This is another great McCartney love song. Listen to that beautiful note on "you" when he sings the first "Thanks to you' at 1:27 in this video (and then throughout the song). Lovely. And that chorus at 2:05 is gorgeous... "Motor of love... motor of love heavenly father look down from above. I can't get over your powerful motor of love." And the background "oooouuuuhhs" at 5:08 (and throughout the song) are beautiful as well. Nice little guitar part at the end... "CPO - In regard to the phrase ("Motor of love")... I felt like you when I first heard the song. The phrase seemed weird. But I came to see it as meaning something like the "well of love". The source of love. The place from which this great love comes from. And it works in three ways. 1. The source of all love - from God above. 2.. The source being from Linda, from Linda's heart. The motor of her love... the source of her love. It's like another word for her heart. The well from which Linda's love comes from - that gives Paul everything he needs to go on. 3. Paul's actual father who had passed in 1976. Here are the lyrics... I can't get over your love No matter how hard life seems, There's a light in my dreams Thanks to you. My friends keep asking me why There's such a smile on my face, There's a home at my place, Thanks to you. I don't want anything from you, Turn on your motor of love. Motor of love, motor of love. Heavenly father look down from above, I can't get over your powerful Motor of love. I can't get over your love No matter how lost I feel, I know my love is real, Thanks to you. You simply reached out your hand And touched me deep in my soul, I came in out of the cold, Thanks to you. I won't steal anything from you, You give me more than enough. Motor of love, motor of love, Heavenly father look down from above, I can't get over your powerful Motor of love. There was a time When I was down and counted out, Well I remember I felt so bad I nearly threw away, Nearly threw away the keys. Motor of love, motor of love Heavenly father look down from above, Motor of love, motor of love, Heavenly father look down from above, I can't get over your powerful Motor of love.
OH YES! Another that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE! This is a beautiful, soulful ballad from McCartney, one of the best of his career! Love is always on, it's motor is constantly going. As McCartney says it's constantly turning over and over, like a motor constantly turns over and over.
Paul had this comment shortly after the album was released in 1989. "We made a version I wasn’t too happy with, but I liked the song. It was gonna get dumped off the album…so I said why don’t we give it to some independent people…get some objectivity? I think it’s a good song and it might get back as a contender. I’d liked Chris Hughes and Ross Cullum’s work with Tears For Fears…and they worked up a more modern, hi-tech version…’Heavenly Father’ is like an old trick for me, it’s like ‘Mother Mary’. I have a father who’s no longer with us…but I realised the moment you say ‘Heavenly Father’ or ‘Mother Mary’ there’s also that connotation. I like a bit of God though, nothing wrong with that." And this is a comment from Chris Hughes about this song. "Paul McCartney sent over the tapes of Motor of Love, and back in the day it was two-inch tapes. It was basically “have a little listen to this, and see what you think”. I went to a studio in Fulham, I listened to the track, and I instantly thought, well it’s unfinished as a piece of writing. There’s no middle eight. It was somewhere between a demo and a master. But I made a copy of the tape and basically cut it at a certain point and put 12 bars of just time, just a little drum box in time, and glued it back together. He came over to the studio, and this is the amazing thing… I said, “forgive me, but I think there is a middle eight missing here, it just feels incomplete. I’ve put a landing strip of 12 bars blank in the track, and wondered if you just wanted to try something out.” This was astounding. We plugged in a little electric keyboard, and he said, “ok, run it down”. We ran down the track, and literally, as it got to the blank bit, he started playing, and humming, and played it and finished it and rounded it off into the track. It was astounding, it was one take. Literally the second take, the second pass, he’d written it with the tune, and ten minutes, quarter of an hour later, he said, these could be the words. Honestly, it was astounding watching him create from absolute scratch and putting it in the track. That was for me, amazing. Anyway, he quite liked the fact it had gone well. Then we went down to his place, the Windmill, and started recording for real. […] Motor of Love, even in its demo version, was alluding to being quite lush. It was slow and it was this slushy, lush ballad-y thing he was trying to get. We did layers and layers of Linda and samples and God knows what, as one did at that time. I listened to it the other day and I thought, fucking hell it’s so much of its time. That little place where there were string pads and synths and Fairlights and snare drums that went on for days, and snare drums being too loud. I think he was quite enjoying the nature of it sounding a little less like him and sounding a bit like some records that sound like that. The two or three things that are typical of him are the chord progressions [which] are Macca-y and his bass playing, as you’d expect."
People tend to knock this song, but I think it’s a brilliant performance, feels like a bridge between this and Press To Play, beautiful song. I so can’t wait for you to hear Ou Est Le Soilel
I first had got the album on a cassete and was almost sure "How Many People" was the final track, so when "Motor Of Love" started sounding, I didn't recognize Paul at all: I thought that was an additional track from someone else.
This song was one of the last songs, if not the very last, to be recorded for this album, in January 1989. Paul wanted expressly to work with the Tears For Fears producing team for this song, being him a massive fan of Everybody Wants To Rule The World (He even recorded and "unreleased" song in the late 80s heavily influenced by that record, the incredibly catchy Love Mix) So the Chris Hughes/Ross Collum sessions, after the McCartney/MacManus, the Froom/Dorfsman/McCartney and the Horn/Lipson ones, as well as the McCartney own ones, wrapped the work on this album, so it's quite fitting their main output song was chose to "end" the album (Only on vinyl). It's also interesting to note that Ross Cullum began his career as George Martin's assistant at AIR Studios in the 70s. Also important to note that The Cars' keyboardist Greg Hawkes plays on this song (Think about his work on Car songs like Drive and you will totally hear it on Motor Of Love)
Do you like it though or not. When 18 adored it. Now at 55 I dislike it because I find it treacly and drawn out far to long. If it had been edited and less instrumental synth padding with that 80's over-polishe I would probably like it. It's a rare song in that usuually I transition from disliking to loving a song but this is the other way round.
@@triplejazzmusicisall1883 Not one of my favourites on this record, but I still pretty enjoy it. I especially like the middle eight part ("There was a time when I was down and counted out…")
The "Heavenly Father" lyrics in this song, just like the "Mother Mary" ones of twenty years prior, could be interpreted as strict christian references or in a more subtle, personal way for Paul. And just as on Let It Be, the subject here is not THAT father but Paul's personal father Jim, just as Mary was his mather's actual name. This is the second song on this album that Macca dedicates to his father, after Put It There (Both songs put at the end of each side of the LP record), who passed away in 1976. So this is a pretty heartfelt one for McCartney
I saw McCartney give an explantion of this song and he stated he liked the ambiguity of that lyric - consequenlty it can be taken as his father, God or both - that is so very Paul McCartney - hedging your bets and asking the listener to decide. I can try and locate the footage if people don't believe me but I'd rather not as it could take me hours. Andrew Dixon, a huge RUclips dude, gentleman and McCartney fan rates this as the McCartney song he hates more than any other. Previously, I liked the beginning sung part( but I don't know if it was Andrew's influence) but my thoughts changed substantiallylater and still today viewing this song as excess mush. I wish I still liked because the LP overall is a big winner for me. Definitely a classic and the idea to include Elvis Costello paid of as highly successful.
@@Uetti My reply has disappeared. I guess because it contained a web address, I don't know if you saw it or not. But it says Lennon was the one who told Paul on a Beatles Fandom page. I searched "jim mccartney dies lennon" and it popped up. I don't know anything about the site, but I admit the info may be dubious.
@@Uetti I've heard that too (that John heard first), but I don't know the source. It seems improbable since the McCartney family is large and should be good at phone-arounds. OTOH John was always very good at being on top of flowers and condolences. He was still in contact with his own family in 76, but over the next five years that would diminish and his own sisters were pretty low on the phone-around for his death.
Romantic melancholy, sad, happy love song. Like "It's not true" on the previous albutm two minutes too long. To me there is nothing special about instrumentation, but a lot of electronic toying around. If it is an insight into himself after the Bealtes' break up and Linda it is very revealing.feel I love your comments, it opens a new perspective on the song to me.
CPO you don’t rate Tug of War ahead of Flowers in the dirt for your best 80’s McCartney album? I like Flowers in the Dirt and listened to it alot when I bought it in 1989. But I still rate Tug of War higher with George Martin’s production and influence!
I think I only heard this once before and forgot about it but I do really like it despite the lyric--it's slow and dreamy music. (Reminds me of salamander in Getting Closer--beautiful music but a startling lyric--he could be quite quirky and imaginative in his lyrics.) This and Tug of War are my two favorite 80's albums from Paul.
@@Kieop Yes the word has other more appropriate meanings but people mostly equate it with the lizard 🙂. Love Getting Closer no matter what he intended in the lyric!
@@lyna4873 I'm just saying that to the listener it seems like he just threw in a word that fit the music because he liked the way it sounds and then left it in because he couldn't come up with something better, but calling her a salamander actually fits the lyric, someone who's passionate and their feelings are changeable. Everyone who hears this song, like you said, is taken aback and goes, did he just call her a lizard? Is that his pet name for her? WTF? But it was intentional, b/c that's what Paul is like. He's esoteric and coy with his lyrics.😃
This album is more consistent and gives you a good overall listening experience, but Tug of War has more standout tracks. My complaint with Tug of War is the track order. Take It Away sounds so jarring coming after Tug of War and I feel like Be What You See is really in the wrong place -- aside from the frustration of really wishing he'd fleshed THAT out into a whole song.
This is the only song on the album that I would say sounds dated. I do like its bones though. You'd think that a song about the engine that powers love would be more of a power ballad or rocker than a song this smooth and layered.
Motor offff Looooove, Motor of Loooove, Heavenly father......... Sorry, I just never cared for this song. A weeee bit tooo sappy for me. I certainly listened to the song over and over cuz I played the album alot when it came out so I fouind it tolerable. It just goes on way tooo long and there's nothing exciting about the lyrics. I think I read somewhere that Paul was influenced by sound of the vocals on The Cars song "Drive" when writing this song. I could be wrong. Either way, Always felt that the tossed away b-side "Same Love" recorded around this time would have been a better song to place on FITD.
This is another great McCartney love song.
Listen to that beautiful note on "you" when he sings the first "Thanks to you' at 1:27 in this video (and then throughout the song). Lovely.
And that chorus at 2:05 is gorgeous...
"Motor of love... motor of love
heavenly father look down from above.
I can't get over your powerful motor of love."
And the background "oooouuuuhhs" at 5:08 (and throughout the song) are beautiful as well.
Nice little guitar part at the end...
"CPO - In regard to the phrase ("Motor of love")... I felt like you when I first heard the song. The phrase seemed weird. But I came to see it as meaning something like the "well of love". The source of love. The place from which this great love comes from. And it works in three ways. 1. The source of all love - from God above. 2.. The source being from Linda, from Linda's heart. The motor of her love... the source of her love. It's like another word for her heart. The well from which Linda's love comes from - that gives Paul everything he needs to go on. 3. Paul's actual father who had passed in 1976.
Here are the lyrics...
I can't get over your love
No matter how hard life seems,
There's a light in my dreams
Thanks to you.
My friends keep asking me why
There's such a smile on my face,
There's a home at my place,
Thanks to you.
I don't want anything from you,
Turn on your motor of love.
Motor of love, motor of love.
Heavenly father look down from above,
I can't get over your powerful
Motor of love.
I can't get over your love
No matter how lost I feel,
I know my love is real,
Thanks to you.
You simply reached out your hand
And touched me deep in my soul,
I came in out of the cold,
Thanks to you.
I won't steal anything from you,
You give me more than enough.
Motor of love, motor of love,
Heavenly father look down from above,
I can't get over your powerful
Motor of love.
There was a time
When I was down and counted out,
Well I remember I felt so bad
I nearly threw away,
Nearly threw away the keys.
Motor of love, motor of love
Heavenly father look down from above,
Motor of love, motor of love,
Heavenly father look down from above,
I can't get over your powerful
Motor of love.
OH YES! Another that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE!
This is a beautiful, soulful ballad from McCartney, one of the best of his career!
Love is always on, it's motor is constantly going. As McCartney says it's constantly turning over and over, like a motor constantly turns over and over.
The bridge of this song is stunning. (The part that begins "I won't steal anything from you...")
Paul had this comment shortly after the album was released in 1989.
"We made a version I wasn’t too happy with, but I liked the song. It was gonna get dumped off the album…so I said why don’t we give it to some independent people…get some objectivity? I think it’s a good song and it might get back as a contender. I’d liked Chris Hughes and Ross Cullum’s work with Tears For Fears…and they worked up a more modern, hi-tech version…’Heavenly Father’ is like an old trick for me, it’s like ‘Mother Mary’. I have a father who’s no longer with us…but I realised the moment you say ‘Heavenly Father’ or ‘Mother Mary’ there’s also that connotation. I like a bit of God though, nothing wrong with that."
And this is a comment from Chris Hughes about this song.
"Paul McCartney sent over the tapes of Motor of Love, and back in the day it was two-inch tapes. It was basically “have a little listen to this, and see what you think”. I went to a studio in Fulham, I listened to the track, and I instantly thought, well it’s unfinished as a piece of writing. There’s no middle eight. It was somewhere between a demo and a master. But I made a copy of the tape and basically cut it at a certain point and put 12 bars of just time, just a little drum box in time, and glued it back together.
He came over to the studio, and this is the amazing thing… I said, “forgive me, but I think there is a middle eight missing here, it just feels incomplete. I’ve put a landing strip of 12 bars blank in the track, and wondered if you just wanted to try something out.” This was astounding. We plugged in a little electric keyboard, and he said, “ok, run it down”. We ran down the track, and literally, as it got to the blank bit, he started playing, and humming, and played it and finished it and rounded it off into the track. It was astounding, it was one take. Literally the second take, the second pass, he’d written it with the tune, and ten minutes, quarter of an hour later, he said, these could be the words. Honestly, it was astounding watching him create from absolute scratch and putting it in the track. That was for me, amazing. Anyway, he quite liked the fact it had gone well. Then we went down to his place, the Windmill, and started recording for real. […]
Motor of Love, even in its demo version, was alluding to being quite lush. It was slow and it was this slushy, lush ballad-y thing he was trying to get. We did layers and layers of Linda and samples and God knows what, as one did at that time. I listened to it the other day and I thought, fucking hell it’s so much of its time. That little place where there were string pads and synths and Fairlights and snare drums that went on for days, and snare drums being too loud. I think he was quite enjoying the nature of it sounding a little less like him and sounding a bit like some records that sound like that. The two or three things that are typical of him are the chord progressions [which] are Macca-y and his bass playing, as you’d expect."
People tend to knock this song, but I think it’s a brilliant performance, feels like a bridge between this and Press To Play, beautiful song.
I so can’t wait for you to hear Ou Est Le Soilel
My only complaint is that it’s a few minutes too long, but other than that I like it.
@@beatlesnqueen I kinda agree
NICE!
I bought this album 25 years ago. Never once have I said to myself, "I need to hear 'Motor of Love.'"
Nope.
He gets better much more years ahead.
You'll just have to wait....
About 20 years.
Chaos is coming soon enough...
Fabulous album.
I first had got the album on a cassete and was almost sure "How Many People" was the final track, so when "Motor Of Love" started sounding, I didn't recognize Paul at all: I thought that was an additional track from someone else.
very simple song but I kinda like the lush production, especially the vocal harmonies
This song was one of the last songs, if not the very last, to be recorded for this album, in January 1989.
Paul wanted expressly to work with the Tears For Fears producing team for this song, being him a massive fan of Everybody Wants To Rule The World (He even recorded and "unreleased" song in the late 80s heavily influenced by that record, the incredibly catchy Love Mix)
So the Chris Hughes/Ross Collum sessions, after the McCartney/MacManus, the Froom/Dorfsman/McCartney and the Horn/Lipson ones, as well as the McCartney own ones, wrapped the work on this album, so it's quite fitting their main output song was chose to "end" the album (Only on vinyl).
It's also interesting to note that Ross Cullum began his career as George Martin's assistant at AIR Studios in the 70s.
Also important to note that The Cars' keyboardist Greg Hawkes plays on this song (Think about his work on Car songs like Drive and you will totally hear it on Motor Of Love)
Do you like it though or not. When 18 adored it. Now at 55 I dislike it because I find it treacly and drawn out far to long. If it had been edited and less instrumental synth padding with that 80's over-polishe I would probably like it. It's a rare song in that usuually I transition from disliking to loving a song but this is the other way round.
@@triplejazzmusicisall1883 I pretty much share your sentiment over its over-production and overdue length, but I still like the writing of it
@@triplejazzmusicisall1883 Not one of my favourites on this record, but I still pretty enjoy it. I especially like the middle eight part ("There was a time when I was down and counted out…")
@@Uetti Thanks. I value your thoughts. Thanks for letting me know your opinion. Sincerely appreciated.
Ooh, I really like Love Mix.
The "Heavenly Father" lyrics in this song, just like the "Mother Mary" ones of twenty years prior, could be interpreted as strict christian references or in a more subtle, personal way for Paul.
And just as on Let It Be, the subject here is not THAT father but Paul's personal father Jim, just as Mary was his mather's actual name.
This is the second song on this album that Macca dedicates to his father, after Put It There (Both songs put at the end of each side of the LP record), who passed away in 1976.
So this is a pretty heartfelt one for McCartney
Yeah, Jim McCartney had died in early 1976, Oddly, John Lennon heard about it and called Paul to let him know.
@@debjorgo Really? Where did you read that trivia about John?
I saw McCartney give an explantion of this song and he stated he liked the ambiguity of that lyric - consequenlty it can be taken as his father, God or both - that is so very Paul McCartney - hedging your bets and asking the listener to decide. I can try and locate the footage if people don't believe me but I'd rather not as it could take me hours. Andrew Dixon, a huge RUclips dude, gentleman and McCartney fan rates this as the McCartney song he hates more than any other. Previously, I liked the beginning sung part( but I don't know if it was Andrew's influence) but my thoughts changed substantiallylater and still today viewing this song as excess mush. I wish I still liked because the LP overall is a big winner for me. Definitely a classic and the idea to include Elvis Costello paid of as highly successful.
@@Uetti My reply has disappeared. I guess because it contained a web address, I don't know if you saw it or not. But it says Lennon was the one who told Paul on a Beatles Fandom page. I searched "jim mccartney dies lennon" and it popped up. I don't know anything about the site, but I admit the info may be dubious.
@@Uetti I've heard that too (that John heard first), but I don't know the source. It seems improbable since the McCartney family is large and should be good at phone-arounds.
OTOH John was always very good at being on top of flowers and condolences. He was still in contact with his own family in 76, but over the next five years that would diminish and his own sisters were pretty low on the phone-around for his death.
Ou Est Le Soleil (French), Where Is The Sun (English)
Now it follows the disk off the ground..
Romantic melancholy, sad, happy love song. Like "It's not true" on the previous albutm two minutes too long. To me there is nothing special about instrumentation, but a lot of electronic toying around. If it is an insight into himself after the Bealtes' break up and Linda it is very revealing.feel
I love your comments, it opens a new perspective on the song to me.
I hope You doing the singles another day, Sally g, country dreamer, oh woman oh why,i'll give You the ring, girls school, zoo gang, etc
You spoke too soon there at the end Cory lol the esoteric song is coming up next with Ou est le Soleil. But it’s lighthearted and still a lot of fun.
CPO you don’t rate Tug of War ahead of Flowers in the dirt for your best 80’s McCartney album?
I like Flowers in the Dirt and listened to it alot when I bought it in 1989. But I still rate Tug of War higher with George Martin’s production and influence!
Written for his dad.
I can relate to the Christian-style lyrics, but yeah, "Motor of Love" is kind of a strange phrase. What about "Source of All Love"?
I think I only heard this once before and forgot about it but I do really like it despite the lyric--it's slow and dreamy music. (Reminds me of salamander in Getting Closer--beautiful music but a startling lyric--he could be quite quirky and imaginative in his lyrics.) This and Tug of War are my two favorite 80's albums from Paul.
And it turns out that salamander isn't as silly a lyric as it seems. It is a symbol of passion and transformation.
@@Kieop Yes the word has other more appropriate meanings but people mostly equate it with the lizard 🙂. Love Getting Closer no matter what he intended in the lyric!
@@lyna4873 I'm just saying that to the listener it seems like he just threw in a word that fit the music because he liked the way it sounds and then left it in because he couldn't come up with something better, but calling her a salamander actually fits the lyric, someone who's passionate and their feelings are changeable. Everyone who hears this song, like you said, is taken aback and goes, did he just call her a lizard? Is that his pet name for her? WTF? But it was intentional, b/c that's what Paul is like. He's esoteric and coy with his lyrics.😃
So do you like it more than Tug of War?
At the time, I thought this sounded like Journey.
Yeah, to me Flowers is Paul's best 80's record. Tug of War has a couple high end tracks, but this album has more good ones.
I’d say Tug of War is stronger overall, but they both make great bookends for Paul’s 80s output.
This album is more consistent and gives you a good overall listening experience, but Tug of War has more standout tracks. My complaint with Tug of War is the track order. Take It Away sounds so jarring coming after Tug of War and I feel like Be What You See is really in the wrong place -- aside from the frustration of really wishing he'd fleshed THAT out into a whole song.
This is the only song on the album that I would say sounds dated. I do like its bones though. You'd think that a song about the engine that powers love would be more of a power ballad or rocker than a song this smooth and layered.
Ou est le soleil. Where is the sun?
Dans la tête
Travaillez
Off the ground is a much better album also the extra set of songs is pure McCartney
Motor offff Looooove, Motor of Loooove, Heavenly father......... Sorry, I just never cared for this song. A weeee bit tooo sappy for me. I certainly listened to the song over and over cuz I played the album alot when it came out so I fouind it tolerable. It just goes on way tooo long and there's nothing exciting about the lyrics. I think I read somewhere that Paul was influenced by sound of the vocals on The Cars song "Drive" when writing this song. I could be wrong. Either way, Always felt that the tossed away b-side "Same Love" recorded around this time would have been a better song to place on FITD.
For f*ck's sake, stop marking words. Listen to the mighty melody man! A great power ballad is what this is. Andrew Dixon is plain wrong (for once).
I hope you doing the "Tripping the Live Fantastic" and "Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)" albums before "Off the Ground"