Paul Mc Cartney a.k.a. Macca, ( The Walrus )
Born June 18th 1942
Together with John Lennon Paul is responsible for composing the vast majority of songs throughout the history of the Beatles from 1962 to 1970. Of all the Beatles, Paul has had the most successful solo career maintaining a constant presence in the charts with many number one albums and singles.
Within a year of the breakup of the Beatles , Paul was starting from scratch with a fledgling Wings
touring the countryside in an old bus playing at Colleges, Universities and anyplace he could.
With the exception of the Family Way Soundtrack which was released in 1966, Paul's first solo album simply titled "Mc Cartney", was released in 1970 just a few weeks before the Beatles swansong "Let It Be" was released. Mc Cartney had begun work on this album at his home studio shortly after his marriage to Linda Eastman in March 1969.
In February 1971 a follow up home made studio album was released being a collaboration of Paul and Linda Mc Cartney, the album sold moderately well.
With his new band Wings consisting of ex Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine and drummer Denny Seiwell together with Linda on Keyboards and Paul on bass a first album titled "Wildlife", was released. The album was given poor critical reviews and did not chart well.
1972 saw the addition to the working band of guitarist Henry Mc Cullough and the release of three singles, "Give Ireland Back To The Irish", "Mary Had A Little Lamb" and "Hi Hi Hi" which although being the best of the three was banned by the BBC for its lyrical content.
Red Rose Speedway was released in May 1973 sporting the hit song "My Love". The album received poor reviews but sold well and was seen as an indication that paul was getting back on his feet as an artist. The theme song to the latest James Bond movie "Live And Let Die", was released a month after and became a number one hit. Wings then embarked on their first British Tour, the conclusion of which saw the departure of Denny Seiwell and Henry Mc Cullough.
The remaining three, Paul , Linda and Denny Laine set off for Lagos, Nigeria where they proceeded to record an album of new songs. the resulting album "Band On The Run", received high critical acclaim and went on to become Paul's best selling album ever eventually going triple platinum.
In 1974 Paul added drummer Geoff Britton and guitarist Jimmy Mc Culloch to the lineup. The band recorded a single "Juniors Farm" before releasing "Venus And Mars" in 1975.
In September 1975 Wings toured the U.K, two months later an Australasian Tour took place.
Late 1975 and Early 1976, Wings set about recording a new album of songs in which for the first time songwriting contributions from other band members were featured. The album titled "Wings At The Speed Of Sound", was released in April '76 and sold well supported by the singles "Silly Love Songs" and "Let Em In". A month prior to the album's release Wings did a short european warm-up tour before setting off to tackle the U.S.A. in May. The U.S.A. tour did well and broke many attendance records, a triple live album , "Wings Over America" was released.
1977 was a quiet year for Wings, releasing only a single "Maybe I'm Amazed", in February from the live set until "Mull Of Kintyre", was released in November. The single was a massive success for Wings and went on to become the biggest selling English single of all time.
London Town was completed in January '78 ( mainly overdubs )by Paul, Linda and Denny after
Joe English and Jimmy Mc Culloch had left the band. The album was given a drubbing by critics at the time but in retrospect is a reasonably strong set of tunes as evidenced by the massive hit "With A Little Luck". A new guitarist and drummer were recruited, Laurence Juber and Steve Holly respectively and a new album "Back To The Egg" was recorded and released in June '79.
The tracks certainly contained a harder edge to the sound than had been heard in Paul's work for many years, in fact many of the tracks had been laid down live.
Early 1980 and Paul gets himself arrested for marijuana possession at the beginning of a Japanese Tour , he spent ten days in prison before being released without charges being laid.
The Japanese fans would have to wait another ten years to see Paul play live.
Mc Cartney II, Paul's second one man band effort was recorded and released in May to a bemused public. However the single "Coming Up" was a big hit and no less a critic than John Lennon stated he thought it was a good song.
1981 and Denny Laine exits stage left as Paul did not want to tour etc in the wake of John Lennon's death, effectively bring the era of Wings to a close. However before leaving Denny Laine contributed to a lot of the recording of the new album on which Paul teamed up with Beatles producer George Martin. Released in April of '82 "Tug Of War", received the best reviews since "Band On The Run" eight years prior. "Pipes Of Peace" the next album paled considerably in comparison, it also contained a duet "Say Say Say", with Michael Jackson ('nuff said).
1984 and Paul directs his first feature film and releases a new album with the same title"Give My Regards To Broad Street", featuring new songs and re-recorded Beatles tunes. The album was a hit boosted by the hit single "No More Lonely Nights", however the film did not fare as well and received bad reviews. The following year the only release was a single "Spies Like Us", which reached the top ten.
The next album released in the latter part of '86 was a songwriting collaboration between Paul and Eric Stewart, the album received some good critical reviews but did not sell well. Paul's next project was a recording of old Rock & Roll songs for release only in the U.S.S.R. The album was eventually released elsewhere, ( Paul made a better effort with "Run Devil Run" in later years ).
In 1989 Paul collaborated again this time with Elvis Costello, writing songs for his next album "Flowers In The Dirt", and Elvis's "Spike". The pairing was very successful and Paul's album received the strongest reviews since "Tug Of War", in '82. Guitarist Robbie Mc Intosh and Bassist Hamish Stewart were hired and the album was promoted with an extensive international tour, partially captured on the double live "Tripping The Live Fantastic", a single version was also released with one track not available on the double offering.
Another live album "Unplugged", was released the following year (1991 ) in the form of an acoustic performance from an appearance on MTV. This was the first 'acoustic' album to be released from MTV's acoustic concert program and soon everyone seemed to be rushing to release an acoustic album.
A new album was recorded and released in early 1993, titled "Off The Ground", it fared reasonably well and was supported by a new tour called the 'New World Tour'. At the end of this tour Paul released another live album "Paul Is Live" with a tongue in cheek cover of himself crossing Abbey Road mocking the '60's 'Paul Is Dead' stories. A limited edition Australian only four Cd boxset was released however it contained no surprises comprising previously released recordings.
In 1995 Paul hosted a Westwood One radio series entitled Oobu Joobu ( a seventeen CD bootleg set exists ). The rest of '95 and '96 was spent primarily on the Beatles Anthology of Rarities and Outtakes and lengthy video documentary.
"Flaming Pie", a largely acoustic affair was given the strongest reviews that Paul had received for many years and was by all accounts a commercial success. "Beautiful Night", the second single from the album featured old pal Ringo on the drums.
Sadly on April 17th 1998 Linda passed away finally losing a three year battle with breast cancer, a grieving Paul kept a very low profile in the year to follow. In October '99 Paul once again surfaced with the release of "Run Devil Run", a well executed album of primarily covers of fifties Rock & Roll songs, promoted by a well documented appearance at the Cavern Club in Liverpool
and an appearance on the Parkinson Show ( Parkinson was also an old friend who appeared on the cover of Band On The Run ).
Paul's latest release in May 2001 "Wingspan", is a two CD collection of songs over the lifespan of Wings, the only previously unreleased tune being "Hey Diddle". It is a shame that more of his unreleased songs have not seen the light of day as there are some great numbers amongst them.
November 2001 sees the release of "Driving Rain" capturing Paul in fine form. While recent
Mc Cartney albums didn't quite come together the way some fans had hoped,Driving Rain, evenly divided between rollicking rockers and wispy ballads, is a hearty extension of the classic McCartney evident on the Wingspan compilation.It's been a long while since McCartney sounded this vital, this in-touch, this hellbent on not merely going through the motions.
A full year later and Paul releases "Back In The US" a compilation from his extensive 2002
Driving Rain tour of the United States. This is in my humble opinion easily the best live album Paul has released, the Band really lets go and rocks out giving the songs a strong delivery with a
punch and an edge which has been missing on previous live releases. The format ( almost if not identically) follows the live set list. Highly recommended.
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