FEATURE:
Paul McCartney at Eighty
Five: Post-McCartney III and 2022
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IN this part of my run of features…
PHOTO CREDIT: Mary McCartney
that looks ahead to Paul McCartney’s eightieth birthday in June, I wanted to look at this year. As of the time of writing (20th January), there has been no announcement regarding festivals or any big bookings. Aside from his bestselling and award-winning lyrics book, there was also the documentary, The Beatles: Get Back. It was a hectic and fun year for McCartney in terms of promotion and activity! With gigs few and far between, I think he is looking ahead to what 2022 has in store. In terms of albums, I suspect that McCartney has had some material stored up. His latest album, McCartney III, topped the charts and won him some of the best reviews of his solo career. It is a tremendous album that was made during lockdown (or ‘rockdown’ as he called it!). I have an inkling and feeling that we may get an album from Macca later this year. In any case, I wanted to speculate what more could come from him this year. Topping the charts and winning plaudits all over the shop, McCartney III showed that a legend in his late-seventies had lost none of his songwriting genius! This is what AllMusic observed in their review:
“Paul McCartney faced the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020 like he faced so many other unexpected challenges in his life: he set out to make music on his own. The title of McCartney III positions it as a direct sequel to 1970's McCartney and 1980's McCartney II, albums he made in the wake of the respective dissolutions of the Beatles and Wings, a sentiment that rings true in some ways but not in others. Certainly, the one-man-band approach unites all three albums, as does their arrival at the dawn of a new decade, yet McCartney III doesn't contain a clear undercurrent of Paul processing change in the wake of loss.
He doesn't spend the record trying to "Find My Way," as he puts it on the album's second song, but rather simply existing, drawing evident pleasure from the process of writing and recording new music. This also means McCartney III doesn't quite have the shock of the new the way that the homespun McCartney and synth-laden McCartney II do; he's not attempting new forms or ideas, instead returning to themes that have served him well over the years, whether they're plucked acoustic ditties, plaintive piano ballads, or stomping rockers. Execution makes a big difference, though. Where 2018's Egypt Station was designed with the charts specifically in mind -- Paul went so far as to hire producers Greg Kurstin and Ryan Tedder for the record, hoping they'd give him a modern sheen -- McCartney III is constructed at a modest scale, the arrangements so uncluttered that it's easy to hear the years on McCartney's voice. Maybe he can't hit the high notes he way he used to, maybe he sounds a bit weathered, but the change in his singing has a profoundly humanizing effect, especially when heard in conjunction with his distinctive drumming and fuzzed-out guitars. Within these contours, it's possible to trace the distance between the three McCartney albums. Despite these signs of age, McCartney III isn't an album about mortality, it's about finding sustenance in rough times. McCartney nods to sadness and loneliness on "Deep Deep Feeling" and conjures a fleeting sense of wistfulness on "Pretty Boys," then balances these moments of sadness with the sweet "The Kiss of Venus," the sugar-coated rallying call "Seize the Day," and the vulgar jabs of "Lavatory Lil." Individually, these moments may not seem particularly eccentric, yet when they're collected as an album, they add up to a charmingly off-kilter record, an album that benefits from its modest origins and McCartney's willingness to not polish too many of his rough edges”.
McCartney also did a series with Rick Rubin where he explored and dissected his songwriting. 2021 was a year where he looked back quite a bit. After a fresh album at the end of 2020, the last year was McCartney largely revisiting his past work. With a lot of focus being on The Beatles and how Peter Jackson’s documentary changed the narrative and decades-held beliefs as to why the band broke up (namely that Yoko Ono was somehow responsible), it must have been quite emotional for him. With Ringo Starr, McCartney got to see his sadly-departed bandmates (John Lennon and George Harrison) working at a time that many have assumed was quite tense. I wonder whether this has given him drive to compose new material. In terms of Beatles-related bits, there have been no announcements regarding books or remastered albums. Of course, we got a range of packages for Let It Be. Complete with extras and a treasure trove for fans, I am not sure whether Giles Martin is going to go back to 1963 and Please Please Me. Many fans wonder if Rubber Soul and Revolver will be the next for the remaster treatment, as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was the first in 2017 – fifty years after the album was released. I don’t think there are any plans in 2022 from Martin. That could change, but it seems unlikely. What is more likely from a Beatles viewpoint is more books. Naturally, The Beatles: Get Back would have inspired new perspective on the band. I feel we will get some books about the group from 1969/1970.
In terms of McCartney himself. There has been no word as to whether he will play Glastonbury this year. He was due to headline in 2020 but, with the pandemic halting things, there has been no news. I suspect that McCartney will play plenty of gigs. As he approaches eighty, it is amazing he still has the energy to play such demanding sets! I do feel that there will be an album. McCartney has always worked and, with time to compose and record at his home studio, I reckon we might get an album similar in tone to McCartney III. Maybe he will play with other musicians but, as Macca did everything himself, maybe he will go down that route again. Things are still a bit restricted, so maybe he will not feel comfortable inviting musicians into the studio with him. Given the fact that McCartney III was released with a starting or artists re-versioning and remixing songs from the original, perhaps McCartney is in a more collaborative mood. Whatever comes, I get the sense McCartney will reflect on the pandemic and strange time, but he will look to move forward. Maybe watching The Beatles documentary has given him some fresh direction and sense of reflection. There will be a lot of demand for new McCartney material for sure. I am excited to see what comes next. One might predict a quieter year for McCartney but, as he approaches eighty, I do not think…
HE will slow down.