--And sure the title track is iconic and "Jealous Guy" is pretty, though a bit neutered (the anthology version is better, as is the Faces version)...As an LP, Walls and Bridges runs circles around Imagine, IMO.
