Solo Beatles single by single thread

Fine Line is great and very creative musically, I was really impressed by the disonant chord changes at the time. Production wise, its pretty dry and raw sounding. My kind of thing.

 

I liked Fine Line as an album opener. I'd say This Never Happened Before, Follow Me or Friends To Go would have been a better first single.

This Never Happened Before is probably one of Paul's better later pop songs.

 

I am pretty sure they have market research that shows overall how streams translate into sales - meta data showing that 150:1 ratio of streaming to buying.

Before Soundscan when they relied on phoned in sales and airplay reports from dealers and radio stations it was probably a more inexact science.

 

I like Fine Line, but I also agree that This Never Happened Before would have been a much better single.

This Never Happened is a McCartney masterpiece to me, it sounds absolutely wonderful, no one writes a love song better than McCartney!

 

It has an incredible melody. And the layered vocals are from Eric Stewart using the 10cc I'm Not in Love effects.

 

Fine Line was the obvious single from CHAOS in my opinion. Got a decent amount of airplay in my area. I figured it probably nudged into the lower reaches of the top 40.

 

Come on brother
All is forgiven
We all cried when you were driven away
Come on brother
Everything is better
Everything is better
When you come home and stay

Do you reckon this verse is about one of the Beatles? Could it be about when Ringo temporarily left in 68? When George temporarily left during Get Back? When John left after Abbey Road?

Or when Elvis Costello left their writing partnership.

 

Name me a "typical" Harrison single and I'll tell you if I like it . Seriously, I was surprised when it was picked as a single.

 

Fine Line is one of the very few tracks I liked on Chaos. It was a great single, but as others said, didn't represent the album very well. I was expecting more material like Fine Line, and was incredibly disappointed in the album when it didn't fulfill that. I still think Chaos is a very dull album that has little to keep my interest.

 

I find this funny because the opening always reminds me of ABBA's I Have a Dream!

 

I like it when Paul plays everything like he does on Fine Line. He's a great instrumentalist - it's obvious he can hear the finished song in his head - and when he plays and sings everything, I think it's the closest we get to hearing what he hears inside.

 

Oh right! That's the one. And "S.O.S.".

 

I think the B sides are great. Growing Up, Falling Down is certainly an odd one.

 

Fine Line:

Loved this one.
Chaos vies with Flaming Pie as my favourite latter day McCartney album and after the disappointment of Driving Rain, Paul came charging back once again. I too, really liked the chord changes and I'm always pleased when Paul 'goes it alone'. Perhaps the only weak spot on the single for me was the bridge section ("Whatever's more important to you..."). It sounded a bit 'shoe-horned in' and uninspired to me - but the rest is top notch McCartney for me.

I'm certainly glad Fine Line represented the album as a single rather than This Never Happened Before. It's a decent tune, but is spoilt by the kind of dreadful auto-pilot, rhyming couplets that unfortunately plague Paul's writing when he seemingly can't be bothered. (The kind that make me squirm, put my teeth on edge and make me run for the 'eject button' before anyone actually catches me listening to it).

 

This Never Happened is absolutely beautiful!
.
I really like the way it starts, and then that bass comes in, back in the day it would have been a sure hit! One of McCartney's best love songs, one that I always listen to.

I love that scene in the movie Lake house when they dance to it!

 

"Fine Line" is one of my least favorite tracks on "Chaos." It's okay, but not all that memorable. If "This Never Happened Before" had been released by Paul and Wings circa 1973 it would have been Top 5 easily.

 

Very out of place, IMO. As I've said before if the rest of Chaos... was like "Fine Line" I'd like the album a helluva lot more.

Hey, I had to force myself to make it all the way through Chaos...the album was just too slow and samey-sounding for my liking. "'The Long And Winding Road' dragged out to album length" was my verdict at the time. Great cure for insomnia, as far as I'm concerned, but I fail to see how this is considered one of McCartney's better albums. It reminded me of Driving Rain, frankly, and I don't mean that as a compliment (I wasn't a Driving Rain fan, either.) I've considered giving Chaos... another chance on occasion but life's just too short to try and force myself to like an album that simply isn't to my musical tastes, particularly when it comes to what I like in McCartney's music.

"Fine Line" was the only track I liked on Chaos...

 

I kinda feel the same way. And a single?. wow.

 

I agree.

 

I read somewhere it was about his son going through some issues

 

I love Fine Line...great single.

 

Maybe it is about Paul's gardner... or his limo driver.... I don't think Paul is always writing about the other Fabs...all the time. God at least I hope not...

 

Fine Line doesn't do it for me. Sounds like an old Perry Como song (someone here pointed out) "It's a Good Day". Sounds contrived rather than inspired.

 

I love "Fine Line". It is as if it is directed at a person. Almost as fatherly advice he has made a song of.

 

Dylan's later work has all sorts of borrowings of lyrics and musical phrases from 30s and 40s music or poetry