Saturday, January 19, 2019

"Valentine Day/ Every Night" Recording Sessions

Paul McCartney first Apple solo LP contained the song "Valentine Day" which was recorded initially for further testing of the Studer at Paul's home in St. John's Wood. Paul played all the instruments and it gave him an occasion to show off his guitar skills. The recording started with acoustic guitar and then drums. Electric guitar and bass were added afterwards. The song was mixed at EMI Studios at Abbey Road on February 22 1970.
"Every Night" was an earlier song that existed during the "Get Back/Let It Be" sessions in January 1969 but it's lyrics were not completed until the spring of that year. This particular song was not recorded at Paul's home but it was recorded in Studio 2 of EMI Studios at Abbey Road on February 22 1969 and was mixed two days later on February 24 1969. The instrumental line up played by Paul are as follows: 1. Vocal 2. Acoustic. 3. Drums 4. Bass 5. Acoustic lead 6. Acoustic lead harmony 7. Double tracked vocals. 8. Electric Guitar (not used in the final mix). This should have been a single. "Every Night" was also performed on the Wings UK Tour of November/December 1979 in the set list as well as being performed for the Concerts for the people of Kampuchea and is available on the Atlantic 2-LP set: "Concerts For The People Of Kampuchea". The song was also performed acoustically live for the MTV "Unplugged" series in January of 1991 and released on the Capitol LP: "Unplugged: The Official Bootleg" released in the UK in May of 1991. The song was also performed live during Paul McCartney's 1993 New World Tour of Australia/ New Zealand in March 1993 as well as the North American leg of the tour in April/May/June 1993 and November 1993 in Japan.

Saturday, January 5, 2019

"That Would Be Something"

Another track that was written by Paul McCartney pre-Christmas 1969 and recorded at around the same time as his other tune "The Lovely Linda", the song "That Would Be Something" had Paul playing all instruments and vocals. The instrumentation for this one contains electric and acoustic guitar, bass, a single drum "tom" and cymbals.
The song was mixed at Abbey Road (EMI) Studios on February 22 1969 and it was released on Paul's first Apple solo LP "McCartney".
Paul must have been quite fond of this tune as it was performed with his "Off The Ground" band for the taping of MTV's "Unplugged" series on January 25 1991.  The song was also included in the set list for the May/June 1991 UK "surprise gigs. The performances included the same line-up of musicians (the "Off The Ground" band).