Sir Walrus – Part 2

For years I carried a somewhat negative view of Paul McCartney and his music. To me McCartney came across in interviews as a phony and a windbag, many of his songs were saccharine, and he is the one who broke up the Beatles (I always blamed Paul, not Yoko). But I think I may have judged the Walrus too harshly and unfairly as there are a lot of good things to say about the man and his music. McCartney has brought the world a lot of happiness through his songs and even after his best friend Lennon's murder and his wife Linda’s death he’s kept going, talking about peace and love, and making music.

I remember when a “tell-all” book about John Lennon was published in 1988 depicting Lennon as a monster and a fraud and claiming Paul was the only real talent in the Beatles. McCartney called the book trash and told people not to buy it. McCartney is a vegetarian and for decades has championed animal rights- and that makes him all right in my book. As for his music, I recently read a Playboy interview with Paul and Linda McCartney from 1984 in which the interviewer asks Paul to discuss his post-Beatles music (with Linda) and I find McCartney’s thoughts on his Wings period to be honest, intelligent, and enlightening.

“Those are the songs that some people thought were not as good as my earlier stuff, or too commercial. I know people from time to time used to say that, but my attitude was, ‘Sorry, folks, it’s about the best I can do right now. Sorry! You know, this is me trying to do it. I’m trying to do it honestly and genuinely; if some of it’s not working to your taste, what can I say?’ But it helped us claw our way back.”

“I used to think that all my Wings stuff was second-rate stuff, but I began to meet younger kids, not kids from my Beatle generation, who would seriously say, ‘No, wait a minute; can't have you say that about your work. We really love this song or that song.’”

“There’ll be people who mention ‘My Love’ or ‘Band on the Run,’ and for us that’s a big thing. Or ‘Mull of Kintyre’ or ‘Ebony and Ivory.’ No matter what I may think about them... I can view them cynically, even ruthlessly... even I have to admit there definitely was something there with some of the Wings songs. In fact, the more I bother looking at it again, the more I discover what I was trying to do. I think there’ll be a lot of that Wings stuff sort of rediscovered in years to come.”

Here are some (more) of my favorite Paul McCartney songs. Enjoy!

01. Paul McCartney and Wings – “Silly Love Songs” (1976)
02. Paul McCartney – “Only Our Hearts” (2012)
03. Paul McCartney – “Put It There” (1989)
04. Paul McCartney – “The Song We Were Singing” (1997)
05. Paul McCartney – “I’ve Just Seen a Face (Live)” (1991)
06. Paul McCartney – “On My Way to Work” (2013)
07. Paul McCartney – “And I Love Her (Live)” (1991)
08. Paul McCartney – “Hope of Deliverance” (1993)
09. Paul McCartney – “Early Days” (2013)
10. Paul McCartney – “Ever Present Past” (2007)

Listen to the playlist on Spotify...