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On his musical memoir about growing up in Liverpool, Paul McCartney sings:
“My father was a salesman
“My mother was a saint
“Working every God-given minute
“To make enough to pay the rent.”‘
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Of course, she’s a saint – remember “Mother Mary comes to me,” from Let It Be – and McCartney is not quite in that category. But in the lead-up to his 84th birthday, more than half a century after his band broke up, he has produced some of his finest work since, well, the Beatles.
A few of the songs fall flat, in part because of the all-Paul-all-the-time flavor in which he double-tracks his own harmonies. On some songs, Chrissie Hynde provides the backup vocals.
It is exquisitely produced and McCartney uses some of his old Beatles and Wings tricks. One song starts out with spoken words and then launches into the stratosphere, with McCartney playing different guitars. Another is all acoustic. His voice ranges from crooner to rocker to falsetto to, briefly, the familiar growl. On others, he abruptly changes tempo and sound nix, an old Beatles trick.
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Sir Paul, in short, is still trying to entertain us, and himself. “When I’m 64” seems so far away.
On The Boys of Dungeon Lane, McCartney plays 17 instruments, including harpsichord and recorder, but that eventually gives it a certain sameness. There are all kinds of changes, in pacing and instrumentals, with one song just on acoustic guitar. Mighty orchestral arrangements arise out of the blue. About half the tracks are polished rockers and ballads, some others flat or dull.
On another song, McCartney recalls looking up at a girl’s window:
“I saw your silhouette on the blind
“Do you think of me?
“Do I ever cross your mind?”
The answer – with new generations of Beatles fans, sold-out stadium concerts and a Beatles Channel on Sirius XM – is yes, he’s part of the atmosphere. Maybe even inescapable.
For most of us, it’s hard to remember a time when Paul McCartney wasn’t in our lives.
On the just-released album, there is a gem of a duet with Ringo Starr about their hometown, and the drummer is also touring as an octogenarian.
But I think the key point is this.
Despite having been so famous for so long, McCartney remains good-humored and gracious to his fans, deliberately putting them at ease because he knows being in his presence can feel intimidating.
Contrast that with a long list of arrogant rock stars from the sixties and seventies who don’t give a damn about the fans as long as they buy tickets to these nostalgia-tour arena concerts. Or fall victim to their own self-destructive behavior and various addictions (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison).
At the height of Beatlemania, McCartney did some lousy things. He dumped his longtime fiancée, actress Jane Asher, who insisted on pursuing her career, and cheated on her as well.
Was he overly bossy? Absolutely. But as Ringo has said, if not for Paul pushing them into the studio, the Beatles never would have made more than two albums.
It was McCartney who came up with the idea for Sgt. Pepper, gaudy uniforms and all, a record that changed music forever. And he got to write the theme for a James Bond movie.
McCartney fell for American photographer Linda Eastman, and after their marriage, when he formed Wings, he made her part of the band – despite her limited skills – so she could travel with him. Early reviews for Wings were brutal, but the couple spent much time on his Scottish farm, hanging with the horses and sheep.
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After the Beatles breakup, McCartney was seriously depressed and drinking heavily. He also got plenty of bad press for suing his bandmates – but that was aimed at their shady new manager, Allen Klein, who, McCartney had warned his friends, turned out to be a crook.
Linda’s subsequent death was an awful tragedy for him. He is now married to Nancy Shevell, a member of New York’s transit agency and heiress to a trucking fortune.
Given his recent appearances on “SNL” and as Stephen Colbert’s final guest, there’s been lots of chatter about whether his voice is now strained.
Maybe a little, but I can tell you after seeing him stage a three-hour concert last year that it’s still very powerful. Not to mention his sheer stamina.
McCartney has put out plenty of albums, and not all of them are great. He does a lot of what he calls “silly love songs.” Therefore he’s been easy to dismiss as a prince of pop, compared to the heavier, more political tunes of his longtime partner, John Lennon.
But the sheer range of his songwriting – from Yesterday to Michelle, from We Can Work It Out to Lady Madonna, from Maybe I’m Amazed to Band on the Run – is stunning.
McCartney played bass in the Beatles because no one else would do it, and his lilting lines revolutionized its use as a driving force in rock.
He even played the haunting intro to John’s Strawberry Fields Forever on the brand new and highly experimental Mellotron.
The new album has references to Lennon (their “secret code”) and George Harrison (talking guitars on the bus), “before we learned to twist and shout.” It’s not all looking back, but unfortunately there’s no standout hit.
McCartney will suddenly come in with dramatic drums or organ in ways that conjure up memories of that original band.
“The place we used to live in
“You could say it wasn’t much
“But it was home to us,” he sings with Ringo.
That is, before lightning struck, before the appearance with Ed Sullivan, and before screaming girls became the soundtrack of their lives. It is Paul’s most personal and vulnerable album.
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“People say why do you do it? I just do it because I love it,” he says in an interview.
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As the Ringer put it: “McCartney doesn’t need a comeback because he never went away.”
I guess the highest compliment I can pay to Paul McCartney is that he’s aged gracefully. And you can’t say that about many of the old-time rockers.