what's your favorite paul song? beatles, wings, and solo are ALL up for grabs: comment below! (mine is monkberry moon delight if you must know)

From Jann Wenner's Rolling Stone interview with Bob Dylan, (May, 2007) in which Dylan airs his real thoughts on Paul while understatedly throwing Wenner's McCartney-bashing narrative back at his face: "I'm in awe of McCartney, he's about the only one that I'm in awe of. But I'm in awe of HIM because he can do it all and he's never let up! He's got the gift for melody and rhythm, he can play any instrument. He can scream and shout as good as anybody, he can sing a ballad as good as anybody. "And his melodies are - y'know - effortless!... I'm in awe of him because he's just so damn effortless! Everything that just comes out of his mouth is framed in a melody... I just wish he'd quit, y'know? [laughs] But that's what you have to be in awe of..."

Screw the critics, McCartneys early discography is fire

Fine review Ms. Devoe. Entertaining as usual. I remember asking my dad (who I never got along with) to buy this record for me when we were walking through a department store. I was 9 at the time. I never asked my dad for anything but surprisingly he bought it for me (must have been the delicious cherries on the cover). I loved the album instantly. Still do. Charming, funky and warm.

I think this is the best synopsis and interpretation of McCartney I have ever seen. So many otherwise competent reviewers (especially journalists and critics) have dismissed Junk as "meaningless", when I have found it to be one of the deepest songs Paul has ever written. It is deeply personal. It is about attachment and disposability. It asks us to examine what we value and how people and things can lose value. It is simple and exquisite. People also dismiss this album as just a self-indulgent retreat into domestic bliss. There is a lot of revelling in the domestic, but this is an album about depression. You're the first reviewer I've seen who's also heard Every Night as a song about the paralysis of depression. He can't leave the house, so he's convinced himself that he just wants to stay home with his wife anyway. And in Maybe I'm Amazed, he sings that he's afraid of the way he leaves her. Sounds like suicidal ideation to me. This album pairs well with Plastic Ono Band for its raw emotion. But John's efforts to deal with anger and trauma is more relatable, I guess, than Paul's efforts to bury his feelings of loss and isolation.

I really like McCartney I. I regularly take it out of the shelf and give it a spin. What a nice surprise it was, seeing you chose it for this episode. Very well done.

I was 13 when this came out, and it made me want to play all the instruments, and record my own weird shit. I spent the next 50 years learning how to play and write music. He's my hero, and I'll always love this album. Also, I'm glad he's not stuck with (Lennon-McCartney) attached to "Maybe I'm Amazed".

McCartney was Anthology before Anthology. Box sets with outtakes and demos are common now, but not in 1970. That’s what this album sounds like, good ideas that haven’t been fully developed, yet. It’s no ATMP, but it’s also interesting in its own way.

I'd say Michael Lindsay-Hogg was the one who truly had no idea what the Get Back project was. The guy pracically wanted the Beatles to play at the gates of heaven.

I love the detailed historical references, the advanced level of music theory, and the passion that goes into the humor, the visually appealing presentation, and the sincerity of your documentaries on these LPs. I wish my vote for you to get a Pulitzer prize would carry weight. Thanks again.

Junk is one of Paul's greatest songs. It's amazing how he accomplishes to communicate so much in so little time, with so little complexity. The Esher version in Anthology 3 is almost the same as the finished one and it hits you just as hard.

Re: Monkberry Moon Delight. In certain parts of Britain there once grew a certain vine, a red form of Rubus Fruticosus, whose delicious berries were best picked under a full moon in July. Monks, during the Middle Ages, were known to cultivate these (now extinct) berries and make various salves, tinctures, cordials and wines from them. The fruit was particularly prized as a filling for pies and tarts, referred to as 'delights' during the high Middle Ages. From their close association with Rubus Fruticosus Britannicus, the vine and its fruit became known as the 'Monk Berry'. Sadly, a fungus affected much of Britain in 1564 and wiped out the one-time ubiquitous vine. Paul McCartney wrote a song commemorating the now lost fruit in an obscure song in his first solo album.

Oh i love this album! I usually put on a record to fall asleep to and this is my default album or at least the first side of it when i don't have a specific album i want to sleep to that night. This is an album i wanted to see you cover ever since i discovered your channel and you finally delivered so thank you for discussing this album in great detail and depth with some humor and charm like you always do!

"Every Night" is a song that grows ever sweeter with time, especially with the later live recordings. Wings played it in 1979 (Concerts for the People of Kampuchea) which was pretty good, but IMO, the best version of this was when Paul was on Unplugged in 1991. The harmonies sung live on that version kick it up a notch.

MCCARTNEY is my favorite Paul's solo album. I never get tired of it

Thank you Abby, that was one of the best deep dives I've seen about McCartney I. I appreciate how you brought out McCartney's depression and vulnerability on this album, a rare glimpse into Paul's raw emotions. You also were able to get across how Linda really was holding everything together when the rest of Paul's world was falling apart, she was an amazing woman. "Junk" is a song that demonstrates McCartney's ability to write a tune that is instantly nostalgic. I love both version on this album. As for "Maybe I'm Amazed," there's not much to say other than it's a masterpiece. Thanks for your hard work.

I got it when it came out and was underwhelmed (as I was with Let It Be). I've re-listened to it a few times over the years. . .meh. One thing I read about the album cover (back when the Paul is dead rumors were swirling) is that "Life is a bowl of cherries. . .and his is empty". I enjoyed your take on the album.

My sister bought McCartney and Let it Be the same day. it was like a double album with the second disc being all Paul songs. McCartney is what Let it Be was supposed to be - Acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano/organ and drums. Something the Beatles could play live on stage.

I'm not sure this is my favorite McCartney song but I was blown away by it upon discovery. I purchased Flaming Pie, gave it a quick listen, then it disappeared into my collection. Many years later I heard the song Somedays 'n was awestruck. I've listened to it o'er 'n o'er ever since. Without a doubt one o' his best ever compositions in my opinion...

My parents played this when I was very young and I have a lot of fond memories of it. Kind of a homey and unassuming collection of demos with a few more polished songs. There are some very strong melodies tucked away in this album. If this is the eye of the storm, it's a very calm and pleasant one. Jann Wenner can bite my ass.

Feisty unapologetic Abby and I’m here for it!

In the George Harrison book The Reluctant Beatle, Patti Boyd remembered playing a kids card game with George and Allen Klein for fun. She caught Klein cheating, which told her all she needed to know about him

The white strip on the cover of the album which the bowl and cherries are sitting on is actually the top surface of a white wall. There is a full frame photo of the wall in the sun with the surrounding area. On the album the two sides of the wall were blacked out. Brilliant album and a favourite solo beatle album for me. Fantastic review 👏 thank you 😊

this video was all i could wish for from a vinyl monday episode and, specifically, from an overview of one of my favourite albums. the delivery of material today to camera was fabulous. there is the weak focus that the album almost, weirdly, aspires to and the quality material that swims around during it's course waving not drowning. your response was candid, warm and inspired just like the music itself. the junk approval was unexpected as i thought you might find it a little pretty. i was terrified for that gentle treasure of a song. I don't think you put 'maybe' in the ring with 'something' without giving it a lot thought. both songs recognize the uncertainty of feeling in the early hours of love though i think paul replicates the incendiary feelings of love in musical form better. one day mccartney 1 is spinning and you think you're still analyzing the all too apparent failures and total highs but the undercurrent is strong: from that point a future enduring love for this plastic and cardboard construct seems possible and desirable.

It remains my absolute favourite McCartney album, Abigail. A top review. Thanx so much.

Yeah, I don't understand why this album doesn't get the "indie cred" that Ram has recently received. I actually see this album as more indie than Ram. The fact that it's less cohesive and more ramshackle is the epitome of indie. Either way McCartney's output from 1970 to 1977 is marvelous. Every Beatles fans needs to embrace this stuff. It's so good.

Loved this review. You hit the nail on the head when you said it's a mess you want to wade through. This, along with Ram, and even Wild Life, serve as a document of an artist finding out who they are while the world is told to hate them. Even more interesting to the point you brought up about how precious Paul regarded this album is that he could have relied on songs of that time that he had given to other artists like "Come and Get It" and "Goodbye." But, instead, he chose to paint as honest a portrait of his life as he could. In a way, this album is his response to John and Yoko's Unfinished Music albums.

What a lovely review of McCartney, Abigail. Thanks,

This has to be the best (and funniest) review ever of any Beatle or Beatle-solo-Album

I've pretty much dated only Lindas. So naturally my wife was named Linda. I'm currently working on a song called "The Last is a Long Line of LIndas"

Great channel subscribed. You verbosity is impressive a deluge of information packed in a tight 30 min. container and released upon us like a levee break.

Great and passionate episode ❤

It was Paul's way of answering the question, "Will the Beatles ever get together again?"

important, for me, to put this down here. after the ATMP video today and with that distance i realize that this episode affected my understanding of mccartney 1. i love the piecemeal structure interspersed with very good songs. my interpretation used to be that this commonly called 'homespun' approach was his choice. he just liked it. this ignores the astonishing pressures of circumstance and emotions he was under at that time. there was an intense creative struggle going on not a carefree one. again it's a case of vinyl monday not just putting some context down alongside the album but of seeing both as inextricably linked. this approach, the correct approach, enriches mccartney 1. creating music happens within a lived experience.

I hope you'll also do a "Mccartney 2" video; awesome album!

What a beautiful review. I actually got emotional.

Fascinating.

I'm now a couple of years past 64 and I must have heard this album hundreds of times. I never heard any of it the way you did and I frankly admiit I missed it. You took the silver hammer and hit the album, and the situation, right on the head. They were the first real musical influence on me and have been since I was six in 1964. The problem in understanding anything about 'The Beatles' was, and still is, seeing throught the glare, the blinding light of all that fabulousness. I respectfully tip my cap to you, and yes, in case you were wondering, I'm still kind of cute. Thank you.

I always thought Hot as sun glasses was one song. Lol Didn't realize it's Hot as sun/glasses. 😂

OMG I'm at work Abby, but I luv the title on the thumbnail! It made me lol!

Its my favorite album of his.. Im so happy u made a video about it!

"That Would Be Something" is one of my favorite Paul songs - worked best stripped down and bluesier on "Unplugged".

Great Choice -I loved this album -great review----great show Abby

You Never Give Me Your Money

This record! Just so fun to listen to and one of my favourite records to listen to on road trips..All those filler songs make all the real songs sound even better and those filler songs are great too but as you said just hearing Lovely Linda is just so charming and sunny

Oh man. "Junk" is hands down my favorite song on this album, and probably my favorite solo McCartney song. Brings me to tears every time. The ultimate feels. And to know it effects Abigail Devoe the same way, I now know I'm not alone. As a matter of fact, my girlfriend was watching the movie "Hanging Up" w/Meg Ryan the other day, and I walked into the room when this song came on. I almost lost it right then and there. "Sing-along Junk" is wonderful for me as well and I consider to be the same composition, and just as emotional. I'm glad this album got a proper review. I've listened to it for more than 30 years now, and I've never really known the background story drama that surrounded it. It makes me like it even more now. Simply amazing. Maybe I'm amazed.

Another masterpiece, well done 😁

My dad bought this album for me when I was 15…he’d encouraged my initial love for The Beatles, but was appalled when rumors of their drug use hit the press. He so loved the back photo of Paul and baby Mary, that he wanted me to see this perspective of my hero. My mom interpreted the front cover photo as “life is like a bowl of cherries, on the straight and narrow path” 🤷‍♂️ Another great episode Abby. I’ve always felt this album was more important than people gave it credit for. Your research has, once again, provided more info and context for an album I’ve had since it was new. Re: Junk…I never fully appreciated it until I heard Chet Atkins solo acoustic guitar rendition…the seemingly effortless beauty that Paul has so often summoned. Which is why a favorite Paul song is kinda impossible, but I’ll mention “Can’t Buy Me Love”, a peak moment in the Beatles live R’n’R band mode. 😺👍

I love this review.

Love the album. A warm pleasure, as the New Musical Express said on its initial release.

You’re so pretty how would I not want to watch your channel? Grew up with the Beatles as well! So what’s not to like? Love your channel!

Thank you Abby! You cleared something up. But I love this album without context: no matter what year it was, who the Beatles were, or what anyone else did or said. I love the intonations on this album. To me it smells like spring. Long live spring!

I’ve been listening to this album for year but I didn’t now how kreen-akrore was pronounced until now

I've loved this album for years. Everything about it suits me when I'm in the mood. Love those instrumentals. Love the album's ramshackle qualities. It never struck me as depressed at all. But then again, when I first heard the album I wasn't aware of the backstory.

Love you Abigail! Love your channel!

You know if you play Maybe I’m Amazed backwards you get a rip-roaring recipe for lentil soup!

TEMPORARY SECRATARY MENTIONED 🤯 (you should do McCartney II if there’s enough history on it)

I first heard "Every Night" when a cover version by Odetta made its way onto a mixtape compilation put out by a local record store. "Maybe I'm Amazed" is still one of my mom's all-time favorite songs. Great review, Abby!

The album does have a homemade feel. Maybe I'm Amazed is for me his greatest song...Beatles included. He had such a huge emotional connection with this album so this album is important. Of course better albums would follow but this has a certain charm. Nice review and astute observations. Well done.

Now we need McCartney 2 & 3!

Evcellent job as always! Many do refer to it as The Cherry Album, or as most I knew did, The Cherries Album.

I believe Paul liked the cover photograph for the symbolism: His life in the Beatles was a bowl of cherries, and now they've all been spilled.

Another brilliant show.

Hee haw! The cherry album. Good review. Junk is a beautiful song. I can't believe youre doing the 'double album plus bonus tracks' next.

Momma Miss America and Valentines Day are two of my favorite Paul tracks along with Maybe I'm Amazed and Jet.

I seriously couldn't choice a favorite McCartney song because there is way too many and I love 'em all.

Awesome show young lady!

This album is very close to my heart❤❤❤

Such a great album maybe im amazed, teddy boy, lovely linda, etc this and ram to me are paul's best albums great video abby ❤❤❤ keep it up

I put a thumbs up 4 minutes in. one of the big reasons I return to your channel, you always look great because your "costumes" or clothing and hats are always interesting, stylish of the 1960's, 70's. But mostly your well researched, well read, and knowledge of the Beatles and solo Beatles which took me a lifetime of experience to acquire as it happened. I am a retired music teacher. I was 14 when Paul's first album came out. I was surprised and still am that Paul NEVER released Maybe I'm Amazed as a single.. the radio stations played as if it WERE a single all the time in 1970. Conflicts with the others and that jerk manager/con artist Allen Klein. They asked/demanded him to change his release date on the solo album because they wanted to release the Let it Be album, as you explain expertly. Well you ARE an expert, very impressive. Good dramaics in your presentatoin as well. difference between you and me I have fond memories of theold days of youth with family etc.with this album as a major soundtrack..the beautiful Junk [both takes], i agree, a t cnetral focus of the album. Outstanding songs like Maybe I'm Amazed. Every Night, Teddy Boy, Man We was Lonely, [the opening chord progression I often use to tune my guitar before doing one of my 220 senior home performances]. Criticism of Paul's melodic feel good songs is totally absurd, metal head attitude crap, trapped in the limited brainwashing of musical preference of the corporate radio control freak playlist to ...it's beautiful music, fun, and there's nothing wrong with that. Lennon's critiique of that was out of pure jealousy and a troubled personality. There is all kinds of beautiful music out there, always look for the beauty in music and your heart will be happy.

Very good 😄👍

I discovered "Momma Miss America" on an _AVClub_ listicle of classic instrumentals from 2008 (back when _The AVClub_ meant something) and I've loved it ever since.

I just love this channel so much. I've watched all of your vinyl Mondays numerous times because of how engaging and entertaining you are while reviewing. In fact I'm going to go watch you're layla video again to kill my lunch break for the 3rd time.

Paul McCartney 1 out of all the Beatles first solo albums of 1970 is a brilliant collection of songs that for being a total solo effort and made in his home studio still sounds fresh and wonderful today and an amazing introduction to a wonderful solo career

I particularly love the instrumentals Momma Miss America and KreenAkrore, very raw and psych.

Maybe I'm Amazed is one of those songs that makes me cry when I'm sad. Makes me cry when I'm happy. Soothes me when I'm angry, awakens me when I'm numb. This album does feel like a mess and maybe feels like there's not enough in certain spots and maybe too much in other spots, but it's a reflection of a brilliant mind during a bad time, and it feels like Paul working through his darkness and then putting it out for the whole world to see, even if he's showing his whole ass in the process. A messy album for a messy time for a man who was feeling and acting pretty messy. ...but amongst that mess was Linda. And their family. And capital L Love. Paul McCartney writes about Love in an almost religious way. He's the inverse of Harrison. For Harrison, "God is Love." For Paul, "Love is God." And I love Paul's hokey moments, his stupid Dad Joke songs, just the sound of someone having fun in the most sincere way. And Paul's sincerity is what makes him great to me. And that's why Maybe I'm Amazed is not just my favorite Paul solo song, but I think it's the best of any of the Beatles' solo songs. Even if one could make the argument for George or John having a better album than Paul, I think that "Amazed" is just a singularly perfect song. It's tender and beautiful and shrieking and has a jagged guitar solo and that's life. And that's Love. And that's Paul.

You got it girl

I really like jet or mull of kentiry. Also, I hope some day you get to do john denver maybe ??

Great video.

You make the drama more dramatic 😌

This album has one GREAT song on it, MAYBE I’M AMAZED…and 3 other very good ones..EVERY NIGHT , JUNK and TEDDY BOY. Which surpasses what is on a lot of his later albums..of course I do love some of his later albums, Band On The Run, Flowers In The Dirt which are better but a lot of this album is ideas and fragments or jamming with himself, lightweight demo level productions.I actually like the album it’s not brilliant but the one masterpiece and 3 other good ones make it very worthwhile.Thanks.

I couldn’t agree with you more about the song “Junk”. It’s my favorite song on the album.

you and that Berrett! 😍😍

So many to choose from including Martha My Dear, I Will, Ram On, Junk and Dear Boy but I think I would have to go with Jenny Wren.

Worth a mention .. Linda compilation- Wide Prairie .x

Part of me wishes The Beatles together had done a loose, relaxed casual album like this. About the closest we have as the Esher Demos.

I bought this album a couple of months after it came out. At the time I had to save up my allowance to buy records and Let It Be came first. But when I got it I couldn't stop listening to it. I love almost everything on McCartney, including Kreene-Akrore.

I think the timing of McCartney was wrong. As you mentioned it was competing with Abbey Road and the stripped down nature of the production left much to be desired (at the time). Since then, I think we all agree it’s a beautiful record ❤️

McCartney 1 - Why Don't we do it in the Road: The album. Paul trying to be (all of) The Beatles. * One exception Maybe, I'm amazed, which is exceptional.

Good story -- this is still the only McCartney solo record I like. The way the story goes sort of reminds me of Dinosaur Jr.'s output and the drama which came with Lou Barlow releasing Sebadoh and Sentridoh recordings. Maybe it's a bassist thing....

Hi Abby & greetings from sunny Scotland. Thanks for another well produced & entertaining video on one of my favourite albums, which I first heard when I borrowed the LP from my local public record library a few months after it's release. If you can please forgive me for nitpicking, but surely "The Family Way" soundtrack (Dec 1966) is the true "McCartney 1", & first musical solo Beatles release? Even though it's effectively a collaboration with George Martin, Macca got the music & publishing credit. Cheers & best wishes x

nice! Love this album! was hoping for this one

What’s funny is that this was made before Billy Martin became manager of the New York Yankees. He was hired and fired by George Steinbrenner FIVE times

So, McCartney II when?

My favorite solo Paul song is No More Lonely Nights.

That Was Me/Vintage Clothes/Feet in the Clouds medley off of Memory Almost Full is pretty special. That album contains another favorite as well: The End of the End, which is a beautiful albeit more somber number.

We already know that you are going to eventually get to an All Things Must Pass album review, but would you ever be interested in reviewing Plastic Ono Band? For me personally, Plastic Ono Band and All Things Must Pass are the two best solo Beatles albums, with Ram being third. So, yeah, I think John’s POB is deserving of an album deep dive

colour combinations on the thumbnail, fashion and overall image, are just... give me a while.

McCartney 1 is a coffehouse album.

"And then there were two. . . " What an incredibly sad and scary moment that must have been for Paul. "Is this mighty ship actually going to . . . _sink_ ?!" Linda really was his only answer through that very, very difficult time.