That is an interesting (and apt) observation about Paul and transmitting emotion. Never thought of it that way but it hits the nail on the head with Mcwell's silver hammer. Paul is a crooner and a bard in an old fashioned pre-sixties-music-as-social-movement sense, even where he attempts to be emotional and committed, he ends up too beautiful or even twee ... I always thought Yesterday overwrought in comparison to Harrison's Something which captures yearning so well. And when Paul commemorates the Civil Rights Movement with Blackbird it is well-intentioned but still twee. Ebony & Ivory was much the same$ Where he is more direct - Give Ireland back to the Irish - it's awkward. Paul is a wonderful musician and the pop world would be a lot poorer without him, but his artistic capabilities overshadow his emotional content. The one emotion he can transmit is happiness, maybe because that is what he essentially is: a happy, slightlyy naïve guy grateful for life as such and his life in particular (which appeals to be more than Cobain's outlook on life). Now don't jump on me for that, I'm not knocking Macca for it, just observing.
I am beginning to see more clearly how much of a team John Lennon and Paul McCartney were. This is something which is obvious, but maybe not so obvious as it might seem. Sometimes it seems that some of the great Beatles songs were almost a fluke, but I don't think so. I think they were authentic; I think they were real. I've never been much of a fan of Paul as a solo artist, yet have always felt a number of Beatles songs were great. Now I realize how valid that music was. But it was music being made by a team which was strongest as a whole, obviously, and never as separate parts. I always identified more with Lennon's music in the Beatles. I realize he is rated higher. But when John and Paul were together, Paul was John's equal. He didn't have the emotional intensity, but he had a lot of other things. Plus, there were even rare occasions when he had some emotional intensity. "Eleanor Rigby" comes to mind as the most obvious example. Based on what I know now, "Eleanor Rigby" might have been written during a bad mood and it provides the exception to the rule from Paul. Or maybe there could be other examples even better, but we know something like this was going on from time to time:
Paul McCartney--
[On his songwriting:]
McCartney: "I don't ever try to make a serious social comment. ... It's just a song."
McCartney: "How I wrote depended on my mood. The only way I would be sort of biting and witty like [John Lennon] was if I was in a bad mood!"
