#1442: Paul & Linda McCartney – Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey

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The last couple times I’ve written about songs from Paul & Linda McCartney’s Ram album, I’ve made note about why it’s my favourite out of McCartney’s solo efforts. There’s no point in getting into the whys again, I think you all get the idea. But seeing that ‘Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey’ was next up in this list, it got me thinking about when I listened to Ram for the first time. That’s something I don’t think I’ve talked about in any prior posts concerning the album. So I went to the Vista computer sitting in the corner of the living room, opened ‘Downloads’, went to the ‘Ram’ folder and selected ‘Properties’. “22nd June 2011”. 4pm on the dot. Even before the 2012 remaster came along. Some other things I found, if you find them interesting, were that it was the last Beatles solo-related album I downloaded after really getting into things like Imagine and Band on the Run and All Things Must Pass… all the good ones, a few months before. And it was the third full album I downloaded post finishing my GCSE exams, after There Is a Way by Dananananaykroyd and the brand-new work by Arctic Monkeys called Suck It and See. It was a good time to be alive.

‘Uncle Albert…’ has been in my bones for so long now, I can’t lie and come up with the scenario where I heard the track the first time and was blown away, thinking “Wow, this song’s amazing”. I honestly can’t remember. It probably took a listen on one unremarkable day where everything clicked. And sometimes that’s enough. It left a mark though, like a big chunk of Ram has. This song charted at the top of the American charts when it was released back in 1971. I listen to it now and think this is a weird song to chart at number one anywhere, especially the US. Then again it was a former Beatle. But ‘Uncle Albert…’ is a strange one. McCartney dips into that Abbey Road medley bag, combining parts of separate compositions to make a whole. Does that on ‘The Back Seat of My Car’ as well. But he also runs away with the possibilities he has at his disposal, changing his voice to take roles of different characters within the song, mimicking the ringing of a telephone, and of course showing off that wide vocal range of his. Linda McCartney’s right there alongside him, pulling off some great harmonies, probably the best parts to look out for in the entire track, and the brilliant ‘butter pie?’ retort that comes along.

I called ‘Uncle Albert’ strange, but I don’t mean to make that sound disparaging. This song is a lot of fun. Like, a lot. The first ‘Uncle Albert’ half of the song is supposedly an apology to the older generation, represented by the Uncle Albert character based off McCartney’s real relative. The ‘Admiral Halsey’ section is meant to depict a snubbing of an authoritarian figure. Just looking at what Wikipedia says McCartney said about it. Never thought about that part that way, it’s kind of interesting. But anyway, “Haaaaaands across the water (water) / Heeeeeeeads across the skyyyyyyy”. For God’s sake, how was this guy so good with melodies? There’s so many alone in this song that can get stuck in the brain, sung and delivered in a manner of ways. Words bouncing off each other to and fro. My favourite melody / harmony is the additional one that’s added under the ‘Hands across…’ melody after the whole butter pie bit. But the whole track is a little masterpiece. It all ends with a bit of riding into the sunset kind of feel, harmonizing McCartneys oohing all over the place. Someone starts going crazy on the piano. But even then, it doesn’t let up as stray guitar plucks and tom-tom strikes enter the frame, leading right into the following song on the album. The excitement keeps rolling on. He’s never sang it live, so a performance video below is AWOL. It would take some doing now. But you never know.

#1441: Talking Heads – Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town

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Looks like I gave the whole spiel as to what other songs from Talking Heads: 77 would have their own posts here when I last wrote about another song from that album a few years back. Normally I reserve that whole bit for when I’m writing about the last representative from a specific LP. But I guess I couldn’t hold it in. What I’ve found out is that I listened to …77 in full for the first time in March 2014. I thought it was much later in the year. I have a memory that fueled that feeling, I’ll maybe note it in the final paragraph. But let’s see, March 2014. I was hosting a show on my uni’s radio station. I was stuffing my iTunes library with as much music as I could. I had ‘Tentative Decisions’ by itself in there. I’d heard it on an internet radio service in 2012 or so. I’m guessing I must have just thought, “May as well get the rest of the album in too.” It was a well-respected piece of work, according to Wikipedia. I had nothing to lose.

‘Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town’ is the first song on Talking Heads: 77. The one introducing the band to the masses, with …77 being their debut album and all. It begins with a crashing, ascending four-chord progression before falling straight into that shoulder-shimmying groove. The guitar line skips along, in unison with the bass guitar, and then David Byrne enters on the vocals for all to hear with that shrill but perky delivery of his. Steel drums enter the frame along the way, all a very upbeat affair. Guess it’s safe to say, ‘Uh-Oh…’ is a song about love. In the tune, David Byrne sings from the perspective of a self-proclaimed “know-it-all” who’s got his partner. They get along very well. But the song’s not so much about the couple. It’s more about the notion that being in love can make you do stupid things, make the world go topsy-turvy. Byrne sings about calling in sick to his workplace to be with the one [he] loves, even though he knows he’ll get in trouble for it. He’s misplaced his common sense. He goes out of his mind when his loved one’s around. Stockbrokers are making bad investments, jet pilots are losing control of their vehicles. And why? Because love has come to town. And the song ends as it begins, with that four-chord progression with Byrne wailing “Uh-oh” over the top of it. A strong album opener. A strong discography opener.

Why I thought I heard Talking Heads: 77 later in 2014 is because I once went to Manchester for a weekend or something in November that year, an event was going on. Warehouse Project, people out there will know. I returned to my uni house and found that I could no longer reach those high notes as David Byrne does at the end of ‘Uh-Oh…’ when I tried to sing the song like I had before that weekend happened. I honestly thought that was it, my voice was gone, my angelic tones were no more. Cut to a few weeks later, voice was fine. A lot of that weekend was spent talking loudly, obviously some cords were strained and they got better over time. But I got worried there. So the point was, I thought I had listened to …77 initially around November time of 2014. It was months earlier. But maybe it was during November time that I revisited it and officially got into ‘Uh-Oh’… I’m rambling on a bit, just some thought processes going on here. Whatever may be the case, I enjoy this song and its parent album a lot. I prefer it to More Buildings and Food. I would probably be more inclined to go through …77 on a whim than Remain in Light too. In my view, just the run from ‘The Book I Read’ to ‘Pulled Up’ might be one of my favourites on any album ever. And that does includes ‘First Week/Last Week…Carefree’ because that song is a jam.

#1440: Big Thief – UFOF

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I can tell you one thing AI’s good for on Spotify. It can tell me the exact date I listened to Adrianne Lenker’s Abysskiss the first time. 23rd January, 2019. Sounds about right. I liked it straight away. Of course I had to do some research of my own, and what always came up was that Lenker was the lead singer in this band called Big Thief. Sounded cool enough. But I don’t think I went ahead to listen to any of the group’s albums. Capacity would have been their latest one at the time, released a year and a few months earlier. Maybe I should have done. But Abysskiss kept me steady for a period of time. It was only about a month on from January 23rd – 26th February – that ‘UFOF’ was unveiled as the new song from the band’s forthcoming third album of the same name. Can’t remember where I found out about it. Maybe Pitchfork, maybe the Indieheads subreddit. But now there was no better time to listen to Adrianne Lenker in the context of “her” band. I listened to the song, thought it was interesting. I think I returned to it a few days later and realised its genius. Like Spotify says, it was “the song I kept circling back to” in March 2019.

The track’s only three minutes long, a suitable length most would agree. But it feels really busy in that runtime. James Krivchenia’s drumming never really sticks to one beat. It might do for a few seconds before he throws in a fill and a pitter-patter here and there. The rhythms always shuffling and evolving. Throughout Abyskiss, Lenker’s playing on the acoustic guitar reminded me of Nick Drake in that she also has this intricate fingerpicking style that somehow creates unique respective melodies, alternating between the lower and higher strings. That’s all over ‘UFOF’. Plus the overall chord progression is so mystifying, probably down to an alternate tuning of some kind. Then during the instrumental section before the final chorus, there are all the glitchy, stuttering vocal effects added just to add a little strangeness to everything. You can’t quite pin everything down, yet the whole track sounds so tightly constructed. Andrew Sarlo, the producer, once uploaded the song’s ProTools project onto YouTube for a video, showing all the layers and elements within. I saw it the one time. It was taken down at some point. It would be nice to see it again one day.

The extra ‘F’ after the ‘UFO’ in the title stands for ‘friend’. Any longtime readers may be aware of the fact that I’m more the “music first, lyrics later” kind of person. And before now, I never really thought about the words in this ’cause I enjoyed the melody so much. But looking at the words, it looks like the song’s another in the work of Lenker’s that concerns an admiration/fascination for a person that’s close to her. Only this time round, the person is unnamed – compared to a ‘Haley’ or ‘Mary’ or ‘Betsy’ – and they seem to take off and go on their own separate, wandering journey, much like an unidentified flying object. But Lenker sees the beauty in this being and dreams of the both of them going away on these journeys together. It’s beautiful stuff. A little aside, there’s a continuous ‘ting’ that occurs every few seconds in the track. I don’t know if it’s a triangle or a cymbal of some kind. Once you notice it, sometimes it’ll be the only thing you’ll be able to hear. I’ve been able to tune it out. But there are those days when the only thing in the song I can focus on is that ‘ting’. Apart from that, this track is one of the reasons why U.F.O.F. is my favourite Big Thief album. There are so many other songs on there apart from the other two that would have got posts on here. They exist in another universe somewhere.

#1439: The Hives – Two-Timing Touch and Broken Bones

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Hell yes. I just finished listening to this song before I started writing. Really got me pumped. I haven’t written about The Hives all that much on here. Only on two occasions in the past. I’ve got no beef with them. I know they were one of those ‘The’ bands who were part of that garage rock revival scene in the 2000s. But I was too young to understand what was going on then. So it was the case of casually seeing their music videos on TV from time to time that drew me towards them. Whenever those videos were on those kinds of channels, the songs were usually good. I can appreciate a Hives tune. I also know that they’re known to put on a good show in a live setting, reinforced by the undeniable charisma of frontman Pelle Almqvist. I’ve never gone through any of their albums in full, though. Looking at them, the band only have one that goes over 35 minutes in length. Going for a short, sharp route it seems. Think I’ve got time to spare to that check that discography out.

‘Two-Timing Touch and Broken Bones’ is a tune from the band’s third album, Tyrannosaurus Hives, released in July 2004. People would have known the band for ‘Hate to Say I Told You So’ at least by that point, but this era of the band’s was when I was first introduced to them. That’s a story for another day. Regarding ‘Two-Timing…’ I’m very sure, before I heard the song in full, its guitar riff was used in an advert on the UK channel, Trouble. Anyone remember Trouble? Used to show programmes like The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, My Wife and Kids, Moesha, um…. Hang Time? My sister watched Trouble a lot. Being the younger-by-four-years brother, I had no right to change the channel, so I was usually stuck with having to watch what she did. Years later, having come across more Hives songs as time went past, when the video for ‘Two-Timing…’ one day appeared on TV – I’m thinking Kerrang! for some reason, maybe it was usual suspect MTV2 – and the music started, it was like, “Of course it’s a Hives song.” If it was going to be any band that had a riff like that, it was them.

So I don’t know what this song is about. I’ve only recently come to a conclusion – in my head, not verified – that it was someone’s idea in the band to take that “Let’s go [team name]” chant you’ll usually hear in US sports stadiums and use it as the melody for the verses. I don’t think that’s too far a reach. But really, ‘Two-Timing Touch and Broken Bones’. As a phrase, what does it mean? I’m not sure it has one. But it sounds good with the band barking it against those rushing, chopping guitars during the choruses. I like how the guitar chords alternate between left and right speakers. Very cool. And Pelle Almqvist, as always, is manic on the microphone, culminating in that scream during the song’s ending moments. If you don’t know what the song’s about too, I guess we can learn together. Let’s see. Hmm, “it’s just about being cheated on, and then getting into a pointless fight or sometihng.” That’s… not too bad a shout. The title and lyrics make a whole lot more sense now. I’m glad we went through this together.

AND THAT’S IT. Big sigh. That’s the ‘T’ section finished. I’m pleased with how this one went. It’s been the section where, after 13 years of doing this, I’ve finally sussed out how the structure of these posts should go. Thanks for reading, it’s been a long seven months of writing. It’s break time for me. I’ll be back at some point.

#1438: Kanye West ft. Mos Def, Freeway & The Boys Choir of Harlem – Two Words

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One day, in either ’04 or ’05, all was quiet in my household. I was sitting on the floor. My sister, on the sofa. MTV Base, the channel of the network that focused on R&B and hip-hop and other things “urban”, was on the television. All very unassuming. I think it was, like, the middle of the day on a random weekend. Then, all of a sudden, a video started playing on the screen, and my sister burst out the loudest “Oh, my God!” She really screamed it. I can’t even remember how I responded, but I’m thinking I must have asked “What?”. I looked at the TV, and there in its first few seconds was the video for Kanye West’s ‘Two Words’. My sis had a physical copy of The College Dropout. I remember it being played out the computer speakers during those days. But it was songs like ‘Spaceship’ and ‘School Spirit’ that I recall hearing a lot more. ‘Two Words’ was a new one to me. Clearly, it wasn’t for my sister. The video played, uncensored, every “fuck that” in the song was clearly audible. Again, it was very much afternoon time. I’m very sure the video was never played again on the channel. Maybe someone got fired for the blunder.

So that was my first experience with the track. It’s a moment that stuck with me. Even when I properly got into The College Dropout myself in about 2008, I’d always see ‘Two Words’ as the one that made my sister go crazy for a brief moment years before. It is just a bit of a banger. It’s all about that five-note melody that plays throughout each artist’s verses, mirrored by the Boys Choir in the back. Just ties everything all together. Underneath that melody, I think Kanye West, Mos Def and Freeway are meant to be utilizing a concept of making verses out the groupings of two successive words. Mos Def is the most successful at it, “United States”, “Crack smoke”, “Black folks”, “Everybody, move!”, his verse starting the track off after West’s intro. West then follows, taking some liberties with the whole two words thing and throwing in some standard lines here and there. He says at one point, “I live by two words: ‘Fuck you, pay me'” which would make you think, “Surely that’s four words, no?” I think it’s more like “Fuck you” / “Pay me”. Makes sense that way. Freeway more or less does the same in terms of liberty taking. The way he delivers, “The heat skeet, blow a reef through your car, my God” usually makes me smirk a little. It’s how he says “my Goooood”, he really sells it. Such a dramatic-sounding hip-hop track, capped off with the Boys Choir in the back, who are singing “Through your hands up high / Till they reach the sky” in the choruses, something I only found out relatively recently.

Why did Kanye West make a video for this track? That time when I first saw it, it was like, “Oh, must be the new single then.” ‘Cause singles got music videos, that’s usually how the deal went. Seemed a bit dark as a single choice, and the censorship that it would have to go through to get played on the radio wouldn’t be fun. Kanye West must have had it all sorted. But it turned out it wasn’t lined up to be a single at all. A video was made for it just because it could be, with the three rappers filmed lip-syncing their respective verses in different places. In terms of the song, it’s monumental. ‘Two Words’ is another on the album to incorporate the chipmunk-style sampling which was West’s bread and butter in those days. This time round, it’s anchored via some chopped up sections from a song called ‘Peace and Love’ by American funk group Mandrill. I actually don’t think I knew that before. It also brings such a sudden change in mood with its placement on College Dropout, appearing after two skits included in the track list for comedic relief. When that opening “Ahhhh” jumps in, it’s time to get serious again. In another world, ‘Two Words’ probably closes this album out. But in this world, Kanye West just had that much good material that he had three other album closers to follow it.