McCartney

Producer: Paul McCartney 
Engineers: Paul McCartney, Robin Black 
 
Musicians: 
Paul McCartney: All Instruments and Voices 
Linda McCartney: Vocal harmonies

Similar to how Barry Lenser set out to profile every song by the Beatles in a series of Sound Affects posts last year, I’ve decided to do the same for the solo work of Paul McCartney. In this installment, we take a look at “The Lovely Linda” the first track off McCartney’s first solo album, McCartney.

Though McCartney was a No.1 hit album that went double platinum in the US, it is still mostly remembered for the controversy behind it. Released the same month as Let It Be, it spelled the end of the Beatles. To this day, certain fans blame McCartney for the group’s break-up, and comments by his former bandmates about the quality of his early solo work didn’t help matters much.

However, “The Lovely Linda” fits in with the album’s overall low-key, do-it-yourself approach. Recorded as a way to quickly test out his new Studer 4-track tape recorder that he had installed in his home, it is arguably McCartney’s first ever solo recording. I say “recording” because I’m not really sure if it can be considered as an entire song or not. It’s only 43 seconds long and is comprised of 30 words, if you count the la’s. In fact, McCartney himself once referred to it as “a trailer to the full song which will be recorded in the future”. However, Webster’s dictionary defines a song as either a “short poem set to music” or “the act or practice of singing”. Whether it is or isn’t really a whole song doesn’t really matter, though, because it is so pleasant and has a certain charm to it. You can’t help but be touched by the story behind its meaning. Like much of the album that it appears on, it is a delightful ode to Linda McCartney, Paul’s wife and future Wings bandmate. As a matter of fact, it has been said that you can hear her footsteps walking through the room in the background.

Next time, we’ll look at “That Would Be Something”, another song inspired by Linda.

Producer: Paul McCartney 
Engineers: Paul McCartney, Robin Black 
 
Musician: 
Paul McCartney: All Instruments and Voices

Despite the fact that it was never released as a single, “That Would Be Something” has been well-loved and critically praised throughout the years. Shortly after the McCartney album’s release, George Harrison, who harshly criticized the rest of the album, called both it and “Maybe I’m Amazed” “great”. He wasn’t its only admirer, though. The Grateful Dead started covering it at some of their concerts in 1991. A part of their version appears on the Dick’s Picks, Vol. 17 CD. Paul McCartney himself seems to have some fondness for it, performing it at his 1991 MTV Unplugged TV special. That version also appeared on the Unplugged (The Official Bootleg) album.
  
Written in Scotland in 1969, it was recorded at Paul’s London home. Similar to the album’s first track, it is about his wife, Linda. It also shares some lyrical similarities to the Beatles’ “Two of Us” in that it relates to the rainy weather that the couple experienced together. Playing the acoustic guitar, bass, tom tom, and cymbal that appears on the track, he also adds a little vocal percussion, which was a little unusual in those days. Also unusual is the fact that a song that runs over two and a half minutes is all really just one verse. I’ve heard people describe it as “folksy”, but I just don’t hear that. It’s so different and has such a great groove to it, that you forget that it’s mostly the same lyrics repeated over and over again.

Next time, however, we’ll look at a McCartney song that has no lyrics at all, “Valentine Day”.

Producer: Paul McCartney 
Engineers: Paul McCartney, Robin Black 
 
Musician:
Paul McCartney: All Instruments and Voices

“Valentine Day”, is a short instrumental track from Paul McCartney’s his first solo album McCartney. Perhaps because it appears on the same album as five other instrumental songs, it isn’t commonly known. McCartney himself doesn’t seem to place much emphasis on it, describing the song as, “Recorded at home. Made up as I went along…, This one and ‘Momma Miss America’ were ad-libbed with more concern for testing the machine than anything else.”

I’ve heard it described as only an acoustic guitar riff, but drums, bass, and electric guitar can also be heard in it. Paul played all of the instruments on the entire album himself, a lengthy process that he currently rarely attempts. In recent interviews, he said he feels silly doing all of the instrumentation by himself.

With its short length, maybe we should reconsider “Valentine Day” as a bright, lively interlude that eases the transition from the slow-paced rocker “That Would Be Something” to “Every Night”, a tender, romantic ballad.

Producer: Paul McCartney 
Engineers: Paul McCartney, Robin Black 
 
Musician: 
Paul McCartney:  All Instruments and Voices

“Every Night” is one of Paul McCartney’s greatest solo accomplishments. For the life of me, I don’t understand why it (or any songs from the McCartney album) wasn’t ever released as a single. It is rare to find a song that paints such a perfect view of romantic love while staying unique, personal, and cliché-free. Several artists have covered it, including Richie Havens, Phoebe Snow, and Claudine Longet, but not as many as you would expect from a song this great. At least McCartney himself seems to hold it in high regard, featuring it on several live albums (Concerts for the People of Kampuchea, Unplugged (The Official Bootleg), Back In The US, and Back In The World) and a greatest-hits collection (Wingspan: Hits And History).

A lot changed for Paul McCartney in the year 1969, and he reportedly didn’t handle it well. The band that his entire life revolved around—the biggest band in the world, the Beatles—was falling apart, and the resulting tangled mess of hurt feelings and legal matters left him sorely depressed. Getting him through this difficult time was his wife, Linda, who suggested that he should start working on his own music apart from the group. “Every Night” became the resulting tribute to his inspiring spouse.
  
The album on which it appears has a reputation of being quickly put together, but “Every Night” started out as a possible track for the Beatles’ final album, Let It Be. Though he has stated that he “had the first two lines for a few years” before its recording, Paul finished writing the song later on in 1969 while on vacation in Greece.  In the final completed version, acoustic and bass guitars mix together with drums and some background vocals from Linda, who would go on to duet with Paul on many more songs.

Rumor has it that he may have recorded an electric guitar part for this song that was never used and that it may or may not appear on the first take, an alternate version that could be released in the future. While McCartney has hinted that his upcoming re-release of Band on the Run would feature bonus, previously unheard material, it is unknown if he plans doing anything similar with McCartney.

Producer: Paul McCartney 
Engineers: Paul McCartney, Robin Black 
 
Musician: Paul McCartney All Instruments and Voices

“Hot As Sun/Glasses” is one of Paul McCartney’s best instrumental tracks. However, it is actually several different compositions put together and there are some lyrics at the end.

The first part, “Hot As Sun”, written in 1959, is one of the first instrumental songs McCartney wrote. A happy-sounding guitar-based melody, it uses an organ to make the carnival-sounding middle part. It then abruptly cuts into “Glasses”, which is mostly composed by the sound of electronic waves traveling through the rims of drinking glasses. This is a technique that McCartney seems to be fond of; in the PBS TV special Chaos and Creation at Abbey Road (available on The McCartney Years DVD set), he shows how it can be done.
  
The song ends with an eight-second sample of “Suicide”, an old-fashioned ditty that McCartney first began to compose in 1956. He experimented around with it for the Beatles in 1969, but it wasn’t completed until 1974, when he offered it to Frank Sinatra to record. He reportedly was not pleased with it. McCartney, however, recorded several full-length versions of “Suicide” that have never been officially released. It might see the light of day if McCartney is re-released with bonus material, as Band On The Run is scheduled for in August. Currently, if you know where to look, it can be found on the internet as a bootleg.

Though “Hot As Sun/Glasses” was never released as a single or performed in concert by McCartney, it has made its way into pop culture in some unusual ways. In 1978, singer Noosha Fox recorded a version of the song that featured lyrics written by Tim Rice. Elaine Page covered the song later on, and her liner notes said that McCartney wrote it especially for her, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. While I have heard “Hot As Sun/Glasses” used as bumper music for PBS’ History Detectives TV series, YouTube is full of reports from New Yorkers who claim that a sped-up version of this song was used as a theme for local reruns of Popeye cartoons! Some people have wondered if the song was originally recorded that way and then slowed down, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Producer: Paul McCartney 
Engineers: Paul McCartney, Robin Black 
 
Musician: Paul McCartney All Instruments and Voices

As we previously discussed, Paul McCartney’s first solo album was heavily criticized, perhaps most of all by his former Beatles bandmates. This is somewhat surprising, seeming that several songs on it came close to being on Beatles albums. “Junk”, originally dubbed “Jubilee”, was written by McCartney in 1968, when the Beatles took a trip to Rishikesh, India to study transcendental meditation under the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Though there are many different accounts of what actually took place there, one thing is for sure: the group wrote and worked on an amazing amount of music while there. “Junk” was passed up for inclusion on both on the band’s 1968 self-titled album and Abbey Road, but it did eventually end up on the 1996 Anthology 3 album, which was made up of the group’s unfinished material and studio rarities.

McCartney must have really liked “Junk” by the time he finished it in 1970, because he included it twice on his debut solo album. It first appears as the last track on side A of McCartney, and then later appears in instrumental form on side B. Titled “Singalong Junk”, it is not only shorter than its vocal counterpart, but it sounds slightly different. With its melody played out on the piano, more prominent drums and mellotron (an early precursor to the electric keyboard) strings are added. It was the first take of the song, but McCartney chose to record a longer, more simplistic take for the vocal version. Unlike most of McCartney, they were both recorded not at his home, but at Morgan Studios in London.
  
Despite the fact that “Junk” is a solo McCartney tune, it appeared on the Wingspan: Hits and History compilation. Never released as a single, it is still beloved by his fans. Some notable artists, including John Denver, Cilla Black, and Passion Pit, have also covered it. Its lyrics have been compared to the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” in the fact that it is also about feelings of loneliness and being unwanted, despite the fact that inanimate objects are being described. However, it seems as if “Singalong Junk” is more popular, because not only did McCartney cover it on his Unplugged (The Official Bootleg) album, but it was also included on the soundtracks to the movies Jerry McGuire and Hanging Up

Producer: Paul McCartney 
Engineers: Paul McCartney, Robin Black 
 
Musicians:
Paul McCartney: All Instruments and Voices 
Linda McCartney: Voices

ide A of McCartney closes with “Man We Was Lonely”, which was the first song that both Paul and his wife, Linda, wrote together and sang together as a duet. In a way, it is a precursor to Wings. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that it is about the pair’s true feelings for each other, being that the two could be considered lonely before they got together. When they first started dating, Linda was a recent divorcee and Paul’s long-term relationship with actress Jane Asher had just ended.

Regardless of the song’s meaning, Paul admitted in 1970 that it was one of the last songs recorded for the album. He and Linda wrote the chorus while in bed the morning of the day it was recorded. Later that afternoon, they wrote the middle part. The background is made up of a bass drum and three different guitars, all played by Paul and tracked on together later. As for the song’s unique steel guitar sound, Paul revealed that he created it by playing his Telecaster “with a drum peg”.
  
In an interview with Guitar Legends magazine, Paul mentions that he “thought of himself as Johnny Cash” while recording it, and played it to both Johnny and June Carter Cash when they met once. There is a rumor going around the Internet that McCartney and Johnny Cash recorded a duet of the song together in the 1980s, and that Cash considered putting it on his Water from The Wells Of Home album. It is also rumored to be one of the unreleased McCartney songs that would be released on a “studio sessions” boxed set, or as a bonus track on one of his upcoming album remasters.

One thing we can be certain about is the fact that “Man We Was Lonely” seems to be popular with little-known rock bands. In 2001, World Party covered it on the Listen to What the Man Said: Popular Artists Tribute to Paul McCartney charity benefit album for the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Also, Design covered it on its Tomorrow Is So Far Away album.

Producer: Paul McCartney 
Engineers: Paul McCartney, Robin Black 
 
Musician:
Paul McCartney:  All Instruments and Voices

“Oo You” opens side B of the McCartney album, and despite the fact that it is such a great, bluesy little rocker, it isn’t discussed much. Strangely, I can’t seem to find any evidence that McCartney has ever performed it live. When searching for information on “Oo You”, sometimes you come up with things about the Beatles working on it together. While some of the songs on McCartney started out as Beatle jams, whatever you hear about this being one of those songs comes from mere speculation. In 2005 a online music store came up with the idea to make the album that the Beatles would have made if they stayed together. Part of this ensemble of covers and Beatles’ Anthology tracks was a brief interpretation of “Oo You”. That is where those rumors of it originally being recorded by the group come from.
  
Not surprisingly, “Oo You” started out as an instrumental track. McCartney’s opening suggestion of “More guitar” might lead you to think that someone else was playing the electric guitar on it, but like the tambourine, cowbell, and “aerosol spray” heard on the track, it was all Paul. Reportedly ad-libbed on the spot, it was written and recorded on the same day as the album’s previous track, “Man We Was Lonely”. However, it wasn’t completed until a tape echo was used to move the guitar’s feedback “from one side to another”. On that same date of February 12th, 1970, McCartney also worked on “Junk”, “Singalong Junk”, “Hot As Sun”, and “Teddy Boy”.

Even though it seems to be ignored by McCartney himself, “Oo You” is critically praised all over the internet as one of the album’s best “deep cuts”. As a testament to this, there are many amateur covers of it on YouTube.

Producer: Paul McCartney 
Engineers: Paul McCartney, Robin Black 
 
Musicians:
Paul McCartney: All Instruments and Voices

“Momma Miss America” is another instrumental track on the McCartney  album, as the only voice heard is that of an engineer announcing that this is take one of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Springtime”. That title was soon changed, as what was to become two separate songs “ran into each other by accident and became one”. Made up as McCartney went along, it was recorded entirely at his London home.

McCartney’s only recent involvement with the song is its inclusion on The McCartney Years box DVD set. (It is used as background music on Disc 2’s “Chronology” menu.) However, as I previously said about “Hot As Sun/ Glasses”, “Momma Miss America” has also been used as bumper music on PBS’ History Detectives TV series. 

When listening to it, the thing that really grabs you is the rhythm of the drum. For this reason, its drum break has been sampled in many hip-hop songs, including Common’s “Thisisme”, the Artifacts’ “Flexi With Da Tech(nique)”, the Roots’ “The Fire”, and the Beastie Boys’ “Johnny Ryall”.

Whenever a list is being made of the “greatest samples” in hip-hop, “Johnny Ryall” is on that list. Coincidentally, it came from the Paul’s Boutique album, which is hailed as “the Sgt. Pepper’s of rap” and featured several samples of Beatles songs.

Producer: Paul McCartney 
Engineers: Paul McCartney, Robin Black 
 
Musician:
Paul McCartney: All Instruments and Voices

Producer: Paul McCartney 
Engineers: Paul McCartney, Robin Black 
 
Musicians: 
Paul McCartney: All Instruments and Voices

Producer: Paul McCartney 
Engineers: Paul McCartney, Robin Black 
 
Musicians: 
Paul McCartney: All Instruments and Voices

Producer: Paul McCartney 
Engineers: Paul McCartney, Robin Black 
 
Musicians:
Paul McCartney: All Instruments and Voices 
Linda McCartney: Voices

“Kreen Akrore” is the final track on the McCartney album. After watching a TV documentary about Brazil’s indigenous Kreen-Akrore tribe, McCartney was inspired to compose an instrumental track that would capture “the feeling of their hunt”.

The next day, after he recorded the drum sounds, McCartney and wife Linda did “animal noises”, including creating stampeding sounds with the aid of a guitar case. The two built a fire in London’s Morgan Studios, but only the sound of twigs breaking made it onto the final cut. Probably the most unusual addition was the sound of a bow and arrow, which later led McCartney to say that he played “bass, drums, acoustic guitar, lead guitar, piano, mellotron, organ, toy xylophone, and bow and arrow” on the album.
  
Unfortunately, even the most ardent McCartney fans usually overlook “Kreen Akrore”. A common complaint is that the song is pointless, or that McCartney doesn’t use much skill in his drumming. Even more unfortunate was the real-life plight of the Kreen-Akrore tribe, which was nearly killed off by common diseases three years later, when a government project brought them into contact with modern people. However, in recent years, their population has risen due to relocation.

Ironically, “Kreen Akrore”, with its simplistic instrumentation, overdubbed deep breathing, and avant-garde sound effects, could be interpreted as a preview to what was to come on McCartney’s next solo album. McCartney II, released ten years later, has been described as an early electronica album, and it certainly led the way to McCartney’s more recent experimentation with techno-infused rock. However, it is much too soon to be discussing those albums, as we’ll next take a look at “Another Day”, the debut single from Paul and Linda McCartney.