Cheap Give My Regards To Broad Street (Music) (Paul McCartney) Price

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Customer Reviews of Give My Regards To Broad Street

half decent, half garbage
First off...the movie is just plain bad...save the "Eleanor Rigby" segment, which is an interesting video, but is totally out of touch with the rest of the film.

The soundtrack? Well, it certainly has it's moments. "No More Lonely Nights" is one of Paul's best ballads with some GREAT guitar work from Pink Floyd's David Gilmour. "Not Such a Bad Boy", "So Bad" and "No Values" are loose, raw and rocking (with Dave Edmonds, John Paul Jones & Ringo backing). The version of "Silly Love Songs" here honestly blows the original away; a high energy romp with a slightly differnt arraingement and a SMOKIN' bass solo by Louis Johnson. The Beatles' "For No One" recieves a nice treatment with a string quartet. "The Long & Winding Road" gets updated, saving it from elevator music hell. More how Macca originally intended in the first place. And "Eleanor Rigby/Elanor's Dream" is overblown and bombastic but still a pleasant listen, showing off George Martin's fine arraingement chops & forshadowing Paul's orchestral experiments by nearly a deacade.

The rest? Pretty pointless. Vapid covers of Beatle & then-recent solo material (and not even the best stuff at that), and a painful dance re-do of "...Lonely Nights". What was he THINKING??

As is typical with McCartney material from this period, both the movie & soundtrack could have been SO much better. There are hints of good things, but it still falls far short of the mark. There is stuff worth getting here, but still only for fans.

CD and Movie Both Vastly Underrated
It is so easy to say that the movie which accompanied this soundtrack is just an ego project. Think about it. You could make that intellectually lazy criticism about almost any movie, especially one that relies on the talents of a single performer. You could say it if you are looking to review the performer's life and motivations instead of his performance. Would it have been better had Paul crammed the project with other big name performers for whom his fans have no interest and turned it into a celebrity extravaganza? I maintain that more of this talented performer is better than less.

I actually prefer Paul's sreenplay to the screenplay of some mercenary hack who doesn't know the subject or the context of the songs. The movie and the soundtrack are the artist's vision, his own creation. It is tiring to hear people review the personality and character of the star and not the CD or movie themselves, both of which are vastly underrated.

First we have some stellar remakes including Here, There and Everywhere, The Long and Winding Road, For No One and Silly Love Songs, the last song being easily better than the original version. The new songs So Bad and No More Lonely Nights (both top radio hits), Wanderlust, Ballroom Dancing, Not Such A Bad Boy and No Values are all on a par with the excellent older material. The latter two are gems in the rock genre and a reminder of how good Paul is at capturing the rawness of that sound. If those two are the less well known tracks among a virtual Greatest Hits, they are not any less powerful or satisfying by comparison.

So Bad has a fuller sound and better vocal compared to the original take from Pipes Of Peace. The arrangements on the other newer and older songs are letter perfect and Paul sings the Beatles remakes with a renewed vigor that gives you a different take on them.

Eleanor's Dream is Paul's first short excersion into the classical field and what a fine beginning it is. The tune is at once poignient, evocative and invigorating. No More Lonely Nights is easily one of Paul's best post Beatles tunes. The dance version has its moments. My kids really like that one.

All in all, this is one of Paul's best post-fab albums completely overlooked because of the lack of critical success of the movie. Too bad because many people missed seeing and hearing a legend in his prime at work.