London Town - - Another "What if" Album
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Much to the chagrin of some posters, I made another pilgrimage to my favorite Used CD store. This time I bought the 1993 Remastered Collection Series of London Town. Since this CD had the 2 bonus tracks...Girls' School and Mull of Kintyre, this was a great value at only $9.95. Unlike my last purchase of Press to Play, I had owned (but lost) the original CD. I was familiar with almost all the tracks but because it was so many years ago (and I am obviously a lot older) it did give me a different perspective especially when rating it against other Paul CD's. Like with some other Paul "mid tier" albums, it was not a case of lack of material that kept it from being a "top tier" project. In my opinion, it was a lot more about song selection and editing...nothing new for Paul. Most glaring about London Town is the omission of the 2 terrific bonus tracks. Because London Town was considered by many as a little too long anyway, this might have required removing a couple of existing tracks but to me that would have been a relatively easy decision. Glaringly absent from London Town was another Rocker so adding Girls' School and removing Famous Groupies (most considered it the weakest track) was a no brainer. The fact that Mull of Kintyre (one of Paul's best ballads ever) was totally unknown in the US since Girls' School became the A-side, is another reason that "Mull" should have definitely been on the main album. A track like Cuff Link (an instrumental) could easily have been removed. All in all, these changes would have made London Town a much better album and in my opinion, one of his best. Two things I really liked about London Town. 1st, the album had a lot of great guitar based tracks. Almost all Paul albums have a couple of piano based ballads and the fact that London Town didn't have one, made it distinct. The 2nd thing was Denny Laine's much more significant contributions. I always thought that Denny was underrated especially with acoustic/folk type of numbers (think of the acoustic portion of Wings Over America) and Denny really stands out here. All in all, London Town is an enjoyable record and like I said, it could have been one of Paul's great ones with a little tweaking. The last great thing was getting the full album version of With a Little Luck. That alone was worth the price of the CD. I will shortly be adding my track by track summary. I really look forward to other opinions from my good friends on this site.
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Was absolutely shocked back in 1978 when I picked up London Town and saw that Girl's School and Mull of Kintyre were missing. Take out Children Children, Name and Address, and Cuff Link and add Mull and Girls School and you would have had a #1 album for months. Actually love Famous Groupies.
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Paul still being overly-nice, just as the Beatles always were, in offering singles separate from album entries. They always spoiled the general public. That's another reason they were so absolutely brilliant. Imagine.... Sergeant Pepper could've been even better..... My views on London Town (more so the gathering of songs) from first listening to nowadays have changed..... so I welcome the debate.
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London Town (continued) One thing I forgot in my introductory post was the problems that Paul was having with 2 of his band members especially Jimmy McCulloch. As the Producer of the album, I'm sure this didn't help Paul and could have contributed to some of the mistakes that were eventually made as London Town was released. Any one who has information about Jimmy and Joe English's contributions on individual tracks would be much appreciated. Here is my track by track critique: Grading guidelines 5- McCartney classis/excellent 4- Very Good album track 3- good to average track 2- below average track 1-poor/possibly should have been scratched Track 1 - London Town (the song) - 4t Good opener. I always liked it as an opener. The lyrics are generally good with Paul painting London images using Charles Dickens like descriptions. Especially like the harmonies and the guitar solo towards the end that picks up the song's pace. It appears to be Jimmy McCulloch's solo. 2 - Cafe on the Left Bank - 4 Not hearing this song in a long time, I like it better than I remember. Great blistering electric guitar work on this rocker throughout...again assuming this is Jimmy. It also reminds me of what a great drummer Joe English was. Love the fade-out harmonies at the end. You can really hear Linda's voice and I must say it is pretty sexy. What is the distinctive instrument during that fadeout...really like it. 3 - I'm Carrying - 5 The #1 word (among many) to describe Paul's genius is "melody". The haunting melody is just gorgeous with beautiful strings. Love Paul's acoustic guitar work and vocal also. 4- Backwards Traveller / Cuff Link - 2+ I like the 1st song's vocal but it is too short (barely 1 minute). The latter song is a pleasing instrumental but Paul had better options considering the eventual bonus tracks he left off the original. Cuff Link should have been a B-side only in my opinion. 5 - Children Children - 3+ Nice folk track with Denny singing the lead. As mentioned, Denny is very good with this kind of song. Nice music sounds 6- Girlfriend - 3+ Paul singing in his falsetto voice similar what he did on "So Bad" a few years later. Not one of my favorite tracks but pleasing enough. I like when Paul does his lower voice on the "till the rivers stop a flowing" part. It gives the song a Motown/Smokey Robinson soul type of feel. One negative to me is that the tracks extends too long...4:38 minutes. Should have been cut down in my opinion 7- I've Had Enough - 4 Good rocker that sounded better than I remember from years ago. Good Macca vocal to be continued
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Best Wings album along with Speed Of Sound.
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London Town (continued) 8. - With a Little Luck - 5 One of Paul's great Pop tracks. The Single edit was one of the worst ever however. To edit out one of Paul's greatest vocal parts was criminal. At least with the album you get Paul's great vocal in all its glory 9 Famous Groupies - 2 I know I will get differences of opinions on this track which is one thing great about Paul McCartney. I just don't like Paul's show-tune type songs. In my opinion, it is slightly better than Average Person (from Pipes of Peace) but if I had to listen to both songs back to back, I would be doing a "Thelma and Louise" thing off a cliff. I certainly appreciate people that like this track however especially for the humor. 10. Deliver Your Children - 4 Another Denny Laine primary track. Love the guitar work on this song. The only complaint is that the track is too long. Another song that should be like 3 minutes and not 4:35. I like this track a little better than Children Children because of the excellent guitar work. 11. Name and Address - 2+ I normally like Paul doing early rock/rockabilly songs and man does he sound like Elvis here. It's not that I don't like the song per say but what the hell happens at the end. One of the worst editing jobs where the song just stops before the fade-out. Did the Vinyl do the same thing? 12. Don't Let It Bring You Down - 5 Another classic Paul track with some help from Denny. Love the Guitar work and when Paul's vocal goes up on the "Up and Down the Carousel"part. 13. Morse Moose and the Grey Goose - 3 Another near miss in my opinion. Love the creativity for a final track and the piano. Not a bad track and I certainly like parts of it. At the same time, I feel it is too long and there are bits that are too experimental and too repetitive. Not in the same league as 1985 unfortunately. I still give Paul for creativity and being daring. It doesn't ruin the album as a closer in my opinion. 14. Girls' School - 4 Would have made a great addition to the original album where it needed another rock track. Love the guitar work (Don't know if Jimmy is involved here). Can anyone tell me what the lyrics are about? 16. Mull of Kintyre - 5 One of Paul's great Ballads and absolutely criminal that it wasn't included on the original album. The addition of the bag pipes was genius.
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I find Girls School really irritating and am glad he left it off. I find the album a little baggy around the middle with some good tracks either end but some highly skippapble stuff in between.
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Not one of my faves from Wings. I removed Children Children , Deliver Your Children and Girlfriend all perfect for B-SIDES and added Mull /Girls' School. it's much better now ...on my MP3
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BJ, Mull of Kintyre was not totally unknown in the U.S. They played it on the radio. You just had to buy it separately.
This is another album I haven't listened to in ages because I only have it on vinyl. P.S. I can't believe they censored D i c k e n s!! 
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This was the first LP I bought when I was 13. I played it all the time. I'm not sure Girl's School fits on this LP, but I do like that song a lot. I think dropping Morse Moose and the Grey Goose and adding in Mull of Kintyre would make this a better LP.
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dcshark:
This was the first LP I bought when I was 13. I played it all the time.
Ah! You were a baby! I was 23 when that album came out! -
Nancy R:
BJ, Mull of Kintyre was not totally unknown in the U.S. They played it on the radio. You just had to buy it separately.
This is another album I haven't listened to in ages because I only have it on vinyl. P.S. I can't believe they censored D i c k e n s!! _________________________________________________________ Yes, I couldn't believe they censored "Dickens". What was that about? They must have played Mull of Kintyre down south a lot more. Where I grew up in New Jersey, Philadelphia and NY City, they didn't play "Mull" at all from my memory. I did play "Girls' School" but it never took off. I understand that the Beatles left their "singles" in many cases off the main album of the time. The Beatles had 3 great writers in the same group so they were probably the only group that could afford to do that. But by 1977-1978 times were totally different. Most people like me bought primarily albums which by the way the Beatles were the main ones to make that change happen. When I grew up in the early 60's, all the kids bought singles and buying albums was the exception. Because of the Beatles primarily, the exact opposite started happening by Rubber Soul. For Wings to not include Singles on their accompanying album was plain stupid from a marketing and sales point of view. It a whole separate market. Paul was releasing an album almost yearly and to not include songs like Mull of Kintyre and Girls' School on London Town was ludicrous. Girls' School was the primary (A Side) song being heard around the country and it only reached #33 on the Singles charts. That is why by the early 80's hardly anyone in the US (except hard core Paul/Wings fans) even heard of Mull of Kintyre. Most people didn't know Girls School either. By putting it on the main album, many more people in the US would know the songs and the album would have sold better. Criminal when you think that "Mull" was at that time the biggest selling single of all time in Great Britain. Tastes don't differ that much. A great song is a great song. Just an example where Paul's stubborness really hurt him. Do you remember on the vinyl if "Name and Address" ended so abruptly. Made it sound very unprofessional on the CD. Thanks
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B J Conlee:
Do you remember on the vinyl if "Name and Address" ended so abruptly. Made it sound very unprofessional on the CD. Thanks
Yes, it was like that on vinyl too.
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Nancy R:
dcshark:
This was the first LP I bought when I was 13. I played it all the time.
Ah! You were a baby! I was 23 when that album came out! 
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dcshark:
B J Conlee:
Do you remember on the vinyl if "Name and Address" ended so abruptly. Made it sound very unprofessional on the CD. Thanks
Yes, it was like that on vinyl too.
______________________________________________________ Thanks dcshark, How could something like that happen on Name and Address. Ruined the song for me. And Geoff Emetic was the engineer for London Town. I could see where Paul missed it if he was smoking too much weed. But Geoff too? I guess they were coming out with so much product in those years and with many dead lines that they just never go around to correcting it.
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Your spellcheck freaked out on Geoff Emerick's name!
I grew up near Cleveland, OH and the Beatles were the first group where people bought the albums as well as the singles. Left for Atlanta in 1973. Yes, they must have played Mull more down here. I never heard Girl's School until I bought the single in London in 1993! (Bought it specifically for the B-side) -
Nancy R:
Your spellcheck freaked out on Geoff Emerick's name!
I grew up near Cleveland, OH and the Beatles were the first group where people bought the albums as well as the singles. Left for Atlanta in 1973. Yes, they must have played Mull more down here. I never heard Girl's School until I bought the single in London in 1993! (Bought it specifically for the B-side)_________________________________________________ I've heard several of Geoff Emerick's interviews. Really like him. I would love to interview him about London Town and other Paul Solo albums where he was involved. Interesting to hear that you knew Mull of Kintyre before you knew Girls' School. In some other areas around the country, the opposite could be true since Girls' School was mistakenly the A side. But the real mistake was Paul not including both songs on the original CD. It would have made the album much stronger. Like many others, mid way in the 60's, I became an album buyer and not a "singles" buyer. To a large majority they are separate markets. So many of those people (album buyers) never became aware of either song. That was the shame. Unfortunately, Paul didn't seem to have the right marketing people around him.
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toris:
Paul still being overly-nice, just as the Beatles always were, in offering singles separate from album entries. They always spoiled the general public. That's another reason they were so absolutely brilliant. Imagine.... Sergeant Pepper could've been even better..... My views on London Town (more so the gathering of songs) from first listening to nowadays have changed..... so I welcome the debate.
___________________________________________________ Toris, Nancy and I have been chatting about Singles vs. Albums Sales and Marketing under this same topic. I agree with you that the Beatles were actually overly generous in what they did in the 60's. Can you imagine the sales of Revolver if they included Paperback Writer and Rain on that CD. But they, as you say, were that brilliant and could pull it off. But the late 70's were an entirely a different time. Not only did much of the US public become album buyers (and not Singles' Buyers) but you couldn't ever compare Wings to the Beatles. This is why for Paul it was a huge mistake by not including those singles on London Town. It really hurt his sales but worse, many people in the US never heard of Mull of Kintyre and Girls' School. It became even worse when Paul did not include Goodnight Tonight and and Daytime Nighttime Suffering on Back to the Egg. The latter became one of Paul's poorest selling albums. Paul had an idea from his Beatle days that was not no longer relevant. He was stubborn and apparently didn't have good marketing people immediately behind him. It was crazy from both the short term and long term. How many people (including people who like the Beatles and Paul) even know a great song like Daytime Nighttime Suffering. As I said...crazy.
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One of my favorite Wings albums. I listen to it as much as Ram. I think at the time of the release , it was mostly ignored by fans as critics, even though it made the top 5 in both countries. At the time, it was criticized for being too soft and folksy, when punk and new wave were dominating the charts. I think its reputation has improved much over the years. I would definitely have included the 2 bonus tracks and removed 'Children Children' & 'Girlfriend' which are both dreadful imo. Its too bad almost the entire album is unknown to non-McCartney fans since there are some real gems here. Of course, it would help if Paul played ANY of these songs in concert!!!
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B J Conlee:
toris:
Paul still being overly-nice, just as the Beatles always were, in offering singles separate from album entries. They always spoiled the general public. That's another reason they were so absolutely brilliant. Imagine.... Sergeant Pepper could've been even better..... My views on London Town (more so the gathering of songs) from first listening to nowadays have changed..... so I welcome the debate.
___________________________________________________ Toris, Nancy and I have been chatting about Singles vs. Albums Sales and Marketing under this same topic. I agree with you that the Beatles were actually overly generous in what they did in the 60's. Can you imagine the sales of Revolver if they included Paperback Writer and Rain on that CD. But they, as you say, were that brilliant and could pull it off. But the late 70's were an entirely a different time. Not only did much of the US public become album buyers (and not Singles' Buyers) but you couldn't ever compare Wings to the Beatles. This is why for Paul it was a huge mistake by not including those singles on London Town. It really hurt his sales but worse, many people in the US never heard of Mull of Kintyre and Girls' School. It became even worse when Paul did not include Goodnight Tonight and and Daytime Nighttime Suffering on Back to the Egg. The latter became one of Paul's poorest selling albums. Paul had an idea from his Beatle days that was not no longer relevant. He was stubborn and apparently didn't have good marketing people immediately behind him. It was crazy from both the short term and long term. How many people (including people who like the Beatles and Paul) even know a great song like Daytime Nighttime Suffering. As I said...crazy.
I agree fully that Paul should've included those "strength" singles on both albums..... would've made both albums far stronger.... Mull of Kintyre is one of my faves... and huge! here as a young boy.... created all sorts of records (as opposed to albums).... and Goodnight Tonight is one of my favourites ever from Paul... love it.... and the B-side to that single should've been an immediate album goer too. Daytime Nighttime Suffering is a melodious dream. I'll get back to the London Town album later.... but I will say one thing.... I know the song divides many, but I'm LEAVING Girlfriend on the album.... I really, really, really like it!.... All about variety. And that song certainly provided that.
