McCartney "Back to the Egg" Why is it not everyone's favourite ?

I had the 8 track, until I got that I didn't even know this album existed. I like it a lot, though like all Macca work it has it's dud lyrics, dull spots, wandering melodies in search of something...but for the most part a solid LP for sure.

 

Color me unimpressed, as well. It's all so ... slight. Most of the songs strike me as "fragmentary", even by Paul's standards. It starts with that pointless "Reception" piece than the album proper really begins with ... one of Paul's most derided lyrics ever, "Say you don't love me, my salamander" - not a great opening impresssion, especially when he then pleads to have the "radio play me a song with a point"; something he seems utterly incapable of on this album. We're Open Tonight is another slight effort, not even clocking in at 90 seconds. I quite like Spin It On - a different sound for Paul, for sure. But Old Siam has him blathering out another nonsensical lyric. Yeah, I like the screamer vocal, but couldn't he have put down the hash pipe for fifteen minutes and come up with something that made a little sense? Arrow Through Me closes out side one nicely, tho...

Then comes the Rockestra. That great assemblage of 70s star-power brought together to hit the same riff over and over, climaxing when Paul asks "Why haven't I had any dinner". Hmm. To You sounds ok, but it's AWFULLY repetitive to me - what are there, about 25 different words in the entire song? After The Ball has a great little melody and vocal. Problem is, it's one verse repeated FOUR times, with a nice little bit in the middle. Then comes Million Miles - is it a "song" in its own right? It has three lines. And one of them is "when I get up up up in the morning". The other two, fwiw, are "How many million miles, Deo" and "Oh Lord, I know" - to me that's songwriting at its laziest. The next medley is similar: two nice fragments of songs that almost make a real song for me - but not quite. The awfully pretentious spoken word bit, The Broadcast, is up next, and best forgotten. I absolutely love So Glad To See You Here - a Wings single that should've been (just excise that reprise of We're Open Tonight, please). And I really kinda like the album closer, Baby's Request.

I assume I'm not threadcrapping here, as OP @jakobian1946 seemed to be genuinely baffled by why someone might not like it. I'm a huge McCartney fan, and those are the shortcomings I hear...

 

I really like Baby's request....even the video!

 

I'm not a huge McCartney/Wings/Beatles fan, but I like this album quite a bit.

 

Same way I feel about it. Thanks for the review. London Town has full songs and so does Tug Of War. This album has always been an anomaly to me. It's just there. I keep it filed away for the reasons you listed above.

 

It's not my favorite because half the tracks are sub-par.

Then again, how is that different than most other McCartney albums?

But I'm not a Paul hater - can't believe how much I love his first album and was mis-guided that it was half-baked because of the instrumentals. They are the best part!

Give me Back To The Egg instrumentals so I never have to hear the lyric "wiper" repeated at the end of the first verse.

 

I agree that it's really good. Imagine if he tagged Goodnight Tonight on there and deleted a couple other tracks. Getting Closer is a favorite.

 

Daytime Nightime Suffering and Goodnight Tonight are part of my 10-track Back To The Scrambled Egg LP....Love It!!!

 

Listened to it many times. Have it on LP and CD. Decidedly eh in my opinion. If that was my first exposure to McCartney, I would not have bought another of his albums. Really not very strong melodically, the radio stuff is a waste of space. Rockestra does nothing for me. Feels like he's trying to rock more for the sake of his image than because of any joy he gets from it. Such a come down after London Town, which I feel is one of his finest with so many memorable tunes.

Baby's Request is nice, but not as nice as his recent remake of the tune.

My favorite part of it was the puffy fried egg on the label

Sorry, but you asked

 

I agree it would be greatly improved by the addition of Goodnight Tonight and Daytime Nighttime Suffering, but that's neither hear not there. I used to like it better than McCartney II, but I can't even say that anymore

 

I never cared for this one. Maybe I'll go back and give it another try. It's been a long time.

 

I loved it at first hearing.

 

I'm a fan of this album, although I may be biased by some nostalgia and sentimentality. It's one of the handful albums that I can recall the exact day I got it - December 25, 1979 - my 14th Christmas with my 2nd generation Beatlemania about to go full bloom (and overboard). All that being said, I think you raise some fair criticisms. Some of the songs on the album could have used a sharp Lennon/Costello-type editor/soundboard, particularly "Getting Closer", as many people have pointed out many times for many years But piecing together not-quite-finished songs has been the man's specialty since "Abbey Road", and clearly he had a similar idea at work here. For me personally, I'm happy to have these songs, as not-quite-finished as some of them are. "Winter Rose"/"Love Awake" is Desert Island Disc material for me. The fact that "Baby's Request" can easily rub elbows with some renown standards on "Kisses on the Bottom" validates what I always felt - it's a beautiful piece of songwriting. And I know the Theme has its critics as well, but I think it is my favorite rock and roll instrumental ever recorded (well, maybe "Jessica") ... it's just FUN. The clunker on the album for me (throwing out "The Broadcast", which only seems to be there to serve the never-quite-realized "you're listening to the radio" theme) is "Old Siam Sir". A good riff beaten to death accompanied by some generally incomprehensible nonsense.

 

You should go to an Ian Hunter show. Steve Holley is his drummer (and has been for the last 10 years or so), and he usually is pretty approachable since Ian is playing mostly smallish clubs at most gigs. You just might be able to get Steve to sign the LP too.

And then you can work on getting Paul to sign it. But I can't give you any tips for Paul .....

Arnie

 

My Favorite Wings album.

 

Masses of discussion here :

Weakest Link (9 more parts)

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-weakest-link-paul-mccartney-back-to-the-egg.204605/

... a masterpiece:

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/paul-mccartney-back-to-the-egg-a-masterpiece.67521/

Vinyl:

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/mccartney-back-to-the-egg-vinyl.189960/

CD:

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/mccartney-wings-back-to-the-egg-on-cd.53156/

And

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/quick-q-is-paul-mccartney-wings-back-to-the-egg-on-cd.16562/

Album by album discussion starts here:

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...-by-album-thread.341009/page-12#post-10115739

 

I quite like this album. It's Level II for me despite its shortcomings. For me there's kind of a late night vibe to it. However, I do wish Paul had done a little more to thread the very loose "radio broadcast" theme throughout the record. And count me in for preferring to replace 2 or 3 of the tracks with "Goodnight Tonight" and "Daytime Nighttime Suffering."

 

I thought that I should post my thoughts from the other thread here, because I explained them well:

Back To The Egg is another underrated album that has fortunately received a positive re-evaluation in recent years. I think that it is one of Paul's most ambitious albums in that it tries to sound like someone flipping through the different radio stations, listening to many different genres of music, and it achieves most of it's goals IMO.

Paul was on inspired rocking form on this album, I can definitely feel a New Wave/Punk influence, at least with the energy of songs like Spin It On, To You, Getting Closer and So Glad To See You Here. I agree with the comments about I've Had Enough, that would have gone brilliantly on the album and I also agree with regards to wishing Paul would rock like this more often.
As well as all of the great rocking songs (including the great Old Siam, Sir and the infectious Rockestra theme) Paul also delivers the beautiful Winter Rose/Love Awake, the melodic and delicate We're Open Tonight and the great Jazz Standard type song that is Baby's Request, a song that I am glad that he revisited for KOTB.

My only complaints about the album are that it didn't include Goodnight Tonight and Daytime Nighttime Suffering, both of which would have fit the concept. The dance feel of Goodnight Tonight would have complemented the R&B feel of the fabulous Arrow Through Me, one of Paul's funkiest songs. I feel that had they been on the album it would have done much better commercially.
I also feel that the great catchy Cage and the lovely yearn-full ballad Seems Like Old Times should have replaced Denny's song, which isn't up to standard IMO.
I think that Getting Back suffered due to the nonsensical Salamander lyric, which was a reference so obscure that most McCartney fans still don't get it.

Seeing as it is a great catchy rocking song packed full of special guests, I believe that So Glad To See You Here should have been the first single from the album, backed with the catchy Rockestra theme.
Overall, this is a brilliantly engineered and produced rocking and diverse album that didn't get the positive reviews or commercial success that it deserved.
It definitely makes me sorry that this version of Wings got ended so soon, far too early. It would have been great to see them tour into the 80's together, because the rehearsals that they did together sounded great and they put in some great live performances together on the 79 Tour. Had they toured in the US, I think that the album would have done much better than it did.

With only the odd tweak, this album could have done so much better. Here is my version of it:

Reception
Getting Closer
We're Open Tonight
Spin It On
Daytime Nighttime Suffering
Old Siam, Sir
Goodnight Tonight
Arrow Through Me
Cage
Rockestra Theme
To You
After The Ball/Million Miles
Winter Rose/Love Awake
The Broadcast
So Glad To See You Here
Baby's Request
Seems Like Old Times

 

I have a dream of Paul coming onstage and opening a concert with the combo of We're Open Tonight/So Glad To See You Here.

 

Wow, I never even thought of that. I assumed Holly was in some other country and forever out of my reach. Thanks for the recommendation!

As for Paul, I have about 2% hope of getting it. Unfortunately, even if I do, I can never get Linda's.

 

When I saw Laurence Juber a couple of years ago I told him how much I liked "Back To The Egg" and asked him why he didn't play anything from it in his show. He mentioned that he had included "Arrow Through Me" on one of his CDs, but he looked at me like he was tired of hearing that question, or hearing about that album.

 

Absolutely my favorite Wings album. Paul's vocal on Getting Closer is one of his raspy best. Me and my friend Danny used to play this album all day long in the summer while we hung out at his pool. Great memories. Will always be a summer album for me.

 

Love this album! Can't wait for the re-issue.

 

When I got his autograph last summer at a Guitar Showcase performance, he was at his merchandise table signing his new CDs. I asked him to sign my LP and he did so happily. He then told me that he was releasing a book of photos he took during the Back to the Egg sessions. Does anyone know about this book? Juber said there were photos of them all in the studio recording this album.

 

Bit of a meh album for me - wasn't that impressed and haven't listened to it in ages. I do like the rockers though - especially "Spin It On".