October 14, 2013

The Generic Genius of Paul McCartney in "New"






For Paul McCartney to name an album “New” in 2013 is almost as oblivious—or as brash—as the band Asia naming an album “XXX,” which they did last year. Try searching for information about either of those: in the latter case, you’ll suddenly find yourself looking at a tremendous amount of Japanese pornography; in the former, you’ll get articles about every McCartney project from the past fifteen years. But “New” is something more specific: it’s McCartney’s first collection of original material since “Memory Almost Full,” from 2007.

In the half decade since then, he hasn’t exactly been idle: there’s been a ballet score (“Ocean’s Kingdom”), a collection of standards (“Kisses on the Bottom”), soundtrack-only songs (“(I Want to) Come Home,” from “Everybody’s Fine”), collaborations (“Cut Me Some Slack,” with the two surviving members of Nirvana), and a series of lavish rereleases (most recently, a multi-disk set of the mid-seventies concert “Wings Over America”). The McCartney industry is enjoying such a boom that there is a legitimate question as to the necessity of new material. When there’s so much traffic in what’s old, who needs “New”? The lead single and title track attempt an answer, with instantly loveable Beatle harmonies, a touch of harpsichord, and bright backing vocals. But saying that Paul McCartney wrote a bouncy, prepossessing song on the high side of passable is like saying that a bird laid an egg.

McCartney has been famous at an unimaginable level longer for than nearly anyone else alive. But as he has headed into old age, he has addressed the matter with a kind of relentless professionalism that borders on impersonality. He isn’t Paul Simon, using rueful humor to get a foothold on mortality. He isn’t Bob Dylan, grizzling his way to the grave. He isn’t Neil Young, hurtling from primal enthusiasm to primal enthusiasm, or Leonard Cohen, wisely dissipating into a mist of erotic Buddhism. He’s Paul McCartney, and he’s Paul McCartney now the way that he was Paul McCartney ten years ago, or thirty, generically exhorting listeners to action or reminding them of glory of love or sketching the outlines of a less pleasant emotion (fear, sadness, unregulated anger) without any real specifics. On album after album, McCartney has been content to be a rock star seen from the outside rather than an artist seen from the inside. Fronting Nirvana was only ever going to be a style exercise that yielded a muscular song, quickly forgotten. When he performed at the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens, last week, his closing remarks to the students were laughably generic, in the Paul McCartney way: “You rock on. You be great. You be lovely in your careers.”

In that sense, “New” is a perfect Paul McCartney album. It’s filled with songs that are without meaning but not meaningless. Whether in the wonderfully eerie “Appreciate,” the lovely, Indian-inflected “Hosanna,” or the happily crack-brained nursery rhyme “Queenie Eye,” McCartney makes songs that work extremely well on their own terms while remaining largely sealed off from anything approaching real or raw emotion. “Alligator” is a sharp, bluesy song whose lyrics, about love’s liberating power, are defiantly characterless: “Could you be that person for me? / Would you feel right setting me free? / Could you dare to find my key?” And “Everybody Out There,” which deploys a full arsenal of McCartneyisms—a descending melody line, spiralling guitar, squiggles of keyboard, and background chanting that will remind people of Mumford & Sons but should remind them of “Mrs. Vanderbilt”—exerts a tremendous amount of energy to put across a platitude: “Do some good before you say goodbye.” The title track might be a love song for his third wife, Nancy Shevell, unless it’s a broad statement regarding universal optimism. “Save Us” (packed with guitar and at least one brilliant rhyme, “battle” and “that’ll”) might be a political manifesto, unless it’s a broad statement about hope. The songs aren’t especially irritating until you think too much about them, at which point you may start to feel foolish—not as a result of their limits but as a result of your own. If you come to a Paul McCartney album looking for ragged candor, you will be left wanting, and that’s not a koan so much as it is a warning label.

Much has been made of the fact that, on “New,” McCartney worked with a series of young producers: Mark Ronson (best known for his work with Amy Winehouse), Paul Epworth (best known for his work with Adele), Ethan Johns (whose father, Glyn, took a crack at early versions of the Beatles’ “Let It Be,” before it was turned over to Phil Spector), and Giles Martin (whose father, George, also had some passing acquaintance with McCartney’s former band). The four of them are responsible for the sound of McCartney’s record, but only in the sense that, when they made it, they made it in his image. “I Can Bet,” produced by Martin, is lightly funky and heavily orchestrated, the kind of thing that Wings was doing around “Back to the Egg.” The dark piano chords of “Road” have nothing on “1985.” And even those rare songs that don’t sound like by-the-numbers extensions of his earlier hits sound like extensions of his earlier experiments—remember, McCartney has been toying with circular composition, atonality, and ambient soundscapes for longer than his producers have been alive. The title of the album is almost comically inaccurate.

That’s especially clear in the record’s most interesting and least characteristic song, “Early Days,” an overt memoir of his Beatle past. Here, the rose-colored glasses come off entirely, as McCartney confesses that he’s wounded that others feel entitled to retell his history. “They can’t take it from me if they try,” he sings. “I lived through those early days / So many times I had to change the pain to laughter / Just to keep from getting crazed.” The details are spare and specific, anchored in time and place: “Dressed from head to toe / Two guitars across our back / We would walk the city road / Seeking someone who would listen to the music / That we were writing down at home.” Wounded, melancholy, and even a little defensive—the melodic callbacks to “Blackbird” are especially confusing (are life rights civil rights?)—“Early Days” is also the rare McCartney song that feels as though it was created honestly, by a real human, rather than strategically, by a corporate director interested primarily in promoting (or at least preserving) his brand. What’s most notable about “Early Days” is how it presents McCartney’s vocals. Johns has stripped away all the artificial sweeteners and busy arrangements and exposed McCartney’s voice for what it really is these days: frail and aged, able to convey sadness not as an effect but as a fact.

Source: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/10/the-generic-genius-of-paul-mccartney.html




Photograph: Christopher Polk/Getty for Clear Channel






Track Listing:
October 14th (15th in the US) will see the release of Paul’s first album of brand NEW solo material in six years. 

The track listing has been revealed:

1. Save Us (produced by Paul Epworth)
2. Alligator (produced by Mark Ronson)
3. On My Way To Work (produced by Giles Martin)
4. Queenie Eye (produced by Paul Epworth)
5. Early Days (produced by Ethan Johns)
6. New (produced by Mark Ronson)
7. Appreciate (produced by Giles Martin)
8. Everybody Out There (produced by Giles Martin)
9. Hosanna (produced by Ethan Johns)
10. I Can Bet (produced by Giles Martin)
11. Looking At Her (produced by Giles Martin)
12. Road (produced by Paul Epworth)
13. Turned Out (Deluxe)
14. Get Me Out Of Here (Deluxe)

Executive Producers: Paul McCartney and Giles Martin
Mixed by Mark ‘Spike’ Stent

Total Running Time: 46:11

Talking about the album, Paul said: “It's funny, when I play people the album they’re surprised it’s me. A lot of the tracks are quite varied and not necessarily in a style you'd recognise as mine. I didn't want it to all sound the same. I really enjoyed making this album. It's always great to get a chance to get into the studio with a bunch of new songs and I was lucky to work with some very cool producers. We had a lot of fun.”

Paul worked on the album with producers Paul Epworth, Mark Ronson, Ethan Johns and Giles Martin.Commenting on the process, Paul said: “The original idea was to go to a couple of producers whose work I loved, to see who I got on with best - but it turned out I got on with all of them! We made something really different with each producer, so I couldn’t choose and ended up working with all four. We just had a good time in different ways.”

The album was recorded at Henson Recording Studios, Los Angeles;
Avatar Studios, New York; Abbey Road Studios, London; Air Studios,
London; Wolf Tone Studios, London and Hog Hill Mill, East Sussex.
Source: http://www.paulmccartney.com/news-blogs/news/27639-paul-reveals-tracklisting-for-new-album

From Wikipedia:

Recording

McCartney had initially intended to trial four of his favourite producers and select the best to record the whole album with.[5] McCartney ended up recording with all four: Mark Ronson, Ethan Johns, Paul Epworth and Giles Martin.[3][5] Martin produced the majority of the tracks and acted as executive producer on the album. Recording took place at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles; Avatar Studios in New York; Abbey Road Studios, Air Studios and Wolf Tone Studios in London; and The Mill in East Sussex.

Ronson had been selected following his set as DJ at McCartney's wedding to Nancy Shevell two years before production began. The producer noted that he was preoccupied with his own wedding occurring at about the same time as McCartney's, and had nearly forgotten to call him back to accept the offer. A few months after Ronson served as DJ for another McCartney event in New York, Ronson received a call inviting him into the studio. In total Ronson recorded three tracks: "New", "Alligator" and "Secret Life of a Party Girl", although the third track does not appear on the album.[6]

Composition

"I just started knocking something out on the piano, he started drumming to it, and I stuck a bit of bass on it and we had the basis of the song worked out."[7]
—McCartney on songwriting with Epworth, BBC News, August 2013

McCartney has said that the album would be "very varied. I worked with four producers and each of them brought something different".[7] The songs produced by Paul Epworth "weren't written" but improvised.[7] The title track, "New", is a "love song but it's saying don't look at me I haven't got any answers. It says I don't know what's happening, I don't know how it's all happening, but it's good and I love you."[7]

Other tracks are biographical: "On My Way to Work" was written about his pre-fame past alluding to his time working as a driver's mate for Speedy Prompt Delivery in Liverpool.[8] Similarly on the day McCartney composed "Early Days", he had been reminiscing about his past in Liverpool with John Lennon: "I started to get images of us in the record shop listening to early rock and roll and looking at the posters and the joy that that gave me remembering all those moments."[9]

Regarding contemporary inspirations, McCartney expressed that the album had been influenced by his marriage to Shevell: "This is a happy period in my life, having a new woman — so you get new songs when you get a new woman." He felt that New is generally joyful, but with an undercurrent of "pain getting changed to laughter".[9] Ronson referred to the song "Alligator" in particular as being "brooding" and "quite tough".[6] McCartney wrote "Everybody Out There" specifically to "get the audience singing along" and that he was particularly proud of "Early Days" and the hidden track "Scared".[10]


Promotion


A "drive-in" listening event took place at the Open Road car dealership in Manhattan.

"New" was released as a single to the iTunes Store and SoundCloud on 28 August 2013.[3] The single came with the announcement that the album would be released on 14 October in the United Kingdom, and a day later in the United States.[7] A deluxe edition was also announced featuring two bonus tracks.[3] An official McCartney Instagram account launched at the same time the album was revealed.[11] McCartney debuted the songs "Save Us" and "Everybody Out There" at the third annual iHeartRadio Music Festival.[12]

On 23 September 2013, McCartney's news blog unveiled the final artwork for New, replacing the earlier minimal black and white logo used as a placeholder for online retailers. The logo and cover concept was conceived by UK art and design team Rebecca and Mike, with CGI created by Ben Ib. The imagery of fluorescent lights was inspired by the sculptural work of Dan Flavin.[13][14] The titles of the deluxe edition bonus tracks were also announced: "Turned Out" and "Get Me Out of Here".[13] Promotion later included a Twitter interview on 4 October, when McCartney answered fan questions related to the album.[10]

On 6 October, full-album listening events took place in the form of drive-ins: in the Los Angeles area fans brought their vehicles to the Vinland Drive-In, whereas in New York City listeners were taken to the rooftop of an Open Road Volkswagen dealership to sit in new cars belonging to the company.[15] The drive-in idea came about late into the promotional campaign, when McCartney had been listening to the album in his own car about a week before the event took place.[16]

On 10 October, McCartney and his band performed a surprise concert in Times Square after posting two short tweets announcing the event about an hour before it occurred.[17] The brief performance consisted of four tracks off the album ("New," "Save Us," "Everybody Out There," and "Queenie Eye"), lasting about fifteen minutes. The event gathered a large crowd and came a day after another surprise concert to 400 students at Frank Sinatra School for the Arts in Queens, New York. The performance at the school was filmed and will be streamed on Yahoo! on October 14.[18]

Reception

The first track to be released, "New", was greeted positively by critics and the musical press. As well as being selected as BBC Radio 2's Record of the Week[7][26] and placed on their A-list,[27] the track was greeted as the 'Track of the Day' by Mojo which praised its "doe-eyed optimism, irresistible melody" and "orchestrated pop arrangements".[28] Rolling Stone's Will Hermes, praised its "bouncy harpsichord-laden melody", giving it a four-star rating and drawing comparisons to the Beatles' "Got to Get You into My Life",[29] a view shared by The Daily Telegraph which described it as a "jaunty, Beatles-esque stomp".[30]

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_%28album%29

August 29, 2013

Paul McCartney posts free song from upcoming LP of original material

Paul McCartney Comes in With the 'New'
Singer posts song from upcoming LP of original material
Paul McCartney has released a new song, "New," from an upcoming album of the same name. The 12-song LP, which will be his first album of new solo material in six years, is due out on October 15th in the U.S. Produced by Mark Ronson, the song has a classic McCartney feel, with a sturdy beat and buoyant melody. "We can do what we want, we can live as we choose," McCartney sings.

You can hear the song below:








Where Does Paul McCartney Rank on Our 100 Greatest Singers List?
Since his last album of original material, 2007's Memory Almost Full, McCartney released the 2009 live album Good Evening New York City, the 2011 classical ballet score Ocean's Kingdom and last year's album of standards, Kisses on the Bottom, along with 2008's Electric Arguments as the Fireman, his electronic project with Youth.
He's also teamed with the surviving members of Nirvana on the new song "Cut Me Some Slack," and been a steady presence on the road. McCartney has spent much of this year traveling the world on his Out There! tour, which included a stop at Bonnaroo in June and a collaboration with the Kronos Quartet at Outside Lands earlier this month.


Source: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/paul-mccartney-comes-in-with-the-new-20130829




New Paul McCartney Album This Summer

02.14.2013
New Paul McCartney Album This SummerWe just got word that Paul McCartney's new album will be finished next month and features PM working with several producers including Glyn Johns's son Ethan, Giles Martin (son of Beatles producer George Martin), and Mark Ronson, who worked with Amy Winehouse.

“They’re really good people. I knew their work, and I knew they were very good, so I just thought: ‘Let me see if I get on with them.’ I thought one might sort of rise to the top. They’re cool people whose work I liked,” McCartney told the BBC, “Of course, what’s happened is, I like them all.”

As for the sound? "It’s Paul McCartney songs. What can I say? Paul McCartney songs are varied. There will be a ballad, there will be a rocker — I don’t know how to classify them. I guess the worst thing for me would be to call them ‘pop songs.’ But it’s probably what they are. I hate those categories.”

Let's hope all of these producers encouraged McCartney to get his bass playing way out front where it belongs. We can't wait. Here's a classic clip of Paul showing a reporter around his home studio, which is filled with Abbey Road instruments used by The Beatles.

Source: http://www.epiphone.com/News/Features/News/2013/New-Paul-McCartney-Album-This-Summer.aspx




August 19, 2013

The Beatles made an impressive £43.5 Million last year



Money is still rolling in for the Fab Four



The Beatles made an impressive £43.5million last year Photo: WENN.com

Despite having formed over 50 years ago and splitting 43 years ago, The Beatles have still managed to turn over an £43.5 million fortune in 2012.
The figure is even £2 million higher than last year according to the band's business, Apple Corps Limited.
Living Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well has George Harrison and John Lennon's widows Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono will receive £5.1 million each in dividends, promotional activities and name and likeness payments.
Speaking to The Sun newspaper, a source said: "The Beatles have been the most famous band in the world since the 60s and it keeps on paying.
''The obsession with the Fab Four has never stopped, even half a century after they started. 'So the money just keeps rolling in.''

It is testament to music fans' ongoing love affair with the band and the phenomena they became that they continue to rake in such formidable sums all these years later.
Back in June, drummer Ringo Starr opened up about the possibility of a Beatles reunion in 2013 were all band members still alive today.

"It's a crazy question," he told the Mirror newspaper. "I'd like to think, yes, we would."
He continued: "Paul still goes out with his band, I go out with him and John would probably have been going out with his... But who knows, it could have come together."

Source: http://www.gigwise.com/news/83586/the-beatles-receive-an-annual-turnover-of-%C2%A3435-million

June 09, 2013

Help ! Beatles Movie To Be Released On Blu-Ray



The Beatles' 1965 full-length movie Help becomes the latest film from the Fab Four to get go high def with the June 25 release of Help! on Blu-ray. The Richard Lester-directed musical spy spoof follows up last year's Blu-ray releases Yellow Submarine and Magical Mystery Tour and word is that the band's final film Let It Be will also see a Blu-ray release by the end of the year. No word yet on any bonus material. The film was digitally restored and released on DVD with added features in 2007.
The movie featured seven Beatles songs including the title track, "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away", "The Night Before", "Another Girl", "Ticket to Ride", "You're Gonna Lose That Girl" and the George Harrison-composed "I Need You".

From the press release...

The Beatles’ second feature film, 1965’s Help!, is on the way on Blu-ray. On June 24 (June 25 in North America), Help! makes its eagerly awaited Blu-ray debut in a single-disc package pairing the digitally restored film and 5.1 soundtrack with an hour of extra features, including a 30-minute documentary about the making of the film, memories of the cast and crew, an in-depth look at the restoration process, an outtake scene, and original theatrical trailers and radio spots. An introduction by the film’s director, Richard Lester, and an appreciation by Martin Scorsese are included in the Blu-ray’s booklet.

Help!’s Blu-ray edition follows the 2012 release of The Beatles’ digitally restored Yellow Submarine and Magical Mystery Tour feature films on Blu-ray, DVD and iTunes with extensive extras. Help!’s restoration for its 2007 DVD debut wowed viewers, earning five-times platinum sales in the U.S. and praise from a broad range of top media outlets around the world, including USA Today heralding the DVD as “a grand re-release,” The Guardian’s appreciation of the film’s director, Richard Lester, saying “Lester matches The Beatles’ ‘star’ power with smart, colourful visuals and casual surrealism,” The Los Angeles Times’ restoration rave: “With dynamic compression that was standard in the 1960s lifted for the digital age, the full range of the group’s musicality comes through – it’s like several coats of dust have been cleaned off an old master’s painting,” and four-star reviews from Rolling Stone and MOJO with the latter saying, “They really don't make them like this anymore.”

Directed by Richard Lester, who also directed the band’s debut feature film, 1964’s A Hard Day’s Night, Help! follows The Beatles as they become passive recipients of an outside plot that revolves around Ringo's possession of a sacrificial ring, which he cannot remove from his finger. As a result, he and his bandmates John, Paul and George are chased from London to the Austrian Alps and the Bahamas by religious cult members, a mad scientist and the London police.

In addition to starring The Beatles, Help! boasts a witty script, a great cast of British character actors, and classic Beatles songs “Help!,” “You're Going To Lose That Girl,” “You've Got To Hide Your Love Away,” “Ticket To Ride,” “I Need You,” “The Night Before,” and “Another Girl.”

Help!’s Blu-ray package pairs the digitally restored original film with these extra features:

• “The Beatles in Help!” – a 30-minute documentary about the making of the film with Richard Lester, the cast and crew, including exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of The Beatles on-set.
• “A Missing Scene” – a film outtake, featuring Wendy Richard
• “The Restoration of Help!” – an in-depth look at the restoration process
• “Memories of Help!” – the cast and crew reminisce
• 1965 Theatrical Trailers – two original U.S. trailers and one original Spanish trailer
• 1965 U.S. Radio Spots (hidden in disc menus)

The Beatles Help! DVD cover P

In addition to the digitally-restored film, the new disc features outtakes, a 30-minute documentary, an introduction by director Richard Lester and an appreciation by Martin Scorsese.

Beatles fans: Help! will be here soon. Nearly 48 years after its theatrical release, the Fab Four’s second feature film will be issued on the Blu-ray format this June with a stack of extra material.
The Blu-ray edition of Help! will carry the digitally-restored film and 5.1 soundtrack plus an hour of extra features, including a 30-minute documentary on the making of the film, memories of the cast and crew, an in-depth look at the restoration process, an outtake scene, and original theatrical trailers and radio spots.
PHOTOS: The Beatles to The Wanted: The Evolution of Boy Bands
Also, there’s an introduction by the 1965 film’s director, Richard Lester, and an appreciation by Martin Scorsese included in the Blu-ray disc’s booklet.
The Blu-ray version is slated to arrive June 21 in Australia, June 24 in Europe and June 25 in North America, the band announced today via the official Beatles Website.
STORY: Stay the Night on a Beatles-Inspired Yellow Submarine Floating Hotel
Help! was restored for its 2007 DVD release, which earned five-times platinum sales in the U.S., according to EMI.
The forthcoming Help! Blu-ray edition follows the 2012 release of The Beatles’ digitally-restored Yellow Submarine and Magical Mystery Tour films on Blu-ray, DVD and iTunes.
Extras on the Blu-ray release of Help!:
  • “The Beatles in Help!” – a 30-minute documentary about the making of the film with Richard Lester, the cast and crew, including exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of The Beatles on-set.
  • “A Missing Scene” – a film outtake, featuring Wendy Richard.
  • “The Restoration of Help!” – an in-depth look at the restoration process.
  • “Memories of Help!” – the cast and crew reminisce.
  • 1965 Theatrical Trailers – two original U.S. trailers and one original Spanish trailer.
  • 1965 U.S. Radio Spots (hidden in disc menus).
Twitter: @billboard











As y'all probably know, "Help!" is heading our way again, now on Blu-ray. The Beatles have control over all their films, except "A Hard Day's Night". With "Help!" due out in June, The Beatles/Apple have released three of their four films on Blu-ray in the course of a year. Here's the schedule:
June 2012: "Yellow Submarine"
October 2012: "Magical Mystery Tour"
June 2013: "Help!"
Can we believe that October 2013 will see the release of the film we're really waiting for: "Let It Be". This writer thinks so.




 




May 18, 2013

May 05, 2013

Paul McCartney - Unplugged Performance

This has been one of my favorite Paul McCartney performances and albums. Below is information about it, DVD and album cover scans, a full length YouTube video, and full audio to listen to. Enjoy.




Unplugged (The Official Bootleg) is a live unplugged performance by Paul McCartney, recorded and released in 1991. Following the vastness of his world tour recently captured on Tripping the Live Fantastic, McCartney relished the opportunity to strip back his songs and appear on the newly-launched acoustic-only show. Consequently, McCartney was the first in a long line of artists to release an unplugged album.[



Performance









Unlike other artists who appeared on the acclaimed show with acoustic instruments plugged into amplifiers (producing the sound heard), McCartney's instruments were 100% unplugged. Microphones were carefully placed close to guitars, pianos, etc. to pick up the sound (this can be seen on the album, where a large rectangular microphone can be seen in front of McCartney's acoustic guitar).
Using the same line-up that recently backed him (save for Blair Cunningham who had replaced Chris Whitten), McCartney used the opportunity to dust off some of his rarer tracks, including three from his 1970 debut album McCartney, alongside some obscure covers amid a helping of familiar Beatles hits.


Songs

This recording was one of the first in the famed MTV Unplugged series.
Several tracks performed in the show were not included on the album, as follows: "Things We Said Today", "Midnight Special", "Matchbox", "Mean Woman Blues" and "The Fool". Among numbers rehearsed by the band but not performed at all, include: "Mother Nature's Son", "Figure of Eight", "Cut Across Shorty", "Heartbreak Hotel", "Heart of the Country", "She's My Baby", and "Mrs Vandebilt".

 

 

Release

With McCartney in a loose and carefree context, critical response to Unplugged (The Official Bootleg) was very warm.
Initially released in a limited edition, individually numbered run in 1991, Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)—with artwork that recalls Снова в СССР's—was reissued in a more permanent fashion in the late 1990s. Upon its original issue, it reached number 7 in the UK and became McCartney's highest peaking US album in almost ten years, reaching number 14.

 

 

Track listing

All songs written by Paul McCartney, except where noted.
Side one
  1. "Be-Bop-A-Lula" (Gene Vincent/Tex Davis) – 4:04
  2. "I Lost My Little Girl" – 1:45
  3. "Here, There and Everywhere" (Lennon–McCartney) – 3:16
  4. "Blue Moon of Kentucky" (Bill Monroe) – 4:21
  5. "We Can Work It Out" (Lennon–McCartney) – 2:48
  6. "San Francisco Bay Blues" (Jesse Fuller) – 3:29
  7. "I've Just Seen a Face" (Lennon–McCartney) – 3:01
  8. "Every Night" – 3:24
  9. "She's a Woman" (Lennon–McCartney) – 3:39
Side two
  1. "Hi-Heel Sneakers" (Robert Higginbotham) – 4:08
  2. "And I Love Her" (Lennon–McCartney) – 4:17
  3. "That Would Be Something" – 4:02
  4. "Blackbird" (Lennon–McCartney) – 2:09
  5. "Ain't No Sunshine" (Bill Withers) – 4:05
  6. "Good Rockin' Tonight" (Roy Brown) – 3:42
  7. "Singing the Blues" (Melvin Endsley) – 3:46
  8. "Junk" – 2:26

Personnel

References

  1. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Unplugged (The Official Bootleg) at Allmusic
  2. ^ http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mtv-unplugged-premieres

  3. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unplugged_%28The_Official_Bootleg%29  


  4. Here is the Complete YouTube video performance:








    Here are the audio files to enjoy, broken down into 3 parts:

    Part 1




    Part 2




    Part 3





    Bonus: A fan has shared these songs here:

    http://mgdesk.zapto.org/mp3/collections/dvd-archive/beatles%20%26%20maccartney/Paul%20McCartney/Live/1991%20Unplugged/




May 03, 2013

Paul McCartney to Reissue 'Wings Over America' Album and 'Rockshow' Concert Film

 
This spring, Paul McCartney will continue his ongoing back-catalog reissues project with the re-release of his late-1976 live album, Wings Over America.
 
The album captures the best moments of one of the most sophisticated tours of the mid-'70s. McCartney and his band, Wings, performed to more than 600,000 people at 31 shows in the US and Canada, ending with three nights at The Forum in Los Angeles.

Having released four consecutive chart-topping albums (Red Rose Speedway, Band on the Run, Venus and Mars and Wings at the Speed of Sound, plus 1973’s Academy Award-winning James Bond theme “Live and Let Die”), McCartney's solo career was at its peak.
In 1976, the band featured McCartney, Linda McCartney, Joe English, Denny Laine and lead guitarist Jimmy McCulloch.
This latest project is broken into three stages:


Wings Over America
The album will be reissued May 27 in a range of formats, including a standard edition (which is available for pre-order at Amazon.com) and a four-book, four-disc (3CD, 1DVD) Deluxe Edition Box Set. The box set’s audio and video include the two-disc Wings Over America remastered at Abbey Road, a bonus audio disc recorded live at San Francisco’s Cow Palace, a bonus DVD containing the rarely seen 75-minute television special Wings Over the World and a photo gallery montage titled “Photographer’s Pass.”

The Deluxe Edition Box Set contains four exquisitely rendered art books packaged with an array of memorabilia, souvenirs, mementos, keepsakes and never-before-seen photos and art work from Wings' 1976 tour. The 110-page tour book recounts the behind-the-scenes drama through dozens of live performances and backstage photos along with new interviews and liner notes from eminent music journalist David Fricke.

The leatherette-bound “Tour Itinerary” contains memorabilia including printed 8-by-10 glossy band photos, a backstage guest pass, facsimiles of the invitation to the end-of-tour party at the Harold Lloyd Estate in Beverly Hills along with Wings over America concert tickets, original album art work, tour posters, set lists, lyrics, press materials and more. “Look," the box set’s book of Linda McCartney photography, features Paul and the band in their everyday life as they made their way across the country in the spring of ’76.


Rockshow DVD/Blu-ray Release
For the first time, Wings' Rockshow concert film will be available on DVD and Blu-ray on June 10. The film, which was shot in 1975 and 1976, was premiered in November 1980 in New York and April 1981 in London. The film, which features a full-length concert, has been fully restored from the original 35mm film with restored and remastered sound, including a 5.1 mix.


Rockshow Theatrical Release
Rockshow will hit theaters for one night only on May 15. The film, which will be shown at 500-plus cinemas across the world, features an introduction by McCartney. There also will be an exclusive VIP premiere screening of Rockshow, with McCartney in attendance and introducing the film, at BAFTA on May 15 in London. Head here for more details.
For more information, head to PaulMcCartney.com.

Recording

Originally, Wings over America was to be a two-record set, but this was rethought due to the success of a bootleg[2] called Wings from the Wings, released as a triple record set,[nb 1] recorded on 23 June 1976 at The Forum, in California.[3] This caused McCartney to redo the official release as a three-record set which was compiled from all recorded shows of the band's America leg of their world tour that spring,[2] of which, McCartney listened to all of the tapes and selected 5 of the best performances of the whole 28-song set list.[4] McCartney choose and mixed the final set of recordings after 6 weeks of listening[4] during October–November 1976.[1] Numerous songs, however, were taken from the 23 June 1976 show.[1] "Soily" was recorded on 7 June 1976 at McNichols Sports Arena in Denver.[5][6] Some recordings, however, received studio overdubs.[2] Wings' drummer, Joe English, said that the "overdubs were necessary because of people singing out of tune".[7]

Release and reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 3/5 stars [8]
Rolling Stone (favourable) [9]
MusicHound 2/5 stars[10]
Wings over America was another success for Wings, reaching number 1 in the US[nb 2] in early 1977 (the last in a 5-album stretch of consecutive number 1 albums for Wings)[2] and number 8 in the UK,[nb 3][12] and selling 4 million copies in the US alone.[13] While the album had sold 4 million copies in US, each of the sales was count as one unit of sales, instead of each disc separate, which would make sales of 12 million discs.[13] The album was the first triple album by a group to reach number 1, and was a critical success.[13] The album was repressed a month later, in January 1977.[nb 4][1] "Maybe I'm Amazed" was released as a single,[13] on 4 February 1977, peaking at number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the US,[nb 5][15] and at number 28 on the UK chart.[nb 6][16] There are two related items to the album: the TV documentary Wings Over the World and the Seattle show that was filmed and released as the film Rockshow.[17] Both of which, however, were released 3 years and 4 years, respectively, after the album.[17]
Wings Over America was issued as a double-compact disc in 1984 on Columbia.[nb 7] The album was first released in the UK on compact disc on 26 May 1987 by Parlophone.[nb 8][1] The album, along with McCartney's Ram and Tug of War albums, was reissued in the US on compact disc on 18 January 1988.[nb 9][20] The album was issued by EMI two more times on CD, in 1989[nb 10] and on 19 February 1990.[nb 11][1] A 1999 reissue of the album by Toshiba-EMI in Japan reinstated the three-disc format from the original LP issue, and is the only edition of the album to do this.[nb 12][21] On 14 April 2008, the album was released as a digital download on both iTunes and Amazon. It was removed for some time off of digital music sites in 2010 and 2011, but as of August 2011 it is available for sale on iTunes.[22] The album is scheduled for reissue on 27 May 2013 as part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection.[23] Rockshow is also set to be released on DVD and Blu-ray, with its audio remixed into 5.1, on 10 June 2013.[23]

Track listing

All songs by Paul and Linda McCartney except where noted. For the five Beatles songs included, McCartney elected to reverse the songwriting credit to McCartney–Lennon,[17] while "The Long and Winding Road" was credited to just McCartney.[1]







Side one
  1. "Venus and Mars/Rock Show/Jet" – 9:56
  2. "Let Me Roll It" – 3:51
  3. "Spirits of Ancient Egypt" – 4:04
  4. "Medicine Jar" (Jimmy McCulloch/Colin Allen) – 4:02
Side two
  1. "Maybe I'm Amazed" (Paul McCartney) – 5:10
  2. "Call Me Back Again" – 5:04
  3. "Lady Madonna" (McCartney–Lennon) – 2:19
  4. "The Long and Winding Road" – 4:13
  5. "Live and Let Die" – 3:07
Side three
  1. "Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)" – 1:55
  2. "Richard Cory" (Paul Simon) – 2:50
  3. "Bluebird" – 3:37
  4. "I've Just Seen a Face" (McCartney–Lennon) – 1:49
  5. "Blackbird" (McCartney–Lennon) – 2:23
  6. "Yesterday" (McCartney–Lennon) – 1:43

Side four
  1. "You Gave Me the Answer" – 1:47
  2. "Magneto and Titanium Man" – 3:11
  3. "Go Now" (Larry Banks/Milton Bennett) – 3:27
  4. "My Love" – 4:07
  5. "Listen to What the Man Said" – 3:18
Side five
  1. "Let 'Em In" – 4:02
  2. "Time to Hide" (Denny Laine) – 4:46
  3. "Silly Love Songs" – 5:46
  4. "Beware My Love" – 4:49
Side six
  1. "Letting Go" – 4:25
  2. "Band on the Run" – 5:03
  3. "Hi, Hi, Hi" – 2:57
  4. "Soily" – 5:10

2013 remaster

Wings over America is to be reissued in several packages:[21]
  • Standard Edition 2-CD; the original 28-track album
  • Remastered vinyl 3-LP version of the Standard Edition
  • Deluxe Edition Box Set 3-CD/1-DVD; the original 28-track album, a bonus tracks disc, DVD of the TV documentary Wings Over the World, 136-page book, assorted memorabilia, 60-page photograph book, 80-page sketch book and download link to all of the material
Discs 1 & 2 (Standard Edition)
Sides one to three are on disc one, while sides four to six are on disc two.
Disc 3 – Bonus tracks (Deluxe Edition Box Set)
  1. "Let Me Roll It"
  2. "Maybe I'm Amazed" (P. McCartney)
  3. "Lady Madonna" (McCartney–Lennon)
  4. "Live and Let Die"
  5. "Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)"
  6. "Bluebird"
  7. "Blackbird" (McCartney–Lennon)
  8. "Yesterday" (McCartney–Lennon)
    • All tracks previously unreleased, recorded live at Cow Palace, San Francisco
Disc 4 – DVD (Deluxe Edition Box Set)
  1. Wings Over the World

Personnel



Bonus: A fan has posted the original 2CD set here for sharing:

http://mgdesk.zapto.org/mp3/collections/dvd-archive/beatles%20%26%20maccartney/Paul%20McCartney/Live/1976%20Wings%20Over%20America/