Paul McCartney's 1990s resurgence examined in new John Moores book
A new book from Huddersfield music journalism lecturer John Moores shines a light on Paul McCartney in the 1990s, a decade that the author says was the star’s ‘most important and creative’ after his 60s heyday with The Beatles.
Off the Ground (Reaktion Books) assesses a decade when McCartney toured extensively after years away from the live stage, released albums both in his own name and as his experimental alter-ego The Fireman, and reconnected with the legacy of the Fab Four with the acclaimed Anthology albums and documentary.
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The Anthology series saw McCartney work with George Harrison and Ringo Starr on unreleased material from John Lennon, as well as delving into the vaults to give a Beatles-hungry public a first official hearing of hours of out-takes from the band’s storied career.
Paul is cool once more
The 1990s saw Paul become cool again, with the Britpop movement and Oasis in particular doffing their bucket hats to The Beatles, but for John it was a time when McCartney was able put a downturn in the 1980s firmly behind him.
McCartney's return to touring at the turn of the decade came after a long spell off the road aside from charity shows, including a disastrous turn at Live Aid in 1985“His return to touring in 1989 and 1990, after Flowers In The Dirt had come out in ‘89, was crucial,” says John, whose previous book Electric Wizards: A Tapestry Of Heavy Music: 1968 To The Present, was longlisted for the prestigious Penderyn Music Prize. “So many books about him concentrate so much on the sixties, and consign the years after, his solo work and Wings to the last quarter or less.
“But he has had a massive career since The Beatles, and there was so much going on in the 1990s. I thought it would be interesting to home in on a decade of his that has been often ignored, and I’m happy to claim that it’s his most important decade after the sixties.”
John Moores
McCartney’s stock fell in the eighties when he didn’t tour, possibly due to Lennon’s murder, and some of his output, like the film Give My Regards To Broad Street, was ignored by the public as well as being scorned by critics. A disastrous appearance at Live Aid, hampered by technological problems, didn’t help and his music had a very 80s feel that seemed light years away from The Beatles.
First tour in a decade is springboard
“The 1989/90 tour was a big deal,” John adds. “He played Beatles songs that had never been performed live and then took the band he toured with into the studio. The Off The Ground album is a lot more organic, and he didn’t try to over-produce it unlike the eighties albums. He was eager to replicate The Beatles’ approach of recording several songs in a day with George Martin.
McCartney hooked up with the other surviving Beatles to release two brand new songs that used unreleased John Lennon music given to him by Yoko Ono
“And on Flaming Pie, his quality control returned – if a song wasn’t good enough, he ditched it. I actually think some of his demos are even better than the versions that went onto the album.”
The Anthology series coincided with Britpop but had been planned for years so it was a nice turn of events that saw McCartney’s stock rise by gaining favour with the hip new generation of British bands.
“It was really important because it boosts The Beatles as a brand again," John adds.
"Having Oasis and everybody talking about The Beatles being brilliant helps him become cooler again particularly among the younger generations. But what's quite interesting is that he also kind of keeps Britpop at arm's length. He's quite diplomatic but journalists are pushing a little bit to get stuff out of him and makes it quite clear that he thinks Oasis are derivative and not very original.
"He also says at one point that the biggest mistake Oasis made was saying they were going to be bigger than The Beatles. He says that's the kiss of death - you can be bigger than The Beatles but don't say it. Once you say it, the cat's out of the bag and you are just compared to The Beatles. How can you be compared to them if you do increasingly poor albums from 1997 onwards?”
‘90s output spurs McCartney on to more great music’
The nineties also saw McCartney work with producer Youth, with the duo putting out two albums of experimental music as The Fireman. Releasing classical music also underlined that despite being in his fifties, McCartney had his creative mojo back and was comfortable with not topping the charts like he had done in the past.
The Fireman has seen McCartney team up with ex-Killing Joke bassist Youth on a series of experimental albums light years away from his own solo material
“I think The Fireman output is really good. The Rushes album [1998] is a really interesting abstract ambient techno dub journey. It’s the maddest thing he’s done aside from The Beatles’ unreleased ‘Carnival of Light’ and he recorded it while his wife Linda was terminally ill. There's a sense that it is cathartic for him, and it shows there are different aspects to him that come out in different projects.
“He's not a very backwards looking man, he's always moving forwards and maybe he sometimes has to take a step back a bit in order to keep moving forwards. But in the nineties he's got such momentum, and that doesn't end there because he’s released some really great music since.”