Paul McCartney/Wings-song by song thread

More about I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter...

Finally,

Live version from Capitol Studios February 9, 2012:

 

I've always defended EBONY AND IVORY! I know first hand the effect and how many in my community received that song. The way things are TODAY it should be ABSOLUTELY BLASTED from the highest mountaintops!

 

Okey-dokey then...

 

I'M GOING TO SIT RIGHT DOWN AND WRITE MYSELF A LETTER - I LIKE IT, Kisses is the album I listen to when I'm at my drawing board. The music for some reason helps me with my creativity. Creating art is also a time when I listen to Chaos And Creation. The more mellow mood of these albums allows for concentration I think.

 

What do you draw?

 

I'm a cartoonist, so Graphic novels, comic books, comic strips, gag cartoons, political cartoons, story boards, children's books etc. I was a graphic artist for the U.S. Air Force as well. I was also a elementary and high school art teacher!
I spend hours a day at the drawing board so those albums get a lot of ear time. That's why I have such deep opinions about the music because it's in constant rotation.
The more mellow ones like...
Kisses
Chaos
Flaming Pie
Unplugged
are best when I'm drawing. The harder rocking ones make me bob my head and jam along too much.

 

Hey Diddle is an inoffensive but insignificant throwaway.

 

Home (When Shadows Fall)

A tribute to his roots, to his dad, to his new love Nancy. This is a pleasant and intimate performance with touching orchestral and rhythm arrangements to create a harmonic work.

Lyrics:

Evening marks the close of day,
Skies of blue begin to grey,
Crimson hues are fading in the west.
Evening ever brings to me
Dreams of days that used to be,
Memories of those I love the best.

When shadows fall
And trees whisper, "Day is ending",
My thoughts are ever wending home.
When crickets call,
My heart is forever yearning
Once more to be, returning home.

When the hills conceal the setting sun,
Stars begin a-peeping, one by one.
Night covers all,
And though fortune may forsake me,
Sweet dreams will ever take me home.

When the hills conceal the setting sun,
Stars begin a-peeping, one by one.
Night covers all,
And though fortune may forsake me,
Sweet dreams will ever take me home.


Credits:

Album: Kisses On The Bottom
Produced by Tommy LiPuma
Written by Geoffrey Clarkson, Harry Clarkson, Peter Van Steeden
Vocals by Paul McCartney
Piano, Rhythm Arrangement by Diana Krall
Drums by Karriem Riggins
Bass by Robert Hurst
Guitar by John Pizzarelli
Vibraphone by Mike Mainieri
London Symphony Orchestra
Alan Broadbent - Orchestra Conductor
Roman Simovic - Concertmaster
Alan Broadbent - Orchestra Arrangement
Recorded at Avatar Studios, New York
London Symphony Orchestra recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London
Recorded and mixed by Al Schmitt
Additional engineering by Elliot Scheiner, Brian Montgomery and Steve Genewick
Mastered by Doug Sax and Sangwook 'Sunny' Nam
Label: Hear Music
Release Date: February 6, 2012
Length: 4:04 minutes

Paul's own words:

From Paul McCartney Blows 'Kisses' To His Father's Era

"GROSS: How about "Home"? And I think this is a song you actually knew from your father, a song that he used to sing.

MCCARTNEY: Yes, I did. This was a sort of deep memory, and I remembered that I loved the song so much when I was growing up that I used to do, in the pre-Beatle days, when we were trying to sort of figure out what to do and what would work, what wouldn't work, to an instrumental version of that. Just playing the melody on guitar and because it was such a nice melody.

And so I remembered it from that. I thought: Oh, yes, let's look at the words. And the words are nice. You know, it's very evocative of that period. And old songs, a lot of old songs had an introduction, a little appendage on the front, which we always used to think it was just a bit rambley(ph).

Just, I was in Manhattan, (humming), we had nothing to do, (humming). Then I get a kick out of you, whatever.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

GROSS: Yeah.

MCCARTNEY: Then it goes into the song you know. You go: Oh, I know that one. But this mysterious period before, you go, what the - is this, you know? And so we looked at all the verses when we were doing the album, and the one or two of them, we thought you know what? This is nice. It would be nice to bring this verse back.

And so a lot of people who know the song "Home" don't spot it from the verse."

Studio version:

 

More about Home (When Shadows Fall)...

Original recording by Peter Van Steeden & his Orchestra:

 

More about Home (When Shadows Fall)...

Finally,

Live from Capitol Studios February 9, 2012:

 

NEXT ONE
The great cock and seagull race
This bluesy instrumental is fun but not more. One track that I can see why it was left out

 

NEXT ONE
Rode all Night
A mezmerising jam featuring Paul on guitar and Screaming vocals and great stunning from Denny Seiwell. It s raw, unfinished and very much in the vein of garage-rock or Velvet Underground.I love the energy, musicianship and fun this track communicates. It also show the musical connection between Paul and Denny(my favorite Wings drummer). Judged for what it is-a jam-this is awesome
Absolutely great


One of drummer Seiwell’s […] favorite outtakes is “Rode All Night” which would sound like if Paul and Linda joined the Velvet Underground. Yes, amigos—”Rode” is Macca channeling his best Lou Reed. What I love about Ram and most of its magnificent outtakes is that they sound like brilliant first takes. Paul’s sounds like he’s having a blast getting out all his courtroom anxieties in these righteous vocal takes.

Seiwell described how “Rode All Night” came to life in the studio when he said—
“[Paul had] just come back from lunch that day and had this tune he wanted to jam. The engineers had started tearing down the mic’s for another session or something. So we started jamming, and it was outrageous. I considered those lyrics, “I rode all night till I finally hit the daybreak.” For me, that represented that he’d found people he really felt comfortable playing with, other than the Beatles. And this was like a major breakthrough. We just about had tears in our eyes, we had so much fun doing this thing. I really felt like something miraculous was going on.”



You can just feel the joy in Paul’s improvisational take of “Rode All Night.” Seiwell continued his discussion of his favorite moment during the Ram sessions when he said—
“Anyway, we got done after like seven or eight minutes of this thing, Paul looks into the booth and goes, “You got that, right?” And the engineer goes, “I’m ready now. You want to do it again?” We both looked at each other, like, “What the..?” So we did it again. The second take was good, but it didn’t have the magical spark in that first one.”

 

Man, those quick cuts drive me nuts. Can't they just keep the camera on someone for like 5 seconds or even 3. Give me the original live line feed and I'm happy.

Here is a much better and gentler version of the first fifth of this awesomely intamite performance by Paul and his stellar friends. Just as I saw it live almost a decade ago.



Here is Complete Kisses in all its 31 track glory on Spotify.
Kisses On The Bottom - Complete Kisses

 

Do you prefer the Kisses songs studio or live?

 

Both!

 

The same for me.
Much have been said about Paul declininh vocal powers but his way of singing on Kisses are truly great. It s also the only Macca album were he concentrates only on singing and it pays out big time

 

Great Cock and Seagull Race - This is pleasant enough, sounds very nice and isn't too long. So, for me, it's a worthwhile bonus track: 2.5/5.

Rode All Night - Again, I quite like this and Paul and Denny sound as though they're having fun. The drumming is the best bit. However, it doesn't go anywhere and is a bit long to sustain my interest: 2/5 as it is, maybe a good four-minute edit would be a 2.5/5.

 

I agree it goes on a bit but there is a genuine sense of exitement and spontant here that just creates some rare raw power. Agree about Dennys drumming he was and still is one incredible musician

 

Great Cock and Seagull Race: (2/5) for the RAM version (1.5/5) for the Wild Life version

This is basically akin to the “12 Bar Original” released by The Beatles. It’s a somewhat nondescript run through of a blues. Having said that, the Dixon Van Winkle RAM version has Paul’s bass very fat and juicy here. The drumming is tight and the guitar sounds rough but also doesn’t miss a beat or note anywhere. This is what can bring the blues alive. The later rough mix on Wings’ Wild Life Archive Collection add piano and Henry provides relatively more boring guitar work. Both are just too vanilla though. And where in the world did they come up with that title? That would be an interesting story.


Rode All Night: 4/5

Wow. This is intense and I do not tire of hearing it despite its length. There is some serious energy here. Perhaps more than anything, I love how it’s just Paul on some flaming guitar and Denny Seiwell relentlessly pounding away on drums. Just two people are really filling up a lot of space. Normally even a trio sounds like there’s a lot of room for more there.

Honestly I’m glad this never got used somewhere on a Paul album or project. It would have been trimmed down, edited, double tracked and who knows what else. It was worth the wait to get it in all its original glory.

 

I want to re-hear the 2 versions back to back but I think I've liked the Wings version better because it's dirtier sounding and has that sleigh bell ending. It had that name along with the Wings version being referred to as "Breakfast Blues" and "Rooster" because there were rooster and seagull sound effects originally that was edited out from the intro when it was released officially on the boxsets.

 

That makes sense. I'm not sure I've heard the version with the bird calls in the beginning. More birds!

 

Rode All Night sounds like it should have been on WILD LIFE because, like most of the songs on that album, it is an OK 2-3 minute song that is extended out to 4+ minutes with no use for those extra minutes except to become tedious (and in the case of the songs actually on WILD LIFE to pad the time of a lazy 2/3 of an album into a fun album.
(5.5/10)

 

Just in case you've never heard it ... Roger Daltrey's take on "Rode All Night" ... "Giddy"

 

I totally agree, McCartney's vocals on Kisses is the very first thing I noticed, he really found that sweet spot.

RODE ALL NIGHT - For me they should have kept riding, don't like it. It's just an incoherent noisy jam.
GREAT COCK AND SEAGULL RACE - I LIKE IT, now this is so much better. Is that McCartney on lead guitar because I really like it. A bluesy workout that would have been a nice addition to the album.
Does McCartney have enough instrumentals (not his classical work) to make an album, that would be interesting.

 

NeXT One
Sunshine Sometimes
A sweet semiinstrumental that hints towards a great song if finished. Now it s a nice listening but not so much more