As Paul McCartney turns 71 on June 18th, I thought I would list some of his best songs. I know, I know, you have heard of the famous group he was in: Wings and also that other group: The Beatles. But did you know he has also been a solo artist the last 20 years? He has put out some great music and I bet you have not heard most of it. I decided I would suggest 10 songs you may have never heard. These are my favorites by him. I believe they hold up to anything else he has written. So listen to something new today, try these.
My top 10 Paul McCartney songs that you probably don’t know.
10. English Tea – Chaos and Creation in the Backyard 2005
This CD Paul plays all the instruments and does it all. The CD is hit or miss but this little Ditty reminds you that he is the person who wrote Elenore Rigby and Lady Madonna.
9. Ever Present Past – Memory Almost Full 2007
Every so often Paul thinks back the FAB days and writes about it. We all live with the present past running around in our heads, but can you imagine having his past running around your mind? What a youth.
8. Get Out Of My Way – Off The Ground 1993
This song goes in my MP3 Player every summer. This is one of those old great Rock n Roll songs that no one knows. It is about getting in the car with your love and getting out of town. There is a moment when it all goes quiet and if you turn it up all the way you can hear a train whistle. Download this song and crank it up loud.
7. Put It There – Flowers in the Dirt 1990
I actually think this song was a single from McCartney’s best solo album, so might have heard this in the 90′s. This song will break any Father or Son’s heart. I think of both of mine when i hear it. Simple, true and very Blackbird like.
6. Blue Moon of Kentucky – Unplugged 1992
This was a limited edition release and I own a copy of it. He sings lots of his songs on this MTV release, but it is this cover of an old rock-a-billy song that I always think about. He starts it out like an old country tune and then kicks it into overdrive.
5. Don’t Let the Sun Catch You – Tripping the Live Fantastic 1990
The final track on his best Live album, this is just Paul at a piano during a sound check. He sings so sweetly that you know that even if he wasn’t one of the greatest song writers ever, he could have had a career singing other people’s songs.
4. Little Willow – Flaming Pie 1997
If you don’t know this song, you need to. He wrote it for a friend who was dying of cancer, while Linda was dying of cancer. This is a heart breaker in that context but also it is a great sentiment to live your life by: “No one is out to break your heart, it only feels that way.” You can take that as hard advice, I take it as good.
3. Biker like an icon – Off The Ground 1993
This song is fun to sing and has a great sound. This is a story song that tells the tale of a girl who fell in love and disappeared. It shows the darker sound of the most tuneful Beatle. It is also really fun to say biker like an icon.
2. That Day Is Done – Flowers in the Dirt 1990
Written with Elvis Costello, Paul showed once again what a great collaborator he is. This song is nice whether it is Paul, the Blind Boys of Alabama or Elvis who sings it. Another interesting story song, we hear from a man who is missing someone’s wedding. Is it his kid, his lover, is he dead? I still don’t know the answer and I have known this song for over 20 years.
1. Beautiful Night – Flaming Pie 1997
This is my all time favorite McCartney song. Yes, that is Ringo on the drums and back ground vocals. Whenever I hear this song I wonder how Paul feels that everyone on the planet knows Yesterday, but hardly anyone knows this song. This is another tempo changing song, great lyrics and reminds me of some wonder nights I have shared.
There you go. Celebrate Paul’s birthday with a few songs, you may not have heard before.
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I am rewatching the X-Files for the first time since it aired. I have been enjoying it so much. Over the years I have always remained fond of Scully and Mulder. They have made just about every list we have done. In rewatching the show, I am realizing that this show should be on every top ten list. It excels right out of the gate. The characters are set, the relationship is there and it is perfect. The series grows more confident and more interesting with each episode. I could pick many topics in the ways that the writers of today’s television should be studying the X-Files. I want to focus on their use of what I am calling, Elasticity. I am defining a shows elasticity as the pull that a show has in moving out of its comfort zone. How much can the writers poke fun at their characters, their concept and themselves? A show like Downton Abbey, really can’t move too far off its spot or it becomes melodramatic and “soapy.” Star Trek, is hit or miss at doing this. The Next Generation used the Q Character to poke fun at itself. The Original show used Shatner’s acting. Although that may have been unintentional.
Darin Morgan is the writer that started to poke fun at Mulder. He begins this in the episode entitled Humbug, takes it to new heights in Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose, and throws a nuclear bomb in Jose Chung’s From Outer Space. It is his work in Humbug that is most daring and most subtle. It was also the first time anyone had poked fun at the characters that we have grown to love. In this episode, Scully pays $5.00 for a Barnum exhibition that turns out to be a sucker’s deal. One of the “freaks” sneaks a peak at Scully’s Cleavage while she sneaks a peak at his. Mulder is lambasted by Michael Anderson (Twin Peaks) for being so ruggedly good looking, but bland. Most shows don’t try to poke fun of their leads and succeed.
I always found it amazing how one week they could be so serious about the government conspiracy and how we would follow Mulder to the ends of the globe for the truth and then the next week we hear him give a girly scream and they mock the way he stands like a GQ model. Darin Morgan also does this on Millennium. I would put his writing on television up there with David E Kelley, Joss Whedon and David Milch. He is a genius at turning everything we know from television upside down. This brand of humor is exactly what was missing from Lost. I would love to have seen what Darin Morgan would have written about the characters of Jack, Sawyer and Ben. To see him take a swipe at Battlestar Galactica? So Say We All. There are very few shows that are brave enough to do this to their characters and do it successfully.
