“Crazy”: The daring song Paul McCartney almost scrapped entirely
In mid-1979, Paul McCartney had a lot of excess energy to burn. Though he remained committed to Wings, the itch he couldn’t scratch led him to write a series of solo tracks he would shelve to focus on the band’s imminent tour. When things went slightly awry, namely when he was forced into a nine-day jail stay after police discovered 219 grams of marijuana in his travel luggage in Tokyo, he returned to the tracks, releasing a more overtly experimental follow-up to his self-titled debut.
McCartney II didn’t just showcase McCartney’s perceived submissiveness in the face of new wave; it showcased him flexing his virtuosic muscles once again, drawing from countless influences and resulting in a breeding ground of potential analysis for music lovers across the board. While many struggled to define the sound of the record, with descriptions varying from post-punk influences to a manifestation of synth-pop, McCartney II was looser, more spontaneous, and most importantly, not to be boxed in.
Most of the record came together in his home studio during the summer of 1979, with a sound that stemmed from his own artistic liberation. Wings were one thing, but his solo work enabled him to explore freely, with less restraint, by considering others’ artistic expression. Many of the sounds felt reminiscent of the lo-fi spirit of his debut solo album, with him operating as the sole conductor of his craft, utilising acoustic elements with an added array of new technology.
As a result, many of the songs, like ‘Temporary Secretary’ and ‘Darkroom’, feel intentionally experimental, with McCartney embracing the more playful aspects of his artistic prowess in his signature sophisticated fashion; barely there, but impossible to ignore nonetheless. In turn, the tracks come across as eccentric, not only showcasing the musician’s fearlessness in the face of risk-taking but also his commitment to innovation and unconventional structures.
Despite the freedom, ‘Darkroom’ was initially a bit of a wild card. While he was writing the album, he recorded over 20 songs before temporarily leaving them behind to focus on the band. Without any real direction for the record and knowing that it would have to be trimmed significantly to work, he left it alone until revisiting it forced him into some difficult creative decisions. At first, ‘Darkroom’ was dismissed for being too long and experimental, but McCartney soon changed his mind after tweaking some of it.
As he later explained: “Originally ‘Darkroom’ wasn’t going to be on this album because we had to knock off about eight or nine tracks at the beginning.” He added: “We had planned a double album, but then it came down to a single album. I was going to lose ‘Darkroom’ because the original version is a very long track and goes on through all sorts of little crazy noises. But I edited it down because I liked it, and now it’s on the album.”
The track still remains one of the more outlandish on McCartney II. However, it’s difficult to imagine its absence, as leaning into his innate experimental ethos largely came to define the entire project, with ‘Darkroom’ sitting at the nucleus of that spirit. It’s charming yet eerie, showing a side to McCartney that he hadn’t shared with such feverish intent before, embodying a specific moment in time when his art felt completely limitless.
