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Sometimes, first impressions are wrong. Especially when it comes to music, some masterpieces need a few repeats to reveal themselves or require a bit more digging into the context of the creation to be truly appreciated. That’s what Gene Simmons learned when it came to this Paul McCartney record.
“That first McCartney solo record was an eye-opener,” Simmons said of McCartney, the Beatle’s 1970 record and his first venture out on his own. The factual context around the album was clear, and the Kiss musician knew it well, as everyone did. “I was aware that The Beatles were breaking up; I was aware that McCartney was bringing out a solo record and, song after song it was, you know, decent!”
But “decent” was about all he could muster in his immediate response to the release. “The production wasn’t like The Beatles production, but it was decent enough. The playing wasn’t as good as Beatles playing, but it was good enough,” he said in a review so middling it might as well be damning.
However, when viewed in the sad context of the Beatles’ demise, McCartney was never going to live up. It was always bound to be shadowed not only by the music the musician had made within the beloved group but by the sad fact that the era was over and the members were now cast off as strays. Through that lens, it would have been near impossible for the album to be anything but a “decent” piece of history, existing more as a piece of the puzzle of the Beatles’ split rather than an album with its own artistic worth and merit.
But then Simmons got a new piece of context, revealing a more emotional motivation and determination. “Then I found out that he wrote, engineered, produced, played all the background – except Linda would show up here and there – it was a one-man band,” he said. “I mean everything! Drums, keyboards, everything, then engineered it, then produced it, did it all. Unbelievable!” he added, genuinely wowed by the feat.