Mojo - The Music Magazine

To celebrate the cover star of this month's MOJO magazine, we've compiled a Paul McCartney playlist that plots a course through his first three years of solo magic. How do you follow the Beatles? It's simple: you just keep writing great songs...

Junk
(McCartney, 1970 / Anthology 3, 1996)

Written during the Beatles' sojourn in Rishikesh in 1968, Junk is the cousin of those other McCartney acoustic lullabies Blackbird and I Will. It never made the final cut of The White Album, but its Parisian melodies and soothing sentimentality would eventually find the perfect home on his stripped-back solo debut. ________________________________________________________________________

Maybe I'm Amazed
(McCartney, 1970 / Live, Seattle 1976)

A live favourite to this day, Maybe I'm Amazed emerged from Paul and Linda's exile in the Scottish Highlands. Driven by a belting Macca vocal, it's a deft summing-up of a McCartney desperately trying to see through the fug of the Beatles break-up: "Baby I'm a man, maybe I'm a lonely man / Who's in the middle of something / That he doesn't really understand." ________________________________________________________________________

Every Night
(McCartney, 1970)

McCartney played everything on this bare-bones ballad, a song that sees him battling with his demons ("Every night I just want to go out / Get out of my head") and falling in love ("Tonight I just want to stay in and be with you"). It remains one of the highlights of the McCartney album. ________________________________________________________________________

Too Many People
(Ram, 1971)

WATCH VIDEO HERE!

Slated by the critics on its release in 1971, Ram contains a hodge-podge of styles that veer between the whimsical and the wistful. As per usual, John Lennon was listening in, immediately taking exception to this opening track. And not without reason: "Too Many People was a bit of a dig at John, because he was digging at me," McCartney told MOJO in 2001.
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Give Ireland Back To The Irish
(Single, 1972)

Written in response to the Bloody Sunday killings in Derry, Wings' first single advocated British withdrawal from the Emerald Isle and was subsequently banned by the BBC, Radio Luxembourg and the Independent Television Authority. The footage above shows the band rehearsing the song in 1972. ________________________________________________________________________

Big Barn Bed
(Red Rose Speedway, 1973)

This video of Wings was filmed for a TV special in 1973, as the group point the way toward the expansive, harmony-laded rockers that would appear on Band On The Run. ________________________________________________________________________

My Love
(Red Rose Speedway, 1973)

A US Number 1 on its release in 1973, this is McCartney at his most simple and succinct. A mellifluous paean to Linda, it's a ballad that he still dedicates to his late wife when he tours today. ________________________________________________________________________

Band On The Run
(Band On The Run, 1973)

A bona fide McCartney masterpiece made up of three distinct sections, Band On The Run is pop music at its finest. Cut in Nigeria, it manages to deliver that breezy McCartney feel alongside the sort of complex arrangements found on the second side of Abbey Road. Not bad going for only two-and-a-half musicians (McCartney, Denny Laine, Linda). Even Lennon dug it, telling Rolling Stone magazine: "You can call them Wings, but it's Paul McCartney music. And it's great stuff." ________________________________________________________________________

Let Me Roll It
(Band On The Run, 1973)

McCartney always insisted that this sparse, primordial rocker wasn't a response to Lennon's vicious How Do You Sleep? although we still have our suspicions about that. Either way, the trebly guitar hook and church-hall reverb of the vocals are undeniably reminiscent of Plastic Ono Band-era John. ________________________________________________________________________

Live And Let Die
(Live And Let Die, 1973)

Penned to accompany Roger Moore's first outing as James Bond, the ominous explosions of Live And Let Die remain inexorably intertwined with the voodoo exotica and New Orleans underworld of the movie. MOJO was front and centre for this 2004 Glastonbury performance and can happily report that the whole thing still sends shivers up the spine.

Compiled and annotated by Ross Bennett