Paul McCartney has just posted a new YouTube clip of him and daughters Mary and Stella talking about the book and exhibition project “Linda McCartney: Life in Photographs“:
The music used in the clip is Linda’s “Love’s Full Glory” from the album “Wide Prairie” (1998).
One of the previously unreleased songs from the “McCartney II” sessions that will feature on the forthcoming re-issue of the album has popped up on YouTube.
Its an unlikely pairing between Paul McCartney and a US surf film-maker of some renown named Jack McCoy. McCartney’s smooth and stylish song “Blue Sway” accompanies an intriguing video clip of McCoy’s innovative underwater photography, utilising a camera attached to a jet ski. Have a look and listen for yourself – the way the images and music mesh is quite unique and compelling:
The song is credited on the reissue CD as “Blue Sway (With Richard Niles Orchestration)”.
The text accompanying the clip says:
“Written nearly 20 years ago, McCartney’s never-before released song, “Blue Sway,” is available for the first time on the bonus audio disc of the special edition of “McCartney II”. The music video created by McCoy is also featured on the bonus DVD included in the set.
Using a high powered underwater jet ski, the filmmaker found that he was able to travel behind a wave, creating underwater images that have never been seen before.
Over the past couple of years, McCoy set out to capture footage for his surf film, “A Deeper Shade of Blue“. During the editing process, McCoy put one of his surfing sequences to a song off McCartney’s “The Fireman” album. A mutual friend, Chris Thomas, saw the footage while visiting McCoy in Australia, and when he returned to the UK he gave McCartney a copy of the sequence.
“Paul was pretty stoked with what I’d created. He immediately thought my images might be suitable to go with his unreleased song “Blue Sway”.” said McCoy.
McCoy spent the next six weeks creating the music video, while also working full days on making “A Deeper Shade of Blue”. McCoy compiled and edited footage that he filmed off Tahiti’s Teahupoo reef to create what became the “Blue Sway” video.
“When I saw Jack McCoy’s underwater surfing footage put to the soundtrack of “Blue Sway” I was blown away,” said McCartney.
“Blue Sway” won ‘Best Music Video’ at NYC BE FILM Short Festival this past May, and the video will be featured as part of Surfrider Foundation’s summer PSA campaign. Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit grassroots organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of our world’s oceans, waves and beaches.
The film clip is dedicated to Linda McCartney.
There is also a “Making of Blue Sway” video clip:
This is a video (posted earlier this month on June 2) on Paul McCartney’s MPL Music Publishing site detailing further the big project announced last year that he would be digitising his entire, extensive personal archive. Its a little bit commercial in its plugs for the HP computer group who are working with the McCartney team, but its interesting and sounds like they are making good progress on what must be an enormous task.
They’ve posted two different versions of the clip – this one is a shorter version but has some different speakers and information:
This week I managed to secure a still sealed copy of the 1981, 8-LP box set simply called “John Lennon”. Mine is the one in the silver box with the now famous Bob Gruen photo of John (taken in New York) on the front cover:
This is the Australian release of this set, put out by EMI.
The box contains:
1. “Live Peace In Toronto”; 2. “Plastic Ono Band”; 3. “Imagine”; 4. “Sometime In New York City”; 5 . “Mind Games”; 6. “Walls And Bridges”; 7. “Rock ‘N’ Roll”; and 8. “Shaved Fish”:
The set came out just a year after John Lennon’s death and followed the success of other Beatles box sets. It was released in several countries using very similar packaging. The set was first released in Britain, and was later sold in Japan, Germany, and of course Australia – with the catalogue number JLB8:
Mitch McGeary and William McCoy write (on their Beatles Rarities and Box Sets website) that all the LPs were issued on the Apple label and packaged in their original covers: “Included in the UK and other sets was a twenty-page, black-and-white booklet, “The Liverpool Echo’s Tribute To John Lennon,” which was loaded with pictures and song lyrics. The albums were encased in a silver box that had a color photo of John on the front. The set’s title and facsimile of John’s autograph were also embossed on the front of the box while the LP and song titles were printed on the back”.
EMI in Italy also issued a Lennon compilation and it is unique. Its called the “John Lennon Anthology” and consisted of all the albums in the British/Australian edition, but omitted the “best of” album “Shaved Fish”. Instead the box had three singles made up of tracks not found on any of the other seven LPs. Unlike the silver box versions these discs came in a blue, pizza-style box reminiscent of the “Live Peace in Toronto” cover:
Apparently only 1,000 copies were made of this one, making it quite a collectable item.
I wrote in March about a new book about to be released which is dedicated to the photographic work of Linda McCartney. Last Saturday my local paper (The Sydney Morning Herald) published a four-page article about it and dedicated the front cover of its Good Weekend magazine to the book. Here’s the promotion of the paper’s weekend magazine article on the front page masthead of the newspaper:
They used a great shot of Paul, Mary and Heather on their farm in Scotland in 1970 for the front cover of the magazine itself:
Inside is an article by journalist Janice Turner detailing a flip through the book – with Paul McCartney at her side. Turner asks: “So how does McCartney feel, looking again at these private moments, captured by his soul mate of those years, now long gone? “It’s funny. I think when you have a bit of distance from someone you have lost, you can just look at it with pleasure. Because they were great times. It is tinged with sadness because you lost that person, but the main feeling for me looking at these is joy. Mostly, these pictures are uplifting.”
Here are a few more of Linda’s photos which appear in the book, published by Taschen:
Of course the Sydney Morning Herald’s weekend article has been syndicated around the world and comes from a London Times Magazine which was published last month – but it was a nice surprise last Saturday morning to find it in my local Sydney paper…
UPDATE: “Linda McCartney: Life in Photographs,” a New York exhibition of photos by Linda McCartney, opened last Thursday and runs through to July 29 at the Bonni Benrubi Gallery, Level 13, 41 East 57th St., New York City. The gallery has posted lots more photographs here (check out the prices, too). This is the poster for the exhibit:
UPDATE 2: Paul McCartney has posted a YouTube clip of he and daughters Mary and Stella talking about the project.
On the Paul McCartney site right now are the details of a competition for fans who can sing to upload their own versions of the classic solo McCartney tune “Maybe I’m Amazed”.
I know, it’s just a marketing thing to promote the forthcoming reissues of “McCartney” and “McCartney II“, but it’s quite a nice idea.
There are already quite a few home-grown “Maybe I’m Amazed” covers starting to be uploaded, but one is a ripper version. It was posted on the very first day of the comp by a singer named Katrice Gavino. So simple – just a single camera shot of her singing in her kitchen – but a pretty good voice. I’ve voted her a “Like” on YouTube. Well done Katrice.
Paul McCartney’s concert in Rio last Sunday, 22nd May, was broadcast live over the internet by Terra in Latin America. They have kindly loaned his site the tapes so that anyone who was not lucky enough to watch it live will still get the chance to see the show – but only for a very limited time.
The videos are only up on Paul’s site until midnight on Friday, 26 May so make sure you have a look.
Its worth seeing just for “Hey Jude”, where the Brazilian fans came prepared for the song with their own home-made signs, as Paul himself points out:
“Whilst doing ‘Hey Jude’ when I handed over to the audience to sing the ‘na na na na’s’ suddenly the audience produced these signs. It was such a visual thing. It was very emotional because the fans had gone to all that trouble. They could have just come to the show and watched it but they all communicated before hand to make the special moment happen. They connected with each other, then connected with us and the entire crew. Everyone felt connected. It was very exciting and emotional to see that people care so much.”
Two separate websites have been launched in the lead-up to the official release of the new “McCartney” and “McCartney II” reissues, due on June 13.
Both feature photos and information about the new releases, which incidentally now include a single disc “Standard” edition of each title – something that until now has not been mentioned.
Both websites have a short video trailer (with Paul talking about the making of each album) to promote the discs:
These are the next two releases in the Concord Records/Hear Music Paul McCartney Archive series. See also my un-boxing of the first release in the series: “Band on the Run“.
David Mason, the musician who played the now famous trumpet parts for the Beatles “Penny Lane”, has died. In January, 1967 he provided just a short couple of sections for the song – but they are solos from a virtuoso which are so impressive and important in making “Penny Lane” so loved by so many.
David had been Principal Trumpet of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Covent Garden Opera, and the English Chamber Orchestra.
Here’s the story of how “Penny Lane” came about:
And of course the song itself in full:
Vale David Mason. And thanks for the music.
Interesting news last week that Paul McCartney’s very first solo work outside the Beatles is to get a decent CD release in July this year.
McCartney wrote the original soundtrack music to the 1966 British movie “The Family Way“, starring Hayley Mills and Hywell Bennett. He was assisted with orchestrations and arrangements by Beatles producer George Martin. The news of a new CD release got me scrabbling through the collection to find my vinyl copy:
This is the Australian pressing – which came out on Decca Records originally in 1967 (though my copy is a re-issue). In the UK the LP also came out on Decca, while in the US it was released on the London label. The LP has 13 tracks but interestingly (as you can see on the label image above) there are no titles for any of them.
“The Family Way” will be released on CD on July 26 by specialist soundtrack label Varèse Sarabande, based in California. It takes a bit of a search to find any references to the forthcoming CD on their website. You have to go to the “Vintage News” section and there’s information contained there when you scroll a fair way down the page…..
It’s very interesting to hear the music now with the benefit of hindsight. It would have been composed by McCartney just after the release of “Revolver”, and just before he went into the studio to record “Sgt Pepper”:
The original 1967 soundtrack recording of “The Family Way” contains both the above McCartney themes, the main theme and “Love in the Open Air” – plus eleven more score cues suited to the on-screen action. Varèse Sarabande says that for his composition McCartney was initially inspired by the sound of brass bands, familiar to his childhood in the North of England.
Steve Marinucci in his Beatles Examiner column says the new single-disc release will be taken from the original mono master tapes and will feature sleeve notes by Chip Madinger, author of a new book on the Beatles solo work called “Eight Arms To Hold You“. The CD will also include a previously unreleased stereo mix of “A Theme From ‘The Family Way'”, a rarity that in 1966 appeared as the b-side of a 1966 UK/US 7-inch single by a band called the Tudor Minstrels.
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