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7.52pm
26 March 2012
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If there’s a problem I have with The Long And Winding Road it’s that it just seems to meander aimlessly; there’s no real hook or chorus. Maybe Paul intended it that way to fit the title and theme but it doesn’t work too well, there’s not as much succinct but inherently catchy melody as work as in, say, Yesterday .
SHUT UP - Paulie's talkin'
6.16pm
14 October 2012
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I’ve never really liked tLaWR- I always thought it was a sub-Let It Be , and the imagery was boring and cliched.
However, I was listening to the Naked version yesterday and I suddenly thought, “Hey, this is really good!”. Paul’s vocal is great especially the way his voice goes all low and a bit cracked on “Crying for the day” and both “A long long time ago,”s.
Lyrically, I love, “The wild and windy night/ That the rain washed away/ Has left a pool of tears/ Crying for the day,” I think its powerful (You could argue it was a predecessor to the mountains and deserts and tears in the rain from Mull Of Kintyre ). I think the lyrics are quite Lennon-ish- “Don’t leave me waiting here,”/ “Why leave me standing here?” particuarlarly (which is a bit bizarre really as John had no input in the song’s lyrics. I guess John’s influence rubbed off on Paul).
The only part I don’t really like is the Billy Preston solo- I find it very basic and not right for the sadness song, it just sounds like a ringtone.
"I don't think we were actually swimming, as it were, with shirts on, 'cos we always wear overcoats when we're swimming,"-
George Harrison, Australia, June 1964
8.05pm
24 August 2012
Offline Ben Ramon said
If there’s a problem I have with The Long And Winding Road it’s that it just seems to meander aimlessly; there’s no real hook or chorus. Maybe Paul intended it that way to fit the title and theme but it doesn’t work too well, there’s not as much succinct but inherently catchy melody as work as in, say, Yesterday .
I feel like I couldn’t have put it better. I mean it’s a gorgeous song and I know that I could never produce something that lovely, but I agree that it doesn’t have the structure that other songs do.
You make your own dream.
9.43pm
23 July 2012
Offline I personally find the Naked version to be the best there is. Paul’s singing is better, it’s not so overproduced that it gives you a headache…it’s just piano and a light orchestra, nothing major, which makes it sound so much prettier!! Or, at least that’s what I find…
“I was special. I always have been. Why didn't anyone notice me?"
-John Lennon
5.51pm
21 November 2012
Offline I’ve always liked this song.
I like the orchestra, it suits it and gives it more emotion, but I really dislike the choir. That’s a bit too much imo.
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Richard12.36am
5 December 2012
Offline I can’t stand the song. I turn it off whenever it comes on the radio. The song in general makes me sad listening to it. Just reminds me of the end as The Beatles as a whole.
Sorry, if that sounds corny.
2.33am
1 November 2012
Offline Did you guys know that Paul offered the song to Tom Jones in 1968?
According to this site:
Paul McCartney offered this song to Tom Jones in 1968 on the condition it be his next single. However, Tom Jones already had “Without Love (There is Nothing)” set for release so he turned down the offer, something he would later regret.
Speaking with Media Wales in 2012, Jones explained: “I saw him (McCartney) in a club called Scotts Of St James on Jermyn Street in London. I said to him When are you going to write me a song then Paul? He said, aye I will then. Then not long after he sent a song around to my house, which was ‘The Long And Winding Road ,’ but the condition was that I could do it but it had to be my next single.”
I think Joe should add this interesting and weird fact to his info on the song.
Apparently, Tom Jones eventually covered the song. Here’s a YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..eGKOW4I_RY
From the looks of Tom, it must be perhaps the 1980s.
Faded flowers, wait in a jar, till the evening is complete... complete... complete... complete...
3.18am
1 May 2010
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God , who says no to a Lennon/McCartney song????? 
Here comes the sun….. Scoobie-doobie……
Something in the way she moves…..attracts me like a cauliflower…
Bop. Bop, cat bop. Go, Johnny, Go.
Beware of Darkness…
9.28am
3 May 2012
Offline Silly man. Surely that would’ve been a guaranteed hit with the Lennon/McCartney name on it??
Moving along in our God given ways, safety is sat by the fire/Sanctuary from these feverish smiles, left with a mark on the door.
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2.11pm
Reviewers
29 November 2012
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Wasn’t the club called the *Scotch* of St. James?
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5.15pm
8 November 2012
Offline I don’t much care for the original, though I like the NYC version posted here. And the Ray Charles version. I read Paul had RC in mind when he wrote the song, but I can’t find the source of that info.
parlance
11.22pm
21 November 2012
Offline Wow, didn’t even know that! That’s funny to know.
Now I’m quite curious as to how Tom Jones would’ve recorded it.
1.54am
1 November 2012
Offline Linde said
Wow, didn’t even know that! That’s funny to know.Now I’m quite curious as to how Tom Jones would’ve recorded it.
Linde,
Just click on the YouTube I posted in my comment above. Though it was performed live at a club, it’s a good indication of how Tom Jones would have recorded it: rather like a schmaltzy lounge lizard. (Tom Jones has done some good soul/funk songs, but when it comes to other genres, he’s not so good.)
Faded flowers, wait in a jar, till the evening is complete... complete... complete... complete...
5.22pm
31 March 2008
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Tom Jones repeated the Long And Winding Road claim in a webchat for the Guardian earlier today:
Paul McCartney wrote The Long And Winding Road for me, but the timing was off and I couldn’t record it.
Does anyone know if McCartney has ever mentioned Tom Jones in connection with the song? I don’t think I’ve ever heard him say anything about it. It’s interesting that he was giving songs to performers like Cilla Black, Mary Hopkin and (apparently) Tom Jones in 1968, which perhaps shows where he thought popular music was heading. Or maybe he just gave away a bunch of songs that didn’t make the grade to easy-listening performers.
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7.37pm
22 September 2014
Offline I touched the wrong link and accidentally read this whole thread from the beginning. Don’t you miss mithvaen, meanmrsmustard, ben ramon and those other early members? So warm, clever and funny. Well, at least we’ve still got Zig and mmm. Thank goodness. 
Oh, and Joe. Jeez, almost forgot him!
I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, 'The Beatles did'.
Kurt Vonnegut, Timequake, 1997
7.44pm
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline Joe said
Tom Jones repeated the Long And Winding Road claim in a webchat for the Guardian earlier today:Paul McCartney wrote The Long And Winding Road for me, but the timing was off and I couldn’t record it.
Does anyone know if McCartney has ever mentioned Tom Jones in connection with the song? I don’t think I’ve ever heard him say anything about it. It’s interesting that he was giving songs to performers like Cilla Black, Mary Hopkin and (apparently) Tom Jones in 1968, which perhaps shows where he thought popular music was heading. Or maybe he just gave away a bunch of songs that didn’t make the grade to easy-listening performers.
Not that i can recall but more because i’ve read it so often in so many places that i cannot sort out in my head if any were from Paul himself.
@Joe,
Here’s one BBC article from the 24th December 1999.
Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney has written a song for Tom Jones after the Welsh singer said he once had the chance to record one of the Fab Four’s songs first – but turned it down.The Beatles offered Tom Jones the chance in 1968 to record Long And Winding Road before they did, but although the song is part of Jones’ live set, he turned them down.
But after Jones spoke of his regret on a TV show, Sir Paul resolved to create a new song for the Welsh legend.He said: “He was telling me the story of how I offered him Long And Winding Road and he had to turn it down at the time because I stipulated it had to be his next single and he had something like Delilah coming out, so they couldn’t stop it.
“I wouldn’t have wanted to stop it either, but it meant that he couldn’t do it for one reason or another.”
Sir Paul said Jones was “a bit gutted” to have missed out on the song.
“He was telling it to me in private and said, ‘Come on boy, write us a song then, go on, can you do it for me,'” he added.
“I just think he’s cool and when someone asks like that, if I like them, I’ll give it a try and if something comes, great.
“If not, I’ll just ring them up and say, ‘couldn’t do it’, but something came.”
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
7.54pm
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline One weird google translation from Russian to English of ‘The Long And Winding Road ‘;
The road so long, to your door leads it,
And it is not ending, at all times.
This leads me, here, to your door.Dick, cool night, but it will wash away the rain,
Will only the tears that leaked away,
And you should be, the road to find a way to help me.Many times I was alone and many times have suffered,
You never know, I’ve been looking forAnd all roads lead to the road of that, so long,
It has long once you leave me,
And until now, the road leads to your door …
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Beatlebug"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
7.33pm
21 January 2016
Offline An underrated one in my opinion. It’s one of Paul’s more soulful songs. If the band, in their low ebb, refined it instead of turned it in as a demo, it would have been one of their very best. Many criticize the addition of the backing instrumentals, but like Lennon said, the editors weren’t given much to work with.
9.05am
30 April 2019
Offline I’ve always thought the Anthology 3 version was the best. It’s the only one that truly lays the arrangement bare. The original album version has all the overdubs. And the “Naked” version sounds so fucking techno for no reason. Like they were overproducing it to sound not overproduced. Paul’s vocal especially sounds so weird, and it’s obviously the mix itself and not how he sang it that makes it sound so weird. This issue taints every Naked song, and makes the album unlistenable for me. I’d take the original (overdubs and all) any day over that garbage.
2.24pm
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline Kaniffee said
I’ve always thought the Anthology 3 version was the best. It’s the only one that truly lays the arrangement bare. The original album version has all the overdubs. And the “Naked” version sounds so fucking techno for no reason. Like they were overproducing it to sound not overproduced. Paul’s vocal especially sounds so weird, and it’s obviously the mix itself and not how he sang it that makes it sound so weird. This issue taints every Naked song, and makes the album unlistenable for me. I’d take the original (overdubs and all) any day over that garbage.
Agree with you. I also find Preston’s solo on ‘Naked’ to be one of the weakest, crappiest and worst sounding on any Beatles recording; it borders on being unlistenable.
It also irritates me that Apple gave us the video version instead of the ‘naked’ track. That compilation is probably the one I detest the most, everything about it is utter bollocks.
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Tangerine"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
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