Paul McCartney/Wings-song by song thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Bemagnus, Sep 11, 2019.

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  1. Bruce M.

    Bruce M. Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hilo, HI, USA
    This is the thing that amazes me as a completely non-musical person. I can wrap my brain around the talents needed to write lyrics or play an instrument, even though they aren't in my skill set. Where these melodies come from is just an utter mystery to me. And Paul just seems to have melody flowing through his veins.
     
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  2. Bruce M.

    Bruce M. Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hilo, HI, USA
    No doubt Columbia thought Paul's records would continue to be no. 1, which both of these albums failed to do. But then he turned around and did Tug of War, which did go to no. 1 and produced one of the biggest hit singles in Macca's career. Still, Paul and Columbia did eventually divorce, so presumably it wasn't a thoroughly happy partnership.
     
  3. kaztor

    kaztor Music is the Best

    Don’t forget he did have a recent, hugely successful Xmas single and the live Coming Up topping the US charts...
     
  4. Bemagnus

    Bemagnus Music is fun Thread Starter

    Next one

    Frozen Jap

    Another synh-driven instrumental. It got a big dance-beat and a catchy melody but personally I prefer Front Parleur

    The title of the song caused some controversy-more of that below. Rightly so -imo it s not ok to use these kind of stereotypes in titles. With that said it was recorded in a time less sensitive with these matters and I don t think Paul meant any harm at all

    Frozen Jap” is a song written and performed by Paul McCartney, released on his second solo album, “McCartney II“, released in 1980.

    Paul McCartney in The Beatles – The Dream is Over: Off The Record 2, by Keith Badman:

    It was recorded in the summer of 1979 and originally I was working around on synths, again, experimenting and I suddenly got something which sounded very Oriental. When the track was finished, it seemed so Oriental to me and I thought, ‘I’d better get a really lyrical title.’ I tried to think of a suitable title and things came to mind, like ‘Crystalline Icicles Overhang The Little Cabin By The Ice-Capped Mount Fuji,’ or ‘Snow Scene In The Orient,’ but all the titles sounded clumsy. So that I wouldn’t forget, I scribbled down a working title of ‘Frozen Jap’ , you know, frozen being the ice bit for the snow scene idea, and Jap meaning Oriental and somewhere over in that part of the world. And the title stuck, I found that the ‘Crystalline Fuji’ bit just didn’t work. Now, I’m sure people will think it was recorded after that incident in Japan. We decided to change the title to ‘Frozen Japanese’ for the album release in Japan, Since we didn’t want to offend anyone over there. But when the Japanese were told of the album ‘s track listing, they went spare. They thought it was connected with the fact that I had been busted there. They regard it as an incredible slur.

    While the version of “McCartney II” lasts 3:39, a version lasting 5:43 was available on bootlegs before its official release on “McCartney II – Archive Collection” in 2011.



     
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  5. Paul Gase

    Paul Gase Everything is cheaper than it looks.

    Location:
    California
    Wonderful Christmas Time was not hugely successful. It’s current reputation, whatever that may be, is 40 years in the making. It wasn’t a Top 40 hit in the US at the time of its release.

    Let’s not revise the actual history of how it all went down...
     
  6. Bemagnus

    Bemagnus Music is fun Thread Starter

    Well USA ain t all of the world. Wonderful Christmastime went top ten in a lot of countries including UK were it went nr 6. After that it have become among the top 25 most played Christmas songs and have made more money for Paul than any other song of his. Coming up went nr one all over the world, the album also was a top ten album all over the world(even though it sold moderately compared to Wings biggest albums).
    So imo it s not a revision of history to claim that the album and sessions contained far more commercial success than generally believed and that Wondetful Christmastime outside of the USA went gold I n lot s of countries even at the time
     
  7. Paul Gase

    Paul Gase Everything is cheaper than it looks.

    Location:
    California
    I would wager by mid 1980 that Columbia execs did not share this point of view as my point was not about what everything turned out to be many years later, but rather what was happening chart wise in the USA, within the first several months of signing Paul. Columbia’s investment was not how well a Christmas single did in Denmark. It was about Paul performing at the same level as Columbia label mate, Billy Joel, to name one. In the US.
     
  8. Bemagnus

    Bemagnus Music is fun Thread Starter

    I have not argued about the fact that Pauls sales on the late seventies did not match his peak in the mid 70-s. What I meant was that failure and sucess are relative things and that Paul was more commercialy succesful this period than people generally thinks
    Also There are markets between USA and Denmark and as I mentioned Wonderful Christmastime went to nr 6 and sold gold in UK. As one example
    Personally I don t care much about charts or sales but find it ironic that the McCartneyII sessions yielded one of the most money-making songs of Pauls career and besides that Another nr one and million-seller on Coming up
     
  9. dunkoid

    dunkoid Forum Resident

    Location:
    Scotland
    Frozen Jap is a cool little song.

    I’ve never really understood the controversy over the title. Why is Jap is considered a slur, as it’s just the shortening of Japanese? There are plenty of similar examples which no one else has a problem with, eg Scot, Dane, Swede etc.
     
  10. kaztor

    kaztor Music is the Best

    It’s weird, but in Holland -where I’m from- Coming Up only was a relatively small hit, not being anywhere near the Top 10. Wonderful Christmas Time didn’t fo any better.
     
  11. Bemagnus

    Bemagnus Music is fun Thread Starter

  12. kaztor

    kaztor Music is the Best

    Just a little side thing...

    What was your gateway to McCartney’s/Wings output (seperate from any Beatles work)?

    I always liked whatever he came up with as a kid, but at age 13 a buddy of mine recorded the UK cd-version of All The Best! on a tape and I completely wore it out.
    I still think it’s sequencing is splendid, it’s forever etched in my mind. It being a 90-minute tape, I’ll never forget how it curtailed the last orchestral chord of Live And Let Die and started with Another Day on the second side.
     
  13. kaztor

    kaztor Music is the Best

    Frozen Jap:
    It’s a bit of a doodle. I like the melody, but the percussive claps cheapen it for me, it sounds a bit obnoxious. Probably my least favourite album track.
    As for the title, I think too much has been made out of it. Paul’s explanation sounds plausible enough.
     
    Last edited: Jan 19, 2020
  14. Bemagnus

    Bemagnus Music is fun Thread Starter

    :)
    Friden jap might be my least favorite on the album to. Even though I kind of like it. Says something about how I feel about this album.
    :)
     
  15. Who Cares

    Who Cares Forum Resident

    Location:
    Earth
    Frozen Jap

    An experimental instrumental song with an evocative and lovely oriental sound.

    Credits:

    Produced by Paul McCartney
    Written by Paul McCartney
    Bass, Drums, Engineer, Keyboards, Mixing, Synthesizers by Paul McCartney
    Eddie Klein: Mixing assistant
    Label: Parlophone
    Release Date: May 16, 1980
    Recorded at Home Studio, Peasmarsh, Sussex, UK / Spirit Of Ranachan Studio, Campbeltown, Scotland / EMI Studios, Abbey Road
    Length: 3:41 minutes

    Paul's own words:

     
  16. Who Cares

    Who Cares Forum Resident

    Location:
    Earth
    More about Frozen Jap...

    Full Length Version (5:43 minutes):

     
  17. Bemagnus

    Bemagnus Music is fun Thread Starter

    The full-lenght versions is the way to go with all the McCartneyII stuff. All available on the brilliand deluxe-edition -or on Spotify
    There are so much interesting music that would have been on the presumed double album. Im not sure if the world was ready for Mr H Atom or All your horseriders. A m happy they are released though. Not to mention the gorgeous Blue Sway.
     
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  18. Bruce M.

    Bruce M. Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hilo, HI, USA
    "Frozen Jap" is, as has already been said, another doodle. And the use of electronic instruments does not make a doodle "experimental."
     
  19. theMess

    theMess Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kent, UK
    I would say something like 'Check My Machine', where Paul was literally experimenting with his new 'machine' is a better example of an experimental track, as is something like 'Secret Friend', which involved a lot of intentional experimenting to build the finished track.

    With 'Frozen Jap', I would say it is a traditional McCartney song/melody, just played with then fairly new technology (I personally love the song and see it is reminiscent to what Kraftwerk would go on to do with 'Computer Love', but I am always a fan of that electronic sound meeting that 'crystalline' sort of melody that Paul was referring to).
     
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  20. omikron

    omikron Avid contributor to Paul McCartney's bank account

    Location:
    Lexington, KY
    Interestingly, the word crystaline would later be used within a title on The Fireman's first outing Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest.
     
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  21. theMess

    theMess Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kent, UK
    I don't know why he didn't just call it one of his many attempted titles; 'Crystalline' or 'Winter In Japan' would both have been decent titles.
     
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  22. Bemagnus

    Bemagnus Music is fun Thread Starter

    Perhaps Paul experimented with how to use various electronic instrumnts to get the sound he wanted.,-Stuff some of us like some don t
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2020
  23. Bemagnus

    Bemagnus Music is fun Thread Starter

    Next one

    Bogey music

    One of the wildest exercises on McCartney II this is a piece that many dismiss as plain silly. It might be but int it s own context it s a fun track. It s based on a childrens book about the slimey Bogeymen. I sort of like the idea and I also tlike the way Paul tears traditional boogie apart and make something recognizable but still very different. Also like the guitar-breaks and not least all the strange voices. This one has a lot more clever musical ideas than one might think. It s not hard to imagine. It certainly is a dopey track but I enjoy it



    Bogey Music” is a song written and performed by Paul McCartney, released on his second solo album, “McCartney II“, released in 1980. It was inspired by Fungus The Bogeyman, a children’s picture book by British artist Raymond Briggs.

    Another song entitled “Bogey Wobble” and likely from the same inspiration was released in 2011 as part of the “McCartney II – Archive Collection“.

    An up-tempo boogie song recorded during the experimental sessions for McCartney’s second solo album, Bogey Music was inspired by Raymond Briggs’ children’s book Fungus The Bogeyman.

    McCartney had been asked to write music for the soundtrack to a film version of the book. Although it never happened, he did improvise a set of lyrics based on a page of the book, which he sang over a backing track.


    Paul McCartney in The Beatles – The Dream is Over: Off The Record 2, by Keith Badman:

    There’s a book called Fungus The Bogeyman, for kids and grown-ups, too, which was sent to me by some fellow who’s making it into a film and who wanted me to do some music in it. The story is a bit strange, and the basic idea is that the bogeymen are people who make bumps in the night. They live beneath the ground and come out at night and frighten people and they like everything that is opposite to what we like. If we like warm dry clothes, they like wet slimy ones. And they’ve got all sorts of crazy books in their library, like Lady Chatterley’s Bogey. It’s just a great book, but it’s crazy and it just tickled my fancy when I got it. Anyway, I had that book in the studio one day and opened it to a page where the young people in Bogeyland rebel against the old people who hate music. They all start to get dressed in warm clean clothes and then they start to actually take baths, which is unheard of, and get into rock ‘n ‘roll. So I just look that page, looked at it a bit, and just thought, ‘Well, it looks like a bit of rock’n”roll.’ So I made up the track and called it ‘Bogey Music’, It’s a crazy fantasy, really, but that’s what I was thinking of when I did it.



    Lyrics

    Everybody bogey
    Dig that bogey beat
    Man that bogey rhythm
    Smells so clean and sweet
    Everybody bogey
    Bogey on to the street
    Without bogey music
    Life is incomplete
    Without bogey music
    Life is incomplete

    Everybody bogey
    Dig that bogey beat

    If you little bogeys
    Want to sing along
    Clean your bogey act up
    And learn the bogey song
    Without bogey music
    Life is incomplete
    Without bogey music
    Life is incomplete

    Bogey music, bogey music
    Bogey music, bogey music
    All right, here we are now
    Tonight in bogey land

    Bogey music, bogey music
    Well, when the younger bogeys
    Hear that bogey sound
    Every little bogey
    Got to bogey down
    Bogey man bogey
    Bogey man bogey
    Bogey man bogey on down
    Bogey music, bogey music, bogey music
    Bogey music, bogey music, bogey music
    Bogey music
    Bogey man bogey on down
    Bogey music

    All you little bogeys
    I want you to sing along
    Clean your bogey act up
    And learn the bogey song
    Without bogey music
    Life is incomplete
    You know, it is...suckers
    Bogey music, bogey music
    Bogey music, bogey music



     
  24. edrebber

    edrebber Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    Young was sued on the grounds that he had produced deliberately uncommercial and unrepresentative work. McCartney had 3 top ten albums and 6 top ten singles for Columbia and I think these albums were largely representative of his style except for maybe McCartney 2, but that one charted at #3.
     
  25. Piiijiii

    Piiijiii Hundalasiliah

    Location:
    Ruhr Area, Germany
    Good morning all you horseriders :tiphat:

    Right on ... these 2 are maybe the most experimental tracks of the sessions and also two of the best! I wonder why the ended on b-sides.

    Frozen Jap 3.5/5 ~ Another good instrumental with a beautiful melody and warm sound.

    Bogey Music 4.5/5 ~ Total stoned madness ... I love it. This is the kind of song that makes me get off the couch and do a crazy dance.
     
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