1. Band On The Run

2. McCartney

3. Wings Over America

The sessions for LONDON TOWN also produced one of my favourite unreleased McCartney songs: "Waterspout". (If you haven't heard this wonderful song, you simply must check it out online.) It could easily have replaced one, if not two or three, of the weaker album tracks - and IMO would also have made a great single.

Iowa Hawkeye Beatlefan:

I would imagine there are some cool demos with Elvis Costello that could be included.

Indeed there are - I've actually heard the demos of "My Brave Face", "You Want Her Too" & "Don't Be Careless Love", and they're fantastic. In the case of "Don't Be Careless Love", I actually prefer the demo to the final, released version. There are also demos of the Paul co-written songs that wound up on Costello's records - "So Like Candy" for instance.

VENUS AND MARS was my introduction to his solo albums. I remember absolutely loving "Rock Show" and "Listen To What The Man Said" - though nearly all the songs are wonderful.

Hendrix Ibsen:

I am wondering if some of the songs on "Brainwashed" goes back to "Cloud Nine" with a recording period for the entire album between 1988-2002.

"P2 Vatican Blues" was an outtake from the Cloud Nine sessions. Actually, the song "Rocking Chair In Hawaii" goes back even further - it was written during the All Things Must Pass era, and was originally entitled "Down To The River".

I rate FLOWERS very highly indeed. I believe it's the best out of of all the albums he's made since BAND ON THE RUN (although VENUS & MARS, BACK TO THE EGG, TUG OF WAR, FLAMING PIE and CHAOS & CREATION IN THE BACKYARD - as well as possibly one or two others - rival it closely). I'd even go so far as to say it's his 3rd-best solo record, after BAND ON THE RUN and MCCARTNEY. My only quibble is that "Ou Est Le Soleil" is not as strong as the other songs, but I would offset this by regarding it as a bonus track.

SgtPepperFan48:

Did this song ever make it onto any of the remasters' track lists? Was listening to it again and it crossed my mind.

It's from the LONDON TOWN era, so I'm expecting to see it as a bonus on that remaster - or possibly on that of BACK TO THE EGG. However, at this stage there's no indication as to a release date for these.

I saw them a couple of years ago - they were fantastic! Definitely take the opportunity to see them, if you can.

SusyLuvsPaul:

Probably that much of it's malicious malarkey.

There's no "probably" about it - it is malicious malarkey. During the 80's, in the wake of John's death, a flood of dreadful Lennon/Beatles books came out - each trying to out-sensationalise all the others. Much of the content of these books was utter rubbish - either hearsay, distortion or downright fabrication. Goldman's book was the nadir of the bunch - calculatedly so. The man was notorious for character-assassination; not only John, but Elvis, Lenny Bruce and at the time of his passing was preparing a book on Jim Morrisson. I would advise all against touching this book with a 50-ft pole.

Thank you for posting this, Soft-Hearted Hana; a beautiful story!