# Should Paul McCartney just give it up already? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 3, 2007, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-paul-mccartney-just-give-it-up-already/410427 "2007-07-03T22:42:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-paul-mccartney-just-give-it-up-already/410427/41 "2007-07-04T20:49:52Z")
Ok, I’ll say it. IMO, McCartney’s last 5 “proper” albums (notwithstanding live or classical works) have been better than anything Lennon or Harrison ever did post 1970. I really like them. mm ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-paul-mccartney-just-give-it-up-already/410427/42 "2007-07-04T20:53:40Z")
You think that people would have gad enough of Paul McCartney I look around me and I see it isn’t so. Some people want to rid the world of Paul McCartney And what’s wrong with that? I’d like to know. (Stolen from Creem magazine many years ago) ---
**Author:** ![Operation\_Ripper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/34f0e0/32.png) [@Operation\_Ripper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Operation_Ripper)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-paul-mccartney-just-give-it-up-already/410427/43 "2007-07-04T21:02:23Z")
He disgusts me at this point. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-paul-mccartney-just-give-it-up-already/410427/44 "2007-07-04T21:07:25Z")
[QUOTE=garygnu] I like the song. 😛 [/QUOTE] So do I. Have you guys tried tapping your feet in time to it, or maybe even dancing to it? It’s a simple expression of joy in living. I like it. ---
**Author:** ![Operation\_Ripper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/34f0e0/32.png) [@Operation\_Ripper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Operation_Ripper)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-paul-mccartney-just-give-it-up-already/410427/45 "2007-07-04T21:14:39Z")
[QUOTE=Zabali\_Clawbane] So do I. Have you guys tried tapping your feet in time to it, or maybe even dancing to it? It’s a simple expression of joy in living. I like it. [/QUOTE] Man, I hear ya. Might wanna check out [Up With People.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHVCemWNxsU) ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-paul-mccartney-just-give-it-up-already/410427/46 "2007-07-04T21:28:52Z")
Huh. I didn’t even know that “Dance Tonight” was the single. A couple of radio stations around here have been playing “Ever Present Past” instead, which is absolutely excellent, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-paul-mccartney-just-give-it-up-already/410427/47 "2007-07-04T22:41:50Z")
My awareness of the song as a single comes from the TV advertisement for iTunes featuring the song, and also from its Billboard chart position debuting at #69. It was released as a download single in the UK on June 18, Macca’s 65th birthday. Interestingly enough, the name of the album, “Memory Almost Full” can be rearranged to spell “For My Soulmate LLM.” LLM were the initials of Linda Louise McCartney. Paul says he didn’t realize this until it was pointed out to him and claims it is a coincidence. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-paul-mccartney-just-give-it-up-already/410427/48 "2007-07-05T00:42:15Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] Maybe. And maybe it’s because I’m already not a fan of him as a solo act (the aforementioned “I’ve Got My Mind Set On You” being a previous low point). \ [/QUOTE] I was being kinda flip; I probably should have been more precise and said that this song is almost a rip-off of George’s previous song. If not a rip-off, then, let’s say, an homage. 😉 **Thudlow** , I don’t get the logic behind the single releases, either. Strongest, catchiest, most likely to get people to buy the album, most likely to get radio play? I dunno. I do know that I’m not going to start feeling guilty for free downloads of songs for a long time yet, since the music industry owes me about a thousand songs for all the albums I’ve bought (vinyl, tape, and cd) that had one good song on them and the rest was filler. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-paul-mccartney-just-give-it-up-already/410427/49 "2007-07-05T03:46:53Z")
[QUOTE=eleanorigby] I also dislike Paul’s attempts recently in interviews etc to claim most of the Lennon/McCartney output. I understand his concerns about how things are stored in databases, but it seems to me that he is trying to gain more credit for those songs than is due. (we will never know how much accrues to either party, since a jerk took care of that many years ago). [/QUOTE] If you read enough interviews with Paul and John (and I’m guessing you have), you see that Paul and John very rarely disagreed over who did what. The songs where I know they differed were Norwegian Wood and Eleanor Rigby. I think Paul’s real bent has been to reclaim credit for being an innovator within the Beatles, as the accepted critical line has been that John did all the bold avant-garde stuff and Paul did the safe catchy stuff. [QUOTE=Sarahfeena] I think sometimes Paul suffers in comparison to John because 1) John’s music was a more angst-y, which tends to make people think it’s more “high art,” and 2) John didn’t make too many solo albums before he died, so he didn’t have as many chances to turn out a few bombs. [/QUOTE] And I think that people who truly believe Lennon’s solo stuff is better than McCartney’s never bother listening past _Plastic Ono Band_. Paul’s dreck may be, well, dreck, but at least it’s well-crafted and somewhat sonically interesting. Listening to the out-of-print [Lennon box set](http://www.amazon.com/Lennon-Box-Set-John/dp/B000MS7UO4/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4545238-6175043?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1183605872&sr=8-1), one is forced to realize that without the angst that propelled _POB_ and the best parts of _Imagine_, Lennon had literally nothing to fall back on: his music following those two albums is not only bereft of musical or lyrical ideas, it’s played and produced in the most generic, hack-session manner imaginable; there’s a flat, soulless quality to the majority of Lennon’s solo output that completely belies his reputation as the Beatles’ uncompromising innovator. For the record, I like Paul’s new album, even the single; it’s definitely one of the most consistently satisfying records he’s made. Age seems to suit him; it’s muting the more annoying aspects of his whimsy and prompting him to take a more honest look at himself. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-paul-mccartney-just-give-it-up-already/410427/50 "2007-07-05T05:05:52Z")
[QUOTE=Ukulele Ike] I’ll go further than that, and say that Paul should have jumped in front of John and taken the bullet. – Ukulele “The Beatles are dying in reverse order of coolness; Ringo’s next” Ike [/QUOTE] Hey, it isn’t Paul’s fault that the guy missed Yoko five times at point-plank range. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-paul-mccartney-just-give-it-up-already/410427/51 "2007-07-05T05:09:45Z")
[QUOTE=Nonsuch] If you read enough interviews with Paul and John (and I’m guessing you have), you see that Paul and John very rarely disagreed over who did what. The songs where I know they differed were Norwegian Wood and Eleanor Rigby. [/QUOTE] Another major point of difference, that only came up years after John was dead, was the song “In My Life”. Previously considered by all to be 80-90% John, Paul later said that he wrote the tune. The thing that really bothers me about McCartney is when, in 2002, he tried to reverse the “Lennon-McCartney” song writing credit with “Written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon”. This seems a petty and vain betrayal of an agreement made with his dead chum when they were teenagers. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-paul-mccartney-just-give-it-up-already/410427/52 "2007-07-05T10:58:36Z")
[QUOTE=Operation Ripper] Man, I hear ya. Might wanna check out [Up With People.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHVCemWNxsU) [/QUOTE] On the same token, you might want to check [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIVgRGsRvdQ) out, it’s probably right up your alley. Though I get a kick out of the brand of humor myself. [Laibach](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laibach_(band)) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-paul-mccartney-just-give-it-up-already/410427/53 "2007-07-05T12:19:17Z")
[QUOTE=featherlou] Elton John. No, wait, he’s making a lovely career of Walt Disney movie soundtracks. [/QUOTE] That was ten years ago! He’s now making a lovely career with successful London shows. “Billy Elliott” is one of the hottest tickets in town. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Shroud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@The\_Shroud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Shroud)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-paul-mccartney-just-give-it-up-already/410427/54 "2007-07-05T14:35:16Z")
The last two times I was in Barnes & Noble, my ears were molested by McCartney’s new album at full blast. I hate to say it, but “Dance Tonight” might be the only listenable song on the disc. The five or so other songs that I heard were incredibly dreary and grating, with trite lyrics that make “She Loves You, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” sound deep: [QUOTE=Sir Paul] She makes me feel glad I want her so bad My heart is beating madly for her If you ask me why I’m not going to lie I’ll have to say that I adore her [/QUOTE] I know nothing about McCartney’s output from the demise of the Beatles until now, so I don’t know if this is what we’ve come to expect. All I know is he has a hell of a marketing team on this one, because I’ve heard “Dance Tonight” about 30 times now, never by choice. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-paul-mccartney-just-give-it-up-already/410427/55 "2007-07-05T19:48:43Z")
[QUOTE=Hippy Hollow] After giving us … killer duets with Jacko and Stevie Wonder… [/QUOTE] That statement makes me question the wisdom of not only anything else you said in this thread, but also any other post you have posted or will ever post. “Ebony and Ivory?” “The Doggone Girl is MINE?!?!?!” My wife has a theory that Cynthia Lennon and George Martin wrote the good Beatles songs, with the breakup of the Lennon marriage happening during the recording of the White Album, not coincidentally the same time as the so-called Lennon-McCartney songs started hitting the shitter. Considering the unrelentingly crappy songs they wrote and recorded, alone and together, since then, I wonder if she might have something. But that people can insist “Imagine” is not tuneless, pretentious shit or “Dance Tonight” is on the same level of infectious, gleeful pop-itude as “Please Please Me” just shows Barnum to be right. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Based on their solo work, if they hadn’t been in the Beatles nobody would’ve given any of those blokes a record contract, with the possible exception of George. And in the late 60s and early 70s any loser with a guitar could have a recording contract, but John and Paul were just that bad. It’s funny, though. Nobody has ever argued in favor of Ringo’s contract-ibility. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-paul-mccartney-just-give-it-up-already/410427/56 "2007-07-05T20:31:57Z")
I think this album will be successful, not on its own merit, but the fact that everyone in the world hates/hated his ex-wife, The One Legged Gold digger, and will buy his stuff just to spite her. No one messes with the Cute Beatle. Kinda like Nicole Kidman’s Oscar after the divorce was final from Tom. She didn’t get it from her ability. She got it as a consolation prize for all the years with Xenu. The song is catchy, but the video is meh. is that stan shunpike from the knight bus in Harry Potter as the delivery man? ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-paul-mccartney-just-give-it-up-already/410427/57 "2007-07-05T21:50:55Z")
[QUOTE=dropzone] That statement makes me question the wisdom of not only anything else you said in this thread, but also any other post you have posted or will ever post. “Ebony and Ivory?” “The Doggone Girl is MINE?!?!?!” [/QUOTE] Well, as fashionable as it is to mock the message behind “E&I,” it was one of the first songs I can remember to discuss racial unity. Seeing as it was a Number One single in the US, the UK, and around the world, a lot of people seemed to think it was worth listening to back in 1982. “The Girl Is Mine…” yeah, that was cack. But it was the first single from the best-selling album of all time. Not to mention it became a hit again in 1998 when Brandy and Monica remade it as “The Boy Is Mine.” I much prefer the other Jackson/McCartney duets, “Say Say Say” and “The Man,” which appeared on McCartney’s _Pipes of Peace_. If it’s so horrible, a lot of us back in the early 1980s, in our legwarmers, deely-boppers, spinning Rubik’s Cubes in our Frankie Say t-shirts have a lot to apologize for… ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-paul-mccartney-just-give-it-up-already/410427/58 "2007-07-05T21:52:10Z")
[QUOTE=Shirley Ujest] is that stan shunpike from the knight bus in Harry Potter as the delivery man? [/QUOTE] Never seen the movie, but it’s Mackenzie Crook of _The Office_ and _Pirates of the Caribbean_ fame. ---
**Author:** ![Autumn\_Almanac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d26b3c/32.png) [@Autumn\_Almanac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autumn_Almanac)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-paul-mccartney-just-give-it-up-already/410427/59 "2007-07-05T22:10:50Z")
No way. If anything, the last few years have been a major comeback for him. IMHO, _Chaos and Creation in the Backyard_ was his best work in decades, and _Memory Almost Full_ and _Run Devil Run_ are not far behind. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2007, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-paul-mccartney-just-give-it-up-already/410427/60 "2007-07-06T01:35:10Z")
[QUOTE=dropzone] My wife has a theory that Cynthia Lennon and George Martin wrote the good Beatles songs, with the breakup of the Lennon marriage happening during the recording of the White Album, not coincidentally the same time as the so-called Lennon-McCartney songs started hitting the shitter. Considering the unrelentingly crappy songs they wrote and recorded, alone and together, since then, I wonder if she might have something. [/QUOTE] You think their songwriting hit the shitter with the White Album? The album just preceding _Abbey Road_ and _Let It Be_? Um, okay, I will consider the rest of your opinion in that context. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-paul-mccartney-just-give-it-up-already/410427.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-paul-mccartney-just-give-it-up-already/410427.md?page=4)