Tag Archives: Paul McCartney

Song of the Week – Songs The Beatles Gave Away

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Ignored            Obscured             Restored

Let’s start the New Year with a post that features music by my all-time favorite band, The Beatles; but with a twist.  This one presents “songs that the Beatles gave away.”  In other words, it includes songs written by one of them but never officially released by the group.  Instead, it was recorded and released by another artist.

Being democratic, I’ll highlight one song (primarily) written by each of the Beatles’ songwriters.  Sorry, Ringo!

“Bad to Me” was written by John Lennon and recorded by Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas.

The song is very typical of the early Beatle style – a “love song” with a simple, catchy melody.  It reached #1 in the UK in 1963 and #9 in the US in 1964, after the Beatles reached our shores.

Here’s Lennon’s demo.

Paul McCartney wrote “Goodbye” for Mary Hopkin as a follow-up to her #2 cabaret hit “Those Were the Days” (1968).

“Goodbye” has another prototypical McCartney melody.  It skips along like schoolgirls in the playground on a sunny day.  McCartney, himself, played most of the instruments on the recording.  It reached #13 in the US in 1969.

Hopkin was one of the first acts signed to the Beatles’ newly formed Apple Records.

Now listen to McCartney’s demo.

Although much less prolific than Lennon/McCartney, George Harrison also wrote a few compositions he was willing to share with other artists.  He gave “Sour Milk Sea” (1968) — written on the Beatles’ famous trip to Rishikesh, India — to Jackie Lomax, another Apple Records signee.

“Sour Milk Sea” is more obscure but is a pretty good rocker.  It didn’t chart despite featuring musical accompaniment from Harrison, McCartney, and Starr.

Now Harrison’s demo.

You probably can remember and name a few other “songs the Beatles gave away”, including Peter & Gordon’s “A World Without Love” and “Come and Get It” by Badfinger.  But there are quite a few more.  Check out this Wikipedia page for a more comprehensive list:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Songs_Lennon_and_McCartney_Gave_Away

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Too Many People, Paul McCartney; How Do You Sleep, John Lennon

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Ignored           Obscured            Restored

Last November, Disney+ relased The Beatles: Get Back.  The three episode documentary, directed by Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame, took 60 hours of film footage and 150 hours of audio tape — from 22 days in January 1969 — and reconstructed it into an 8 hour, “fly on the wall” experience that seeks to revise the negative vibe and historical record of what actually occurred during the sessions that culminated in the original Let it Be movie from 1970.  At that, The Beatles: Get Back succeeds.

However, it can’t be denied that a mere 15 months later, on April 10, 1970, Paul McCartney announced that The Beatles had broken up through his ambiguous answers to the questions he was asked during an interview about his first solo album, McCartney.

I was browsing through the recent Paul McCartney book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present that my wife gave me for Christmas.  It has the lyrics to 156 McCartney compositions along with his commentary and loads of photos and memorabilia.

I was interested in his explanation of the lyrics to “Too Many People”, from 1971’s Ram.

He explains:

This song was written a year or so after The Beatles breakup, at a time when John was firing missiles at me with his songs, and one or two of them were quite cruel.  I don’t know what he hoped to gain, other than punching me in the face.  The whole thing really annoyed me.

The key lyrics blame John for the breakup and scold him for preaching and telling people how they ought to live.

That was your first mistake
You took your lucky break and broke it in two.

Now what can be done for you?
You broke it in two.

Too many people preaching practices
Don’t let ’em tell you what you wanna be
Too many people holding back
This is crazy, and baby, it’s not like me


What surprised me was that John’s most scathing song aimed at Paul, “How Do You Sleep”, was written as a response to “Too Many People.”  I had originally thought it was the other way around.  “How Do You Sleep” was on Lennon’s Imagine that was released about 4 months after Ram.

John’s basic personality had an acerbic, mean spirited side that was foreign to the genial McCartney.  So John’s swipes were direct stabs to the heart where  McCartney’s were more subtle.  John says:

So Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise
You better see right through that mother’s eyes
Those freaks was right when they said you was dead
The one mistake you made was in your head

You live with straights who tell you, you was king
Jump when your momma tell you anything
The only thing you done was yesterday
And since you’ve gone you’re just another day

Those last lines are references to McCartney’s signature Beatles’ tune, “Yesterday”, and the soft rock of his solo song from Ram, “Another Day.”  Ouch!

I’d like to think that if John were still alive today, these past grievences would be forgiven and settled, and the Lennon/McCartney team would be friends again.

Enjoy… until next week.

 [T1]

Song of the Week – Rainbow Lady, Mike McGear

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Ignored           Obscured            Restored

Did you know that there is a secret Paul McCartney and Wings album that you probably never heard?  Well, not exactly, but close!

Wings finished recording Band on the Run in October 1973.  (It was released in December ’73.)  Their next project was to help Paul’s little brother Mike — stage name Mike McGear – to record his second solo album.  McGear was recorded in early ’74 and released the following September.

The lead vocals were sung by Mike (his voice has a timbre that is like Paul’s), Wings performed all of the backing tracks.  Paul chose not to be credited on the album, but he contributed bass, guitars, keyboards, piano, synthesizer, and backing vocals (“What Do We Really Know?”).  Paul also produced and co-wrote all the songs (except opener “Sea Breezes” by Bryan Ferry), mostly with his wife Linda and Mike.

The McGear disc produced one moderate hit.  The saxophone driven “Leave It” made it to #36 on the British charts.  But that’s not my favorite track.  I prefer the quaint, Beatlesque “Rainbow Lady.”

Just another silly love song!

Enjoy… until next week.