Paul McCartney - New CD Review

Written by General Jabbo

For Paul McCartney's new album, appropriately titled New, he worked with four producers with the intent on finding one he liked and finishing the record with that person. What McCartney didn't envision was liking them all equally -- but he did -- and so Paul Epworth, Mark Ronson, Ethan Johns and Giles Martin all have credits on the album. As all four producers have very diverse styles and credits from artists ranging from Adele to Kula Shaker to Ryan Adams to Duran Duran, it's not surprising that McCartney's album is very diverse as well, but then again, so were The Beatles' best albums.

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Paul McCartney And Wings - Rockshow Blu-ray Review

Written by General Jabbo

In 1976, Paul McCartney and Wings mounted their only U.S. tour, the aptly nicknamed Wings Over America. The tour was a massive success and spawned a live album of the same name. It had been 10 years since McCartney had toured the U.S. on the Beatles' final outing and, with Wings at the height of their popularity, the time was right to return to the States. Sensing the enormity of the tour, McCartney had shows in New York, Los Angeles and Seattle filmed with the hopes of putting together a concert film.

The film was titled Rockshow, after the song of the same name, but didn't receive its theatrical premiere until 1980. By then, Wings had a different lineup and were at the end of their run due in part to McCartney's pot bust in Japan on the eve of the band's tour. Sadly, Jimmy McCulloch, the talented, but troubled lead guitarist in the Rockshow performance didn't live to see its theatrical premiere, having died of a drug overdose the year before. While Rockshow had been previously released on video, laser disc and DVD as part of The McCartney Years, none of those releases were the complete show. This has been rectified on the new Blu-ray, which is fully restored from the film and audio masters.

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Paul McCartney - Live Kisses Blu-ray Review

Written by General Jabbo

Paul McCartney has always had an old-time sensibility that has come out in his music on numerous occasions. Songs such as “When I’m Sixty-Four” and “Honey Pie” have more to do with the music his father would have grown up with than the songs the Beatles were writing during the 1960s. There’s a reason for that – It was the music that McCartney heard as a young child via his father or through parties his family would have when people would get together to sing these songs around the piano.

McCartney had wanted to do an album of standards for a number of years, but others, most notably Rod Stewart, beat him to it and he didn’t want to look like a copycat. Finally, in February 2012, McCartney realized his goal and released Kisses On The Bottom, an album of old standards with two new original compositions. That same month, he descended upon the Capitol Studios in Los Angeles to perform cuts from the album with Diana Krall’s band. The result is Paul McCartney – Live Kisses, a Blu-ray of the event.

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Produced By George Martin Blu-ray Review

Written by General Jabbo

Produced by George Martin. Those four words rightly conjure up images of The Beatles, as Martin was considered by many to be their fifth member, bringing to life the wild ideas they had in their endlessly creative minds. It’s also the name of a new documentary, originally shown on BBC television and now available on Blu-ray, that shows Martin was far more than just The Fab Four.

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The Beatles: Their Golden Age DVD Review

Written by General Jabbo

It’s not possible to thoroughly cover the Beatles’ unparalleled career in an hour, but The Beatles: Their Golden Age attempts to do just that. Narrated by Les Krantz – a publisher, author, and filmmaker – Their Golden Age combines still photos with newsreel footage and scenes from the Beatles’ movies. No Beatles music is included, though instrumental sound-alike tracks make up the film’s score.

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Paul and Linda McCartney - Ram: Special Edition CD Review

Written by General Jabbo

When Paul and Linda McCartney released Ram in 1971 — the only album credited to both of them — it didn’t meet with the warmest of reviews from critics or McCartney’s former band mates in the Beatles. Fans of McCartney’s pop master craftsmanship in the Beatles were puzzled by the rough, unfinished quality of his first solo album, McCartney, and when Ram was more of the same, it was too much for some to take. As for the Beatles, Ram was written at the height of McCartney’s feud with ex-songwriting partner John Lennon, who believed many of the songs (correctly in some instances) were not so subtle jabs at him.

In the years since, Ram has undergone a critical reappraisal. No longer in the giant shadow of the Beatles, when viewed for what it is, Ram stands as one of McCartney’s best solo efforts. The album has been remastered as part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection and is available in a number of formats from single disc to a five-disc Deluxe Edition. This review focuses on the two-CD Special Edition, as well as the DVD that is only included in the Deluxe Edition.

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The Love We Make DVD Review

Written by General Jabbo

When the tragedy of 9/11 occurred, Paul McCartney was sitting in an airplane on the tarmac at JFK airport. He could see the smoke coming from the towers. As the day rolled on and it became clear these were no accidents, McCartney decided he needed to do something to give back to the city and country that had given him so much. McCartney called upon his celebrity friends and organized The Concert for New York City. The events leading up to the concert were captured on film by Bradley Kaplan and Albert Maysles (who, along with his brother, famously filmed the Beatles on their first trip to the United States) and make up the basis of the documentary, The Love We Make.

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How I Won The War DVD Review

Written by General Jabbo

After the success of A Hard Day’s Night and Help!, director Richard Lester tried his hand at making an anti-war film. He enlisted the aid of John Lennon — which was sure to attract viewers — and a young, pre-Phantom Of The Opera Michael Crawford for his 1967 release, How I Won The War. Panned by critics and fans at the time that may have been expecting more madcap Beatles adventures with Lennon and oft misunderstood, the film lampoons the whole notion of war and the class divide between the British officers and enlisted men.

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Paul McCartney - McCartney II (Special Edition) CD Review

Written by General Jabbo

Much like its predecessor, 1970's McCartney, signaled the end of the Beatles, its follow-up, 1980's McCartney II, came at the end of Wings. Whether Paul McCartney intended that to be the case is a matter of opinion, but he has not had a named band since nor has there been a third album in the McCartney series.

McCartney II was originally supposed to be a double album but ultimately got released as a single disc. 31 years later, the tracks intended for the double LP have been included as bonus cuts on McCartney II (Special Edition).

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Paul McCartney - McCartney (Special Edition) CD Review

Written by General Jabbo

McCartney, The classic solo debut from Paul McCartney, is often touted as the final nail in The Beatles' coffin. Released before Let It Be — against the other Beatles' wishes — the album also accompanied a press release where McCartney said he no longer envisioned a future writing partnership with John Lennon. The dream was over. Now, 41 years later, this famous debut is getting the expanded treatment as McCartney (Special Edition).

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Booker T. And The M.G.'s - McLemore Avenue CD Review

Written by General Jabbo

Booker T. and the M.G.'s cut their teeth as the house band for Stax Records, backing legendary soul and R&B acts such as Otis Redding and Sam & Dave and helping to define the Memphis sound. They also released a number of instrumental singles and albums, but it was keyboardist Booker T. Jones' interest in the Beatles that led the band to one of their more ambitious projects, McLemore Avenue.

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Paul McCartney & Wings - Band on the Run: Special Edition CD Review

Written by General Jabbo

After the breakup of the Beatles and the subsequent release of two quirky, yet charming albums — McCartney and Ram — Paul McCartney decided he'd missed being in a band and Wings was born. The band's first two albums didn't exactly wow the critics and, making matters worse, guitarist Henry McCullough and drummer Denny Seiwell left the band, reducing Wings to a trio of Paul and Linda McCartney and Denny Laine. Undeterred, the group traveled to Lagos where they recorded Band on the Run, an album that remains a high-water mark of McCartney's post-Beatles career, newly remastered in a two-CD/one-DVD special edition.

Much has been said about Band on the Run over the years and, for fans of McCartney, it is certainly a must-own. The title track, as well as "Jet" and "Let Me Roll it" are McCartney in-concert staples and considered classic tracks. The remaining tracks boast the same quality, from the syrupy "Bluebird" to the driving piano of "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five," this is McCartney at his best.

Remastered by the same team that did the recent Beatles remasters, the sound is clear and detailed and avoids the modern, overly loud production found on too many CDs. This is likely the final word on this album and its sound quality is now up to par with its song quality.

Band on the Run's British track list has been made canon and, as a result, American fans looking for "Helen Wheels" on the main disc will not find it, but it does reside (along with its B-side, the excellent "Country Dreamer") on the bonus CD. The disc also includes a number of live tracks from the One Hand Clapping documentary, including a spirited take on "Jet" with excellent drumming from short-lived Wings member Geoff Britton.

The third disc is a DVD that includes promotional videos for "Band on the Run," "Mamunia," "Helen Wheels," as well as the entire album itself, and a "making of the album cover" documentary. The highlights of the DVD though are Wings in Lagos, a short series of never-seen home movies from the group's trip to Africa and the documentary One Hand Clapping, which is available legitimately for the first time here. While the video quality in One Hand Clapping often borders on bootleg and the track "Suicide" is oddly omitted, it is still likely as good a version of this fine document of Wings in the studio as fans will see.

Band on the Run proved to skeptics that McCartney still had it after the Beatles. The remastered CD as well as the two bonus discs make Band on the Run: Special Edition an essential CD for McCartney fans.

Article first published as Music DVD Review: Paul McCartney & Wings - Band on the Run: Special Edition on Blogcritics.

Paul McCartney - Good Evening New York City CD/DVD Review

Written by General Jabbo

When the Beatles played Shea Stadium in 1965, it revolutionized the concert industry. Rock bands didn’t play baseball stadiums and though you could barely hear the band over the drone of screaming girls, it set the tone for bands such as The Rolling Stones, The Who, and Led Zeppelin.

Now 44 years later, Shea Stadium is gone, but the Mets have a new stadium and who better than Paul McCartney to christen its concert stage? Captured over three nights at Citi Field in 2009, Good Evening New York City is an excellent document of these historic shows.

Containing two CDs and one DVD, Good Evening New York City offers a healthy cross-section of McCartney classics old and new — from “I Saw Her Standing There” with New York-native Billy Joel guesting on vocals and piano to “Sing the Changes” from McCartney’s critically acclaimed Fireman album, Electric Arguments — the latter featuring images of Barack Obama on the video screen during the performance.

As has been the case in recent tours, Paul pays tribute to both John Lennon and George Harrison by performing “Here Today,” the song he wrote after Lennon’s passing and “Something” for George, featuring Paul on ukulele for the first part of the song. McCartney gets visibly choked up during “Here Today” and his voice cracks, only adding to the song’s poignancy.

McCartney has also taken to performing Lennon-written songs in recent years with “Day Tripper” and “A Day In The Life/Give Peace a Chance” getting the nod here. With Lennon and Harrison gone, McCartney has effectively become the curator of the Beatles legacy.

“I’m Down” was added to the set list as a nod to the Shea Stadium show from 1965. While the CD features the unedited audio of the performance, the DVD has a mash-up of both footage and audio with the Beatles’ performance and McCartney’s. It’s a clever touch and very well done.

It’s not all hits either. Obscure gems such as “Mrs. Vanderbilt” from Band on the Run and “Calico Skies” from 1997’s Flaming Pie sit nicely in between the better known “Blackbird” and “Eleanor Rigby.” In addition, the limited number of shows McCartney does these days has done wonders for his voice, as it is the strongest it has been in years.

Fans have been clamoring for a McCartney DVD release that offers a straight performance without interruptions, interviews, cuts to different shows and the like. Good Evening New York City delivers in this regard, focusing on the New York show, without too much audience hamming or rapid-fire MTV-style editing. In a clever touch, many in the crowd were handed handheld flip cameras to film whatever they wanted. Some of that footage is included in the DVD, which has a 5.1 DTS Surround Sound mix as well as standard stereo.

For fans of Paul McCartney, Wings and The Beatles, Good Evening New York City offers something for everyone. These are timeless songs, played by an energized McCartney with a crack band. What’s not to like?

Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison CD Review

Written by General Jabbo

The quiet Beatle gets the best of treatment on the career-spanning Let it Roll: Songs by George Harrison. At a single disc however, the problem with this collection isn’t what was included — it’s with what wasn’t.

While Harrison’s legendary All Things Must Pass LP is heavily represented with five of the 19 tracks, the CD selects “The Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let it Roll)” over “Wah Wah” and “If Not For You.” Similarly, “Devil’s Radio” from the Cloud 9 album is nowhere to be found. Other notable omissions include “Crackerbox Palace” and “Not Guilty,” the latter of which was originally written during Harrison’s time in the Beatles. For a collection that seems to want to remind listeners of Harrison’s time with the Fab Four, its non-inclusion seems strange. Perhaps the biggest track left off the CD though is “Bangladesh.” With The Concert for Bangladesh, Harrison practically invented the modern benefit show and for that reason alone it should be included here. No songs from either Traveling Wilburys release are on the CD either.

What is included though is prime Harrison material that is vital to any fan’s collection of his music. From the opening “Got My Mind Set On You” — the last number-one single by any Beatle in the United States — to the spiritual “My Sweet Lord” and “All Things Must Pass” to the pure pop of “Blow Away,” Harrison was a diverse artist whose music didn’t really sound like anyone else’s.

Of course the reason Harrison had a solo career to begin with is due to his time in the Beatles, and three live versions of Beatles tracks from The Concert For Bangladesh are included here. In addition, both of his Beatles tributes — “All Those Years Ago,” which featured both Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr and “When We Was Fab,” which featured Starr, are included here as well.

Let it Roll includes three songs from Harrison’s posthumous release Brainwashed, including the beautiful “Marwa Blues,” which showcased his unique style of slide-guitar playing. Also included are two soundtrack songs — “I Don’t Want to Do it” from Porky’s Revenge and “Cheer Down” from Lethal Weapon 2.

While long-time fans will have most or all of these tracks, Let it Roll is a nice introduction to the music of George Harrison for new listeners. Still, for an artist of his stature, an extra disc would have been more than appropriate.

The Tomorrow Show With Tom Snyder: John, Paul, Tom & Ringo DVD Review

Written by General Jabbo

In the near decade The Tomorrow Show With Tom Snyder aired on NBC, Snyder had a number of cutting-edge performers appear on the show. Not many American talk shows would have ever touched the Plasmatics or Johnny Rotten, yet there they were in interviews and performances with Snyder trying to establish a rapport with them as well as understand them (While a good interviewer, Snyder could come across as a bit square on occasion). The most famous of these musicians were arguably the three former Beatles he interviewed: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr. Those interviews make up the contents of this two-disc set.

Disc one is a tribute to John Lennon with his interview from April of 1975, which Snyder rebroadcast on December 9, 1980, one day after Lennon’s death. In it, Lennon discusses his time with the Beatles, his solo career, his life in New York with Yoko Ono, and his immigration status (His immigration lawyer, Leon Wildes, joins the interview during that segment). It was to be Lennon’s last televised interview. The rebroadcast added then-new interviews with journalist Lisa Robinson and producer Jack Douglas, who produced Double Fantasy and had done a session with Lennon the night of his murder.

Disc two begins with an interview with Paul and Linda McCartney just before one of their 1979 concert appearances in London, England. Wings were on the road for Back to the Egg (The video for “Spin it On” is included in the broadcast) and were about to play the Concert for Kampuchea. The interview was taped the day after the Who concert at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati where 11 people were trampled to death as fans rushed to their seats. McCartney said the key to better security at such shows where festival seating is used such as the Who concert, is have more entrances for fans, so everyone isn’t all going into the same doors. Paul also talked a little about his time with the Beatles and life at home with the kids and how he enjoyed having a family and being able to take his kids on the road with him. Snyder asked Linda McCartney how she met Paul and asked Wings members Laurence Juber and Denny Laine how they came to be in "the Wings organization" as Snyder called it.

The final interview on disc two is with Ringo Starr from 1981. Ringo was promoting his then-new album, Stop and Smell the Roses, which featured contributions from Paul McCartney and George Harrison (the video for Harrison’s “Wrack My Brain” is shown) and was to have also included songs written and produced by John Lennon. The two were to work together in January of 1981, but Lennon was killed the previous December. This interview was less than a year later and Starr was still very shaken up at the loss of his friend. The interview also includes Ringo’s wife Barbara Bach, who he met on the set of the film Caveman. Angie Dickinson fills up the second half of this episode where she promotes her series, Cassie and Company, and discusses why she returned to television.

For Beatles fans, John, Paul, Tom & Ringo serves as an interesting time capsule, both in terms of the various Beatles careers at that point, as well as world events of the time. It’s nice to have the interviews all in one collection and is well worth owning.

Help! DVD Review

Written by General Jabbo

Less than a year after making their big screen debut in A Hard Day’s Night, The Beatles returned to the silver screen – this time in color – with Help!

Directed by Richard Lester, who also directed A Hard Day’s Night, Help! tells the story of an eastern religious cult about to perform a sacrifice, only to find their sacrificial ring has gone missing. They discover it is in the possession of Ringo (who can’t get the ring off his finger) and stop at nothing to try to get it from him.

The cult chases Ringo and the rest of The Beatles from London to the Austrian Alps to the Bahamas in an attempt to get the ring. They try to bite it off his hand, pull it off his finger when he drops off mail in a mailbox, and saw off his hand while The Beatles dine at a restaurant. The cult members are not very good thieves and their theft efforts prove humorous. Along the way, The Beatles encounter a mad scientist (played by Victor Spinetti, who was also in A Hard Day’s Night as well as Magical Mystery Tour), who after attempting to remove the ring from Ringo’s finger, decides he needs the ring for himself as with it he could, dare he say it, “rule the world.”

Seven classic Beatles songs are featured in Help!, including the title track, “You’re Going to Lose That Girl,” “I Need You,” and “Ticket to Ride.” The musical sequences could all stand alone and, in that sense, are very much a precursor to MTV. The film has been restored and has never looked or sounded better with remastered audio presented in PCM Stereo and DTS 5.1 Surround Sound. Oddly enough though, no Dolby 5.1 track is included.

Disc two contains a number of special features, including “The Beatles in Help!” – a documentary about the making of the film, the restoration of Help!, memories of Help!, a deleted scene with Wendy Richard, three theatrical trailers, and radio spots from 1965 which are hidden in the menus. While there are no interviews with the surviving Beatles or George Martin, the documentaries are interesting nonetheless. Also included is a booklet with outtake photos, an introduction by Lester and excellent liner notes by Martin Scorsese.

While John Lennon once said that the song “Help!” was his personal plea, none of the problems that would plague the band just a few short years later are evident in the film. Help! is one of the last looks at not only the group in its “mop top,” innocent glory, but also a very different London pre-“Summer of Love.” The times were about to change for both very quickly, however.

The McCartney Years DVD Review

Written by General Jabbo

It’s been nearly 40 years since that other band Paul McCartney was in before Wings called it a day. During that time, he carved out one of the most successful solo careers of all time. It was also during this period that McCartney followed his old band’s lead and made promo films for many of his hit singles. Those films comprise the bulk of The McCartney Years.

With three DVDs and over 400 minutes of material, The McCartney Years is an exhaustive look at the solo career of Paul McCartney. The set contains over 40 promo films from “Maybe I’m Amazed” from 1970’s McCartney to a seldom seen “Band on the Run” clip that oddly features The Beatles instead of Wings to “Fine Line” from 2005’s Chaos and Creation in the Backyard. The films have been restored from the original prints with remastered audio as well as new 5.1 Surround Sound mixes.

Viewers can choose to watch the videos chronologically, or in playlists selected by McCartney, who offers insightful commentary on a number of tracks. For instance, we learn that the Plastic Macs band name from the “Coming Up” video was a take-off of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Plastic Ono Band. Each menu on the DVD also includes a rare video from the McCartney archives that plays while the viewer makes his or her selection.

The set also includes the documentary, Creating Chaos at Abbey Road, McCartney’s Superbowl performance and his performance at Live Aid. Disc three features parts of three concerts, Rockshow, which captures a Wings 1976 performance, MTV Unplugged and his 2004 performance at the Glastonbury Festival – all available on DVD for the first time.

While billed as a definitive collection, The McCartney Years is far from complete. Many promo films are missing, most notably from 1979’s Back to the Egg LP. Also, none of the three concerts on disc three are complete, giving the impression that it is a teaser disc for a later release of complete versions of these shows. Most troubling though is that all of the videos have been remastered to 16:9 widescreen. This is an issue because many of the videos were not shot this way originally and some of the shot is lost as a result.

Nevertheless, these issues don’t take away from the overall enjoyment of the collection. The videos look and sound great and the amount of picture lost from the widescreen conversion likely will not bother most fans. It is a treat for an artist of McCartney’s stature to open the vaults like this and present a collection such as The McCartney Years. One can only hope that this will lead to further archive releases down the road.