Wings - "Wild Life" Vinyl, LP, Album, 1971 (Apple)

In my heart (or what's left of it) my favorite Paul McCartney album is Wings' "Wild Life."  An album he made pretty much after "Ram," which is very good, but in a way, I felt he was trying to make a 'proper' McCartney album, in light of being in the shadow of The Beatles.  There are three albums by Paul I adore.  "McCartney," his first solo release, his brother Mike McGear's album "McGear" and of course, the first Wings album.   After that, I pretty much lost interest in his work until the criminally underrated "Chaos and Creation in The Backyard" album.  But to focus on "Wild Life," this is an amazing album from Paul and Linda (and Denny & Denny).  For one, I'm not sure what Denny Laine's role was at the time.  I think he played bass and I'm not sure if there were overdubs during the recording of this record.  It has a rough sound where one imagines that each musician was looking directly into each other eyes.  And Linda, did she actually co-wrote these songs?

This is the real "Get Back" album.  Unlike The Fab Four, the new Fab Four wanted to tour, and tour hard.  The baroque pop of The Beatles were history, and Paul wanted to rock out, in a manner that reminds me of Neil Young and Crazyhorse.  The title song "Wild Life" is very much the spirit of Neil's "Down By The River."  Melody is different but both songs are simple and very guitar orientated.  It's a beautiful sound and I suspect Paul is playing guitar on this track.  The beauty of pretty much side one is that it is one throwaway track after another until "Wild Life."  "Mumbo," "Bip Bop" and a reggae version of "Love is Strange" probably considered the low points of a McCartney recording, but due to that, they're my favorite Paul songs.   The one song that is total brilliance is "Tomorrow."  The ultimate solo Paul song.  It's odd to me that this wasn't neither a single nor a popular McCartney song.  It's up there with "Lady Madonna" or "Oh Darling" The other songs on side two are very much the throwaway Paul songs as well, but they're very pretty.  His brilliance around a melody is for sure unhuman in his manner to reach that point.  The thing is, he doesn't have the genius of a David Bowie or mid-60s period Ray Davies.  There is a very little bite or intensity, except for his mastering of making a great noise.  I suspect many feel "Wild Life" is not a good McCartney album, but I say tsk tsk to that opinion.  "Wild Life" is wildly amazing. 

Paul McCartney - "McCartney" Vinyl, LP, Album, 1970 (Apple)

If memory serves me correctly, this album was made secretly and released once Paul McCartney announced that he's leaving The Beatles.  Which caused a poop-storm in the Fab Four world for them and the fans.  Also one could not help notice the contrast between John Lennon's first solo album (Plastic Ono Band) and Paul's.   As an 'oh my god' it was clearly Lennon that won the what's the hell? A brilliant outrage that Lennon was going through at the time, and then Paul's record which is "Lovely Linda."   To this day there is still the Beatle debate of who's the heavier of the two.  Lennon had the chops, but McCartney had both the genius ability for melody and eccentricity.  This is an album made by a man who is on a vacation of some sort, and he's in the garage working on carpentry or fixing things around the house - except it's not a home but a music project. 

Low-fi, and no ambition whatsoever, this is an album of great charm, and McCartney stretching out not musically really, but almost trying out the new reel-to-reel tape machine he bought to make this album.   What I find essential is "Teddy Boy" which is one of my favorite Paul songs.  Totally a post-war song about losing a dad and dealing with mom's love life afterward.  Of course one would think of the 'Teds' but in actuality, it's a boy name Ted, but the song takes place in the generation of the Teddy Boys.  McCartney writes a lot of his lyrics as a narrative, a story, where Lennon is often more fragmented.  Of all the Paul albums, "McCartney" is very loose in structure.  There are three instrumentals here that touch on exotica as well as Link Wray.   The guitars on this record (everything played by Paul) are heavy sounding.  There are undoubtedly roots to music from the 1950s, specifically rockabilly, but circa Paul's take on that form of music.    Paul throughout his career has been attracted to the rough side of rock but against his middle-of-the-road nature.  It's an interesting tension throughout all his solo work.   For me, he's very hit-or-miss, but I can't deny his greatness.  It just comes in unexpectedly.