Songs For Saturday: Paul McCartney & Wings and Starship

 

Today's Songs For Saturday spotlights a couple of songs that I like that are not always well regarded by other fans of music. 

First up is  Paul McCartney & Wings with "Silly Love Songs". It is a song that is often derided as pop pablum compared to the works of other former Beatles, edgier George Harrison and the more esoteric John Lennon. 

There are times during "Silly Love Songs" where the tune descends into mid 1970's generic dance pop but there are parts that are genuinely inspired.  The factory machinery opening and the round-robin overlap of vocals later in the song. 

It is just a silly love song but one that even my cynical self quite enjoys. 

 

The next song on today's list gets a lot of hate and is universally not well regarded and certainly hasn't aged all that well, "We Built This City" by Starship.

I think part of that negative reaction owes less to the song and more to the evolution of the band into more of a pop music generating machine.  The band started in the 1060's as Jefferson Airplane as a boundary breaking band with acid washed songs like "White Rabbit".  Even when the band replaced "Airplane" with "Starship" in their name, Jefferson Starship was still had a devoted fan base.

The change to simply "Starship" was a step too far as the bank morphed into an MTV ready zombie of corporate rock.  

Still, back in the 1980s, dummy that I am, when "We Built This City" came on the radio, I cranked up the volume and enjoyed the hell out of it.  

These days, eh, not so much but there is still a soft spot in my heart (or my head) for "We Built This City".  

OK, that is that for today's Songs For Saturday.

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and to always keep the music alive.