More Toxic Than Fab
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Artist:
Is it heresy to suggest that a member of The Beatles - evidently, the most influential and beloved rock band of all time - has produced anything less than stellar music? Of course not! You need only hear George Harrison's "Got My Mind Set on You," John Lennon's "Beef Jerky," or Ringo Starr's cover of "You're Sixteen" to get the message: These guys were not infallible pop wizards. And you could compile a whole album's worth of toxic material by the often able, sometimes dazzling tunesmith Paul McCartney. The Fab Four? Not always.
Reflect upon a handful of Paul's more worthless wonders: his cloying musical version of the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb," the dimwitted "Monkberry Moon Delight," the infantile gibberish of "Bip Bop," the feeble synth-wank of "Loup (1st Indian on the Moon)," and the laughable romantic "duel" between McCartney and that noted ladies' man (ha!) Michael Jackson for the hand of a fair damsel on "The Girl Is Mine." Don't even get me started on "Cook of the House," sung by his late wife Linda.
In my desire to pick the most off-putting McCartney number, I settled on "Silly Love Songs," which was a radio-driven hit single for McCartney and his band Wings in the '70s. For starters, it's McCartney trying to justify his more simple-minded, overly-sentimental material. Sorry, Paul. No dice. The bassline is rock solid, as one might expect from the nimble-fingered McCartney. But the arrangement was an attempt to ape one of my favorite styles of the era - the disco-throb, R&B soulfulness, and grand orchestrations of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff's Philadelphia International sound - and the result was so white-bread and singsongy that it made me want to change the station or leave the room whenever it started up. That has never happened with Philly International stalwarts the O'Jays, the Intruders and Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes.
Enough villification. I still adore McCartney's solo numbers "Junk," "Maybe I'm Amazed," "Jet," "Band on the Run," "Rock Show" and so on. Which doesn't mean I should tolerate "Silly Love Songs." You, on the other hand, can decide for yourself by listening up on the MOG Player and/or watching Macca and Wings on the handy video clip. (Warning: Excessive exposure can rot the teeth and melt the brain.)
Locating MOG account...
Comments (30)
Just luckily I wasn't in any kind of a relationship so no connection to silly love songs ..however there must still some remnants of radio "brainwashing" from too much exposure, taking an ANTI_Drugn now.... good music fast, need good music!! arhhhhhhh!!! :)
I like me some good '70s soft rock and "Silly Love Songs" is as flacid as "rock" gets. I could go for some Rita Coolidge, Leo Sayer and Carol King right now as a matter of fact.
Does AM radio even exist anymore?
At first I couldn't stand this song but after much inadvertent overhearing on the radio it's become a small pleasure. There's a pop sensibility and sheen to it that I've come to like and I find the part of the chorus about 'sometimes love...' childishly amusing. He's got whole acreage of bad songwriting; this is OK. As someone I know often says, 'your mileage may vary'.
Much as my loathing of teh Beatles is well known here, may I observe that all the tracks you single out for vilification above were recorded after Paul's tragic death on 9th November 1966, after which he was replaced by replicant Phil Ackrill, former guitarist of Birmingham's Denny Laine and the Diplomats - http://digilander.libero.it/p_truth/
Indy: A quick dose of the Ramones might do the trick. Or Front 242.
dachmo: It seems like AM is now nothing but divisive "conservative" ranting and call-ins, sports talk, and some news radio. As for soft rock of the '70s (Isn't that the title of a Time-Life collection?), I can't do it. Never could, although I will admit to a fondness for some early James Taylor and most of Joni Mitchell's discography. (The latter might not really count because much of her mid-to-late period found her smart and prickly lyrics in musically adventurous settings.)
Jonh: Guilty pleasure? Okay. I'll buy that. But how dare you toss a favorite catch phrase back at me?;-)
Baudolino: I knew it! I knew there had to be a good explanation for his obvious deterioration!
I'm kinda with Jonh on this - there's far worse he has recorded. "Mull of Kintyre" and that ghastly Christmas song, to name two that come immediately to mind. And this at least has that jaunty little bass line, along with some of what I will grant you are the lamest lyrics ever. Oh, "Another Day." That one really blows donkeys, too....
ivy: The Christmastime ditty is a gallon of treacle, but the faux trad of "Mull" doesn't bother me as much as the faux Philly disco-soul of "Silly." And jeez Louise! What about those other clam sandwiches that I referenced? He should be fined for "The Girl Is Mine" alone. ("The doggone girl is mine!" What?) And "Bip Bop" and "Monkberry Moon Delight" don't make your skin crawl? Really?
In a just world, "The Girl Is Mine" and especially "Ebony and Ivory" would each be punishable by death....
On their Unchained Padodies album, the Swinging Erudites did a multi-song parody:
The Paul McCartney Massacre:
a. Silly Paul McCartney
b. Stupid People Living in the Past
c. Yesterday Pt. I & II
d. Robert Plant Serenade
e. Eighties New-Wave Serenade
f. Losers in the Studio, and Dying (L.S.D.)
g. Merciless Reprise
I've heard it. It's pretty good.
And appropriate.
(MP3s of the entire album can be found at a Polish site...)
oops. The MP3s on that site are just snippets... sorry
ivy: Amen.
fairportfan: That's okay. Good map to a relevant attraction.
I was into Macca & Wings back in the day so I love this song as sappy as it is, lol. No accounting for taste eh?!
shoot me now but I happen to kind of love this song
August: There are quite a few of their songs that I like, even today. Then, there are the lame-o ones. I guess there's no accounting for my taste either.
Rawk: Like I said... :-D
The massive overplaying of the song may have something to do with the negative attitudes toward it. The AM playlist of the 70's might have been even stricter than todays maligned radio fare.
Also, in the last few days, I have crossed a lot of paths with anti-Beatles sentiment. Is that a trend?
Anyway, my new Tuesday tradition is to share a toxic tune with the Titan of Toxicity..here's a number 3 smash from '72..again, I dare you.
Cody, that's low....What next? "Reach Out In The Darkness"?
Good idea,Ivy..there are so many choices, but since we are in Beatle territory how about this Top 5 fab4 nick from '70..
Wow, you've got a genuine evil streak, man....
Spinnin' the platters that matter from coast to coast!
I went a bit funny as well when I lived with a vegetarian, but I'm OK now...(...as long as they don't find the grave)
I tried for years to loathe this song to no avail. Very of its time but (to me) thoroughly enjoyable on all levels. And wot's dis den..."Monkberry Moon Delight"? "Loup"?? I'm reporting your disrespect to the American Indian League and the Neil Armstrong museum(and it's just north of me in Wapakoneta, which is also an Indian word)!!
"You think that people would have had enough of toxic Tuesday....I look around me and see it isn't so, oh no!"
cheers bro!
Cody B: Eh. I was always annoyed by the song, no matter how many times I heard it. Methinks that those Beatles are unassailable - even if you can poke at them now and then. The body of work is too good, too prodigious, too lasting. Anyhow, your first MOG Player didn't work, but the second reminded me that Climax should have been sued for plagerizing "Cherish" by the Association, unless "Precious & Few" was written by the same composer. Re: the Flying Machine song. Sounds more like Burt Bacharach after a Prozac/Zoloft cocktail.
ivylander: Do not encourage Cody. He's already doing enough damage on his own.
Neill: Wow! It's like you have a twin!
scotfree: Uh-oh. I'm really up sgainst it now. (Can we record that?)
I had to re-Climax..cause it didn't work the first time, so worry not, you didn't miss any additional toxicity. The 70's were a big zoloft/prozac (or whatever they had then) cocktail weren't they?
Mike- Oh, yeah. This one will rot out teeth- and minds.
As my 9-year old daughter says, "Dis-GUST-ing!"
Another one by Sir Paul that isn't much better: "Ebony & Ivory" with another icon (almost) beyond reproach: Stevie Wonder.
Cody: Thank goodness. I'd hate to lose out on that slightly nauseous feeling. Actually, I think it was more Quaaludes than Zoloft or Prozac.
Fasted: The corn is high, and you'd have to be, too, to think that those duets are any good.
but i like the slash-your-wrist-already Red House Painters version. (;
Got My Mind Set on You, though. what ever was Georgie thinking? someone care to remake?
poe: What you will! (I'm a Mark Kozelek fan, so I can't disagree.) As regards George's folly, let sleeping (dark) horses lie.
The words "I love you" never sounded so terrifying before, and that's saying something ;)
Anna: It's like one of those YouTube clips where a dog howls "Ah wowww wooooooo!" while the owner mans the camera and imitates what the dog is "saying" to encourage it. Creepy.