Side A
Artist	Song
Paul McCartney/The Beatles	Come And Get It
Paul McCartney	Maybe I'm Amazed
Paul McCartney	That Would Be Something
Paul McCartney	Teddy Boy
Paul McCartney	Another Day
Paul & Linda McCartney	Too Many People
Paul & Linda McCartney	Dear Boy
Paul & Linda McCartney	Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey
Paul & Linda McCartney	Eat At Home
Paul & Linda McCartney	Back Seat Of My Car
Paul McCartney & Wings	Give Ireland Back To The Irish
Paul McCartney & Wings	Little Woman Love
Paul McCartney & Wings	Mama's Little Girl
Paul McCartney & Wings	Hi, Hi, Hi
Paul McCartney & Wings	C Moon
Paul McCartney & Wings	My Love
Paul McCartney & Wings	Big Barn Red
Paul McCartney & Wings	Live & Let Die
Paul McCartney & Wings	Helen Wheels
Paul McCartney & Wings	Band On The Run
Paul McCartney & Wings	Jet
Paul McCartney & Wings	Mrs. Vanderbilt
Side B
Artist	Song	Buy
Paul McCartney & Wings	Nineteen Hundred & Eighty-Five
Paul McCartney & Wings	Junior's Farm
Paul McCartney & Wings	Venus & Mars/Rock Show
Paul McCartney & Wings	Magneto & Titanium Man
Paul McCartney & Wings	Venus & Mars (reprise)
Paul McCartney & Wings	Listen To What The Man Said
Paul McCartney & Wings	Silly Love Songs
Paul McCartney & Wings	Let 'em In
Paul McCartney & Wings	With A Little Luck
Paul McCartney & Wings	London Town
Paul McCartney & Wings	Cafe On The Left Bank
Paul McCartney & Wings	Backwards Traveller
Paul McCartney & Wings	Famous Groupies
Paul McCartney & Wings	Getting Closer
Paul McCartney & Wings	Again & Again & Again
Paul McCartney & Wings	Old Siam, Sir
Paul McCartney & Wings	So Glad To See You Here
Paul McCartney	Coming Up
Paul McCartney	Temporary Secretary
Paul McCartney	Take It Away

Comment:

Sir Paul's first post-Beatles decade is quite the paradox. Sure, nobody could have expected him to maintain the quality of the Beatles, but could we have anticipated the man credited with some of the most innovative and ground-breaking music in rock history falling quite so far? Because, let's face it, there was some ungodly dreck coming out of this man... yet, at the same time, there were some undeniably great moments, and just a whole lot of... I dunno, unexpected weirdness, for better and worse.
This 2-cd mix (an expansion of an older mix I made a few years back) largely focuses on 1970-1980, the Wings era, bookended by his two self-titled solo albums. Plus one exception on each end: the demo he cut while still with the Beatles and handed off to Apple lablemates Badfinger, and the one post-Wings track I truly enjoy.
While Lennon, Harrison, and even poor Ringo kicked off their solo careers with some fine work, Paul, perhaps the one you'd most expect to hit one out of the park, started shockingly weak. The first few albums (setting aside Ram) are, let's be honest, unbearably shitty. The solo debut had "Maybe I'm Amazed," and a whole bunch of amateurish nonsense -- harmless, but hardly interesting. The first Wings album, Wild Life, was even worse, utterly irredeemable (and, aside from a few contemporaneous A & B-sides, I've completely ignored it here). The follow-up, Red Rose Speedway, was only marginally better, and only the sappy "My Love" (included here more for sentimental value than anything else) is remotely memorable. Oddly enough, before forming Wings, he did manage to record the remarkable Ram album with wife Linda, and that one was chock full of stellar 70s pop; nothing deep or profound, but pure, simple ear candy (and, to date, still my favorite piece of work by a solo Beatle; though some of this may be due to the fact that it was the only rock album my parents owned when I was a child, so I listened to it all the time growing up).
After Speedway, though, Paul re-found his muse, with a series of decent albums and singles. Band on the Run is a bit overrated, but is at least half-great; Venus & Mars is nearly as good. Then a brief relapse -- Wings at the Speed of Sound, the worst Wings album aside from Wild Life. Sure, "Silly Love Songs" is great fun, but beyond that? I bought the album as a kid based on the single, and it was the first album I remember buying and instantly regretting. Total crap, and the one Wings album I never bothered upgrading to cd (as both "Silly Love Songs" and the banal but salvageable "Let 'em In" are on the surprisingly comprehensive Wingspan compilation from a couple years back).
Unexpectedly, Paul bounced back with a couple strong contenders. London Town is second only to Ram among my favorites, a solid collection of songs (with longtime bandmate Denny Laine adding an intriguing folk-rock sound) that never got the attention it deserved. Wings' swan-song Back to the Egg is particularly underrated; the first half actually has some of his strongest rock tracks and some decent (if schmaltzy) ballads. And then he closed out the era with McCartney II, an odd, largely electronic album which I remember as being pretty lame, except for the single "Coming Up" and the so-bad-it's-inadvertently-amusing "Temporary Secretary," appearing here in a remixed version.
On the whole, I've gotta say this is (mostly) one dynamite collection, and pretty much all the Macca one really needs.
I suppose at some point in my life I should reconsider his post-Wings work, as I imagine there may be a handful of keepers in there, but based on what I've heard it would take some serious slogging getting there.

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