mostly david ephgrave

The last minute of this song features one of my favourite vocal performances of all time, rather inevitably from Paul McCartney. A lot of cliches fly around about Macca, much as they do about Lennon, and one of the most persistent is that of Paul as the ever-optimistic upbeat feller with his thumbs aloft. While it's fair to say he's most known for turning a positive spin on difficulty, there's as much of a sardonic pessimist or melancholic side to him as anyone else; take 'You Never Give Me Your Money', 'Too Many People', "Waterfalls' and "Travelling Light' as a few examples of the darker side of his artistic output bubbling to the surface. While, like anyone, there's a light and shade to McCartney's work, the song 'With a Little Luck' certainly plays into the optimistic camp, something which is matched perfectly by his vocal on it. I know it's anal in its specificity, but I'm particularly fond of how his voice ...

Controversially, one of my favourite Wings albums is their final one, Back to the Egg, and one of my favourite songs on it is the soulful groove-driven 'Arrow Through Me'. I was surprised, on hearing the episode of ‘Take It Away: The Complete Paul McCartney Podcast’ devoted to the album to hear the show’s hosts say they didn’t like Macca’s vocal performance on this song when, for me, it’s part of what makes it so good; it fits the feel of it perfectly. I really favour the sound of Paul’s voice around this time, particularly on the more belty numbers, as there’s more grit in there than usual (a sound he definitely plays with on this song, despite it being less of a rocker). I only learnt recently that 'Arrow Through Me' doesn’t have any guitars on it, not even a bass, which I also found surprising, as there's a warmth to the recording that you wouldn’t expect from an almost entirely keyboard-based number. What makes the song for ...