One might be forgiven for thinking, upon first listen to Paul McCartney’s 2012 offering, ‘Kisses On The Bottom’ (no, really!), “The old codger’s gone all sentimental…”
There’s bound to be a few who’ll dismiss this record as mushy twaddle. ‘Macca’, however, has never been shy of making heart-on-sleeve statements in his music, though his has always been a quaintly English romantic sensibility than a contemporary bare-it-all corniness.
‘Kisses’ sees McCartney hark back to the past as he mines little-known (mainly American) numbers. Yes, they’re all rather lovey-dovey, these songs, but they reflect the happy place this soon-to-be-septuagenarian’s in at present (he married New Jersey-born Nancy Shevell in October last year). The album has the soft-shoe shuffles of light jazz, and the strings-drenched arrangements (courtesy the London Symphony Orchestra) so beloved of this Liverpudlian.
Right from his days with The Beatles, McCartney has always sought inspiration from the songbook. In 1999, following the death of his first wife, Linda, Macca went back to his rock roots in the exuberant 1950s-flecked joyride that was ‘Run Devil Run’. In the recording of that album, McCartney called on some pretty big names – David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, the late Mick Green of Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, and Deep Purple’s Ian Paice. For ‘Kisses’, McCartney invited Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder and Canadian jazz pianist-singer Diana Krall (an ever-present on the 16 tracks) to accompany him on a delightful journey back in time.
Where ‘Run Devil Run’ was full of the crackle and Technicolor promise of early rock n’ roll, ‘Kisses’ is the sound of a man content with his lot in life (and, clearly, in love again). As exercises in nostalgia go, it’s tastefully done. What these albums, 12 years apart, share is a reverence for the masters of old, and a wish to honour their music. “For years I’ve been wanting to do some of the old songs that my parents’ generation used to sing at New Year,” says Sir Paul in the liner notes.
“So I met with Tommy (LiPuma, the American producer who has worked with George Benson, Natalie Cole, Diana Krall and Barbra Streisand, among others), and we just hung out, talking about the songs, the old sing-songs, and we found we had a lot in common. But we tried to work out a slightly different approach, and used a selection of songs that wouldn’t be the absolute obvious ones… songs that everyone tends to cover. We looked for songs that were a little more unusual, that sometimes people might never have heard.” Songs that even Macca didn’t know existed.
These tunes swing between the understatedly jazzy and tender old-timey; there’s an exquisite, between-the-wars vibe about them. But then, Macca’s always been a sucker for such songs (remember the teasing sentiment in ‘The White Album’s ’Honey Pie? – Ooh, I like this kinda, hot kind of music…), and it goes back to his boyhood. “The way I figure it, a lot of it was post-War. My parents’ generation were just recovering, when I grew up, from World War II. In Liverpool they’d all been bombed. So they were now determined to have a good time, and they latched on to these very positive songs… People wanted positive songs to lose the memory of the War. And I grew up with that. I think it really gave me a deep love of that kind of thing.”
While some of the songs on ‘Kisses’ may be obscure, many of the songwriters certainly aren’t. E.Y. ‘Yip’ Harburg and Billy Rose, Frank Loesser, Billy Hill, Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, Johnny Burke and Mort Dixon – these are fellows who composed tunes that would go on to become standards. Amidst the obscurities, there are three McCartney originals: the beautiful My Valentine – as eloquent as any ballad he has penned – the slightly saccharine Only Our Hearts (with an unforgettable Stevie Wonder harmonica), and the jaunty Baby’s Request (a version of which featured in 1979’s ‘Back To The Egg’, Wings’ seventh and final studio album).
The rock romp that was ‘Run Devil Run’ also had three new songs – the breathless title track, cathartic rocker Try Not To Cry, and the ebullient What It Is). For the rest of the record, McCartney mixed a few classics with some lesser known numbers. In adaptations of Gene Vincent’s Blue Jean Bop, Elvis Presley’s All Shook Up and rockabilly legend Carl Perkins’ Movie Magg, he paid homage to the music that first made him pick up a six-string, but it was Chuck Berry’s Brown Eyed Handsome Man, given a delicious Cajun twist, that was the standout.
McCartney may have created some of rock’s (and pop’s) most cherished songs, but it only takes a listen to these two records to appreciate that he has, over his storied career, tipped many a hat to the tunesmiths of the last century.
The Long Player 