Lennon and McCartney: Together Alone: A Critical Discography of the Solo Work

by John Blaney

Two of popular music's greatest writers and performers, John Lennon and Paul McCartney both went on to intriguing solo careers after their work with the Beatles. This book chronologically tells the story of their post-Beatles music, starting with McCartney’s soundtrack for the movie  The Family Way and Lennon’s Unfinished Music Two Virgins with Yoko Ono . The book details Lennon and McCartney’s creative highs and lows in an authoritative and engaging critical fashion. Information for collectors includes release dates, catalog numbers, composer credits, recording personnel, recording studios used, and producer credits. There is also a keyed index to help trace each song and the albums it appears on. Lennon and Together Alone tells the stories behind the songs of two giants of modern music.

Genres: Music

304 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 2007

Reviews

[Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Blaney’s book, intended as a Lewissohn-style reference work, reads a bit like a blog. That is to say, the text comes across as informal, sloppily edited, and episodic in nature. “Together Alone” was apparently cut-and-pasted together and then updated from two earlier works by the author which treated separately the respective solo careers of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Alas, Blaney chooses not to take advantage of any opportunity to compare and contrast the life events, styles, and songwriting approaches of these former collaborators. Instead, he catalogues in chronological order (by release, not by date of composition or recording) every solo recording that Lennon and McCartney put out, from the Lennon/Ono shocker “Two Virgins” to McCartney’s choral work “Ecce Cor Meum.” (The book only just missed the release of “Memory Almost Full,” tantalizingly touching on the Hear Music Lennon compilation… Blaney must have been kicking himself when it came out a few months after “Together Alone” had entered Amazon’s inventory.)

Despite neglecting an opportunity to assign unique, eponymous, catalogue numbers to this extensive ouerve, such a thoroughgoing catalog is no mean feat. Yet the book’s rigid structure of release title/description/rack-by-track summary/credits + release description is not only dull, it robs the text of any real narrative strength as descriptions of songs from promotional single releases consistently steal a march on the recordings from which they have been excerpted. Editorial failures are also here brought into relief as songs are often referenced in discussion before they have been properly introduced and described (e.g., “Tropic Island Hum” to “We All Stand Together,” “Tres Conejos” from “Liverpool Oratorio,” the disjointed treatment of “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” throughout the book, etc.) or are reintroduced immediately after their first appearance as though not previously discussed. (One example of this occurs on page 119, in which Percy Thrillington is sensationally exposed as a Paul McCartney alias… twice in succeeding paragraphs?!) Typos mar the book as well, though this is perhaps more forgiveable considering the book’s length and complicated glossy-magazine formatting.

The lay reader skips past the tedious arcana that only collectors would care about (“[‘Wings Over America’] was issued on 8-track in Britain (8X-PCSP 720) and the USA (8X3C-11593). It was Wings’ last album to be issued on 8-track in Britain. EMI issued the album as a two-CD set (CDP7481992) on May 25 1987; Columbia issued the CD… on February 29, 1984; and Capitol reissued the CD… on January 17, 1988.” is one typical entry on p. 118) to nonetheless savor brief entries about the origins and recording history of loved, hated, and popularly ignored tracks. (The McCartney/Youth “Fireman” releases! Lennon’s/Ono’s recordings of white noise!)

Blaney is also willing to offer his own critical judgment, albeit without a great deal of lyrical or musical analysis. Considering McCartney’s mid-80s pap “Press to Play” on page 174, he dismisses the track “Press” as “a lackluster song with a seemingly incomprehensible lyric” and the album as a whole as having “a processed blandness.” But on the very next page, Blaney describes the record as “a bold departure… McCartney’s most contemporary-sounding album for some time… a disappointing mishmash of quasi-psychedelia and silicon slick pop….” Such descriptions aren’t necessarily mutually inconsistent, but without more detail or depth, they can lead to reader whiplash. Nor does Blaney bother to survey specific critical reaction, preferring to paint with a broader brush (“the public all but ignored it,” “it received generally strong reviews,” etc.).

So why even three stars? Well, for those familiar with many of the songs or curious about what all Lennon and McCartney produced, the book remains convenient, if not compelling reading, at the end of the day placing a complete, browsable history in a single location that encourages use of iTunes/WinMedia/Rhapsody as a companion. For would-be fans (like me), the ever-growing Lennon and McCartney catalogues represent a feast of heretofore unknown music, brimming with post-Beatles sweetmeats and steaks. Bringing music consumers to the table is surely worthy of the credit.