Paul McCartney: Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (Album) Song by Song Thread

This Loving Game should have been on the album. It's probably my favorite song from the Chaos sessions.

Here's How Kind Of You from soundcheck in 2005:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhZJSpB-gQs&feature=related

I wish he would play this stuff live.

 

Oh man, what I would give for Paul to do a concert of tracks exclusively from his last three albums! - never happen!

 

Has Paul talked about this album lately? He seems to make them, play a song or two from them on tour and then move on. I really do think that this is a high water mark in his career but because it isn't rock enough a lot of people can't get into it (even here in this forum.)
Does Paul know how good this is? Or is it just that album that he made with that "kid who thought he knew it all". (Not a real quote but MAYBE his opinion of Godrich.)

 

I'm guessing this album may not bring back good memories for him because it was made while he was with Heather...

 

How Kind of You

How kind of You

I am obviously going to be in the minority here, but this is one of my least favorite Macca tracks off C&C. It is actually the one I am most likely to skip when I listen to the album.

IMO, this is Nigel Godrich at his indulgent worst and Macca did a poor job of reigning him in. You have a weak Macca melody combined with a lot of extraneous Nigel production (the drone that drives me nuts). Also, not a very strong vocal performance by Macca. The music does not fit with the lyrics at all.

Basically it is 4 minutes of overbearing tedium. There are so many better tracks on the album than this one. This is the track that almost makes me not want to listen to the rest of the album after a solid opener.

This is one track I would have gladly traded for any of 3 or 4 of the b-sides that eventually came out. I just don't find it enjoyable to listen to at all.

RamblinRed

 

Probably not.

 

Sad but true... Although since his new tour 'formula' (the mini-tours and one-off shows here and there) at around 2007, he played songs from "Flaming Pie", "Memory Almost Full", and "Electric Arguments" all in one set. Plus he re-added "Fine Line" out of nowhere for his 2008 show in Quebec.

 

Double post...

 

Very nice! I like the studio arrangement for it's experimentalism, but musically, I like this live arrangement even more.

 

I think we have probably covered How Kind Of You sufficiently, so on to the next track... I'll try and give each track a day or two for comments...when I wait too long, it just slows down the thread too much...Please remember it's still alright to discuss Fine Line and How Kind Of You.

Jenny Wren
(McCartney)
Like so many girls, Jenny Wren could sing
But a broken heart, took her song away

Like the other girls, Jenny Wren took wing
She could see the world, and it's foolish ways

How, we, spend our days, casting, love aside
Loosing, site of life, day, by, day

She saw poverty, breaking up a home
Wounded warriors, took her song away

But the day will come, Jenny Wren will sing
When this broken world, mends its foolish ways

Now we, spend our days, catching, up on life
All because of you, Jenny Wren
You saw who we are Jenny Wren

 

I like this song. Love the solo (what is that instrument called again?) Yes, it is son of "Blackbird" and I feel that was sort of a distraction - forcing people to compare the two. It stands on its own.
I heard this live on the 2005 tour and it was sad to hear Paul struggle through it trying to hit the notes. It was one of the first times that I really became aware that that "voice" is going. (Like a veteran pitcher who doesn't have his fastball anymore he still is able to mix it up pretty good live though and still get the job done.)

 

Jenny Wren

I remember this track being described as the sequel to "Blackbird" when the album came out. It's my favorite track on the record, and I must have listened to it hundreds of times. The duduk solo was an inspired production decision. According to Wikipedia Jenny Wren is a character in Dickens' Our Mutual Friend. I've never read it.

 

I can't say I was bummed when he didn't play anything from C&C at Coachella last year because I got to see a great performance, but I really wished he would've sacrificed a BOTR song or two for something from C&C, especially given the lukewarm reception the non hit BOTR tracks got compared to every Beatles song. It made me wonder if it was too painful of a period for him to revisit, but since he played "Fine Line" in Quebec, maybe not.

 

Jenny Wren is where Paul just throws caution to the wind and says if anyone has the right to sound like the Beatles it's me. I'm so glad that he allowed this track to come out, I fear in earlier years he would have thought it too derivative.

It feels like on this album Paul is pulling out all the stops, and he has stated that he was trying to make a great album. I wonder how much Paul knowing that this would be the album that would be out when he was "64," had an impact on Chaos' genesis and creation. In interviews Paul had said that he thought folks would make quite a big deal with him turning 64. I don't think it turned out to be as big of a deal as he imagined, but I do feel that his preparing for a big deal and the comparisons he thought folks would make between his most recent album and Sgt. Pepper era Beatles helped him stay more intent on making the most solid album he possibly could. Paul surprised many of us with what I consider to be his most focused solo album ever.

 

I’m a little late to the How Kind of You party. I think it’s a great song.

The lyrics are wonderful. Very revealing. Very real. You can actually imagine him saying these things to someone.

I love the musical bed, especially the tinkly piano, and the way it shifts to complement the melody.

I love the way he jumps up on some of those lines – I thought that all was lost, etc. The voice matches the words so perfectly – vulnerable, shaky.

I love when the mmm mmm mmm mmm part comes in. Such a neat shift.

And then the end. When it gets to the first of those four PINGS! and then slowly scales down to a resolution at the end. One of my favortite song endings ever.

 

Unfortunately, his 64th came in the middle of the sh$#storm that had broken out a few weeks earlier when his separation from Heather was announced. There was no way any other McCartney story was going to get much attention in the middle of that horror show. It was really a shame. It should have been such a happy occasion.

 

That was exactly my reaction to this album when it came out. "Wow, McCartney's getting REAL!"

This is my fave McCartney album, along with "Ram."

 

Love Jenny Wren, it's a great rootsy song.

 

Jenny Wren

Jenny Wren

I really like this song. In some ways this song reminds me more of Eleanor Rigby than Blackbird.
The solo was inspired and the lyrics were excellent.
Though they would have been better off putting less pressure on it by calling it the son of Blackbird it is still a wonderful song. The music and lyrics work together so well on this one. My 2nd fav off this album.

RamblinRed

 

I took me a little while to appreciate both Jenny Wren and Vanity Fair because I had read a lot of hype focusing on these two tracks and my expectations were not realistic. I soon recognized its subtle brilliance and now believe the doduk solo is magical. I'm happy the UK will still play new Paul, as this went to #22 in his home country. It's been, umm, 24 years since he charted a pop single that high in the US.

 

Jenny Wren is a great song. There is also a "real" Jenny Wren!

http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/articles/InBetweenTimes/Page9.htm

Scroll down just a wee bit after going to the link....

 

Great post. Thanks!

 

"Jenny Wren" is another good one.

"Now we, spend our days, catching, up on life." Love that part.

Interesting name to pick for the song.

Really? Point me to all the other songs Paul has that sound like it. I can't wait to give them a listen!

 

I think Jenny Wren is one of his best songs ever. I love this live performance of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i_QLgPhIhI

This song got one of the biggest reactions of the night when I saw him in 2005. That duduk sound and Wix's recreation of it are gorgeous.

I'm sorry to see he dropped it from his live set. Even though he sang it really well in that clip and when I saw him, I had heard that he struggled with it at times. When he did it on the album, he used a really unusual thin voice for it. I think it must be hard to reproduce that sort of effect in the middle of a long and vocally demanding show. Even on other quiet songs like Blackbird and Yesterday, he uses a fuller voice that probably doesn't require as delicate a touch as Jenny Wren. That's my theory, anyway. I wish he'd put it back in the show even if he can't do it the way he does on the recorded version.

 

How Kind of You - Sorry, but this isn't my favorite song from the album either. For me it just meanders in mid-tempo-ness and those little bell 'pings'... well, I don't like em. There just doesn't seem to be a melody here.

Jenny Wren - Much better. I love the guitar playing and the instrumentation. The bouncy melody with the sadness of the lyrics and his singing just seem to work.