VARIOUS ARTISTS "the art of mccartney"

[CRAZY-HORSE]

[URL="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-McCartney-Amazon-Deluxe-Exclusive/dp/B00NF4POZO/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1416900948&sr=1-1&keywords=the+art+of+mccartney"]
[/URL]
VARIOUS ARTISTS "the art of mccartney"

i bought this one last weekend and finally just got round to hearing the whole 2cd set....
okay, what we have is a tribute album to Sir Paul McCartney by a multitude of artists
from the likes of Billy Joel,KISS,Roger Daltry,Dr.John,The Cure,Sammy Hagar,
Jeff Lynne,Willie Nelson,Allen Toussaint and lots more...
im a huge McCartney fan but this collection really does hit home just how good a songwriter
Sir Paul has been, i mean, i take it his music for granted sometimes, but when you hear a package
like this one it really does confirm why he is regarded so highly in the industry.
theres a few dud tracks on here, but for the most part the artists have picked songs that suit
their style like Steve Miller covering "juniors farm", Billy doing "maybe im amazed". Willie
covering "yesterday", Chrissie Hynde's "let it be" and Cheap Trick's "jet"...
others on the other hand dont fare too well like Dion's "drive my car", Brian Wilson covering
the classic "wanderlust",Barry Gibb trying his hand at "when im 64"...they just dont work IMO.
even Dylan is on there covering "things we said today", that one is very average, would have prefered to
hear him cover "youve got to hide your love away"...
KISS' cover of "venus and mars/rockshow"...i dont like it, but Dani did, but hey,thats music...
allup though, a pretty good album for a covers album,and i dont like covers most of the time...
but this one works and sits nicely alongside the rest of my Macca cd collection!

my initial score for this one is 1.8, i cant see it ever growing anymore on me than that, but its
well worth a listen...
linked below are several tracks that stand out for me from the cd

"maybe im amazed" Billy Joel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nJZwRIy8G8 audio

"juniors farm" Steve Miller
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6YplDxxPLE audio

"yesterday" Willie Nelson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KZYBvkVq0M audio

"so bad" Smokey Robinson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRU_gsiLr20 audio

"lady madonna" Allen Toussaint"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC93Q0T8TvY audio

Track Listings
[TABLE]
[TR="class: sampleTracksHeader"]
[TH="class: discNumber"]Disc: 1 [/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowEven"]
[TD]1. Maybe I’m Amazed - Billy Joel [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowOdd"]
[TD]2. Things We Said Today - Bob Dylan [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowEven"]
[TD]3. Band On The Run - Heart [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowOdd"]
[TD]4. Junior’s Farm - Steve Miller [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowEven"]
[TD]5. The Long And Winding Road - Yusuf [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowOdd"]
[TD]6. My Love - Harry Connick, Jr. [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowEven"]
[TD]7. Wanderlust - Brian Wilson [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowOdd"]
[TD]8. Bluebird - Corinne Bailey Rae [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowEven"]
[TD]9. Yesterday - Willie Nelson [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowOdd"]
[TD]10. Junk - Jeff Lynne [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowEven"]
[TD]11. When I’m Sixty Four - Barry Gibb [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowOdd"]
[TD]12. Every Night - Jamie Cullum [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowEven"]
[TD]13. Venus And Mars/ Rock Show - Kiss [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowOdd"]
[TD]14. Let Me Roll It - Paul Rodgers [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowEven"]
[TD]15. Helter Skelter - Roger Daltrey [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowOdd"]
[TD]16. Helen Wheels - Def Leppard [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowEven"]
[TD]17. Hello Goodbye - The Cure (Featuring James McCartney) [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: sampleTracksHeader"]
[TH="class: discNumber"]Disc: 2 [/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowEven"]
[TD]1. Live And Let Die - Billy Joel [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowOdd"]
[TD]2. Let It Be - Chrissie Hynde [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowEven"]
[TD]3. Jet - Robin Zander & Rick Nielsen [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowOdd"]
[TD]4. Hi Hi Hi - Joe Elliott [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowEven"]
[TD]5. Letting Go - Heart [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowOdd"]
[TD]6. Hey Jude - Steve Miller [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowEven"]
[TD]7. Listen To What The Man Said - Owl City [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowOdd"]
[TD]8. Got To Get You Into My Life - Perry Farrell [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowEven"]
[TD]9. Drive My Car - Dion [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowOdd"]
[TD]10. Lady Madonna - Allen Toussaint [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowEven"]
[TD]11. Let 'Em In - Dr. John [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowOdd"]
[TD]12. So Bad - Smokey Robinson [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowEven"]
[TD]13. No More Lonely Nights - The Airborne Toxic Event [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowOdd"]
[TD]14. Eleanor Rigby - Alice Cooper [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowEven"]
[TD]15. Come and Get It - Toots Hibbert With Sly & Robbie [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowOdd"]
[TD]16. On The Way - B.B. King [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: listRowEven"]
[TD]17. Birthday - Sammy Hagar [/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

[Big Ears]

I've been thinking of getting the new remasters of Venus and Mars and Wings at the Speed of Sound.

[jazzboCR]

This project was 11 years in the making. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_McCartney

[Big Ears]

The Billy Joel track looks interesting. I think he has only recorded two rock songs in the last twenty years or so (apart from these two).

[CRAZY-HORSE]

I've been thinking of getting the new remasters of Venus and Mars and Wings at the Speed of Sound.

i have the deluxe multi disc editions of the "band on the run","ram","mccartney" and "mccartney II" remasters...
i wont be getting "venus and mars" because theres no additional bonus material discs,just a standard cd release rematered...
as for "speed of sound", i think it also is a standard remaster cd,no bonus tracks etc, but i was never keen on that one...

just in case youre interested Big Ears...
theres only three albums in the McCartney back catalogue i do not like..."new", "kisses on the bottom" and "chaos and creation in the backyard"
"speed of sound","wildlife", his covers set "run devil run" and probably "press to play" would rate lowly for me also

favourite album of Macca would be...."back to the egg" for me.

[CRAZY-HORSE]

The Billy Joel track looks interesting. I think he has only recorded two rock songs in the last twenty years or so (apart from these two).

i love his version of "maybe im amazed", almost as good as Paul's original IMO...
i can live without "live and let die" though, that one did nothing for me

[Big Ears]

I think the 'New' album is the only one by McCartney I have ever disliked. I even liked Give My Regards to Broad Street, which seems quite unpopular on the forums. I don't think my version of V&M is remastered and I do not have At the Speed of Sound anyway. Nor do I have Back to the Egg. Perhaps I need to give it a listen.

Billy Joel couldn't much wrong for me. I wish he would make a rock music comeback.

[CRAZY-HORSE]

Back To The Egg was not well received by the media and majority of fans back in the day...
Even Macca dismissed it in an interview I saw in the late '80s...
It contains a good mix of ballads and genuine rock...
I luke the Broadstreet album also,
Love the sax work at the beginning of Long And Winding Road....
I also think No More Lonely Nights(ballad version) is up there with his best songs, the so called 'playout' version of the same track is also very good

[Big Ears]

I remember the publicity surrounding the Rockestra sessions at the time, although I am not sure if I have ever heard them. Much was made of David Gilmour's involvement as I recall. Back to the Egg turned out to be the last Wings album. Paul McCartney said in an interview that he would like to think that he would have worked with John Lennon again, had he lived, but he never worked again with Denny Laine, with whom he created his best post-Beatles work (imo). It is strange how the fallout with Laine was never fully explained.

[CRAZY-HORSE]

Two tracks on BTTE are credited to Rockestra...."the rockeatra theme" and "so glad to see you here".....musically,they're about as heavy as Macca ever rocked IMO.

As for Denny Laine....various stories abound,depends who you want to believe....

Laine's version was basically....he was sick and tired of Macca's drug taking,the final straw was Macca's 1980 arrest and incarceration in Japan....
Also the fact that Laine was only ever paid as a session muso by Macca during the Wings years even though he was always known as a full-time member,
Not sure how this relates but Macca does acknowledge he wrote "mull of kintyre" on his own but gave a writing credit to Laine because Laine was bankrupt at that time.

Macca says Wings split because it had run its course and he wanted to do the solo thing again...
Strange,because in another interview I have with Paul he says "McCartney II" was not meant to be released instead he was,as he puts it, goofing around in his new home studio...

With what I've read about Macca over the years, I tend to lean towards Denny Laine's explanation