I get a new turntable and dust off some old records. Vinyl Tap #8:
Must be nice being a brother to a Beatle when it comes to hand-me-downs. Not only do you get the usual pants and shirts - when you’re older you get some famous coattails to latch on to. Oh, and a recording contract and one of the best songwriters in the world to write or help you write songs and a record deal for an album that might otherwise not see the light of day.
But perhaps I’m being too harsh about McGear by Mike McGear. After all, there is one non-Paul McCartney song kicking off this 1974 album, “Sea Breezes” — by Brian Ferry of Roxy Music — and McGear did change his name for this project so as to escape a nepotistic link. And then there’s…okay — enough about those half-hearted evasive measures: a cursory glance at the album cover tells us that Paul also produced it, he provides background vocals and he’s brought along Linda and a contingent of Wings to help create a decent enough pop-rock album.
The result is just too much of an uneven work to, well, work - which, come to think of it, is a McCartney-eque trait in and of itself, so they’re keeping this inconsistency thing in the family. But they also keep and convey on a few cuts that unerring melodic McCartney trademark for highly infectious tunes you can’t get out of your head, even if the lyrics turn out to be a slapdash effort.
“Leave It,” one of the exclusive McCartney-penned song, and perhaps not coincidentally, the best song on McGear, is one of those upbeat, seemingly effortless tunes that may have been inadvertently swept under the studio carpet during the Band On The Run or the Red Rose Speedway sessions (at least we didn't get some surplus and incessant “wo-wo-wo-wos” from “My Love Does It Good”).
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Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
I love this album, my favorite McCartney solo album! Their version of "Sea Breezes" is definitive
2 - uao
I've also had a fond spot for this album for many years; I'm particularly partial to the cover of "Sea Breezes"
McGear had been using "McGear" since his days in Scaffold, so he didn't change his name for this project.
Nice write-up!
3 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Thanks Eric--I'm now kind of intrigued by McGear's earlier album called "Woman," which doesn't have Paul's hand in the production and writing. Maybe I'll seek it out and hope that the selling prices aren't as high as for the "McGear" album.
4 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Thanks uao, for the comment and the info about McGear's name change. I should've at least figured that out from the earlier release date of the previous album "Woman" which used "McGear."
5 - Georgie
While it may have been a waste of Hauptfleisch's time, I'm listening to McGear and I'm listening to it right now, thirty-three years after it's release. I'll tell y'all it has an excellent bounciness and a great lighthearted feel. Buy it, for God's sake and a wonderful bit of history.
6 - Barry O'Brien
Glad someone set the facts straight about the name change happening many years before this album. The full story is at www.biguntidy.com