Paul McCartney’s second solo album, ‘McCartney II’, is an underrated hidden gem of the 1980’s. Whilst the album reached number 1 in the UK, it is usually forgotten amongst McCartney’s extensive back catalogue of Beatles and Wings classics. His utilisation of experimental recording techniques and the latest in electronic synthesizer equipment marked out McCartney as one of the true pioneers of musical history. His ability to ‘move with the times’, and not get left behind by the new direction that music was taking, denotes that this was a man who didn’t just happen to be in ‘the right place at the right time’ with the Beatles. The year of 1980 marked this transition with electronic music being on the periphery of breaking into the charts, and it was the former Beatle who was quick to move with this forthcoming trend.
The record opens with ‘Coming Up’, which was the lead single taken from the album. This song has a real groove, and the listener is subjected to the first examples of McCartney’s use of synthesizers and electronic equipment. However, it is the following song that is the zenith of the record. My first encounter with this deranged song was after reading an interview with Austin Williams of ‘Swim Deep’. In this interview he stated that one of the songs, titled ‘Temporary Secretary’, was one of the best songs he’d ever heard. Being a fan of ‘Swim Deep’ and an even bigger fan of McCartney’s, I was most definitely intrigued, so I gave the song a listen. Its easily the most daring thing that McCartney had produced up until that point. Its elementary to understand why Rolling Stone magazine named it the 167th greatest song of all time, purely for innovation alone.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdCH7ZewAfY&w=563&h=422]
The next track is another apotheosis of the album, titled ‘On the Way’. The opening guitar line from the song is one of them fantastic lines, so fantastic that it even inspired the the ‘King of Blues’ BB King to cover it recently. Other highlights include ‘Frozen Jap’ and ‘Darkroom’; these are both songs that helped the album achieve its status of ‘cult classic’. Also, this is the album that gave us ‘Wonderful Christmastime’, which is easily one of the world’s most recognisable Christmas songs — and any album that produces a Christmas hit to that scale deserves far more recognition.
‘Waterfalls’ and ‘One of These Days’ demonstrate a more sombre side to the record however, and showcases an image of McCartney clearly hurt by having to put Wings’ future on hold, and still clearly damaged by the ugly scenes in which the Beatles had disbanded 10 years previously. Whats even more impressive about this album is the fact that McCartney played all the instruments himself on the record. We knew that perhaps McCartney was always the most musically talented Beatle, and perhaps the ‘Fab Fours’ clandestine melodic weapon. Paul always had the talent to distinguish a great melody, whilst John’s lyrics had more depth and meaning. But on this record the public and critics alike got to finally see McCartney as an immense multi-instrumentalist. A real cult classic.
Words by James Dudley
@James71953