2013: New - Paul McCartney
Looking back at 30 years of music | Paul McCartney
All my life
I never knew
What I could be, what I could do
Then we were new
Paul McCartney has never been afraid of trying something new; learning a new instrument or a new chord progression, fooling around with a new technology or genre. Having a new idea, and coming up with something new to say. Writing us a new song.
But, because of all the wonderful old things that he’s done - first with The Beatles and then later with Wings - any new work he releases has got a hell of a history to stand up against.
He’s written symphonies and Christmas songs; written rock and roll and Songbook standards. He’s written scores and soundtracks. He’s written chamber pop and childrens tunes. He wrote the book on popular songwriting.
It’s no exaggeration to say that he has written some of the finest songs you could ever hope to hear.
Some writers have a way with music or with melodies, whilst others are more concerned with poetry and lyrics, but McCartney is the full package. Probably the most complete song-smith of the post-war era, he has written not only some of the most wonderful and gorgeous lyrics in all of popular music, but also some of the most wonderful and gorgeous melodies, as well.
Can you imagine the world we would live in without the music of Paul McCartney? Without I Want To Hold Your Hand or And I Love Her? A world with no Two of Us or The Long and Winding Road? Or, Maybe I’m Amazed? My Love? Band on the Run? No Jet? It doesn’t bear thinking about.
The only thing worse than having no Beatles songs is a world in which there will be no more Beatles songs. But last year, the world got an unexpected pleasure. A ‘new’ Beatles song, complete with contributions from all four members.
60 years after they’d first climbed to the summit of the charts, they were back where they belonged; right at the top, Johnny. The Toppermost of the Poppermost.
Those of us who missed out the first time around got to experience a taste of Beatlemania for ourselves following the release of Now and Then. The Beatles were no stranger to new technology and to revolutionising the way that songs were put together in the studio, and so it is only fitting that it was technology which brought them back together for one final outing.
And whilst Now and Then might be the last new Beatles song, it’s not the first to have come out since their 1969 split. Their Anthology albums in the 90s included a couple of unearthed and newly recorded songs - Free as a Bird and Real Love - but McCartney also snuck a new Beatles track in halfway through his 2013 solo record.
All over the album he is grasping for a fresh sound; reaching for a contemporary tone and feel. Trying to reinvent the spirit of rock and roll with a contemporary pop element; trying not to stand on his old work but to push forward and remain relevant. It’s McCartney like you’ve never heard him before. That is, up until the sixth song.
By far the most Beatles-esque he ever sounded on a solo release - the most he sounds like the old McCartney anywhere on this album - so naturally, what else would the song be called, but New?
You came along and made my life a song
One lucky day, you came alongJust in time
When I was searching for a rhyme
You came along
Then we were new
Did I mention that as well as being an incredible songwriter and lyricist - sometimes poignant whilst at others uplifting, and, often both in the same song - that he is also incredibly funny?
Notable album releases…
Arctic Monkeys - AM
Beyoncé - BEYONCÉ
Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
David Bowie - The Next Day
Lady Gaga - Artpop
Laura Marling - Once I Was an Eagle
Lorde - Pure Heroine
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away
Sky Ferreira - Night Time, My Time
The Strokes - Comedown Machine
Not to mention the releases from Miley Cyrus, The National, Queens of the Stone Age, Vampire Weekend, Drake, Kanye West, HAIM, Charli XCX, Chance the Rapper, Franz Ferdinand, Donald Glover/Childish Gambino, Neko Case, Janelle Monae, Katy Perry, Pearl Jam, Justin Timberlake, Fall Out Boy, The Flaming Lips, Foals, J. Cole or Jason Isbell.
Maybe the most stacked year for big name releases since this series started!
Next up: It’s Ultraviolence…
I’m thinking about adding a paid tier with an additional series called Together Through LIVE. The concept is the same - a periodic look back at the releases of the last 30 years, but moving away from the studio to explore the dying art of the live album. Let me know if this is something you’d be interested in. Paid subscribers would also be welcome to make requests for albums or songs to be covered!