Paul's Pastoral songs | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

First thing I do is check out the lyrics.  With Golden Earth Girl — So far so good!  At first, the instrumentation put me off, then I heard… is that an oboe…?  I checked Discogs and sure enough, Paul is using an oboe and a flute (played by Gordon Hunt and Susan Milan, respectively). If those had been synthesizer, I would given thumbs down.  So yes, I’ll add this one to my subjective list.

Country Dreamer — I don’t know how this song escaped my notice all these years.  This is emphatically pastoral!

Thanks @Ahhh Girl !

Thanks @Richard,

People’s suggestions here are helping me refine what the heck I mean by “pastoral” — it’s still a work in progress.  I guess lyrics are important, they should imbue the song with nature imagery; and also the sound of the music, including instrumentation. 

A song like Junior’s Farm (one of my favorites) is too much of a driving rock song I think to fit. 

Mull Of Kintyre ‘s lyrics seem a good fit, and the music too. 

Little Willow is close, but something pulls me away from according it “pastoral” status.

I almost felt the same about Rainclouds — but the fiddle turned it around! I’d say yes.

Beatlebug said
I LOVE this thread! I’ve had an obsession with pastoral-sounding music forever, and Paul has done many of the best examples.

For me, a lot of Paul’s acousticky stuff sounds kinda pastoral, but especially:

Mother Nature’s Son

Heart Of The Country

Hey Diddle

Some People Never Know

Tomorrow

Little Lamb Dragonfly

I Lie Around

Country Dreamer

Mull Of Kintyre

Mamunia

Calico Skies

  

Thanks — I think you were the one who first used that word “pastoral” for Little Lamb Dragonfly.  My growing list already has many of the ones you have (I’m glad you also picked up on “Tomorrow”), but now I need to listen to

Hey Diddle

I Lie Around

Calico Skies.