Sir Paul McCartney is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. He gained worldwide fame as the bass guitarist and singer for the rock
band The Beatles, widely considered the most popular and influential group in the history of pop music. His songwriting partnership with John Lennon was the most
successful of the post-war era.
After the Beatles disbanded in 1970, McCartney continued his musical career with his first solo release, “McCartney,” a US number-one album. Apart from some vocal
contributions from wife Linda, McCartney is a one-man album, where he provides compositions, instrumentation and vocals. In 1971, ex-Moody Blues guitarist Denny
Laine joined the McCartneys to form the band Wings.
In 1973, the McCartneys and Laine recorded “Band on the Run.” The first of seven platinum Wings albums, “Band on the Run” became one of the best selling albums of the
decade with the title song earning a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance. The album ranked 413 on Rolling Stones list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
An eighteen time Grammy Award winner, McCartney is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a Beatle and solo artist. He is the most successful songwriter of all
time selling more than 100 million albums and 100 million singles. More than 2,200 artists have covered his Beatles’ song “Yesterday” making it one of the most covered
songs in popular music history. His composition “Hey Jude” is the Beatles’ best selling single achieving more than five million copies soon after its release and topping the
charts longer than any other of the group’s singles.
McCartney’s latest “Egypt Station” is his first album of original material since 2013’s “New.” While McCartney’s touring band plays on the album, many of the songs find him
playing most of the instruments. A pastiche of moods and different ideas, Egypt Station mixes rockers with acoustic songs. One track, “Despite Repeated Warnings,” is an epic “Band on the Run” style song with many different sections and movements to it.
On the inspiration for the album’s title and theme, McCartney said: “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.”
Paul McCartney still makes everything sound easy on the two sided single that previews Egypt Station. “Come On to Me” is a raucous foot stomper that fans that first spark of
chemistry into a rocking blaze, while “Don’t Know” is a plaintive, soul-soothing ballad with a beautiful intro that leads into Hey Jude/Let it Be style piano chords.
From Rolling Stone: Days after teasing a new album on social media, Paul McCartney has announced McCartney III, out December 11th via Capitol Records.
A follow-up to his 1970 self-titled solo debut and 1980’s McCartney II, the new album features the musician playing all the instruments; he wrote and recorded every song.
McCartney III was recorded earlier this year in Sussex, England, cut from live takes of the musician on vocals, guitar, and piano. He subsequently overdubbed bass and drums. The process began when he returned to “When Winter Comes,” an unreleased track from the Nineties co-produced by George Martin. He created a new section for the song, giving birth to the opener “Long Tailed Winter Bird.”
“I was living lockdown life on my farm with my family and I would go to my studio every day,” McCartney said in a statement. “I had to do a little bit of work on some film music and that turned into the opening track. And then when it was done, I thought, ‘What will I do next?’ I had some stuff I’d worked on over the years, but sometimes time would run out and it would be left half-finished. So I started thinking about what I had.”
“Each day I’d start recording with the instrument I wrote the song on and then gradually layer it all up; it was a lot of fun,” he added. “It was about making music for yourself rather than making music that has to do a job. So, I just did stuff I fancied doing. I had no idea this would end up as an album.”
As the photos for McCartney and McCartney II were shot by McCartney’s late wife Linda, the photos for McCartney III were photographed by his daughter Mary, as well as his nephew Sonny. It also includes photos from McCartney’s cellphone.
In addition to digital and CD, McCartney III will be pressed on vinyl in a variety of ways. Third Man Records will release the standard 180-gram, red vinyl — limited to 3,000 hand-numbered copies — and a “333” edition limited to 333 copies and pressed on yellow, polka-dotted vinyl made from 33 recycled vinyl copies of McCartney and McCartney II. A U.S. retail edition will also release the record on white vinyl, limited to 4,000 copies.
McCartney III marks the Beatle’s 18th solo album, following 2018’s Egypt Station. Last summer, he reissued 1997’s Flaming Pie, released as a massive box set that contained home recordings, studio jams, mixes, outtakes, and more. Last month, he was interviewed by Sean Lennon on BBC Radio 2 in celebration of what would have been John Lennon’s 80th birthday.
Sacramento’s K-ZAP 93.3 FM is plays Sir Paul. All part of 50 years of rock, blues and more, 24-7 on our station’s stream at K-ZAP.ORG/LISTEN/
Reference – https://www.paulmccartney.com/store
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_McCartney
Paul McCartney discography (solos)
McCartney (1970)
Ram (1971)
Wild Life (1971)
Red Rose Speedway (1973)
Band On The Run (1973)
Venus and Mars (1975)
Wings at the Speed of Sound (1976)
London Town (1978)
Back to the Egg (1979)
McCartney II (1980)
Tug of War (1982)
Pipes of Peach (1983)
Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984)
Press to Play (1986)
CHOBA B CCCP (1988)
Flowers in the Dirt (1989)
Off the Ground (1993)
Flaming Pie (1997)
Run Devil Run (1999)
Driving Rain (2001)
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (2005)
Memory Almost Full (2007)
Kisses on the Bottom (2012)
New (2013)
Egypt Station (2018)
McCartney III (2020)