Tag Archives: people

#1394: Paul & Linda McCartney – Too Many People

Leave a reply

It was 2010. A year on from the Beatles: Rock Band game release, interest about that and how great The Beatles were in general was still at what felt like an all-time high. At least, that’s if you were a member on the Harmonix / Rock Band forums back in the day, which I was. There was a really cool community around that place. A thing that got people together and all creative-like was mash-ups, influenced by the LOVE album made by George and Giles Martin for the Cirque du Soleil show. I go into a lot more depth regarding these in this post I did many years back. For one specific mash-up “album”, I thought it would be a good idea to blend the ‘diss tracks’ of George Harrison’s ‘Wah-Wah’, John Lennon’s ‘How Do You Sleep?’ and the Paul & Linda McCartney’s ‘Too Many People’. The result… well, hear it for yourself. I don’t think it’s too bad, actually. A little abrupt in the changes, maybe. It belongs in the 2010s.

So I heard ‘Too Many People’ way before I got round to listening to Ram from front to back. I think it was a couple years that I did. It’s the first song on there, and what a way to start the album off. “Piss off, caa-haay-hay-hayy-hay-haayy-haaake” and then a bunch of cutesy vocalizations. Interesting. The ascending guitar lick adds a bit of mystery. And then after a few chord strums, the song properly gets underway. Over a groovy bassline, Paul McCartney provides some social commentary. He sees these activities people are doing, too many of these people, and he doesn’t get it. Among these activities are: losing weight, going underground, waiting for that lucky break. Etcetera, etcetera. A great vocal performance – “too many HUNGRY PEOPLE.. LOSING WEEEIGHT” – one of my favourite parts. A lot of grit mixed with a fantastic melody. Linda McCartney adds some gusto with those “Piece of cake / Lucky break” harmonies. It’s a bit of a list song, and at the end he more or less states he’s had enough of what he’s seeing. Thinks it’s all a bit silly. And everything’s capped off with a minute long instrumental for the outro to shake out the jams.

Got to address the elephant in the room, though. That being how the track was a shot at his old bandmate and songwriting partner, John Lennon. Particularly the “You took your lucky break and broke it in two” and “Too many people preaching practices” lines. Lennon took great umbrage to that, writing ‘How Do You Sleep?’ in response. A nasty track, that one. Not too much fun to listen to, which I think is its point. Me, I prefer ‘Too Many People’ ’cause it’s the exact opposite. And with all that beef aside, the song feels like a statement of intent for what’s to follow on Ram. You know, the preceding McCartney album is okay, but apart from ‘Every Night’ and ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’… maybe ‘Junk’ too, it felt more like a collection of ideas rather than full-fleshed songs. But Ram is the real deal. So many strong songs with variety, a lot of surprises, and McCartney exploring ranges and tones in his vocals that he’d rarely go to again in further releases. It all begins with ‘Too Many People’.

#1026: The Kinks – People Take Pictures of Each Other

Leave a reply

Was this song in a car advert once? You’d think that with the Internet existing and everything, you’d be able to find evidence of this in a split second. But I can’t find it anywhere. I have this vague memory of hearing this song in the advert. And then watching a video of that advert on YouTube somewhere. This was all years ago. But before listening to the Kinks’ Village Green Preservation Society, that was how I came across ‘People Take Pictures…’ for the first time. It sounded so familiar when Ray Davies started singing those opening lines. Maybe I dreamed that advert up. If someone else remembers it, send answers on a postcard, please.

‘People Take Pictures…’ is the second song on that album concerning pictures being taken of memories gone by. The first to appear on there, ‘Picture Book’, focuses on the good aspects of looking at these photos and having those good ole moments of nostalgia. In ‘People Take Pictures…’, Ray Davies takes the more cynical approach, expressing a feeling that everyone’s just taking pictures of things just for the sake of it, to show their friends were missing out on or to show that they were there when something was happening just to gloat about it. On an album that’s focused on preserving the things of things that were sacred and pure, it’s here that Davies doesn’t want to see anymore pictures from the past after he’s shown an old picture of himself when he was three years old, sitting with his mother by an old oak tree. He wishes to see no more photos, and with those last words the whole record ends on a fadeout of perky ‘la-la-la’ vocals.

The sort of listener who like huge climactic finishes to their albums may be sort of let down when it reaches this point. A short and snappy number, this song is just over two minutes in length and it ends on a fade out rather than a true ending where everything comes to a concrete stop. Kinks fans will know that it was during this period that the band had also recorded ‘Days’, and if ever there would be an ideal album closer, then that track was right there. I personally like ‘People Take Pictures of Each Other’ in the place that it’s in. I think it works in concluding a summary to the album’s theme, through a funny 180-turn from all the ‘god-saving’ in the opening title track, you know? Looking at the past can be fine, but only in its amounts. Too much of that could probably get you down.

My iPod #173: They Might Be Giants – Certain People I Could Name

1 Reply
 

Today has been very unproductive. Had my breakfast about one, a shower at four…. apart from that I have just stayed in bed. All this because I was out last night for a very special event which I can barely remember going to now. What a shame.

That also meant I was could not type up my daily post. But it is all fine now, I am putting up another one later on.

It’s They Might Be Giants again, this time with the song “Certain People I Could Name” from their 1999 album “Long Tall Weekend”, the first full-length album to be released exclusively on the Internet if you didn’t know.

It was originally recorded for the previous album “Factory Showroom” but was left out.

The band’s website states this about the track: “A piano driven song with subtle charm from the Factory Showroom era. Don’t really know how this got put aside, but I suspect it was probably more due to its mid-tempo than its high quality.”

I cannot really add much to that. Listen for yourselves. 😀