The Smiley Smile Message Board

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jun/15/wings-guitarist-henry-mccullough-grease-band-dies

I knew he had been ill in recent years, but still a shock. Gotta pull out that solo album he did on Dark Horse Records.

Sad footnote in rock history. Which leads me back to the main stage: just read a related article on Paul in the Guardian <https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/24/paul-mccartney-i-was-depressed-after-the-beatles-broke-up-bbc-mastertapes-show> about the early days of Wings, etc. Interesting stuff. A bit more real than usual. He admits that he and Linda sucked as a music combo and had even considered giving Eric, Jimmy Page and John Bonham a phone call in his post Beatle depression. I've always thought that if Paul had challenged himself with some motivated creative talent early on he might have...woulda, coulda, shoulda....kept me from nodding off!

Didn't he challenge with "Press to Play"? Even Macca "haters" cite it their favorite & say it's very unusual for his style.

Actually, "Press to Play" was the point where I started to tune out on Macca. "Flowers in the Dirt" was better - half of a good album; then came "Off the Ground"...blah! That was the end of my love for McCartney. I still like the old stuff - the Beatles, Wings and early solo stuff. If Wings ever failed, I don't think it can be blamed on the other guys being bad musicians. Henry McCullough was a fine guitar player - just listen to his playing on Red Rose Speedway. Denny Laine was a good musical partner for Paul - as a harmony singer, multi-instrumentalist, and occasional songwriter. if there was a weak spot in Wings, it was definitely Linda. Not dissing her as a person, she did the best she could. If Linda hadn't been there, Paul wouldn't have toured at all. He needed her for moral support.

I'm not saying that his post Beatle career is a wash-out...just that he was like Brian, a true genius of the sixties, but seriously lost his mojo in the seventies...or could only access it on occasion (Band on the Run is great). I'd loved to have seen him immersed with some strong and powerful band mates pushing some artistic limits...he could have done anything, but instead all those silly ditties (Silly Little Love Songs, What the Man Said, Etc.....)...what a waste of talent (imho).

I really think Paul missed John as a collaborator. 

The last Paul album I really liked was Flaming Pie in 1997. 

I thought Driving Rain had a few decent songs, notably Lonely Road. 

But, most of his 2000s material has been pretty boring, and I haven't purchased anything since Memory Almost Full. 

I'm not much of a fan of Flaming Pie, I think most of it is pretty bland and boring. I struggle to remember the songs, which is not characteristic of Paul. And when he tries to rock out, he just sounds old. Chaos and Creation in the Backyard was much better I thought, excellent production from Nigel Godrich of the Radiohead fame and a vulnerability that Paul hasn't expressed before.

I know Chaos and Creation got a lot of good reviews, but it wasn't my cup of tea. 

Plus, I think Paul has a great backing band that's grossly underused in the studio. 

You guys are a lot kinder towards Paul's recent material than I am. Once in a great while I hear a song I like. I liked the idea of Run Devil Run - I knew most of those songs, I love 50's rock 'n' roll; but when I heard his versions, I thought, as someone noted above, that his attempts at rocking out sounded forced. And I thought he ruined Lonesome Town. Now admittedly I'm gonna be extra hard on anyone doing a Rick Nelson song - my all-time favorite artist; but where Rick did the song very simply, very understated, with just his guitar, voice, and the Jordanaires singing behind him, Paul ended up nearly screaming it. I don't think he lost his mojo when the Beatles broke up; I love the first solo album, the one he recorded at home playing all the instruments. Some of the songs are just scraps, just bits that he didn't fully develop, but the album has a great feel to it. I guess I like homemade sounding things. A lot of times I like an artists demo's more than the proper record. Ram, on the other hand, is very produced, and full of great melodic ideas and arrangements. There are a few songs on the album I can't stand - Smile Away, Monkberry Moon Delight, 3 Legs - but most of it is wonderful pop music. McCartney 2 is an album that I don't like very much. Oddly enough, I like the instrumentals more than most of the 'proper' songs on that album. I know it is praised by some as a great experimental album; to me, he sounds depressed or tired. Tug of War is a great album, and I also like the much maligned Pipes of Peace. It's after that that he loses it for me. These days, I'm more interested in seeing what he digs up for the archive series than anything new he is doing.  Loved most of the Wings stuff; even on the albums everybody hated, like Wildlife, I can find something to like. Red Rose Speedway got dissed because the lyrics were so meaningless, but it is full of great tunes, and the band sounds so much more professional there than they did on Wildlife. The quality takes a dive on side 2 with the pointless instrumental "Loop (First Indian on the Moon)" - Paul's attempt at doing Pink Floyd; and the long medley that doesn't go anywhere. But for the most part, it's a good album.

And now I feel bad for turning a thread about McCullough into a thread about McCartney.

This fucking year.  >:(

I guess we better get used to it. There's not many left from the first generation of rockers - Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry (retired), Little Richard (retired), Fats Domino (retired), Don Everly (retired), Dion (still recording); a good size chunk of the 60's stars are gone, and time seems to be taking quite a few from the 70's, too.

There will one day(in the somewhat distant future) come a time where every single group and artist from the 1950's and 1960's is gone. What a horrible thought.

I expect to be the last guy out there playing that music.

It's better than the alternative  >:D

What would be the alternative?