Paul McCartney/Wings-song by song thread

Finally, a Beatles thread....

 

It's a spot of fun isn't it!?

 

He could still sing well here...Song expresses the child like aspect when a group they had early days forward..a group who earlier Beatles had cartoon and later this yel sub cartoon movie song...

 

It surprises me to this day that Lennon sang those lines about skipping rope and chopping trees....

 

Doesn’t me at all....after all his two released early Beatles books, in his own write and Spaniard ...contained illustrated cartoons...

 

The song is sort of a microcosm of The Beatles current business state at the time, isn't it?

None of them cared about this project. Only Paul was the one wanting/choosing to keep the enterprise going when the others were getting a bit jaded.

So instead of not getting roped into providing a fresh song for the film, someone had to provide a quick little ditty to go with the couple minutes of screen time the guys had to do.

Who else to provide something so vapid and yet so catchy at the same time? The song for sure has some cheesy plastic elements to it but only Paul could do that and at least make it appear it's fun.

 

The song was recorded May 12, 1967? The Beatles cartoon likenesses hadn’t even been created yet for the film.

Pepper was just coming out and MMT was still a concept. So, I’m curious about the jaded aspect of their business? It wasn’t jaded just yet. A year later? You bet.

I like All Together Now. Cool tune and the band gives it a go. I like George’s low harmony.

 

The last tune given to the YS project was Hey Bulldog. By the time the song was incorporated into the ever evolving script, most of the intense music sequence animation had been completed. The crew simply didn’t have the time or budget to do the sequence justice and that’s why it was cut from the US release. It didn’t move the story along and it didn’t have the same oomph as sequences like Lucy or Northern Song or It’s All Too Much.

Sorry for the digression!

 

I've secretly believed that the Beatles were asked to write a song for the worldwide sattelite broadcast with the word "all" in it, and Paul came up with "All Together Now", George came up with "It's All Too Much", and John, of course, came up with the best one, "All You Need Is Love!"

 

No..George,.... of course, ...came up with the best one..It’s all too much is in my top five George songs period!...

 

I meant best for the broadcast. "It's all too Much" doesn't scream global unity or harmony

 

True...but I still root for it every chance...an extraordinary overlooked Beatles song IMO......I can’t remember..I thought song was out before the broadcast and thought to be an appropriate song for it...but can’t remember as confused on timelines and if this was the introduction of the song,..

 

If I recall correctly from Anthology, none of them wanted to be involved in the project but they somehow had to do something for it.

Brian would be dead in 3 months. They quit touring and we're bouncing around looking for a next project. Only Paul seemed to be asserting himself with ideas. Girlfriends, hard drugs and the looming spectre of business were starting to infiltrate all the fun.

Maybe or maybe not John and George had ideas but they weren't pushing hard enough if at all to see them to fruition.

 

I understand all of that and agree, over the next several months. However, on May 12, when they cut this tune, they were on the cusp of a great cultural triumph with the yet to be released Sgt Pepper; the Summer of Love was just ahead; as was All You Need Is Love. I don’t think they were jaded quite yet. And, Brian wasn’t dead when they wrote and cut All Together Now. Still around. Maybe it’s a toss off song? Ok. But...they weren’t crashing yet. Far from it.

 

I don’t think much of All Together Now, but when Paul played it in the middle of a concert I attended several years ago - complete with silly childish 3D animations on the big screens surrounding him - it was excellent & caused me to think that even Paul’s throwaway kids songs are brilliant.

 

I think this period is so interesting for the Beatles and their fans. My eldest sister was 11 in 1966 and got swept onto the whole Monkees craze, so like most kids her age she bought the first four Monkees albums. That was probably the majority of her record buying budget for 1966 and 1967.

As they the Monkees sound spoke to her age more than Revolver, Pepper and Mystery Tour at the time. The White Album was always considered too expensive and weird by my family, so the next real entry point for a typical young girl was the Yellow Submarine album in 1969 when she was 14.

That was a long time to wait, but it did effectively get her back on the Beatles train, then Abbey Road was a homerun for the entire family and country. Even I remember my 1st grade teacher playing Abbey Road for us weekly. I owe a debt to that teacher I can never repay.

 

I was 9 in 66...got completely swept up in Monkees..A cool girl in mid school got me back into Beatles during the WA which transitioned me from bubble gum into a full fledged rock fan but my best friend had MMT so I got it was as well around then or a little earlier. By AR, I was completely back into Beatles. However, I remember as an 11 year old thinking YS was a cool hippie psychedelic movie and a drive in nearby city showed it. Yes, AR was a homerun for my family..as each sibling had a copy and each friend did too. My cousin with an older brother who played guitar likewise both got me back into the Beatles as well.

 

I thought all of the songs in YS worked so well and well illustrated in the movie ...Psychedelica wasn’t downed for a long time then or afterwards as its influence went on a along time..Thus, while not necessarily strong songs or a top album, all songs were topically and visually suitable ..the YS album or any select song from it and movie wasn’t particularly criticized then from my memory though the album and some songs are now because psychedelica is woefully out of style now. As a tween then, I thought it and all songs from it were totally cool...but then I wouldn’t have missed the psychedelica era for the world then...You should have seen my mini skirts, boots, bells and love beads, lol.

 

Oh this reminds me, I think the Yellow Submarine Songtrack was a really great idea to showcase everything that the movie was and everything that the Beatles were at their psycholedic peak!

 

Next Up - MAXWELL'S SILVER HAMMER (Lennon/McCartney)



MAXWELL'S SILVER HAMMER (Lennon/McCartney)

JOHN 1969: "He (Paul) did quite a lot of work on it. I was ill after the (automobile) accident while they did most of the track, and I believe he really ground George and RIngo into the ground recording it. We spent more money on that song than any of them on the whole album, I think."


GEORGE 1969: "Maxwell's Silver Hammer is just something of Paul's which we've been trying to record. We spent a hell of a lot of time on it. And it's one of those instant sort of whistle-along tunes, which some people will hate, and some people will really love it. It's more like Honey Pie, you know, a fun sort of song. But it's pretty sick as well though, 'cuz the guy keeps killing everybody. But that's one of the tunes we use synthesizer on, which is pretty effective on this."


PAUL circa-1994: "'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' is my analogy for when something goes wrong out of the blue, as it so often does, as I was beginning to find out at that time in my life. I wanted something symbolic of that, so to me it was some fictitious character called Maxwell with a silver hammer. I don't know why it was silver, it just sounded better than Maxwell's hammer. It was needed for scanning. We still use that expression now when something unexpected happens."

 

Always one if the funniest Beatle things I've ever seen as Paul singly explains the song.

 

Crazy explanation of a crazy song.

 

This group of Maxwell videos just might be my favorite of all our video collections so far. They are all wild!

 

Don't love the sing and don't hate it, but it is one of Paul's weirdest and creepiest.