Greatest Paul songs (non-Beatles)

This list is surprisingly thin. The peculiar dominance of weirdo
instrumentals and toss-offs -- which totally defies probability --
suggests that, in theory, the "Paul song" may retain plenty of untapped
potential. ;) I scribbled a similar "Bob song" piece for RMD a couple of
weeks ago, and the songs on that list were far more well-known and
accessible.

The song quality dips a lot within the last four or five entries and I
almost cut off the list at #10, but the lower items were fun to write
about so I ended up leaving them.

1. The Nazz-"Hang on Paul" [1969]
The only track on the list which I don't own (!), but it's a great
Merseybeat tune. I don't know the story behind the lyric, but it has a
real-life, confessional tone somewhat similar to Love's "Signed D.C." In
other words, a warning to a fellow musician who's burning himself out
("You drag into the studio and don't care why/You got a life as big as
City Hall and that's no lie"..."You'll find a better way to say it
someday/But Paul, you're too busy stripping gears/Now Paul, your life is
dripping away"). Except "Signed D.C." is completely morose, whereas this
song's music could not be more energetic. Extra points for a blazing
guitar break. I only have an old Nazz anthology record, and I probably
should grab all three of the original albums. Haven't even heard them
yet in their entirety.

2. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds-"A Box for Black Paul" [1984]
Are you ready for 10 minutes of early Nick Cave? Sparse,
free-structured, piano-driven dirge with a few subtle guitar scrapings
in the background. No drums. Ominous, to say the least, and, yes, the
titular "box" is a coffin. The story involves the death by stoning of a
despised character (a murderer and/or a subversive writer?), and the
unwanted burden of burying him. Kind of an unsatisfying ending,
unfortunately...it just trickles off when Cave runs out of narrative. I
would have preferred something a little more thunderous and apocalyptic.

3. Dogs Die in Hot Cars-"Paul Newman's Eyes" [2004]
It's a shame that this Glasgow band split up after just one album. And I
feel doubly irritated, because I passed up a chance to see the group
live. Fun, tuneful, boppy track which should appeal to fans of Madness,
Aztec Camera, early XTC and that sort of thing (yes, the Beatles too).
Lyric expresses ambivalence about "the beautiful people" (a recurrent
theme on the whole album). There's also a neat instrumental break, which
adds some traditional band instruments like clarinet and trombone.

4. Tall Dwarfs-"Paul's Place" [1982]
Originally from the "Louis Likes His Daily Dip" EP, but more commonly
found via the Hello Cruel World compilation (a major eye-opening record
for me, and -- I think? -- my first exposure to the incredible Flying
Nun roster). This track is fairly typical of Tall Dwarfs, with its
maniacal, ticking beat and contrast between a complex, wordy melody and
utterly simplistic major chords. There's less buzzing guitar here,
however, and the track is mostly driven by milky bleeps from some
rinky-tink keyboard. Someone also cheerily bangs on what sounds like a
garbage can at various points. I consider Chris Knox a bona fide genius,
and he's also my favorite singer who might be called "Lennon-esque."
Though in this particular song, he seems to adopt sort of a
sinus-clogged, UK-folk inflection. The song's lyric suggests waking up
disoriented at a stranger's place after a hellish night. Hangover time,
and the snow outside adds to the misery.

5. Tom Waits-"Jitterbug Boy (Sharing a Curbstone with Chuck E. Weiss,
Robert Marchese, Paul Body and the Mug and Artie)" [1976]
A dubious inclusion perhaps, depending on whether the parenthetical
phrase is truly part of the title or just a footnote. Small Change is
probably my favorite Waits release from his early incarnation as a
beat-influenced, piano-jazz troubadour. However, this track features a
consistent drawback about the younger Waits: a frustrating sense of a
circular, run-on melody which only serves to give him room to growl
through all his lyrics. Another portrait of a down-and-out street
character. He knew Marilyn Monroe, Louis Armstrong, Mickey Mantle and
Rocky Marciano, and now he's just hanging out under a lamppost,
wondering where to wander next.

6. Penguin Cafe Orchestra-"Paul's Dance" [1981]
Who could fail to be charmed by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra? If Dave
Shemakhan doesn't know this whimsical ensemble already, he'll probably
dance with joy when he discovers them. There's a surprising amount of
PCO material available on YouTube (including this piece), and the
wonderful Australian film "Malcolm" -- which borrows PCO music for its
score -- could permanently infect you with Penguin love. "Paul's Dance"
is a cute ditty lasting only 1:37, and is (I think?) a duet of cuatro
and ukulele. In this track and others, PCO shows a signature knack for
creating tangy hooks with shifts to flat-seventh chords. If you know
music and find the YouTube clip, maybe you'll get what I mean. They love
to resolve phrases that way. Unfortunately, group leader Simon Jeffes
died far too young in 1997 of a brain tumor.

7. The Residents-"My Brother Paul" [2002]
This is from Demons Dance Alone, an album which surprised the hell out
of me. I haven't heard several Residents discs (particularly recent
ones), but the album is remarkably accessible by Residents standards.
Including this track. Sort of a slinky Brazilian ambience, and
undeniably melodic. Even a bit of easy-listening trumpet. Only the woozy
vocal and some perverse lines about falling down stairs tip off that
something subversive is afoot.

8. Beulah-"I Love John, She Loves Paul" [1997]
This CD is somewhat rare, particularly the initial issue on Elephant 6
which I have. Amazon's third-party prices start at $40. Too bad this
coveted album isn't better than it is -- the next disc When Your
Heartstrings Break is much stronger and probably could win over some
RMBers. This track reminds me of a less upbeat Superchunk tune, because
Miles Kurosky's double-tracked vocals have a similar boyish drawl.
There's obviously a huge Pavement influence too, especially in the
cynical, elusive lyric which never quite gets to the point (that's
right...there's no real Beatles content here, despite the song's title).
The words seem to voice some suspicions about indie music gone
commercial ("Mainstream strikes a pose and infects the scene...it seems
so unclean"), but Kurosky's writing style can be frustratingly indirect.

9. Caribou-"Paul's Birthday" [2001]
Caribou (formerly Manitoba, until legal action from the Dictators'
Handsome *** Manitoba forced a name change) is actually just Daniel
Snaith, a mathematics PhD from Ontario, Canada who constructs just the
sort of reflective, electronic-hybrid grooves which you might expect
from a mathematics PhD. Caribou is a fairly recent discovery of mine,
and I really love what this brilliant home-studio whiz does. "Paul's
Birthday" is a skittering instrumental track with exotic harp flourishes
and some jazzy, Mark Isham-like trumpet. A choppy beat jumps into the
mix after a bit and, with almost seven minutes to fill, there are a few
other mood changes along the way. The piece grows denser and louder near
the end, until it abruptly cuts off as if Snaith simply ran out of tape.

10. The Grassy Knoll-"Paul Has an Emotional Uncle" [1998]
Never known anyone else who had an interest in this group, and even I
basically stumbled upon them by accident. The Grassy Knoll reminds me a
lot of Bill Laswell's projects in theory, wherein one guiding hand
(Dallas-based Bob Green, in this case) choreographs various pedigreed
players for arty instrumental jams. The presence of Thurston Moore is
what caught my eye in the first place, and one-time Sonic Youth producer
Nick Sansano is also here. This track is pure body music, with a modal
feel and sinewy groove reminiscient of Miles Davis and Laswell's early
Material/Golden Palominos work. Nice muted trumpet. Lasts almost six
minutes, but doesn't develop much. The CD is a unique, somewhat awkward
package with a strange cardboard flap held in place by a thick
rubberband emblazoned with the album name. Sort of a pain to shelve next
to standard jewelboxes.

11. Yo La Tengo-"Paul Is Dead" [1995]
Understated, pretty little tune marred by weak backing vocals (let's
face it, the lead vocal isn't so hot either). Sounds more like Luna than
Yo La Tengo. The title presumably does refer to Sir P. McCartney, but
the lyric is more about the Rolling Stones, with a verse about
eavesdropping on a guy casually singing along to "Sympathy for the
Devil" ("woo woo!") on his Walkman. Ah yes, remember Walkmans?

12. The Mummydogs-"Paul of the Jungle" [2002]
I was really excited to hear about this album, because I was a huge,
huge Thin White Rope fan and these were former TWR leader Guy Kyser's
first recordings since the early '90s. However, the disc didn't live up
to the Thin White Rope legend. Low-budget to a fault, and rather
undercooked. The vocals are by Kyser's wife Johanna. This gritty,
somewhat nursery rhyme-ish tune never quite gets off the ground, and
would benefit from a chorus or another melodic idea. I'm mostly
attracted to the yowling guitar breaks, where hints of the previous
band's Western psychedelia peek in to say howdy.

13. Don't Mean Maybe-"Paul Simon Artist or Thief" [1991]
No one should feel guilty about not knowing this band, because it's an
awfully obscure one which may be almost unknown outside of California.
I've tried to bring myself to unload the group's two Doctor Dream albums
many times, but whenever I revisit them, I just think, "Y'know, these
guys really weren't bad at all." DMM was heavily, HEAVILY influenced by
the Minutemen and Firehose, and is a similar guitar/bass/drums trio with
the same frisky, jazz-punk attack. No points for originality, but the
playing is tight. Grunge fans will note that the album is produced by
Jack Endino (Nirvana, Mudhoney, Screaming Trees, Soundgarden), who
otherwise hasn't done a lot of work outside the Northwest scene. This
particular track is a short instrumental which references Paul Simon
because the main theme has an African-pop flavor. You can currently buy
the enclosing album, Real Good Life, through Amazon for a daunting 11
cents.

14. Lakuna-"St. Paul's Piano" [1999]
Admittedly, this track is from a crummy vanity album which is mostly
just a collection-completer for Throwing Muses addicts like me. Lakuna
is the solo project of Muses drummer David Narcizo, and let's just say
that he doesn't do a lot for the reputation of drummers as songwriters.
Plodding instrumental with a humdrum synthesizer melody. Some sort of
scratchy muttering lurks in the background, as if it's bleeding through
from a shortwave radio transmission.

15. Game Theory-"All Clockwork and No Bodily Fluids Makes Hal a Dull
Metal Humbert/In Heaven Every Elephant Baby Wants to Be So Full of
Sting/Paul Simon in the Park with Canticle/But You Can't Pick Your
Friends/Vacuum
Genesis/DEFMACROS/HOWSOMETH/INGDOTIME/SALENGTHS/OMETHINGL/ETBFOLLOW/AAFTE
RNOO/NGETPRESE/NTMOMENTI/FTHINGSWO/NTALWAYSB/ETHISWAYT/BCACAUSEA/BWASTEAF
T/ERNOONWHE/NEQBMERET/URNFROMSH/OWLITTLEG/REENPLACE/27" [1987]
Since this is the single longest title in my entire collection, I
suppose it's likely to include just about ANY word. The track is from
Game Theory's cultish Lolita Nation, a long out-of-print, double-length
album which is ridiculously collectable. Ridiculously! Current Amazon
price: $135.00. Makes me wonder if it's really worth keeping around,
because the group's egghead power-pop never rates much better than
"quirkily intriguing" for me. This track is only 1:55, which means the
title's character count is almost four times the number of seconds. It's
not a "song" or even an "instrumental," but just an avant-garde tape
piece which splices together a bunch of discarded studio snippets for no
good reason. My issues with this group's pretensions are notorious in
certain circles.

16. Killdozer-"Paul Doesn't Understand Jazz" [1995]
I love to push Killdozer, because I think they were a seriously
underrated band. Too many people focused on their surface ugliness and
Michael Gerald's guttural voice, and didn't notice just how intelligent
his lyrics were. He practically wrote short stories, and some songs
create genuine pathos. This is a totally trivial track, however. Only a
minute and a half, and just a series of half-assed takes at a jazz
groove with some breaks for studio chatter. "Paul" refers to guitarist
Paul Zagoras, who was new to the band at the time. The fragment serves
as a prelude to the following track, "Daddy's Boy," where the same
groove pops up in more polished form.

PS I hope the subject line wasn't misleading. ;)
.