Customer Reviews

Woman (Mlps) (Shm)

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The original Island LP, quite a nice singer-songwriter album, had a number of small bits of linking music and bits of chat from Mike's two daughters:

ORIGINAL ALBUM:
"WOMAN"
"WITNESS"
"JOLLY GOOD SHOW"
benna (missing)
"ROAMIN A ROAD"
benna (missing)
"WISHIN"
young young man (five years ago) (missing)
"YOUNG MAN (Five Years Later)"
"EDWARD HEATH"
"BORED AS BUTTERSCOTCH"
"UPTOWNDOWNTOWN"
black beauty (missing)
"TIGER"
strawberry jam (faces) (included in Tiger)

So....the album as reissued by UK Edsel is incomplete.

Also, Paul McCartney, while not credited, co-wrote "Bored As Butterscotch" and played piano.

The entire album was recorded at Strawberry Studios, Stockport, England, a studio co-owned by 10cc and Peter Tattersall. They were involved in the music.

A very nice, looked over album (in lieu of "McGear", which was also recorded at Strawberry and had active involvement from McCartney and Wings, as well as members of 10cc.

OK this probably would have never been recorded if Mike had not been Paul Mccartney's brother but...this album is not too too bad. Problem is that some of the songs sound unpolished and incomplete...going nowhere musically and thematically. Pauls brother has a soft melodic voice - nothing spectacular and he tries too hard to play wordgames . Woman harkens to Paul's Let It Be but its limitations are soon apparent - I mean, what is the song about? Best songs are Wishin' a thumping rocker and Tiger which sounds like something off John Lennon's Imagine album.. But Mike's voice lacks too much emotion and depth to give his attempts at wit any substance or meaning. Still, as the liner notes say, this is better than what Paul was recording at the same time -- "Mary Had a Litle Lamb."

The "Woman" on the cover of Woman is a picture of Mary McCartney-Paul and Michael McCartney's mother, but she's all these two seem to have in common. This album was recorded -- God knows why -- in 1971 after Mike McCartney's former comedy group, the Scaffold, disbanded. It's a collection of half-written songs composed by Mike himself, who, aware that he lacks his brother's musical skills, tries to make up for it with word games and puns -- the sort the Scaffold engaged in in the 60s. It's clear that without collaboration (the Scaffold in the 60's and brother Paul in 1974's McGear album), Mike has neither the vocal talent nor songwriting skills needed to carry an album on his own. Buy "McGear" if you are curious as to what he sounds like, or the Scaffold's compilation of hits.