5 Songs That Prove Paul McCartney's Songwriting Peaked Between 1970 and 1975
Paul McCartney has been a mainstay in the songwriting industry since the early 1960s. Over those many, many decades in the business, McCartney has contributed some of the all-time greatest additions to the pop music canon. However, of those many decades, we’d argue that one five-year period was more impressive than others.
From 1970 to 1975, McCartney was undergoing several life transitions. The Beatles broke up. He was a new husband and father. The musician was, in many ways, shedding one identity and growing into another. And it was during this heavy experimentation that McCartney was at his best.
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“Band On The Run” (1974)
Kicking off this list of all-time greatest Paul McCartney songs is, expectedly, “Band On The Run” from the 1973 album of the same name. Released as a single the following spring, this iconic Wings track saw McCartney experimenting in real time. With distinct, separate grooves ranging from soulful R&B to easy listening to driving rock ‘n’ roll, “Band On The Run” was the natural consequence of giving McCartney the freedom to stretch his legs with no restrictions.
“Heart Of The Country” (1971)
Paul McCartney offered some of his best love songs to The Beatles’ canon, but his proclivity for romance didn’t stop with the Fab Four. While “Maybe I’m Amazed” is, for all intents and purposes, the Paul McCartney love song, this writer would argue that “Heart Of The Country” makes just as big an impact—and perhaps even a more realistic one. It takes considerable skill to romanticize unassuming rural living so convincingly.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Melanie Davis
