The Beatles: Their 10 best solo albums ranked, from Flaming Pie to Imagine
-
I do remember watching my Mom shake her wet hair imitating Ringo during the Sullivan show in '64. My other memory of the Beatles was my older cousin Eddie playing Sergeant Pepper in '67; sorry, but I was not impressed. I wanted to go out and shoot baskets. Ha. My awesome Dad was a huge fan of Duane Eddy, so my musical tastes at age 10 were narrow. Ha. He also loved The Beatles, so he was a tad upset when a rarely played The White Album. Now I probably play that album at least once a month.
-
wingsoverkc wrote:
Losing energy over this too, but will give it a shot. Rolling Stone also hated RAM, Venus and Mars, and Back To The Egg. All I know is I know what I like and I love Fuh You and Come On To Me. And the thousand and thousand of fans in 2019 agreed with me at Paul's concerts. There is a reason he played Fuh You, Come On To Me, and Who Cares live; they rocked and rolled the crowd. If Fuh You is the nadir of the album, according to the dope from The Guardian, then so be it; I'll keep playing Fuh You for years and years.
Rolling Stone also revised their opinion of RAM years later, loved albums like CHAOS, TOW, MAF and EA for examples. Will agree to disagree about how good some songs are.
-
Nancy R wrote:
Maccaroni1974 wrote:
wingsoverkc wrote:
Ah Maccaroni, "just when I thought I was out....they pull me back in". Well, I attended three McCartney shows in 2019 (Fort Wayne, Moline, and Lexington; yep, I'm sort of a groupie). I never saw anyone leave in droves during the ES songs; quite the opposite. And AHDN does not, in any universe (even yours) sound terrible live. And your snarkly statement of the 'awful RAM'. Are you quite out of your mind?
Ram IS awful. Pauls 3 ex-bandmates agree with me on this too! Which explains why he plays little to nothing of the album. Paul knows its poor. The new songs havent gone over well since Memory and Chaos, and that even is reaching a bit, and both those albums are far superior to ES. In fact, you are the only person I ever see post how great the songs went over in concert. It ticks me off, becasue while I try to enjoy those new songs, people are constantly getting up(literally because most are sitting) to go get drinks, piss break, etc. and obstructing my enjoyment of the new songs. As for AHDN, I don't care to hear Abe backed by Paul singing this anymore.
I forgot to add, I think Paul doesn't play hardly any songs from RAM, not because he knows it's poor, but because it is such a "Paul & Linda" album. Linda sang a lot of the harmonies and sang co-lead on Long Haired Lady. And of course Dear Boy was about Linda's ex-husband (not John Lennon as John himself so arrogantly thought!) Is Ram On the only song off it that he's played live?
McCartney did "Too Many People" off RAM for at least one tour.
-
Yankeefan, I see you deleted a post that was directed to me, which I answered, but my answer has disappeared too! I wonder if you saw it - it wasn't anything bad. I wonder if we're being "policed?"
-
B J Conlee wrote:
Maccaroni1974 wrote:
wingsoverkc wrote:
Ah Maccaroni, "just when I thought I was out....they pull me back in". Well, I attended three McCartney shows in 2019 (Fort Wayne, Moline, and Lexington; yep, I'm sort of a groupie). I never saw anyone leave in droves during the ES songs; quite the opposite. And AHDN does not, in any universe (even yours) sound terrible live. And your snarkly statement of the 'awful RAM'. Are you quite out of your mind?
Ram IS awful. Pauls 3 ex-bandmates agree with me on this too! Which explains why he plays little to nothing of the album. Paul knows its poor. The new songs havent gone over well since Memory and Chaos, and that even is reaching a bit, and both those albums are far superior to ES. In fact, you are the only person I ever see post how great the songs went over in concert. It ticks me off, becasue while I try to enjoy those new songs, people are constantly getting up(literally because most are sitting) to go get drinks, piss break, etc. and obstructing my enjoyment of the new songs. As for AHDN, I don't care to hear Abe backed by Paul singing this anymore.
Hey Wingsoverkc...these guys are just trying to get under our skin. Maccaroni is a faux McCartney fan if I ever saw one. Btw, why would you be trying to enjoy a new Paul song anyway since you've already made up your mind that you don't like new McCartney stuff like Egypt Station.
To say Ram is awful or that Egypt Station is poor (Kestrel's quote) is plain ridiculous. I deal with examples and not just blanket statements. Let's start with both albums:
Egypt Station - to say that all of these songs are poor or awful is plain ridiculous. My examples are "I Don't Know, Happy With You, Who Cares, Confidante, Hand in Hand, Dominoes, Do It Now, People Want Peace, Depite Repeated Warnings, Hunt You Down/Naked etc. I don't see how anyone can say that those songs are poor or awful. I use my wife as a perfect example. She was never a Paul McCartney Solo fan. Yes, she knew Paul's famous Beatle songs and a few Wings' hits but she never kept up with Paul after Wings. I just met her 2 years ago. She loves music and is very broad in her tastes. She likes a lot of singer songwriters like Mark Broussard, Amos Lee, Jason Mraz, David Gray, Ray Lemontagne etc etc. Since Egypt Station was on my CD Player she started to hear many of the tracks. She is very objective and started to like a good number of the songs. Her comment to me after listening a little while was "I never knew that Paul had so many good Solo songs. I also put on Flaming Pie and she said the same thing. She's still listening to many singer /songwriters like the ones above on Pandora and Spotify but she really thinks that Egypt Station and Flaming Pie are very good albums. Now I admit that I'm bias about Paul and I think Paul's Solo career is on a par with his Beatle and Wings output) but my wife is very objective and she enjoys many artists but she loves those ES songs like the ones I listed above.
Ram - Many people think Ram is one of Paul's best post Beatles' albums. This included fans of John Lennon who normally don't like Paul's songs. The reason that the other 3 Beatles criticized Ram heavily at the time of its release is because Paul was still suing the other 3 over the fact that they were siding with Allen Klein as the Beatle's new manager. You should know that Maccaroni! In the end, the other Beatles admitted that Paul was right but how would you expect them to praise an album from their mate who was suing them. Many other music critics sided with the other 3 and they "piled on" relative to the reviews on Ram. Many years later and when "objective" and "younger" music critics started listening to Ram, the album experienced a tremendous resurgence over the way most feel about the quality of the album. Another good example is the Podcast called "Take It Away" that looks at all of Paul's Post Beatles' albums and singles etc. The young guys that started and run these podcasts (it can be heard on Maccaboard) weren't even born when the Beatles were at their peak. Both guys Ryan Brady and Chris Mercer at the end of their Podcast run both agreed that Ram was Paul's #1/best Post Beatles' album. Now I don't agree with their verdict but it is easily one of Paul's best or top 6 or 8 in my opinion. Certainly not "awful". I was more of a late bloomer in terms of Ram but when Paul re-released the album as part of his Archive Collection in 2012 I got to really like the album. How anyone can call Ram awful with songs like Too Many People, 3 Legs, Dear Boy, Smile Away, Heart of the Country, Monkberry Moon Delight, Eat at Home, Back Seat of My Car is ridiculous.
But to each his own, you are entitled to your opinion. I just don't share it and many others don't also.
To be honest, I never thought RAM was some masterpiece, decent album but not in top 5 to me. Love songs like "Dear Boy", Too Many People" and "Backseat Of My Car". Lyrics just annoy me on songs like "Smile Away" and "3 Legs". I find "Long Haired Lady" sappy and "Monkberry Mooon Delight" is ruined IMO by the vocal.
-
Nancy R wrote:
OMG, BJ, please stop, you're killing me! I said, "can't we please shelve this discussion" and you go on again for paragraphs!
P.S. It's *Pandora*
Can you do us all a favor Nancy and stop acting like a teacher and correcting us on posts if we make typo or heaven forbid maybe call something incorrectly. Also, if we don't make a link clickable the world is not going to end. Most people can handle a cut and paste in their browser.
-
Nancy R wrote:
Yankeefan, I see you deleted a post that was directed to me, which I answered, but my answer has disappeared too! I wonder if you saw it - it wasn't anything bad. I wonder if we're being "policed?"
Beats me, even if it was bad I am a big boy and can handle it -lol. I think they probably deleted yours because it was in response to mine that was deleted, would not worry about it.
-
Yankeefan2 wrote:
Nancy R wrote:
OMG, BJ, please stop, you're killing me! I said, "can't we please shelve this discussion" and you go on again for paragraphs!
P.S. It's *Pandora*
Can you do us all a favor Nancy and stop acting like a teacher and correcting us on posts if we make typo or heaven forbid maybe call something incorrectly. Also, if we don't make a link clickable the world is not going to end. Most people can handle a cut and paste in their browser.
BJ is a friend who I've actually met and he never minds if I correct him. Why don't you let him speak for himself? And I was just trying to make things easier for people to have the link clickable. I use an iPad and if the link isn't clickable, it's harder and takes more steps to copy and paste! I've had people thank me for making their link clickable.
I wouldn't mind at all to be corrected if I spelled something or called something incorrectly. You are either pretty insecure or this stay-at-home/lockdown has really gotten to you. -
It is strange that Paul never did seem keen on performing the Ram tracks live. Even on the Wings tour back in 1972, just a year after Ram's release, Paul only included Eat At Home & Smile Away.
-
The divergence of opinions on Ram is very interesting. It goes from the many "hate" type reviews from the major music reviewers upon its initial release to the great reviews it has received many years later. It has received "cult" like status among many Paul and Beatle fans. The younger fans in particular who were born after the Beatles disbanded seem to really like it. On Kestrel's "Rateyourmusic"Site, it has received the highest score among all of Paul Post Beatles' albums and the guys on the "Take It Away" Podcast (Chris and Ryan) rate it as Paul's best album slightly ahead of Chaos and Creation.
I never bought the album when it was released but many tracks did receive a lot of airplay at the time because it was the beginning of FM radio. I liked some of the more publicized tracks but I never heard Ram as an "album" until many years when Ram was issued as one of the early Archive Albums in 2012. That is when I heard it as a full album and it grew significanty with me during that period, I grew to like the less publicized tracks like 3 Legs, Ram On, Smile Away, and Monkberry Moon Delight. I had already liked the big songs (Uncle Albert, Too Many People, Dear Boy, Heart of the Country, Eat As Home, Back Seat of My Car) but hearing the whole album together really made a difference. The album really jelled and the only track that seem to go too long was Long Hair Lady (like almost 6 minutes). Personally, I think it is within the top 6, 7 or 8 of Paul's best albums but I like several of Paul's later albums (Chaos, FP, Tug of War, ES) better. I also like a couple of Paul's 70's album slightly better like BOTR and Venus. That is why Ram is definitely in my Top 10 but not as high up as many other Paul fans. Still a very good album...quirky just enough and at a time where Paul's vocals were definitly at peak performance.
-
Kestrel wrote:
It is strange that Paul never did seem keen on performing the Ram tracks live. Even on the Wings tour back in 1972, just a year after Ram's release, Paul only included Eat At Home & Smile Away.
You're right...you would have thought he would have performed at least a couple of Ram tracks in 1976 when his voice was at peak and he was doing just 4-5 Beatle numbers. Once he got back to serous touring in the late 80's he did a lot of Beatle songs and then he did 5-6 Flowers in the Dirt tracks.,, Same thing in the early 90's with Off the Ground tracks. When he started to tour often in the 2000's, the Beatle and Wings' hits really took over as far as his tracklists were concerned. It was during that period that he did Too Many People and Ram On for a tour or two. If I remember correctly, he did Ram On at some cities (like Philadelpha) because fans had signs begging Paul to do "Ram On". I think he obliged because it is an easy song for him to do compared to other Ram songs.
-
Nancy R wrote:
Yankeefan2 wrote:
Nancy R wrote:
OMG, BJ, please stop, you're killing me! I said, "can't we please shelve this discussion" and you go on again for paragraphs!
P.S. It's *Pandora*
Can you do us all a favor Nancy and stop acting like a teacher and correcting us on posts if we make typo or heaven forbid maybe call something incorrectly. Also, if we don't make a link clickable the world is not going to end. Most people can handle a cut and paste in their browser.
BJ is a friend who I've actually met and he never minds if I correct him. Why don't you let him speak for himself? And I was just trying to make things easier for people to have the link clickable. I use an iPad and if the link isn't clickable, it's harder and takes more steps to copy and paste! I've had people thank me for making their link clickable.
I wouldn't mind at all to be corrected if I spelled something or called something incorrectly. You are either pretty insecure or this stay-at-home/lockdown has really gotten to you.Ok, you acting like a school teacher and correcting errors annoys me. Does that make you feel better? Ever think I caught those errors later but could not change them because you only have 30 minutes to edit post. You have no problem with picking on me for supposedly beating a subject to death in posts. You had no problem mocking my post which had reviews of "Egypt Station" that were not complimentary regarding "Fuh You" and "Come On To Me". In your words it was not worth your energy or time to reply. In other words, you can dish it out but can't take it. Trust me, I am not insecure about anything in life and the lockdown has not gotten to me even though my wife is a health care worker in harms way. You personally insulted me by calling me insecure and saying lockdown got to me so I am done with you. Have a good day.
Moderator edit
Please stop the bickering and the personal attacks! Thank you for your cooperation.
-
Nancy R wrote:
Yankeefan2 wrote:
Nancy R wrote:
OMG, BJ, please stop, you're killing me! I said, "can't we please shelve this discussion" and you go on again for paragraphs!
P.S. It's *Pandora*
Can you do us all a favor Nancy and stop acting like a teacher and correcting us on posts if we make typo or heaven forbid maybe call something incorrectly. Also, if we don't make a link clickable the world is not going to end. Most people can handle a cut and paste in their browser.
BJ is a friend who I've actually met and he never minds if I correct him. Why don't you let him speak for himself? And I was just trying to make things easier for people to have the link clickable. I use an iPad and if the link isn't clickable, it's harder and takes more steps to copy and paste! I've had people thank me for making their link clickable.
I wouldn't mind at all to be corrected if I spelled something or called something incorrectly. You are either pretty insecure or this stay-at-home/lockdown has really gotten to you.Your personal insult of me has been reported to the mods on this board. I am not expecting any action from them but just thought personal insults should be noted.
-
B J Conlee wrote: When he started to tour often in the 2000's, the Beatle and Wings' hits really took over as far as his tracklists were concerned.
I will have to disagree with you there. I think the rot had set in as early 1989 with Paul's 'come back' tour after 10 years away.
John had died and I think Paul felt he could play what he wanted to now without the worry of having to prove himself to John.
If we count Golden Slumbers/ Carry That Weight / The End as three songs, then out of the 32 song set, 16 (exactly half) had been recorded by the Beatles, 3 by Wings and the remaining songs a combination of solo songs and a few covers (Ain't That A Shame, All My Trials, Twenty Flight Rock). Athough his Wings era material hadn't taken over, the Beatles material certainly had. Had John still been alive, Paul would never have heard the last of it from John, who would no doubt have made a point of Paul having to rely on Beatles material becasue his solo work wasn't good enough.
With every Wings album and single being ignored apart from the songs Band On The Run, Jet & Live And Let Die, there was vitually zero chance of hearing anything from Ram. I clearly remember making a point of not bothering to attend any of the shows on that 1989 / 1990 tour.
-
Kestrel wrote:
B J Conlee wrote: When he started to tour often in the 2000's, the Beatle and Wings' hits really took over as far as his tracklists were concerned.
I will have to disagree with you there. I think the rot had set in as early 1989 with Paul's 'come back' tour after 10 years away.
John had died and I think Paul felt he could play what he wanted to now without the worry of having to prove himself to John.
If we count Golden Slumbers/ Carry That Weight / The End as three songs, then out of the 32 song set, 16 (exactly half) had been recorded by the Beatles, 3 by Wings and the remaining songs a combination of solo songs and a few covers (Ain't That A Shame, All My Trials, Twenty Flight Rock). Athough his Wings era material hadn't taken over, the Beatles material certainly had. Had John still been alive, Paul would never have heard the last of it from John, who would no doubt have made a point of Paul having to rely on Beatles material becasue his solo work wasn't good enough.
With every Wings album and single being ignored apart from the songs Band On The Run, Jet & Live And Let Die, there was vitually zero chance of hearing anything from Ram. I clearly remember making a point of not bothering to attend any of the shows on that 1989 / 1990 tour.
I hear you about the added Beatle songs but I did like that he played 6 songs from FITD and the opening song was "Figure Of Eight" in the 1989 tour.
-
"Moderator edit
Please stop the bickering and the personal attacks! Thank you for your cooperation."
No problem for me, I never insulted her. I am also going to ignore her posts and will spend less time on this board now.
-
Kestrel wrote:
B J Conlee wrote: When he started to tour often in the 2000's, the Beatle and Wings' hits really took over as far as his tracklists were concerned.
I will have to disagree with you there. I think the rot had set in as early 1989 with Paul's 'come back' tour after 10 years away.
John had died and I think Paul felt he could play what he wanted to now without the worry of having to prove himself to John.
If we count Golden Slumbers/ Carry That Weight / The End as three songs, then out of the 32 song set, 16 (exactly half) had been recorded by the Beatles, 3 by Wings and the remaining songs a combination of solo songs and a few covers (Ain't That A Shame, All My Trials, Twenty Flight Rock). Athough his Wings era material hadn't taken over, the Beatles material certainly had. Had John still been alive, Paul would never have heard the last of it from John, who would no doubt have made a point of Paul having to rely on Beatles material becasue his solo work wasn't good enough.
With every Wings album and single being ignored apart from the songs Band On The Run, Jet & Live And Let Die, there was vitually zero chance of hearing anything from Ram. I clearly remember making a point of not bothering to attend any of the shows on that 1989 / 1990 tour.
You're right that Paul really "opened" his Beatle songs to his setlists in 1989. Not sure how much John's death had to do with this change compared to 1976's Setlist. I think that Paul was super ready to tour in 1989 since he always had loved touring (more than John and George) and so many years had transpired since 1976 and his Japan bust. After the latter and through the early 80's, I think that Paul was frightened to tour after John's horrible death. By 1989 and after his Broad Street and Press to Play flops, he was definitely ready with the relative success of Flowers in the Dirt. I think he realized that he had to do a heavy dose of his Beatle songs to the setlist because the Beatles had broken up almost 20 years previous and the fans were clamoring for Beatle songs. It was time and why not do it, if not for any other reason than to help ticket sales because he was doing many big stadiums on that tour. In memory, i think they were the reasons that Paul gave when asked that same question and I think he was being pretty honest.
Personally, I had never seen Paul or any of the Beatles. I missed the 1976 tour (money problems) so there was no way I was going to miss that tour when he announced two dates at the Philadelphia Baseball stadium. I was so excited, attended both shows and could care less about his setlist because all the songs were "new" to me hearing "live" material. I had never heard any of his Beatle songs live so it was a great concert. As a big time Paul fan, I also enjoyed all the Flowers material which fortunately was quite generous. I think he also did his famous BOTR songs. They were gigantic stadium shows so I also couldn't wait to see him again in 2002 when he appeared in a much smaller arena again in Philadelphia.
-
B J Conlee wrote:
You're right that Paul really "opened" his Beatle songs to his setlists in 1989. Not sure how much John's death had to do with this change compared to 1976's Setlist.
There must have been a handful of Beatles songs in the 1976 set-list but I think the sucess of Band on the Run & Venus and Mars had given Paul the confidence to include them. But even then he wouldn't have dared to turn over half the set to just Beatles songs. I saw Wings in London on the very last night of their 75 / 76 world tour and it was far and away the best performance I've seen from Paul. I have seen Paul a few times since but the shows over the last 10 years in particular are not in the same class as the shows performed by Wings.
Anyway,this conversation has gone way off topic.
-
Kestrel wrote:
B J Conlee wrote:
You're right that Paul really "opened" his Beatle songs to his setlists in 1989. Not sure how much John's death had to do with this change compared to 1976's Setlist.
There must have been a handful of Beatles songs in the 1976 set-list but I think the sucess of Band on the Run & Venus and Mars had given Paul the confidence to include them. But even then he wouldn't have dared to turn over half the set to just Beatles songs. I saw Wings in London on the very last night of their 75 / 76 world tour and it was far and away the best performance I've seen from Paul. I have seen Paul a few times since but the shows over the last 10 years in particular are not in the same class as the shows performed by Wings.
Anyway,this conversation has gone way off topic.
Missing the Wings Over America tour is no doubt my biggest regret through all the years of following Paul after the Beatles' breakup. I loved that 76 Wings' Lineup. Never got a chance to see one of Jimmy's solos.
As much as I loved the 1990 and 1993 Stadium shows, I think my favorite show was in 2002. Seeing the Band in a much smaller Arena was so much better than the Stadium shows and Paul was still doing a lot of his Beatle songs. I think my favorite part was when the Band left the stage and Paul did the Solo portion. I think he did like 4 or 5 songs and you could hear a pin drop. There were probably around 20 K in attendance. On top of Blackbird and Here Today, I remember him doing We Can Work It Out and Mother's Nature's Son. The local reviews were tremendous.
You're right...we have gotten off topic.
-
My top 10 solo Beatle albums are:
Plastic Ono Band, Imagine, Ram, Band on the run, Tug of war, Flowers in the dirt, Chaos and creation in the backyard, All things must pass, Thirty three and a third, Cloud nine.
Probably the best of these are Imagine, BOTR and ATMP. It would be nice to hear a 'stripped-down' version of ATMP without the Wall of Sound - I think George felt that way in later years. But of all the Beatle solo records, the one I keep coming back to is Ram. I've loved it since it came out because of its beautiful sweeping melodies, driving rock, the New York Symphony adding lovely touches here and there, and even the rough edges add a bit of colour.
