There are seasoned songwriters who\u00a0have been writing for decades who are still trying to find out what made\u00a0Paul McCartney\u00a0so special.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Beatles had the kind of internal chemistry that no one could have replicated, but if you broke down the talents of every individual member, Macca was one of the best melodists of the 20th century, always coming to every session with a song that could either inspire or annoy you, depending on your preference. But even if a song sounded like nails on a chalkboard when he played it, no one could admit that the song didn\u2019t at least get stuck in your head by the time it was finished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even when he was making some of his most low-profile albums, there was always a chance that McCartney would come out with the catchiest tune that you\u2019d ever heard. He doesn\u2019t necessarily need to have fond memories of every single song he ever played, but whereas an album like Wild Life <\/em>is one of the most blatantly unfinished works he ever made, \u2018Bip Bop\u2019 is still going to be stuck in people\u2019s heads the rest of the day once they hear it for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But for all of those great tunes, McCartney couldn\u2019t hold himself to that standard forever, right? After all, any normal rock and roll star has those few years of being the best artist in the world before they start falling off, but that\u2019s not what happened. Sure, Macca had peaks and valleys, but some of the finest melodies that he ever made actually came after both The Beatles and Wings decided to call it a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The late 1980s did have more than its fair share of outright crap, but around the time of\u00a0The Beatles Anthology,\u00a0<\/em>McCartney seemed to get back in touch with what made him so great to begin with. It was suddenly cool to be one of The Beatles again, but no one could have anticipated him making a record that was as experimental as what he did with Nigel Godrich on\u00a0Chaos and Creation in the Backyard.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n McCartney would have usually reserved some of his more experimental efforts for The Fireman, but working with the mastermind behind every Radiohead production gave everyone a look at every facet of the former Beatle. There were tunes that paid tribute to his friends like \u2018Friends to Go\u2019 and even the occasional tune that sounded modern like the hidden track \u2018I\u2019ve Only Got Two Hands\u2019, but after years of trying to sound current, \u2018English Tea\u2019 was the kind of tune that brought back all of the whimsy of his early days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not everyone is going to be a fan of Macca\u2019s \u2018granny shit\u2019 music, but he always felt that he was going to be remembered for writing tunes like this,\u00a0saying, \u201cI think it\u2019s very me. The Beatles made very English-y kind of music. A lot of our stuff was American-focused, but then we started to work on some stuff that was more us. So that\u2019s particularly me, that \u2018English Tea\u2019 type of thing. It was this fascination with how people speak.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And regardless of how you feel about the more twee version of McCartney, it\u2019s not like he isn\u2019t good at making these kinds of tunes. Most people may have preferred if he leaned into his rock and roll roots like John Lennon did every now and again, but it\u2019s sometimes good to have a balance of a song like \u2018Helter Skelter\u2019 with \u2018Maxwell\u2019s Silver Hammer\u2019 when listening to one of his records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n None of The Beatles was a one-trick pony by any stretch of the imagination, but McCartney\u2019s love of those whimsical tunes was a lot more interesting than having to hear him be the balladeer every time he stepped up to the microphone. Are they cheesy? Absolutely, but sometimes people need a little bit more cheese in their diet than sticking to the hearty rock and roll stuff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n