Gruff Rhys’ favourite Paul McCartney song
There is a fallacy in the lore of The Beatles that is continually perpetuated despite it also being continually disproved. The myth in question is the notion that Paul McCartney was merely the sweet melody man and John Lennon was the pioneering radical. Not that there’d be anything wrong with having written some of the greatest melodies in the cannon of pop music, but it’s clear that Macca is as daring as anyone else when it comes to musical ideas.
Gruff Rhys is the product of this exploration. With the Super Furry Animals and every project since, the Welshman has taken inspiration from McCartney and coupled both facets of his glowing artistry in his own way, creating a realm that is both experimental and yet effortless in its own way. For Rhys, nothing typifies the way McCartney does this in turn quite like his 1980 single ‘Coming Up’.
“It was just an incredible track,” he told Stereogum, “and maybe an example of the liberty his solo records give him. It combines his more experimental leanings with his sense of melody. He must’ve seen so much by that point, and made records in Lagos and been exposed to so much music. Setting up his own studio and getting free rein. It’s a very uplifting, groovy track. Really euphoric. It really elevates the moment.”
Beyond the point that seen so much music by then, perhaps one of the most impressive elements of McCartney’s output is that he still always tries to remain contemporary, challenging himself. As the musician Andrew Bird told us: “There are very few who are continuously obviously pushing themselves. Paul Simon can still pull out an amazing song and Paul McCartney is no different. There aren’t many people who make it that far and are still pushing themselves.”
Sometimes, the Beatles might have fallen foul of a touch of cheesiness in his later days, but even those moments are arrived it with art in mind. As Rhys explains: “It was very easy to dismiss later period McCartney. But even the ‘Frog Chorus’, if you zoom into it when it’s playing in a supermarket, some of those synths are visionary. His electronic work is pretty out there. If you peel off the melodic icing that’s on all of them, to the electronic core, there’s something really experimental going on.”
When it comes to ‘Coming Up’, McCartney wanted to pay homage to his favourite pioneers himself. So, in the video, he parodies an awful lot of them. The players he pays his respect to are Hank Marvin, his former Beatlemania-era self, John Bonham, Andy Mackay, Frank Zappa, Buddy Holly and, of course, Ron Mael.
The latter of which told us of the imitation: “It was also British bands that meant something to us other than maybe The Beach Boys who sort of encapsulated the Southern California lifestyle, but other than that, it was British bands and then just to have Paul McCartney do that was wow! There is a show here, Saturday Night Live, and McCartney was making his appearance and presenting that for the first time, and it was just like, well, I had a swelled head for a couple of weeks.”
