2000 Great Songs #1382: Morse Moose & The Grey Goose

One of the things I admire most about Paul McCartney is his willingness to fully commit to even his dopiest ideas. We've all heard the tales about him driving his fellow Beatles crazy by insisting on a hundred takes of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," a song they despised. (Me, I'm proud to be among those gladly defending the track.) And as the ratio of hits to misses shrunk throughout his Wings and solo years, he'd nonetheless make even some of the dreck perfectly enjoyable.

Now, I wouldn't call "Morse Moose & The Grey Goose" dreck, but it's probably fair to say it has a lot fewer fans than, say, "Maybe I'm Amazed" or "Band on the Run." Yet I find it endlessly fascinating, and a surprisingly potent closer to Wings' hugely under-appreciated 1978 LP London Town. (Or at least the closer if one doesn't count "Mull of Kintyre," added to the end of the CD release and apparently one of his most successful songs ever in the UK, albeit something I've never really cared for.)

Much like Abbey Road's side two medleys, and the silly-yet-wonderful track "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey," "Morse Moose" is a couple disparate ideas patched together in the studio. The "Morse Moose" bit features an insistent morse code rhythm and slashing staccato guitar, some punk era howling, and perhaps Paul's funkiest bass groove; while the "Grey Goose" portion is a sea shanty folk song--still backed by that incessant morse code--seemingly owing more to co-writer Denny Laine than McCartney. It makes for a truly epic suite, downright proggy, something that has absolutely no business working yet a deep cut I've always found spellbinding. Is it one of McCartney's finest moments? Probably not. Do I find myself singing it in my head more than most of his better-loved tracks? Yep.

Fan remix/mash-up:

Another fan remake (this time as a 20-minute prog suite):

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