Avant Garde Paul
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love2travel:
Hendrix Ibsen:
Liverpool Sound Collage Music to complement an artwork exhibition by Peter Blake. I found no reason to single out a song here since the album is what it is. Again perhaps more of a side project than avant garde but it is experimental and more like The Fireman than a pop, rock album.
Didn't know this...wish I could see the art for it now!
Yeah, I think I've seen some things from it online years ago, but it's never the same. An art exibition is a happning and you have to be there.
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The Ballad of the Skeletons A 1996 EP by Allen Ginsberg feat. Paul McCartney, Philip Glass and Lenny Kaye. Philip Glass is a recognized avant garde performer, but the thing with McCartney is that he's got that 'catchy' touch, it's just the way it is. It's an avant garde collaboration.
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Venus and Mars (Reprise)
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toris:
HaileyMcComet:
Pretty Little Head
I tried to like that song. Even bought the 12 inch vinyl at the time. But when it is all said and done.... it's ordinary.
Does that make you Ursa Major or Ursa Minor?
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"Vega-Tables" by The Beach Boys Recorded in 1966-67 for the abandoned "Smile" project but released on "Smiley Smile". It features McCartney chewing celery as percussion. It must be avant garde.
And... He is credited as providing "celery and carrot" on the track "Receptacle for the Respectable" by Super Furry Animals on their 2001 album "Rings Around the World". 
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None of this stuff is avant garde. The closest Paul came to that was The Frog Chorus.
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The Frog Chrous. Yeah. Not even tough rockers like The Rolling Stones dared to release a song like that. We all stand avant garde together.
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Yeah yeah yeah. I don't think McCartney's avant garde explorations are always so easy to map. I would say that it's part of him as a music maker to think outside the box and don't follow any rules or expectations. It's pop, it's rock... but mostly it's music. Avant garde... I don't think it have to be an atonal piece of music , it can be a catchy song but with something surprising and avant garde going on in it. Not unlike a McCartney song.
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However Absurd Weird and psychedelic. The closing track on "Press to Play". Quite unusal song/recording for the period. The only thing I can relate it to at the time are Prince and the Revolution's 'avant garde' 1986 album "Parade".
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Paul wrote the first & best piece of avant-garde music by a rock/pop musician called 'Carnival of Light' in 1966. Its so avant-garde, only a select few have ever heard it.
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One could argue that the 4-minute fade-out of 'Hey Jude' was avante-garde in 1968. Paul screaming nonsense as the orchestra builds-up, over a Na-Na-Na chorus. First time I heard it, I was wondering what is this all about? The group had totally lost it. Of course, we take it for granted now since the song has been played to death, but at the time that coda was very unique & influenced many artists.
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I agree with "Hey Jude". It's an avant garde type of idea. And nobody had done it before. I think if you did the same thing now with a 'radio song' you would meet - an editor. Nothing has changed, like the name of Bowie's latest compilation.
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This is the most avant garde version of Hey Jude I've ever heard.
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HaileyMcComet:
This is the most avant garde version of Hey Jude I've ever heard.
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A lot of interesting responses, particularly by Hendrix Ibsen. I also agree with what JoeySmith said about "Carnival of Light," it's probably is the most Avant Garde musical piece ever made by a pop artist, especially because it's never been released... But there is a general truth that has been hinted at during the discussion on this thread that I think deserves more attention: much of Paul's most avant garde material seems to have been done in the Beatles; however, even then, Paul's always been more of a musical synthesizer who absorbs specific of general concepts that he comes across, sits with them, then applies them to projects later in a modified form. That's part of what made the Beatles cutting-edge. Though they were rarely avant grade from a purist perspective, they certainly applied avant grade aspects to a vast portion of their later work and, in the process, influenced others to do so as well. I believe this "synthesized" avant grade approach is what Paul continues to do in his solo career to various degrees, as many of the examples here illustrate. I'm glad to see that happen because such an approach offsets the potential of things getting too predictable while also avoiding it being so out-of-reach that very few would appreciate or enjoy it - which I don't think is worth doing simply to bolster artistic street cred. He seems to have found the right balance to keep us interested and entertained, IMO.
Some of these tracks have been a treat to hear, btw, so a shout-out to everyone who's been sharing examples! 
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HaileyMcComet:
This is the most avant garde version of Hey Jude I've ever heard.
The Yoko-ized version.
