The Beatle Solo Albums That Every House Should Own - My Opinion (1)

[GazzaBTFC]

John Lennon

John Lennon & The Plastic Ono Band

Live Peace In Toronto (for the 1st side only)

Imagine

Walls & Bridges

Rock & Roll (always been a fav 'cos his vocal performance shows he is having fun)

And the best of the best of's....Shaved Fish (It just hangs better than all those "cram everything on" CD's).

 

Paul McCartney

McCartney

Ram

Band On The Run

Venus & Mars

Wings Over America (loads of stuff said about this triple album and none very complimentary but I like it and you get to hear some Beatle tracks done acoustic)

Wings Greatest (again included because it hangs so much better than blah, blah, blah...)

Back To The Egg

Tug Of War

Flowers In The Dirt

 

That's it for those two....will do the other two later on.

[Electric ~soul~]

re: The John Lennon list.

 

Yeah, reckon you've got that about right, although I don't own Rock'n'Roll - covers just bore me!

 

Have to agree with your comments about cramming everything onto one CD. The Beatles' One is another example of this.

 

As for Macca...

 

Well, of the Wings ones, I'd have London Town in ahead of Band On The Run, but that's just personal preference. Can see why most would go for Band...

 

And the two post 1980 solo albums - spot on again, I think. Tug Of Ware goes a bit wayward on side two around the Carl Perkins collab, and How Many People on Flowers... is pretty dire, but otherwise they're two mighty fine albums. 60% of Flaming Pie is up there too.

 

I prefer All The Best (vinyl version, not CD) to Wings Greatest, although the former doesn't have Hi Hi Hi or Junior's Farm. But the inclusion of Maybe I'm Amazed and No More Lonely Nights makes up for that, I think.

[GazzaBTFC]

It's the inclusion if Hi, Hi, Hi and Junior's Farm that shade it for me...then again, buy the excellent Wingspan.

 

I have to say that, I haven't really got into Flaming Pie. I liked it at the time, I got distracted possibly by some other release as it got filed...I'll look it up this weekend.

 

As you are aware I have this new(?) Sony Hi-net mini disc so I'll tranfer it on to there and give it a spin or two at work. I don't like dismissing a Beatle solo album without a full and attentive listen.

[Electric ~soul~]

There are one or two jams on Flaming Pie which are pretty appalling - including one called Really Love You with Ringo Starr. They get skipped whenever I play it.

 

But tracks like The Song We Were Singing, Somedays, Little Willow and Calicoe Skies are excellent, and very White Album-esque. You can tell he'd just been working on the Anthology projects.

[GazzaBTFC]

I remember those tracks...perhaps it wasn't as ignored as I thought....yes, they are very White Album.

 

I've heard the new one is very White Album as well.

 

Overall my disapointment about Paul is he can rock but rarely does.

[Electric ~soul~]

I have to admit, I prefer 'mellow' Paul to 'rockin'' Paul.

 

His Wings rockers are great - the aforementioned Juniors Farm and Hi Hi Hi, Rock Show, Jet etc. - but have found any attempts by him to rock out since about 1985 to be mildly embarrassing.

 

I prefer my Macca with an acoustic guitar in his hands.

 

Same with Lennon, actually. Look At Me, Oh My Love etc.

[GazzaBTFC]

To Continue....

 

George Harrison

All Things Must Past

Concert For Bangladesh

Extra Texture

33 and 1/3rd

Live In Japan

Concert For George (not really a solo album but a tribute but worth the admission price)

 

Ringo Starr

Ringo

Goodnight Vienna

Blast From The Past (The best of...)

[Electric ~soul~]

Only have about 50% of George's albums.

 

All Things Must Pass and Concert For Bangladesh - no argument!

 

I prefer the 1979 George Harrison album to 33 and 1/3rd. Haven't heard Extra Texture, so maybe that should be my next purchase?

 

As for Ringo, I only have 'Ringo'! My CD copy of this also has It Don't Come Easy on it, which is a bonus, but chronologically baffling.

 

Of course, there are Beatle-related albums too...

 

Sean Lennon's Into The Sun is well worth buying, an excellent album. Released on the Beastie Boys' Grand Royal label, which is quite bizarre!

 

And of the three avant-garde Johnandyoko albums, I don't mind a bit of Life With The Lions - Cambrisge 1969 draws you in after about 15 minutes. I don't mind a bit of Yoko.

 

I have Linda's Wide Prairie at home too, but can't say I've given her stuff as much attention as Yoko's.

 

And finally, for Beatle-related albums, everyone should own The Rutles! Piggy In The Middle, Ouch, Get Up And Go, I Must Be In Love... they're a legend in their own lunchtime!

[GazzaBTFC]

I saw the Ruttles again a couple of weeks ago and I'm afraid I found it very dated humour wise. Music is okay but I didn't enjoy it as I did all those years ago (to coin a phrase)...Maybe I wasn't in the mood.

 

Sorry, can't stand Yoko. Firmly in the camp that to a degree she had too much hold over JL.

[Electric ~soul~]

I do like the Rutles - the costumes and some of the sequences are superb, and the CD of the music is brilliant! There's a lot of the film that I don't enjoy (Ron Decline sequence, Feet, Paul Simon & Mick Jagger interviews), but I do love the music.

[Electric ~soul~]

re: Yoko.

 

I hear you, but think she got a bit of a raw deal as well. I find her really intriguing though. I'd love to see some of the films (Rape, Smile etc) that they put together in the late 60s.

 

Yoko Ono and The Plastic Ono band is pretty good too, especially the opening track Why. Don't know about much of her other stuff, though.