The third single from Paul McCartney’s forthcoming album, Egypt Station (due out September. 7th on CapitolRecords), is here. It’s called—ahem—“Fuh You,” and it appears the 76-year-old legend is no less spry today than he was in 1969 when The Beatles recorded “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” which echoes a similar lyrical sentiment. The song’s sonic elements, however, couldn’t be more different from an Abbey Road track’s—poppy keys, a chorus of back-up voices and an autotune playback suggest plenty of modern influences. The snappy, feel-good track arrives with an equally pleasing lyric video, which you can watch below.
McCartney explained the idea behind this cheeky new single:
With this one I was in the studio with Ryan Tedder whereas the rest of the album has been made with GregKurstin … We were just thinking of ideas and little pieces of melody and chords and the song just came together bit by bit. And then I would try and make some kind of sense of the story. So it was like “Come on baby now. Talk about yourself. Tell the truth, let me get to know you,” and basically I wanna know how you feel, you make me wanna go out and steal. I just want it for you. So that was the basic idea and it developed from there … sort of a love song, but a raunchy love song. There you go—fuh you.
The Egypt Station album announcement arrived in June, along with the first two singles: the suggestive, upbeat rock track “Come On To Me” and the more mellow piano ballad “I Don’t Know.”
Earlier this summer, McCartney joined James Corden for a memorable episode of Carpool Karaoke, during which the two Brits toured the former Beatle’s childhood home in Liverpool. The response to the segment was so far-reaching that the folks behind Corden’sThe Late Late Show are extending it into an hour-long special. Carpool Karaoke: When Corden Met McCartney Live From Liverpool airs August. 20th on CBS.
Sharing a title with one of Paul’s own paintings, Egypt Station is the first full album of all-new McCartney music since 2013’s international chart-topping NEW. Preceded by two of its tracks just released as double A-sides – plaintive ballad ‘I Don’t Know‘ and raucous stomper ‘Come On To Me‘ – Egypt Station was recorded between Los Angeles, London and Sussex, and produced (with the exception of one Ryan Tedder track) by Greg Kurstin (Adele, Beck, Foo Fighters).
Of the forthcoming album’s enigmatic title, Paul says, “I liked the words ‘Egypt Station.’ It reminded me of the ‘album’ albums we used to make… ‘Egypt Station’ starts off at the station on the first song and then each song is like a different station. So it gave us some idea to base all the songs around that. I think of it as a dream location that the music emanates from.”
True to the inspiration behind its title, Egypt Station ’s 14 songs combine to convey a unique travelogue vibe. Between the opening and closing instrumentals ‘Station I’ and ‘Station II’, each song finds Paul capturing a place or moment before transporting the listener seamlessly to the next destination. Stops along the way include an acoustic meditation on present day contentedness (‘Happy With You’), a timeless anthem that would fit on virtually any album of any McCartney era (‘People Want Peace’), and an epic multi-movement closer clocking in at seven minutes with a song suite structure harkening back to the days of Paul’s previous combos (‘Despite Repeated Warnings‘). The result is a kaleidoscopic journey through myriad musical locales and eras, yet firmly rooted in the here and now – with Paul’s singular unmistakeable melodic and lyrical sensibility serving as a guide.
Paul McCartney‘s 1971 album Ram was released as a FIVE disc deluxe edition released May 2012 in the US and UK . The deluxe edition continued the tradition of the 128-page linen-bound book and all audio content is newly remastered.
The second bonus CD will contain 8 numbers, including period outtakes, non-album tracks and b-sides, amongst them fan favourite A Love For You (only officially available – probably in a different mix – on The In-Laws soundtrack from 2003).
The third CD will see the first commercial issue of the mono mix of Ram – previously only a promo-only item at the time of release. Like The Beatles mono albums, this is a unique mix with subtle differences to what can be heard on the standard stereo mix.
The fourth CD will be the Thrillington album. An instrumental/orchestral version of the Ram album recorded in 1971 and produced by McCartney, but not released until 1977 (under the pseudonym of Percy “Thrills” Thrillington). It was reissued on CD in the mid-nineties but again under the same pseudonym. This Ram reissue will mark the first occasion that Thrillington has been officially released under the McCartney name.
A fifth disc is a DVD. The content looks rather slight (as per the McCartney deluxe edition video content) but will include home movie footage set to various Ram tracks. The biggest Deluxe Edition yet since the McCartney Archive Collection kicked off in October 2010. McCartney II was the previous best with 4 discs.
RAM, originally released in May of 1971, is the only album to be credited to both Paul and Linda McCartney and was Paul’s second post-Beatles LP. It was overshadowed at the time by the drama of the dissolution of The Beatles, as played out in the world’s media. The album topped the charts hitting #1 in the UK and #2 in the US. While RAM polarized critics upon its release, music fans and critics alike since have overwhelmingly embraced it, with Rolling Stone, for example, revising their original review up to 4 stars. Recently RAM has enjoyed even further re-appraisal and acknowledgement including a number of tribute albums.
RAM was written by Paul and Linda, mostly at their Scottish farm on the Mull of Kintyre. In the autumn of 1970 they flew to New York to start the recording process. Without a band in place they auditioned and drafted musicians, who included future Wings drummer Denny Seiwell and guitarists David Spinozza and Hugh McCracken.
The band completed the album in early 1971 along with non-album tracks ‘Another Day’ and ‘Oh Woman, Oh Why’ which were released together as Paul’s first post-Beatles single ahead of the release of RAM and became a Top 5 global hit. The multi-disc editions of the RAM reissue include both songs as bonus tracks. The album also gave Paul his first post-Beatles US number 1 single with ‘Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey’ and a Grammy win for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists.
RAM was also issued in mono with alternate mixes, which were only made available to radio stations at the time. This version has gone on to become one of the most sought after McCartney collectables. It will now be commercially available for the first time ever on CD as part of the Deluxe Edition as well as a limited run on vinyl.
1977 saw the release of Thrillington, an instrumental interpretation of RAM, which was originally recorded in 1971 at London’s Abbey Road Studios and was arranged by Richard Hewson. It was released under the pseudonym Percy ‘Thrills’ Thrillington, an unknown eccentric socialite who often cropped up in mysterious newspaper classifieds. In reality Percy was a character devised by Paul and Linda. The idea behind it was simply to have some fun and the concept of doing a full orchestral album was an ambition long held by Paul.
The additional film content features previously unreleased and exclusive content including the brand-new documentary, “Ramming” narrated by Paul, as well as the original music videos for “Heart Of The Country” and “3 Legs”.
The remastering work was done at Abbey Road using the same team who recently remastered the complete Beatles‘ catalogue.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is an album from a long, long time ago, when the world was different. This is an album that is part of history, it goes back to the wee hills of Scotland where it was formed. It’s an album called RAM. It reminds me of my hippie days and the free attitude with which it was created. I hope you’re going to like it, because I do!”Paul McCartney, 2012 The latest album from Paul’s iconic back catalogue to get the deluxe Paul McCartney Archive Collection treatment.
As with the previous releases in the series, Paul has personally overseen every aspect of the project and the result is spectacular.
RAMforms one part of the Paul McCartney archive collection, personally supervised by Paul and newly remastered at Abbey Road Studios. RAM, originally released in May of 1971, is the only album to be credited to both Paul and Linda McCartney. The album topped the charts hitting number one in the UK and number two in the US, and also gave Paul his first post-Beatles US number one single with “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” and a Grammy win for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists.
This special edition includes:
• The original 12-track album, remastered at Abbey Road Studios
• 8 bonus audio tracks
• Remastered mono album (previously unreleased commercially)
• Remastered Thrillington album, the instrumental cover version of RAM originally released under the pseudonym of Percy “Thrills” Thrillington
• Bonus DVD featuring:
– Ramming (11-minute documentary on the making of RAM)
– Heart Of The Country (music video)
– 3 Legs (music video)
– Hey Diddle (Paul & Linda performing the track in Scotland, not used before in its entirety)
– Eat At Home On Tour (4 minute piece using behind the scenes footage from the 1972 European Tour with a live recording of the track Eat At Home from Groningen in Holland)
• All set within a numbered hardbound box containing a 112-page book, 32-page scrapbook, 5 prints in vintage style photographic wallet, 8 full size facsimiles of Paul’s original handwritten lyric sheets and mini photographic book of outtakes from the original album cover photo shoot.
• 24bit 96kHz high resolution audio versions of all 20 songs on the remastered album & bonus audio disc, accessed via a download code inserted on a card within the deluxe edition package.
We’ll admit that other than the near-perfect track “Maybe I’m Amazed,” Paul McCartney’s 1970 debut solo album was pretty weak. However, his second attempt, 1971’s “Ram,” was unfairly grouped together with its predecessor. Jon Landau of Rolling Stone called it “so incredibly inconsequential and so monumentally irrelevant” and “unbearably inept” while trashing nearly every track. Elsewhere, Q described it as “frustratingly uneven,” Robert Christgau simply said it’s “a bad record” and NME settled on the term “mediocre.” Even Playboy wouldn’t recommend playing it. Fans had a different opinion. They helped the tune “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” become McCartney’s first No. 1 single as a solo artist, heavily supported the singles “The Back Seat of My Car” and “Eat at Home” and caused critics to re-evaluate their stances on the album. More recently, publications have not only cited “Ram” as a predecessor of indie pop but also as one of the former Beatle’s best solo works.
As controversial as the next release of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection’s approach to “Flowers In TheDirt” has been, the official release of demos from McCartney’s writing sessions with Elvis Costello has made for some excitement as regards the release for Record Store Day. Some of those fateful “McCartney/McManus” demos are now slated for an extraordinary release.
Three unheard cassette demos, part of the much-maligned download-only portion of the deluxe box set (which will also feature previously released B-sides and remixes, instead of this content on a physical disc), have been announced as a cassette for the 10th annual Record Store Day celebration on April 22nd. Those demos are “I Don’t Want to Confess,” “Shallow Grave” and “Mistress and Maid”–for the first time “available in the same form as when Paul and Elvis first cut them directly to tape.”
In a statement, Paul said of these demos:
The demos are red hot off the skillet and that’s why we wanted to include them on this boxed set. What’s great about these songs is that they’ve just been written. So there’s nothing more hot off the skillet as I say. So that was the kind of great instant thing about them. I hadn’t listened to them in ages but when I did I knew we had to put them out. We made a little tape of them and sent them to Elvis, who loved them too. We said we should put out an EP or something and now the moment’s finally arrived.
Last August, Paul McCartney announced his return to The Beatles‘ longtime home of Capitol Records, bringing all of his solo works beginning with the 1970’s McCartney into the fold of the Universal Music Group-owned label. Today, the long-awaited multi-format Archive Collection release of 1989’s “Flowers in the Dirt” has been announced for March 24th, 2017 .
Highlighted by four collaborations with Declan MacManus, a.k.a. Elvis Costello, Flowers in the Dirt featured productions by not only McCartney and MacManus, but also Mitchell Froom, Trevor Horn, David Foster, and Steve Lipson. Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour dropped in to lend guitar on “We Got Married,” and the legendary George Martin returned to write the string chart for “Put It There.” A Gold record in the U.S. and Platinum in the U.K., Flowers went to No. 1 in the U.K. and earned a Grammy nomination. A 1990 Japanese Tour Edition entitled Special Package added a disc of nine bonus tracks from throughout Macca’s solo career; a number of those tracks specific to Flowers, as well as other single versions, B-sides, and remixes, are present on the new set in download form only.
The upcoming reissue will, as per all titles in the long-running Archive Collection, be available in a variety of formats. All boast a remastered version of the original 13-track album (including the CD and cassette bonus track “Où est le Soleil?”) as the centerpiece, while the 3-CD/1-DVD Deluxe Edition Box Set and 2-CD Special Edition offer varying amounts of previously unreleased bonus tracks including the original demos performed by Macca and Elvis.
It’s a really special package featuring very cool and intimate demos made by Paul and Elvis Costello, who co-wrote a third of the album. We can’t wait to share those recordings with you, but until then, here’s Paul talking about what’s coming your way…
“The demos are red hot off the skillet and that’s why we wanted to include them on this boxed set. What’s great about these songs is that they’ve just been written. So there’s nothing more hot off the skillet as I say. So that was the kind of great instant thing about them. I hadn’t listened to them in ages but when I did I knew we had to put them out. We made a little tape of them and sent them to Elvis, who loved them too. We said we should put out an EP or something and now the moment’s finally arrived.”
Sessions for Flowers In The Dirt began in 1987 and the majority of the album was recorded at Paul’s Hog Hill Mill studio in East Sussex. During the sessions Elvis Costello convinced Paul to dig out his iconic Höfner bass for the first time in years – a suggestion McCartney recalls as, “unusual because I had sort of parked it. I had thought I had outgrown it. I started playing it again and never really looked back. It’s great that Elvis encouraged me to take it out.” In preparation for his first major world tour in years Paul was looking to capture songs he could take on the road with him. Paul told his band that he wouldn’t go out on tour unless he really liked the album. Looking back Paul recalls, “You’re always thinking, ‘Let’s get some new songs and take them on tour’ and you hope your new songs are going to work. Something like ‘My Brave Face’ would be a song that nobody knew at the start at the beginning of the tour and then everybody knew it at the end and it was the high spot of the whole tour.”
The original 13-track album was remastered for all the new configurations at Abbey Road Studios. The Deluxe Edition contains 18 bonus audio tracks across two discs, featuring previously unreleased demos, written and performed by Paul with Elvis Costello. Speaking about these tracks Paul said: “The demos are red hot off the skillet and that’s why we wanted to include them on this boxed set. What’s great about these songs is that they’ve just been written. So there’s nothing more hot off the skillet as I say. So that was the kind of great instant thing about them. I hadn’t listened to them in ages but when I did I knew we had to put them out. We made a little tape of them and sent them to Elvis, who loved them too. We said we should put out an EP or something and now the moment’s finally arrived.”
Remastered original album on CD 1;
Nine Paul and Elvis “Original Demos” on CD 2;
Nine “1988 Demos” on CD 3;
DVD featuring 10 music videos; three short films – Creating Flowers in the Dirt; and the original 1989 Put It There documentary as released on VHS;
Digital download of three “Cassette Demos” and 13 associated B-sides, single versions, and remixes;
Creating Flowers in the Dirt” and “Put It There” documentary;
112-page hardcover book;
32-page notebook of Paul’s original handwritten lyrics and notes;
Catalogue of Linda McCartney’s 1989 Flowers in the Dirt photo exhibition; and
64-page photobook of the music video shoot for “The One.”
2-CD Special Edition:
Remastered original album on CD 1; and
Nine Paul and Elvis “Original Demos” on CD 2.
2-LP Vinyl Edition:
12-track original vinyl album plus download of “Où est le Soleil?”;
Download card; and
Nine Paul and Elvis “Original Demos” on LP 2.
Paul McCartney backed by the most accomplished Wings line up took to the road to give epic performances across the world recorded in the summer of 1976, “Wings Over America” released on December. 10th 1976 feeling like a triumphant musical summation of the summer tour for Paul McCartney and his band Wings.
Originally, Wings over America was to be a two-record set of highlight performances but this was rethought due to the success of a bootleg called Wings from the Wings, which was released as a triple record set on red, white, and blue vinyl, and contained the entire 23r June 1976 concert recorded at The Forum in Los Angeles
In stark contrast to his modern-day globe-trotting ways, McCartney hadn’t up to this point toured the U.S.A in 10 years , and those concerts dated to his time in the Beatles. Only one of his former bandmates had even attempted such a thing. Highlights of this tour included not just the American concert debuts of a number of ’70s hits with Wings but also – and this was of particular interest at the time – Beatles favorites like “Blackbird,” “The Long andWinding Road” and “Lady Madonna” — all of which were recorded after the Beatles had stopped touring.
From the opening chords of Rock Show which sets the scene and creates plenty of anticipation, Of course, after so many successive McCartney tours since he retook the road in 1989, much of what made WingsOver America so exciting then seems like nostalgia today. It’s much easier, decades later, to separate the music from the moment. This multi-disc set can come off like the sum of its weakest parts.
The second half of Wings Over America was weaker than the first as McCartney and company delve into some of the most lightweight (but biggest selling, mind you) songs from their polyester-era oeuvre, including the smash “My Love” from 1973’s Red Rose Speedway, the 1975 Venus and Mars hit “Listen to What the Man Said,” and “Silly Love Songs” from their then just-released Wings at The Speed Of Sound.
Too often, it seems, Wings Over America threatens to run out of gas as it couples throwaways like “You Gave Me the Answer” and “Magneto and Titanium Man” or “Hi Hi Hi” and “Soily” with stronger material.
Apart from the songs, listen to McCartney’s bass playing on this record. On ‘Time To Hide’ for example. The rest of the band is also worthy of mention. Jimmy McCullough’s solo on ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ is inspired as is his solo track ‘Medicine Jar’ from the ‘Venus And Mars’ album from 1975. So much better than the album version, not least due again to McCartney’s bass playing.
Later, the project’s reputation took a hit when it was revealed that no small amount of post-production fixes had been employed before release.
“While everybody’s parts were spot-on musically – maybe not the harmonies, maybe not every note was exactly right but the general feel was pretty good,” Wings stalwart Denny Laine said in Luca Perasi’s Paul McCartney:Recording Sessions (1969-2013). “ I had the feeling it could have been a better feeling, a fuller sound, so I double-tracked the guitars, just to fill it out [and] added little bits when you get an obvious mistake. We kept most of the solos, and most of the bass parts as it was.” Drummer Joe English put a finer point on which elements most needed to be retouched, overdubs were necessary because of “people singing out of tune – and I don’t mean Paul.”
So, maybe Wings Over America wasn’t the career exclamation point that it once seemed.
This fizzy rush of anticipation still surrounds the album’s initial trio of songs — “Venus and Mars/Rock Show” combined with incandescent take on “Jet,” even now the best opening Paul McCartney’s ever constructed. Then there’s this set’s definitive version of “Maybe I’m Amazed.” And a remarkable take on “Call Me Back Again,” from Venus and Mars with Jimmy McCulloch’s blistering guitar matched stride for stride by a tough trio of horn players led by saxophonist Thaddeus Richard.
Along the way, McCartney came to feel the Wings had finally come into their own, that fans were ready to accept them on their own terms. “I don’t know for sure, but I’ve got a feeling that they go away thinking, ‘Oh, well, it’s a band,’” “It lets them catch up. I think the press, the media is a bit behind the times, thinking about the Beatles a lot. And I think the kids go away from the show a lot hipper than even the review they’re going to read the next day.”
Wings Over America also stands as the pinnacle of Denny Laine’s often-overlooked career with Wings, from his featured vocals on “Spirits of Ancient Egypt” and “Picasso’s Last Words,” to a vital take of his Moody Blues hit “Go Now” But check out “Time to Hide,” a deep cut from Speed of Sound, where we find Laine brilliantly recapturing the raw emotion of his early R&B-sides with the Moodies.
Then, just as the mawkish distractions of “Let ‘Em In” threaten to sink the whole thing, Wings unleashes the feverish “Beware My Love” — another Speed of Sound track which, though tissue thin lyrically, begins a run of three muscular tracks that secure this album’s enduring legacy: The Venus and Mars cut “Letting Go,” which is shot through with this jagged sexuality, and then the ageless “Band on the Run.”
Two related releases followed the album: A TV documentary Wings Over The World and a film titled Rockshow purporting to contain a complete show from Seattle. it contains only five songs that were filmed at Seattle’s Kingdome the remainder of the film’s 30 songs come from the band’s New York and Los Angeles shows, these additional releases appeared three and four years, respectively, after the 1976 live album.
Musicians:
Wings
Paul McCartney – vocals,bass,guitar,piano
Linda McCartney – vocals,keyboards
Denny Laine – guitar,vocals
Jimmy McCulloch – guitar,vocals
Joe English – drums
Horn section
Tony Dorsey
Howie Casey
Steve Howard Jr.
Thaddeus Richard
Jonathan Rado, co-creator of Foxygen, plays with dusty toys and makes music errday. He bangs on items. He won’t stop banging on items. During a short weekend in October of 2011, Jonathan Rado covered “McCartney”, the 1970 solo album by PaulMcCartney (of the hit rock band, The Beatles) in it’s entirety. In the spirit of the original album, there wasn’t much thought put into anything – most everything is first take, from memory – no song took longer than 3 hours to record. The only missing track is “Teddy Boy”, which somehow got deleted from my computer. Also, man, my vocals on “Maybe I’m Amazed” just do NOT cut it. All songs written by Paul McCartney
recorded and performed by Jonathan Rado in 2011
cover photo by Jonathan Rado (hot sauce & sour skittles/kitchen floor)
The so-called “Oldchella,” which also featured The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Neil Young and BobDylan, attracted fans of all ages and generations, and earned its promoter, Goldenvoice — the same company behind Coachella — a reported $160 million. The biggest question on fans’ minds by the end of Sunday night was: Who will they book next year?
Anyone who’s seen the British knight knows: Sir Paul McCartney and his band are always sharp live, routinely turning in nearly three hours’ worth of live music, abounding with tons of Beatles, Wings and solo faves, touching and comical stories, and impressive pyro (“Live and Let Die” marked the weekend’s ultimate fireworks burst). He didn’t change his set too much from weekend to weekend, but he did swap out “Can’t Buy Me Love” with an invigorating rendition of “Got To Get You into My Life” early in the set, and traded relative rarity “I Wanna Be Your Man” for “Birthday” in the encore, plus a quick take on Little Richard’s “Rip It Up” (“Saturday night … I couldn’t resist,” he said, referencing the relevant lyrics).
Besides, other measures were taken to illuminate the night’s significance: In addition to honoring his former wife Linda before “Maybe I’m Amazed,” he dedicated the song to two of their children, Mary and Stella McCartney, both present at the show; Later, he invited “the queen of Barbados,” Rihanna, out to sing her part on “FourFiveSeconds” (she sang live, and sounded fantastic); in two instances, he asked the audience to howl at the moon, “for the coyotes”; and he brought out Neil Young to handle John Lennon’s parts on “A Day in the Life” and the Plastic Ono Band’s “Give Peace a Chance,” then howl cheek-to-cheek via one mic on “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road” and finish with a solo so insane that Young broke all six of his strings.
Yes, the latter special guest run also occurred during weekend one, but those final string-busting notes yielded a profound sense of urgency – perhaps because it was likely the last time an on-stage collaboration between McCartney and Young will ever happen again, barring awards or tribute shows – that blew any other version of that tune out of the water.
PAUL McCARTNEY rocked the Desert Trip Festival this weekend at the Empire Polo Field in Indio, California ~ October 8th, 2016. Paul McCartney led the Coachella Valley in a joyous journey down memory lane on the second day of Desert Trip Festival.
Neil Young joined Paul McCartney for “A Day in the Life”,”Give Peace a Chance”, & “Why Don’t We Do it in the Road”.
McCartney – boyish as ever, delighted to be on the Coachella stage again. he headlined the original music festival in 2009, and has attended every year since. This new addition to the Coachella Valley has been dubbed “Oldchella” – given that the average age of the musicians is 72. But McCartney was undaunted.
Filmed across the two Desert Trip weekends, the video gives you a great insight into just how huge and special those shows were. We had a great view from the front of the stage, but check out the drone footage showing off the scale of the festival. We still pinch ourselves that we were actually there!
“We’re going to have a party, Liverpool style,” he told the 75,000-strong crowd, who were dancing and singing Beatles songs even before he came onto stage. Blending Beatles songs with new material – “some old songs, new ones, and in between ones,” he said – McCartney delivered a deeply personal reflection on five decades in the music industry.
He told anecdotes about Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, and joked about going to Russia and performing Back in the USSR – mimicking the heavily-accented English of the Russian defence minister, who told him after the show that Love Me Do was the first record he bought. He spoke movingly of Linda McCartney and John Lennon, with Lennon’s face featured heavily in the images broadcast on the screen behind him.
After whipping the crowd into a frenzy with Let It Be, a firework-filled spectacular of Live and Let Die, and then the epic sing-a-long to Hey Jude, McCartney left the stage – then came back for more.
“Still feel like rocking?” the 72-year-old asked. It was 12:10am; he had come on stage two and a half hours earlier.
But the Coachella crowd yelled for more; McCartney delivered a Stones tribute, performing I Wanna Be YourMan – a song Lennon and McCartney wrote for the band. And on he played, seeming never to want to leave the stage.
See the setlist for the other songs Macca performed in this epic show.
On this day (April. 3rd) in 1991: Paul McCartney taped his episode of MTV’s popular acoustic showcase, ‘Unplugged’; unlike other artists who appeared on the show with acoustic instruments plugged into amplifiers, Paul’s instruments were 100% unplugged – microphones were carefully placed close to guitars, pianos & the other instruments to pick up the sound; Paul used the opportunity to dust off some of his rarer tracks, including three from his 1970 debut album, ‘McCartney‘.
Using the same line-up that had 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 several covers and amid a helping of familiar Beatles hits.Paul McCartney – Every Night Live & Unplugged MTV 1991
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.
The Fat Angel Sings 