Sally G – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

My Favorite Paul McCartney songs

The most commercially successful of the Beatles. Paul was so blessed with huge musical talent. Undoubtedly, he was the most talented musician in the Beatles. That’s not to say he hasn’t written some bad songs, but as a musician, he could have played with anyone. There is a story that Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix wanted to collaborate on a project and attempted to recruit Paul on bass.

He has had so many hits that it would be impossible to not leave one off. Paul is known for his pop hits, but when the mood struck, he could rip out rock and roll with the best of them. I always liked it when Paul would write something with loud guitars. In a stretch in the early 70s, he had quite a few of them. One of them I liked but didn’t make this list was Hi, Hi, Hi.

Junior’s Farm – This one doesn’t get played as much as some others, but it’s my favorite Paul song.

Let Me Roll It – I always thought this one could have been written and performed by John Lennon.

3. Band On The Run – One of Paul’s masterpieces. He pretty much stuck 3 short songs together on this, like he did on Abbey Road.

4. Picasso’s Last Words (Drink To Me) – The Spanish artist Pablo Picasso died at the age of 91 on April 8, 1973. News of his passing reached Paul McCartney when he was in Jamaica.

While having dinner there with Paul McCartney, Dustin Hoffman told the story of the death of Pablo Picasso and his famous last words, “Drink to me, drink to my health. You know I can’t drink anymore.” Picasso then went to bed and died in his sleep.

Paul had a guitar with him and immediately played an impromptu chord progression while singing the quote. Thus, “Picasso’s Last Words” was born, later recorded and added to the album Band On The Run in 1973. Hoffman later said of Paul writing the song in front of him, the experience was “right under childbirth in terms of great events of my life.”

5. Sally G -I’ve always liked B-Sides… Let’s listen to some Liverpudlian Country Music. I cannot hear this song without thinking of my grandmother. Her name was Sally, and yes, her last name started with G. She lived to the ripe old age of 96.

6. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five – This song was on arguably McCartney’s best album, Band On The Run. It didn’t chart, but it was released as the B side to the song Band on the Run, and it was played quite a bit on the radio. One of my favorite McCartney album tracks.

Nineteen Hundred And Eighty-Five was never performed live by Wings, and only became part of McCartney’s live set in 2010.

7. Uncle Albert/ Admiral Halsey – I remember hearing this before I knew who Paul McCartney was…it was unbelievably catchy, but I had no clue what it was about…still don’t.

Paul combined pieces of various unfinished songs to create this… in the later years of The Beatles, he helped do this for the Abbey Road Medley. As a result, Uncle Albert – Admiral Halsey contains 12 different sections over the course of its 4:50 running time.

8. Jet – It was a terrific single…I like the B side (Let Me Roll It) more, but I love this song. Tony Visconti, who did a lot of production work for David Bowie and Thin Lizzy, did the orchestration on this song.

9. Listen to What the Man Said – It’s far from his best song, but it’s a good pop hit. It was recorded for the album Venus and Mars. It was a song that McCartney had high hopes for, but early recordings did not live up to the song’s potential. The missing ingredient was Jazz musician Tom Scott’s sax solo. They ended up keeping the first take that Tony Scott played on.

10. Maybe I’m Amazed – I’ve always liked the original version of this song the best. The studio version of this song was never released as a single (no tracks on the album were), but it is one of the most remembered songs on McCartney’s first solo album McCartney. “Maybe I’m Amazed” was written in 1969, just after The Beatles broke up, about Linda.

Paul McCartney – Sally G

I’ve always liked B-Sides… Let’s listen to some Liverpudlian Country Music.

I cannot hear this song without thinking of my grandmother. Her name was Sally and yes her last name started with G. She lived to the ripe old age of 96. I have posted about the A-side of this single Juniors Farm but never about this B-side that I like. I heard this song when I was 7 because my sister had this single and it’s been in my head ever since.

When I saw him in 2010 and 2014 I thought both times…hmmm he is in Nashville so Sally G surely will be played. Nope… Paul didn’t utter Sally’s name.

The song actually got played on the country stations in Nashville which looking back I can’t believe happened at that time. Nashville wasn’t exactly in love with rock performers.

Sally G was written and recorded in Nashville. In 1974 Paul McCartney came to Nashville. They rented a 133-acre farm just outside of Lebanon TN from songwriter Curly Putman (“Green, Green Grass of Home”) for $2,000 a week. They had requested a farm within 50 miles of Nashville that had horses and swimming facilities.

The band stayed at the farm for 6 weeks while the Putman family vacationed in Hawaii. When Putman and his wife returned to their farm, McCartney saw them walking up the driveway. McCartney and the band greeted them by playing “Green, Green Grass of Home.”

I have a cousin that lives in Lebanon around 5 miles from where he stayed…not a great picture but here it is today.

Lloyd Green, Bob Willis, and Johnny Gimble Willis contributed steel guitar, dobro, and fiddle respectively while adding legitimacy to McCartney’s country venture.

Paul playing guitar on “Junior’s Farm” in 1974

Sally G. and it peaked at #17 in the Billboard 100, #51 on the country charts, #11 in the Canadian Country charts, and #61 in Canada. Paul composed the song after visiting the nightlife in Printer’s Alley.

As his time in Tennessee came to a close, McCartney told a group of local reporters that he hoped to mount a U.S. tour the following year and that if it happened, Music City would definitely be on the itinerary.

McCartney didn’t come back until 36 years later in 2010 and I finally got to see him. Paul…you lied but all was forgiven when he took the stage.

I hardly ever point out a bridge in a song but in this one…it’s kept me listening for decades. It’s not the lyrics but the melody, backups, and harmonizing on the final “move along.”

Me and Sally took up,
things began to look up,
Me and her were going strong.

Then she started lyin’,
I could see our love was dyin’.
I heard a voice say,
“Move along, move along”.

Paul McCartney: “Buddy Killen [studio owner and music publisher] took us out to Printer’s Alley, a little club district,” “I didn’t see anyone named ‘Sally G’ in Printer’s Alley, nor did I see anyone who ran her eyes over me when she was singing ‘A Troubled Mind.’ That was my imagination, adding to the reality of it.”

Musician gets to stay on the farm for 3 weeks.

Home movies of Wings in the studio in Nashville 1974

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG48u6R8I50

Sally G

Somewhere to the south of New York City
Lies the friendly state of Tennessee,
Down in Nashville town I met a pretty
Who made a pretty big fool out of me.

And they call her Sally,
Sally G, why d’you wanna do the things you do to me?
You’re my Sally, Sally G
took the part that was the heart of me, Sally G.

The night life took me down to Printers Alley,
where Sally sang a song behind a bar.
I ran my eyes across her as she sang a tangled mime,
I used to love to hear her sweet guitar.

And they call her Sally,
Sally G, why d’you wanna do the things you do to me?
You’re my Sally, Sally G
took the part that was the heart of me, Sally G.

Me and Sally took up,
things began to look up,
Me and her were going strong.

Then she started lyin’,
I could see our love was dyin’.
I heard a voice say,
“Move along, move along”.

Well now. I’m on my own again,
I wonder if she ever really understood.
I never thought to ask her what the letter “G” stood for,
But I know for sure it wasn’t good.

And they call her Sally,
Sally G, why d’you wanna do the things you do to me?
You’re my Sally, Sally G
took the part that was the heart of me, Sally G.

Sally G.

Juinor’s Farm/Sally G. by Paul McCartney and Wings

Juinor’s Farm/Sally G. single by Paul McCartney and Wings.

I had this single as a kid. Juinor’s Farm and Sally G were both partially recorded in Nashville during Paul’s six-week stay there in 1974. Juinor’s Farm is one of my favorite songs by Paul McCartney. The song rocks and the solo was performed by a 21-year-old Jimmy McCulloch. The song reached #3 in America. The band stayed at a farm in Lebanon TN around 30 miles from Nashville. I remember at the time it being big news that Paul McCartney was going to record in Nashville. I was seven years old and remember seeing Paul on the local news.

Jimmy McCulloch was a guitar prodigy… He was playing in a band when he was 11. He was in a band supporting The Who when he was 14 and in the band Thunderclap Newman in 1969 when he was 16. He went on to play with John Mayall (That guy knew how to pick guitar players) and Stone the Crows… He then went to play with Paul McCartney and Wings in 1974. He gave Paul’s songs an edge and I wish he would have stayed in Wings longer.

He left Paul to play with the reformed Small Faces in 1977. In 1979 died of heart failure due to morphine and alcohol poisoning. You have to wonder how much better this guy could have been…

The B side was Sally G. and it hit #17 on the Billboard charts and even #51 on the country charts. This song has stayed with me through the years. When I listen to it…I think, now this is more of a what a country song should sound like. I really hate modern country music. No pickup trucks or tractors in this song. Modern country music could learn a lot by listening to country songs in this period and earlier. Paul composed the song after visiting a club in Printer’s Alley in Nashville.

This was McCartney’s last release on Apple Records

This is from the Tennessean about Paul’s 1974 visit to Nashville. It was written by Dave Paulson

1974
Paul McCartney touched down at Metropolitan airport with his family on the evening of June 6, 1974, emerging from the plane wearing a green battle jacket and flashing a peace sign. The Tennessean reported that Paul answered questions “briefly but willingly” and even humored a group of kids who were amused by his British accent (he said the word “elevator” at their request).
The music superstar told a crowd of about 50 fans and members of the press that he’d come to Nashville for his three Rs — rehearsing, relating and riding. Music producer and executive Buddy Killen, who would act as the McCartneys’ Music City guide during their six-week stay here that summer, greeted the family upon their arrival.
The McCartneys rented a 133-acre farm just outside of Lebanon from songwriter Curly Putman (“Green, Green Grass of Home”) for $2,000 a week. They had requested a farm within 50 miles of Nashville that had horses and swimming facilities.
“I’ve got a farm in Scotland,” McCartney told reporters during an informal press conference on the farm. “You’re not the only people who have farms, you know. Back in Scotland, we’re country people in our own way.”
During their stay, the family visited the homes of Johnny Cash and Chet Atkins and even took in a few movies at their local drive-in.
McCartney and his family caused quite a stir when they joined the audience at Opryland for the third annual Grand Masters Fiddling Contest on June 16, 1974. During the intermission, Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton performed their final show together before Parton embarked on her solo career. Linda McCartney got out of her seat several times to take photos of the duo. The McCartneys went backstage to meet with Wagoner and Parton, and then escaped into a waiting automobile.
McCartney told Nashville reporters that he was raised on country music, and he tried his hand at a bit of country songwriting while he was in town: He wrote the song “Sally G.” after a trip to Printer’s Alley.
McCartney drove around on a newly purchased motorcycle during the family’s Nashville visit. When a group of reporters waited at the Putman farm gate for a “highly informal” press conference, Paul and Linda rode past, smiling and waving.
Linda told The Tennessean she was “not much into materialism anymore,” though she had made a recent trip to Rivergate to purchase gifts for her family. Another big machine Paul loved — the Mellotron synthesizer — was not readily available in Tennessee at the time, to his chagrin.
As his time in Tennessee came to a close, McCartney told a group of local reporters that he hoped to mount a U.S. tour the following year, and that if it happened, Music City would definitely be on the itinerary.
“We just couldn’t skip Nashville,” he said. “We have too many friends here.”
McCartney continued to skip Nashville for the next 36 years.

When Paul did come I was there in 2010… he also came back in 2013 and I was there again. Three hours of one favorite after another…