This is the fourth of my imaginary Beatles albums of the 1970s, after What Is Life (1970), Working Class Heroes (1971), and Imagine (1972). It would have been released sometime in 1973, probably in the spring; while in reality the Ringo songs weren't released until November, they were recorded in March. As with the other albums, I'm simply posting my original track listing and liner notes.
Live And Let Die
Hi Hi Hi (McCartney/McCartney) 3:07 (1972/12/01)
Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth) (Harrison) 3:38 (1973/05/07)
New York City (Lennon) 4:28 (1972/06/12)
Live And Let Die (McCartney/McCartney) 3:11 (1973/06/01)
I'm The Greatest (Lennon) 3:18 (1973/11/02)
Big Barn Bed (McCartney) 3:50 (1973/04/30)
Luck Of The Irish (Lennon/Ono) 2:56 (1972/06/12)
Give Ireland Back To The Irish (McCartney/McCartney) 3:48 (1972/02/25)
The Day the World Gets Round (Harrison) 2:51 (1973/05/30)
John Sinclair (Lennon) 3:27 (1972/06/12)
Get On The Right Thing (McCartney) 4:15 (1973/04/30)
My Love (McCartney/McCartney) 4:07 (1973/03/23)
You And Me (Babe) (Harrison/Evans) 4:19 (1973/11/02)
Total Time - 47:17
Hi Hi Hi
Written by Paul and Linda McCartney; Performed by Wings
Recorded 1972/10; Released 1972/12/01
Single
Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)
Written and Performed by George Harrison
Recorded 1972/10-1973/01; Released 1973/05/07 (single release [US])
From Living In The Material World
New York City
Written and Performed by John Lennon
Recorded 1972/03; Released 1972/06/12
From Some Time In New York City
Live And Let Die
Written by Paul and Linda McCartney; Performed by Paul McCartney and Wings
Recorded 1972/10; Released 1973/06/01
Single
I'm The Greatest
Written by John Lennon; Performed by Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr)
Piano and Harmony Vocal: John Lennon
Guitars: George Harrison
Recorded 1973/03; Released 1973/11/02
From Ringo
Big Barn Bed
Written by Paul McCartney; Performed by Paul McCartney and Wings
Recorded 1972/03; Released 1973/04/30
From Red Rose Speedway
Luck Of The Irish
Written and Performed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Recorded 1972/03; Released 1972/06/12
From Some Time In New York City
Give Ireland Back To The Irish
Written by Paul and Linda McCartney; Performed by Wings
Recorded 1972/02/01; Released 1972/02/25
Single
The Day the World Gets Round
Written and Performed by George Harrison
Recorded 1972/10-1973/01; Released 1973/05/30
From Living In The Material World
John Sinclair
Written and Performed by John Lennon
Recorded 1972/03; Released 1972/06/12
From Some Time In New York City
Get On The Right Thing
Written by Paul McCartney; Performed by Paul McCartney and Wings
Recorded 1972/03-10; Released 1973/04/30
From Red Rose Speedway
My Love
Written by Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney; Performed by Paul McCartney and Wings
Recorded 1972/03; Released 1973/03/23 (single release [UK])
From Red Rose Speedway
You And Me (Babe)
Written by George Harrison and Mal Evans; Performed by Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr)
Electric Guitar: George Harrison
Recorded 1973/03; Released 1973/11/02
From Ringo
The songs on this album were recorded in 1972 and early 1973. Paul – or rather his new band Wings – didn't release any albums in 1972, but they did release a pair of singles. The first of these was Paul's response to Bloody Sunday, "Give Ireland Back To The Irish". A very unusual song for Paul, who had heretofore avoided politics in his music, it was pretty hard-hitting (and naturally got banned by the BBC), though the fact that he wrote it and recorded it rather quickly is apparent, especially in the lyrics. Another Wings' song to be banned by the BBC (according to their spokesman, for suggestive lyrics, not for drug connotations), the rocker "Hi Hi Hi", was released at the end of the year. As one of Paul's best early singles, it made a good album opener. It was in fact originally a hit double A-side with "C Moon", a melodic tune which I considered including but decided against (the lyric is a bit irritating).
Wings' second album Red Rose Speedway was recorded in 1972 and released the following spring. It is hardly Paul's best work (a few of the songs are pretty weak), but it did have a few decent tracks, including "Big Barn Bed" and "Get On The Right Thing", both of which appear here. The big hit from this album was of course "My Love", which despite hitting the top of the top of the charts in the US and top 10 in the UK, was poorly received by critics because of its sentimental lyrics. I've never been terribly fond of it myself, but after some consideration I decided that it isn't really terrible either, as it has a nice melody and even the lyric is not quite as saccharine as it seems at first listen. Anyway, it was one of his biggest hits, so I decided to add it on. The final recording from Paul and his band to appear on this album is another single and in my opinion a much better song, namely "Live And Let Die", the theme song for the James Bond film of the same name.
John's album for 1972 was the highly political Some Time In New York City (actually it is a John Lennon and Yoko Ono album). The rather strident tone of the lyrics was a major reason that this is John's least popular release among both critics and the public. Nevertheless, there are some good tracks, and together with Paul's "Give Ireland Back To The Irish" and to a lesser extent George's songs, they make this the most political "Beatles" album. "New York City" is a solid rock song, musically and lyrically kind of like a sequel to "The Ballad Of John And Yoko". "Luck Of The Irish" was co-written by John and Yoko (and is clearly an actually collaboration, unlike the songs of Paul's on which Linda was given a writing credit) and they share lead vocals. Not a brilliant song, but pretty clever nevertheless (and with Paul's Irish song, it also makes this a distinctly pro-Irish album). "John Sinclair" is a song supporting the activist John Sinclair, who in an obvious case of political persecution was given a ten-year prison sentence for selling two marijuana cigarettes to an undercover cop ("they gave him ten for two"). The lyrics are perhaps a bit simplistic, but the song has a good melody and some cool guitar playing.
George finally released his second solo album Living In The Material World in early 1973, over two years after All Things Must Pass. It would be too much to expect LITMW to measure up to its predecessor, and it doesn't. However, overall it is one of George's better solo efforts, and some of the songs are as good as those on All Things Must Pass. Furthermore, as the AMG reviewer pointed out, it gave George a better chance to shine on the guitar, unlike the previous album which had a number of other guitarists, including Eric Clapton. Here George is the only guitarist, so he really gets to show his stuff. Two of the songs from the album appear here, including the big hit single, "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)" and the ballad "The Day the World Gets Round."
Ringo had released an album of oldies and an album of country songs in 1970, but so far he had not released an album of pop songs. He finally rectified that with Ringo, which is without doubt his best solo album and for that matter one of the best solo Beatles albums. Of course Ringo didn't do it all himself, rather, as someone put it, he was "getting by with a little help from his friends." The first song from the album, included here, was "I'm The Greatest", written by John and performed by John, George, and Ringo (plus Klaus Voorman), making it the closest thing to a Beatles reunion on a single song until the Anthology sessions. In fact the album had all four Beatles on it, as Paul contributed a song as well (which will appear on the next "Beatles" album). George contributed the most to the album of any of the other three. Besides appearing on "I'm The Greatest", he wrote one song and co-wrote two others, one of them the album's best track, which will also appear on the next album. On this one you can hear one of his other contributions, "You And Me (Babe)", the song he co-wrote with ex-Beatle roadie Mal Evans as the album's closer (it originally also included a spoken part by Ringo where he thanked all those who contributed to his solo album, but since it wasn't appropriate for this album, I cut it out).
This album, if it had been released by the Beatles, would have come out in early 1973 after George and Ringo finished recording their contributions. This year would prove to be high point for Beatles recordings and releases, so much so that the next album in this series will also consist of 1973 recordings (including some real standout tracks), and even the one after that will included a few songs from this year. Stay tuned!
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