Paul McCartney/Wings-song by song thread

Here s the original 80-s version of Beautiful Night. Nice vocals and overall a good one but I think Paul really nailed this song with the released Flaming Pie version

 

I've been quieter than usual during Flaming Pie, because I wanted to save any bits of praise I had for "Beautiful Night". Every song on this album is great (lest my silence convince you I think otherwise), but "Beautiful Night" is something else entirely. This is an absolute masterpiece of songwriting, instrumentation, orchestration, performance, and production. If I'm ever asked to cite a "perfect song", this will always come to mind. Easy entry into Paul's top five songs.

"Tropic Island Hum" was released afterwards but recorded before, so this is the final studio track Paul and George Martin worked on together. What a fantastic way for their partnership to culminate.

 

Unlike The Beatles' other first wives, Maureen was a--there-from -the -start fan of the group.
Apparently , pretty wild too.

 

Perhaps The wildest cat from Liverpool.

 

Beautiful Night: 5/5

Well I think this is an obvious 5. I’m glad Paul waited to get the arrangement down just right. Bringing in George Martin certainly helped out a great deal. Ringo on the song is a nice touch. It had been a while for those two.

 

Beautiful Night.
My favourite song on the album and all time Paul favourite for me. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this may be George Martin's greatest production work of his entire career. He takes the good song that you hear in the demo and turns it into a great one. I said that I found the orchestration in Somedays to be a little syrupy, but this is where he nails it. He turns this song into an epic. When the song switches tempo towards the end and you hear the strings, that great guitar work and then a snippet of Ringo's voice, it's just pure bliss. It's pure Beatles.

 

I love the song and George Martins arrangement/orchestration is spectacular. I’m
not sure I’ll agree it s the greatest production work of Martins entire career though. There are a few to choose between

 

Really Love You 3/5
Basically not a song but a jam session. It only works because it's Paul, Ringo and Jeff.
The album's low point but not that low. Still enjoyable.

Beautiful Night 4.5/5
A song that could have been on „“Abbey Road“ or „Let It Be“ (with Phil Spector overdubs ).
Maybe the most beatlesque track ever. I know all the words... lordy lordy!

 

Really Love You is fairly average, but I really love the guitar. It sounds like "Eight Miles High" era Byrds. Song is a bit too long though (7/10)
Beautiful Night is a nice treat! The part where Ringo first comes in singing solo is one of my favorite moments on an album I love (9/10)
Little Willow is lovely and very moving. (10/10)

 

REALLY LOVE YOU - It's just a jam, I like McCartney's bass playing.
BEAUTIFUL NIGHT - Not one that I really like, when it kicks into gear at the end is cool but these two are WEAK MOMENTS on the album for me.

 

Agree about the guitar on Really Love You being very eight miles high sounding. What I like about that track is the almost unstoppable groove. Paul and Ringo definitely were a rhytm-section second to none. Of course the song itself ain t the thing here it s the sound.

 

Not mad keen on Beautiful Night, all a bit overblown to me, especially the ending. Sorry. Never keen on the earlier version either.

 

Really Love you also one I'd have cut from the album. One man's meat...

 

Really Love you 6.5/10

Added .5 to the score for the presence of Ringo on the track.

Beautiful Night 10.5/10

Just another perfect track! Added .5 to the score for the presence of Ringo on the track.

Great Day 10/10

It's always a great day when we get a great song like this!

 

Little Willow

A highlight. This is a beautiful heartfelt song with great vocals, emotional melody and moving lyrics. A comforting performance to deal with the loss of a loved one. Bravo!!!

Lyrics:

Bend, little willow
Winds gonna blow you
Hard and cold tonight

Life, as it happens,
Nobody warns you
Willow, hold on tight

Nothing's gonna shake your love
Take your love away
No one's out to break your heart
It only seems that way… hey

Sleep little willow,
Peace gonna follow
Time will heal your wounds

Grow to the heavens
Now and forever
Always came too soon

Little willow

Nothing's gonna shake your love
Take your love away
No one's out to break your heart
It only seems that way… hey

Bend, little willow
Wind's gonna blow you
Hard and cold tonight.
Life as it happens
Nobody warns you
Willow, hold on tight

Ah, little willow

Little willow


Credits:

Produced by Paul McCartney, Jeff Lynne
Written by Paul McCartney
Acoustic Guitar, Backing Vocal, Bass Guitar, Electric Guitar, Harmonium, Harpsichord, Mellotron, Percussion Effects, Piano, Spanish Guitar, Lead Vocal by Paul McCartney
Backing Vocal, Electric Spinette Harpsichord by Jeff Lynne
Engineered by Geoff Emerick, Jon Jacobs
Assistant engineer: Keith Smith
Label: Parlophone
Release Date: May 5, 1997
Recorded at Hog Hill Studio, Rye, UK
Length: 2:55 minutes

Paul's own words:

From In The World Tonight Film:

 

More about Little Willow...

Promo Film:

Directed by John Schlesinger

 

More about Little Willow...

An edited version from Classical Baby: Lullabies | HBO (December 24, 2017):

 

More about Little Willow...

From “Little Willow” – performed by Paul McCartney | Hamilton

"If you have a friend or your family is undergoing such crisis and you are wondering how you can help, the simple gesture of playing this song and letting everyone grieving to listen to the lyrics of it will be enough."

 

More about Little Willow...

Finally, a cover by Sarah Maclaine, from her 2015 album The Heart of Me:

 

The Song We Were Singing (8.5)

We’re at a campfire and Paul begins to play a hypnotic acoustic guitar as we look up at the stars and predict what the future will hold. We’ll have visions of what’s ahead but we’ll sing the songs of old – or the songs of youth and to remember what it was like when anything was possible. As Paul picks up the pace into the choruses, and then back to the circular acoustic riff, I can picture all of us singing with him around that campfire. “We always came back to the song we were singing” – it’s a fun singalong that expands but holds on to its intimacy. The warm harmonium underneath everything is so serene, the deft little electric guitar touches. Not only do the lyrics have some difficult phrasing and big words that are normally difficult to match to melody, but the way he invites us there and tries to convince us gives me the impression he’s accessible.

This is the way to connect to the audience. This inclusion of the audience makes me feel like I want to like this song and the album. Compare this to “I Am Your Singer” where Paul is telling me that he’s the singer and I’m the listener and he’s singing HIS song to me. Here, we’re singing songs together that we both knew from the past. It’s the difference between the emotional wall Paul had up in 1970/1971 with the fans and singing insular songs, staying out of the spotlight. Here in 1997, he’s all over the spotlight wanting to connect.

The World Tonight (8.5)

Another refreshing entry, “The World Tonight” and its great guitar tone is what I’ve been waiting for as we went through the last few albums with his old band. Paul’s first meaty rocker in some time, and it’s got that suspicious paranoia that “Take It Away” had to give it an edge both lyrically and at times, musically. While the chorus is big and bold, there are some haunting moments hiding in the psychedelic break, and around the edges of verses and even in the guitar tone. A scary moment is Paul’s accidental prediction overlap concerning Princess Diana and her passing with his line about the paparazzi. The galloping guitar riff that answers Paul’s vocals on the chorus is particularly catchy. I can why this was the single. In Mac’s prime, it might have reached top 10.

If You Wanna (7)

This has a great mix of tense guitar tones from Steve Miller that give it backbone and brisk but breezy acoustic guitar that keeps things friendly towards the listener. This is the 2nd invitation Paul has extended to us and it’s a great subtle way of winning over a listener. First, we’re sitting around with Paul singing old songs, now we’re going with him on a trip. The rhythm really moves along well. It feels underwritten but it’s the type of song that should be. I thought this was average at first, but it’s a grower. There’s not much melody and it may be a minute too long but it’s a solid performance. I like Miller’s guitar work everywhere on Flaming Pie. A nice opening with 2 of the first 3 being rockers.

 

What I find interesting is that Paul can write nice lyrics when he wants to, or is inspired to I guess .

The lyrics of “Little Willow” are spare, but have the nice imagery of the willow bending in the wind, and has a nice subtle allegory for Maureen’s kids as opposed to, say...

Some hope for the future
Some wait for the call
To say that the days ahead
Will be the best of all ...

Which is too Hallmark cards to me.
(Yeah , I know the song was for a game)

I’m basically much more of a music guy than a lyrics guy, but sometimes I wish Paul would spend a little more time on his lyrics, because he’s capable of turning out good ones from time to time .

 

This picture reminds me that Ringo saved lots of explanation time at his barber/stylist .

Ringo could just plop in the chair and say ...“Give me the Sonny Bono.”

 

Beautiful Night, lovely if overblown track....
Love Great Day as a closer too.

 

Seems like that's a trend for McCartney though going way back. Big production/arrangement/orchestration on the last or next to last song. I usually expect it but this time it stands out cause the other orchestrations are smaller and there aren't many, there's hardly any pianos, synths either so it's been mostly acoustic/electric guitar and then comes around. He had barely played piano until "Beautiful Night". Most of the orchestras on the following list were George Martin:

Pipes Of Peace - Through Our Love
Give My Regards - Goodnight Princess
Press To Play - It's Not True
Flowers In The Dirt - Motor Of Love
Off The Ground - C'mon People
Flaming Pie - Beautiful Night

That streaks ends with Driving Rain when he instead goes with a semi-big production of a long long rock song "Rinse The Raindrops".

 

I prefer to forget that Really Love You is on the album. It's a jam that went nowhere, and should never have been mistaken for a releasable track.

Beautiful Night is classic McCartney, with one of those impossibly gorgeous melodies he seems to just pull out of thin air. And again, as so many times on this album, there's the occasional line that cuts like a knife when you think of what Linda was going through at the time. But I'm left stranded, wondering why? Is that line why Paul decided to pull this one out of mothballs years after he originally wrote and recorded it?