Paul McCartney as a solo artist: some thoughts

By Luca Perasi

Strange as it may seem, Paul McCartney as a solo artist is not so easy to asses and to evaluate. Over the decades, he suffered from harsh criticism - especially during the Seventies - and was put in Lennon's shadow after the death of John in 1980.

He has been considered the master of catchy pop and often his work has been dismissed as pleasant but not so significant. His musical skills have been considered somewhat wasted; his group Wings was for many just a backing band; his wife Linda was ridicolized for being an amateur, that didn't have the right to be in the rock scene as a musician; his lyrics, were judged empty of any interesting contents, being social comment or poetry wise.

Can we say that the situation has changed, in 2014? I think so Finally. McCartney's solo career deserves to be studied as an achievement in its own right. The first major aknowledgement was Dylan's famous statement to Rolling Stone in 2007. "I'm in awe of McCartney" he said in the interview.

On November 17th, 2014 a double album called The Art of McCartney saw the light of day. Artists like Dylan, Billy Joel, Alice Cooper, Brian Wilson pay tribute to the most important composer of popular music of our era. And many of them are dealing with McCartney's solo songs. "Maybe I'm Amazed", "Wanderlust", "Junior's Farm", "Hi Hi Hi", "Listen to What the Man Said", "No More Lonely Nights" are in the set.

Brian Wilson covers "Wanderlust", from the Tug of War LP, 1982

I think this is the first step towards a full McCartney rehab as a solo artist. Altough The Beatles' legacy is what Paul really cares about, his solo years would be taken much more in consideration after the relase of this album.

It's a shame that this project comes a little bit late. Many artists are in their sixties or seventies years of age, and they could have delivered better vocal performance if only this album had been issued 15-20 years ago. Another weak point is that there's not so much creativity in the arrangements, except for a few. McCartney's backing band appear on the record, and if on the one hand this helped to record the songs quickly, on the other it prevents the album from being more varied in approach.

Paul's live band work like clockword on stage, but this reflects on the studio perfomance with being too much similar to the originals.

Nevertheless, many performances are interesting for more that one reason: Smokey Robinson's "So Bad", Billy Joel's "Maybe I'm Amazed" and "Live and Let Die", Brian Wilson's "Wanderlust" or B.B. King's "On the Way" give new light to these songs, in some case neglected for years.

Dylan's rendition of "Things We Said Today" is not particularly compelling and it would have been a good choice for him to try a version of "Monkberry Moon Delight".

Unforgivable absences from the project are Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello and Denny Laine, as well as songs like "Baby's Request", "Somebody Who Cares", "Goodnight Tonight" or "The Back Seat of My Car".

McCartney's catalogue as a solo artist is enormous and a double cd-set could not be enough, especially if we consider that many Beatles songs are included.

The Art of McCartney reveals that Paul's musical legacy is essential for anyone who loves music or who's in the musical set.

The next step would be in the following decades the falling of McCartney's music in the public domain: popular music that came from common people and now return to common people. Full circle.