McCartney by Paul McCartney (Vinyl record album review)

Record basics

• Album name: McCartney
• Artist name: Paul McCartney
• Year: 1970
• Number of discs: one
• Label: Apple Records
• Collection: Selman
• Distinguishing characteristics:
  • Hole drilled through top right of album
  • Handwritten sticker on top right of album with radio cuts
  • Handwritten sticker on bottom left with M for classification
  • Scratched into side one of LP: “STAO-1-3363 214 LH/RL”
  • Scratched into side two of LP: “STAO-2-3363 213 LH”
• Buy it on Amazon: $9.98

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never listened to this record, but I have reviewed three by Wings, and did not like any of them.

What I expected

Faul’s granny shit.

What it was actually like

The first track, called The Lovely Linda, was all of 43 seconds long, and really seemed like just the idea for a song, rather than a song itself. To me, that was a microcosm for this whole record, which would have been written and recorded at a time when the Beatles were still together and when Faul could have gotten any song he wanted onto one of the group’s records, provided that it was good enough.

Much of this material, though, just would not have been good enough, and I suppose that, as much as the Beatles breakup, was the reason for it to have ended up on McCartney.

Teddy Boy was probably the worst song, and one that I could not imagine Lennon having been willing to co-write and -record. Its backing vocals were especially awful, but it was also just really bland as a folk rock song.

Kreen-Akrore also was essentially just some rubbish noise, and Singalong Junk was instrumental filler.

Momma Miss America, on the other hand, was also instrumental, but I considered it to have been the best song on record, with a great bass line. Most importantly, it was an interesting and bluesy song, and it might have made an awesome part of a great Beatles song.

Valentine Day had a pretty good electric guitar opening, and Oo You had pretty decent country rock or hard rock riff.

Hot as Sun and Glasses, which may actually have been one song, had one of those Caribbean sounds to it that I do not understand.

Junk was the most old timey song – but only until Man We Was Lonely, which was old timey and also Oompa Loompa: Faul’s granny shit to the max.

I actually recognized Maybe I’m Amazed, and considered it to have been closest to the Beatles’ quality and style, but I would probably have hated it as a Beatles song – unless it had been reworked under the influence of Lennon (and maybe even Harrison) and turned into something awesome.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me