(audio samples & lyrics)
Order RUN DEVIL RUN now!
Run Devil Run New York Listening Party @ Manhattan Center
by Mike Kovacich, webmaster @ MACCA-Central
Good Day Sunshine, Beatlefest and several radio stations had contests with prices being 2 tickets to
the event. As Good Day Sunshine publisher Matt Hurwitz was present at the
LA listening party, Mark Lapidos was present at the New York Event.
By the time I arrived some of Paul's people including security and Geoff Baker were inside at the lobby.
I went up to the door and caught Geoff's attention and after a few moments he came out and met with me.
After introducing him to my wife we discussed a few things and as we were talking he noticed that he got
locked outside. He jokingly commented that someone is going to very mad at me if I keep him from making
sure everything goes smoothly tonight. I shouted back at him that I would tell Paul it was all his fault
Knowing that I would be talking to Geoff again shortly again I though it wouldn't hurt to ask him for a favour. When I talked
with him again, I pointed to Foey and asked him if he could get them in, he said he will see what he could do and abruptly said he had to go and flew back inside.
Thinking to myself I just blew it, overstepping my boundaries, asking too much. Shortly later he had an assistant come to me and asked me what I needed. When I gave the news to Foey she
and her friends went crazy screaming and yelling causing everyone to look their way. Later when I spoke with him again, I told him that he
just made three sixteen year olds extremely happy. Taking no credit, Geoff said it was his assistant Paul (another Paul) that should be thanked.
Someone's sound track of
popular tunes from the late 50's and early 60's filled the ballroom as
non VIP guest were mingling round the ballroom floor. The area in front
of the stage was quickly filled up by fans eagerly waiting for Paul, some
were so close the could touch the lone microphone on the stage. The curtains
just a few feet behind the microphone had a huge poster of the now infamous
Run Devil Run store on the right and a poster with a studio shot
of Paul with Epiphone in hand in from of a microphone on the left. See
promo poster. In the center and higher up was a huge video screen which
showed a picture of the Run Devil Run record store. All around the room
in every viewing angle were 27" or so TV sets. The VIP section which was
the 2nd floor balcony also had TV sets all over for viewing. Along the
railing in the VIP section and on one lower level section accessible by
general admission people were the promo posters.
There was also another VIP section I will call VVIP not visible to the general admission and the VIP's.
Earlier in the evening couches, chair, end tables, food and drinks were brought in that had MPL or McCartney
labelled on it. This no doubt when to a special suit for Paul, family and friends and special VVIP's. Christie Brinkley,
Woody Harrelson, Judy Collins, Bruce Springsteen, Emmy Lou Harris and Band on the Run producer Tony Visconti were some of the celebrities present.
New acquaintances were made
and old acquaintances were re-establish as fans talked amongst fans in
anticipation of the events to follow. I certainly met with people I have
met on other occasions including Jennifer D., Hazel, Sheryl, Amy just
to name a few. New friends were made as well. Many stories exchange and
one worth worth mentioning is one that shows just how nice a guy Paul is.
This girl who didn't a ticket for the Buddy Holly party was given
a VIP pass by someone as a huge jester of kindness. So this woman and her
daughter were right there with the various stars including Mark from Sugar Ray. She
was so shy not able to talk to Paul, so I guess Paul asked his body guard
to take her camera and take some pictures. Her husband proudly showed me the pictures.
Now, what a nice guy.
The video had little bitsfrom each song showing Paul and gang during recording of the album as well
as various photo shoots Paul did. Some very nice footage. It was very a high energy presentation with
non-stop action and you couldn't help but get excited.
After the video was completed, John Fugelsang came out and started his poignant introduction of
Paul saying that he would try to better Madonna's introduction of Paul at the recent MTV Music Awards.
That he did with an attitude, and it's about time !
I'm going to try to quote John Fugelsang as best I can . . .
When the album ended John Fugelsang came back out and started to introduce Paul.
As a suprise to John, Paul just jumped out from behind the curtains and the fans just started screaming of course. He joked about and said,
"This stand up thing can become a regular for me, I'll be in Cleveland next week." He asked if we liked the album, silly question but
he said something like "As if you'ld say anything else".
He then
discussed how the Beatles would arrive at Abbey Road studios at 10am and start recording by 10:30am and have 2 songs done, go for lunch come back
and do another 2 songs. He said that moost of the time he and John would come with songs and George and Ringo wouldn't know what their doing as
the songs were just written. He compared that to today where you have to give the producer weeks notice to do anything. He liked that kind of
professionalism the Beatles had. This album was done in a similar manner and had lots of fun doing it. He felt real comfortable singing and playing
bass. He went on and said lots of people can sing but not many can sing and play a complicated bass riff at the same time.
He the motioned patting his head and rubbing his tummy at the same time. I thought this was very candid.
He then said "Let's do something different now and have a little question and answer session." He kept saying "sensible questions" and "you look sensible".
One fan upfront held drumsticks in the air and asked if she could play drums with him. He joked with her back and forth and said you want Ringo not me.
Another question was if Let It Be is going to be released. "It must be I've got it" Another question was the inevitible "Tour" question. He as he looked up into the balcony and slowly said "Probably"
The next question was "How is your Grandson ? Pauls response, "We're getting very intimate here, we could talk all night like this. The suits upstairs
are gone and it's just us, to answer your question supercalifrgelisticexpealadoscious" he added that Mary is a terrific mother. Another female fan asked if he could hold her hand, he said "No, but I
would like to".
John Fugelsang leaned over to Paul to say something and then Paul said, "John reminded me that I mentioned nothing about the band", and then said the
names of a couple of players but didn't finish as he got distracted. The last question of the night was if Paul would sign an autograph ? He said some things would be collected and brought backstage
and he would sign them. Paul waived goodnight and left. I don't believe anyone in general admission had any item collected for Paul to sign.
As Paul was leaving the stage John Fugelsang pulled out a camera and he and Paul possed as John took the picture. Hope it turned out Johh !
The album was played again, we mingled amongst old and new friends and waited waiting for Paul to leave (front of building). It wasn't too late just after midnight
and thought if we travelled all this way, myself from Canada, to see Paul we may as well cheer him on as he leaves. There were at least 100 or so fans inside and out. We probably delayed his
departure as security came out and put up barricades. I managed to get a publicity poster and will be scanning that and my ticket soon.
The rock n' roll legend was referring to the preview he offered several hundred fans and music industry types of his latest effort, Run Devil Run, before its October 5 release. In turn, the grateful McCartney-maniacs — many of whom had won admission to the "listening party" at the Hammerstein Ballroom through a contest — were effusive in their praise for the 57-year-old icon.
"This is awesome to just see Paul. Just seeing him talk is a once-in-a-lifetime experience," said Gary Marinoff, a 40-year-old professional comedian who said he has seen McCartney in concert numerous times. "He's the greatest musician of the 20th century. ... 5,000 years from now people will really only remember one music group — and that's the Beatles."
The new album, a set of '50s covers and originals, is McCartney's first since his Grammy-nominated 1997 disc Flaming Pie.
It was culled from a March jam session at Abbey Road Studios with Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice and others, a recording process McCartney said was a throwback to the days when the Fab Four would head into the studio very workmanlike and polish off a handful of songs in a single session.
Because he and John Lennon were the chief tunesmiths, "often George and Ringo didn't even know what the song was" ahead of time, McCartney told the audience.
As the tunes blared on the sound system, accompanied by a screen of photos and notes about the songs, Paul mingled backstage with the likes of Woody Harrelson, Christy Turlington, Emmy Lou Harris, former David Bowie producer Tony Visconti and his wife, May Pang, a one-time paramour of John Lennon's.
Actor and sometime musician Harrelson described himself as a "huge" McCartney fan. "I've been listening to his music since I was about 6," he said.
McCartney described the rockin' little record as an attempt "to re-create those feelings from when I was a kid — my admiration for those blues and rock n' roll people."
The man known for being able to pull off a raucous Little Richard-style vocal as easily as a lilting ballad sounded in prime form belting out hits and obscurities by the likes of Chuck Berry ("Movie Magg"), Fats Domino ("Coquette"), Elvis ("All Shook Up," "I Got Stung"), Gene Vincent ("Blue Jean Bop") and Ricky Nelson (an up-tempo, higher register version of "Lonesome Town").
The 15-song release also includes three new tunes penned by McCartney, in '50s mode.
Paul said he would "probably" tour again in the future, but didn't indicate whether it would be to support the new album.
Rob Desrocher, owner of 12 Record Explosion stores in Connecticut, was pleased Paul had recorded "not the Drifters kind of [expletive], but the real rock n' roll roots."
But he laughingly blamed McCartney for interesting him in the music industry in the first place. "If it wasn't for this schmuck, I'd have a real job. ... Instead, I'm a lousy record peddler."
"It's great to hear Paul play happy, upbeat rock n' roll, especially with what he's been going through of late," said fan Steve Fisch, a 34-year-old teacher, referring to the 1998 death of Paul's wife and former bandmate, Linda McCartney.
Paul considers "What It Is," one of the originals, a "little tribute to Linda," according to the screen notes, because she was piano-side when he first came up with the song's "bluesy riffs."
Though Lennon beat him to it with his own 1975 album of cover tunes, Rock 'n' Roll, Run Devil Run is not the first time McCartney has served up a selection of his rock favorites. In 1988 he recorded Choba B CCCP (The Russian Album), which was originally available only in the Soviet Union. And in 1991, he released Unplugged — The Official Bootleg, one of the first of many albums to be released in the '90s from tapings of the MTV show.
Though McCartney's graying hair, often described as "salt-and-pepper," is getting saltier — and he's but 7 years away from his 64th birthday — he has, for his fans, a Dick Clark agelessness. "The years don't make a difference, man," said Barry Konarik, an account manager with Valley Media. "It's always the talent."
McCartney seems to feel the same way. The album concludes with a cover called "Party." As he describes in the screen notes: "At the end, that's me going 'I'm not giving up, man.' It seemed like a good idea to end the album on that."
SIXTEEN months after the death of his wife Linda, Paul McCartney is inching
his way out of mourning. Unlike the murder of McCartney's Beatles brother
John Lennon or the passing of his parents, Linda's death publicly exposed him
as a regular, middle-aged guy who loved his wife and can't tell her that
anymore.
Can a man who was in the most influential rock band in history be pitiable?
Yes, but in person Wednesday in a back room at the Hammerstein Ballroom,
McCartney was dry-eyed. Without the tears that spilled a couple of weeks ago
at the PETA fete in L.A., where he recalled Linda's work as an animal-rights
advocate, McCartney spoke with candor about "keeping busy" and dealing with
his pain.
"Sure, I'm working more than I worked last year," McCartney said. "One of
the pieces of advice people gave me was get busy, keep busy. I didn't want to
do that. After Linda's death, I made a point of not keeping busy for a year."
Instead, McCartney admitted to an almost perverse desire to experience the
scope of his feelings of the loss. How did he do that? With the brevity and
honesty of a man worn by the events, he said: "I lived. I cried a lot."
The living part of McCartney's life included working on a pair of albums
simultaneously. The first of those to be released is "Run Devil Run," set to
hit record store racks Oct. 5.
The other project is a disc of orchestral music, titled "Working Classical,"
which is still in production but is expected to be released before the new
year.
Wednesday's Hammerstein event was a listening party for "Run Devil Run,"
which is a very old-fashioned album featuring 15 tracks of pre-Beatles, '50s
style rock.
"This an album I dearly wanted to do, and I kind of thought it would be best
if I made it before the end of the 20th century," McCartney said.
He added: "This was something Linda was very keen on me doing. And she really
egged me on saying, 'You know that rock 'n' roll album you're thinking about
doing? Do it!' She really kept bugging me about it."
McCartney dismissed the importance of this record, saying the it was just
"next in line, the next project" - and then went on to lament that Linda
never lived to hear any of the disc. "She's still here, and she keeps
bugging, 'Come on, get it right.'"
The album finds McCartney's voice in fine form, especially considering he
hadn't sung for more than a year. It is a mostly upbeat collection, with the
exception of the Ricky Nelson hit "Lonesome Town." There are three original
McCartney tunes and a dozen B-side tracks originally
performed by pioneer rockers such as Gene Vincent, Carl Perkins and Fats
Domino. McCartney described the selection process as very arbitrary. "I just
made a list of songs from when I was a kid," he said. The songs are a
remembrance of things past, but was it the music or the times for which
McCartney was nostalgic? "Both," he said. " We were kids, and America was
re-awakening the world [with music]. I was interested in other stuff then,
and suddenly Elvis and Little Richard came screaming out across the Atlantic.
It was an exciting time."
The band that backs McCartney on the album's collection of rarities features
some of the hottest session men in the U.K. Multi-instrumentalist McCartney,
half of the Beatles rhythm department, chose to be strapped into his famous
Hofner fiddle-bodied bass for the "Devil" sessions. Knowing that beat is more
than half of the battle in rock, he demanded the best percussionist he could
get.
"I Talked to Chris Thomas [producer of 'Devil'] and asked, 'Who's around and
drumming great besides Ringo?' He suggested Deep Purple's Ian Paice." That
innocent statement raised the question, "Why not Ringo?"
McCartney suddenly backtracked, paused and answered with an analytical
flatness: "I heard myself say that." He then added, unconvincingly: "I think
because he was doing something else. I think he was touring. He would have been my first choice, and then
Keith Moon and then John Bonham, but they're dead, so they're more difficult."
Yet McCartney was vehement about not getting back together with the other
Beatles. "There are no reunion plans," he said. Asked if he was itching to
hit the road and tour to support this disc, McCartney said: "Not really, but
I may be soon. I have to wait until I really feel like I'd love to do that."
They teased us early on when they played the title track at 8pm, but the program didn't start until 9.
The president of Capitol Records came out to introduce a short film of Paul
discussing the album and clips of him recording in the studio. I really hope
this gets fleshed out to one of his Making Of tapes we've all grown accustom to
with each of his last few releases.
The Paul came out... He looks a LOT better in person than he does on, say, the
Yellow Submarine interview footage recently seen on VH1.
I wish I could remember what all he said but I was a little too excited plus
when the crowd pushed forward I got pinned behind this huge guy in front of me
and I was concentrating on getting a decent view! But he talked about how in
the early Beatles days they'd book the studio for 10, have to start recording
by 10.30 and crank out as much as they could in the eight hours they had.
He told of how George Martin would say to them: "Well boys. What are we going
to be doing today?" And he or John would go "It sounds something like
this...". George and Ringo would have no idea since he and John wrote the
songs off on their own.
He then introduced the cd and walked off stage. The video screens displayed
the titles of the tracks, displayed the liner notes from the album telling a
little about the song, and a picture drawn by Paul followed by a picture of him
in the studio.
I have to say this album ROCKS! I'm mean track after track were absolutely on
FIRE! Definitely one to crank up. One thing I never liked about the Russian
album was that it was lacking high energy. RDR certainly makes up for that!
Personal highlights for me were definitely Run Devil Run, Brown Eyed Handsome
Man (with accordion to give it a zydeco sound!), and I Got Stung. Lonesome
Town, as much as I love Ricky Nelson's version, and McCartney's live
performance, went on a little longer than it should have. Other than that it
was a highlight as well.
Afterwards Paul came out again and chatted a little more. Nothing specific,
just babbling, really :) We all screamed for him to play but sadly it was not
to be.
He was then presented with a huge award for selling 60 Million albums worldwide. And he was gone.
A number of fans from the
general public along with some 400 VIPs were in attendance Wednesday night
at the Manhattan Center's Hammerstein Ballroom at a Listening Party held
by Capitol Records for Paul's October 5th release Run Devil Run. This was
similar to an even held on September 17th in Los Angeles at the House Of
Blues.
Meanwhile back in the lineup of general admission there appeared Foey as she is known in MACCA-Chat and mail lists.
I met her in '97 at Standing Stone and at the time she was 14 years old I remember the tears flowing from her eyes
after she say Paul during rehersals and the performance. I remember her uncontrollable screams,
"Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God, I saw Paul, Oh my God, Oh my God. Well she was there at the Manhattan Center with
two of her friends now 16 years old and dressed in school atire. They tried and tried but did not win any contest to
get into the listening party.
Paul was to arrive at 9pm but was ran a little late.
As the security and body guards were
scrambling back and forth, Paul's arrival was coming near. The music stopped
out jumped John Fugelsang yelling, "Rock & Roll is not dead in 1999!"
That was the theme strongly conveyed by John who was to be the emcee of
the evening. You may remember John from his VH-1's "Town Hall Meeting"
from Bishopsgate back when Flaming Pie was released. John and Paul seemed
to have hit it off very well and I was glad to see John back involved in
this gig. John introduced a video at which point all the TVs were filled with the sounds
and images of Paul and company.
"People are saying rock is dead, in a year that Ricky Martin is said to have invented Latin Pop, this man recorded Besame Mucho in 1962.
When Michael ? (guy from Riverdance) this man did Mull of Kintyre in 1977. In a year where they call the Backstreet Boy the fab five and a year where they cal NSync a band.
Real Bands write their own songs and play their own instruments. (missing parts here)
The only rock and roller to have the Queen on his speed dial, he is the Ayatollah of Rockin Rolla.
This man is said to be the only person to be kicked out of the Wu Tang Clan. I would like to introduce to you Paul fucking McCartney"
As Paul took to the microphone a fan passed him a boquette of flowers. Goes without saying the Hammerstein Ballroom was blistering with yelling
and screaming fans. When Paul began to speak he explained to us what the evening is about.
He explained that usually he would sit it a room with a bunch of suits discussing the album and promotion which he thought quite boring
and this time round do something fresh. He said that he really wanted to do another rock and roll album before the end of the century
thinking what a way to close it off. He then said hope we enjoy the album and that he would be back later to say goodnight. Paul and John
then left the stage and we were treated with all anticipation of Run Devil Run.
The album played through all 15 tracks in it's entirety. For each track there were still images and quotes from Paul briefly describing the song
and inspirations. For the song Run Devil Run a picture of 3 bottles of "potions" was shown that had labels saying "Run Devil Run", "Stop Evil" and "Run Devil"The sound system was just top notch of course.
The quotation from Paul on Try Not To Cry said "I just wrote a song that never gets in the way of the snare, it's that simple". For one of the Elvis songs
there was a charcoal drawing of an Elvis looking Paul and it was signed "Elvis McCartney". I later found out that it was drawn by Klaus Voorman (Revolver cover).
The above pictures of Paul and John Fugelsang are some great images frozen by the camera and eye of Brad Shey. Here is a link to his home page.
Brad has given MACCA-Central full permission to showcase his photos.
If you wish to see a larger image just click on the picture.)
McCartney Gives Fans Preview of 'Devil' Music
By
Patrick Riley 
Neil Jacobs/APMcCartney's covers, he says, are meant 'to re-create those feelings from when I was a kid'
Capitol RecordsMcCartney says one of the songs on the album is a 'little tribute' to late wife Linda
New York Post:
A 'DEVIL' OF A TIME
By DAN AQUILANTE
1st Report on L.A. Listening Party @ House of Blues
(report submitted by Gutierrez)
The place was packed. The music was deafening. And I got to stand six feet away from Him!