The lazy thinking goes that John Lennon was the thought-provoking rocker and Paul McCartney the happy-go-lucky pop-song writer.
Now super-producer Mark Ronson has weighed in with a well-informed point of view on the Lennon-McCartney songwriting tandem that puts McCartney in a new light.
Ronson certainly knows the pop music landscape. The British-American songwriter and producer has worked with pop royalty like Amy Winehouse, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars.
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But he also know McCartney’s diverse solo catalog and has first-hand experience working with the former bass-playing Beatle. As he revealed on a recent episode of the YouTube show Track Star, McCartney is considerably left-field when it comes to his musical interests.
Track Star challenges musicians to guess songs that are played to them while they’re out on the streets. The show played Ronson the tune “Temporary Secretary,” from McCartney’s second solo album, 1980’s McCartney II. It’s an obscure, synth-propelled track, and a deep cut by any measure.
But Ronson got it straightaway. And he seized the moment to share his view of McCartney’s diverse talents as a songwriter.
Testing Mark Ronson’s Music Knowledge | Track Star* – YouTube
“There’s a tendency to misremember him as, like, ‘John Lennon was a rock and roll badass and Paul was kind of like the happy poppy guy,’” Ronson says. “But Paul made the weirdest fucking music.”
In 2013, Ronson was one of four producers to work with McCartney on his 16th solo album, New. During the project, he got to see one of McCartney’s lesser-known sides.
“I went to his studio one time and I got there early,” he recalls. “He was literally step sequencing a Moog keyboard to make the weirdest fucking sounds I’ve ever heard. ‘Ooh, I like a bit of that.’”
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Ronson is a tech wizard who is always keen to embrace new technologies. McCartney, he says, is very much the same.
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“He was the first person to use Moogs on a recording with ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ [from “Abbey Road],” he continues. “He was always pushing it forward.”
He is always on the hunt for new artists to be inspired by, too.
“When I was in the studio with him and we were working, I was like, ‘What have you been listening to lately?’ He played me ‘Climax’ by Usher [from 2012],” Ronson says. “I remember being shook. It’s a fucking great record.”
Maxwell’s Silver Hammer (Remastered 2009) – YouTube
Demonstrating that drive for innovation, McCartney has revealed three guitar techniques that helped the band stand out from the rock and roll pack.
He’s also shown it in his own solo career, as he shifted gears from one album to the next. Although he had a difficult time establishing his solo career — at one point undertaking a TV Special to promote his work, and working with Elvis Costello at another — he’s continued to explore new tangents, from electronica to classical, making him one of modern music’s most well-versed composers.