Just a few days after the announcement about Concord Music's big Paul McCartney reissue program to begin in August, McCartney fans learned that roughly 65 unreleased Wings tracks, about four hours of music, had become available on the internet. They now appear to have disappeared or have become harder to find, according to various reports.
According to a report by Howie Edelson that was written for United Stations Radio Networks and also published in Beatlefan/Extra!, "many of the songs were believed to be straight dubs from the late Trevor Jones, Wings' original roadie, whose personal archives were auctioned in 1998."
Edelson said the songs included acetates of "Another Day," and "Hi, Hi, Hi," full Wings rehearsals of songs performed on their 1975/1976 world tour, including "Listen To What The Man Said," "Blackbird," "Hi, Hi, Hi," multiple takes of "Junior's Farm," "Soily," "Call Me Back Again," "Picasso's Last Words," "Bluebird," "Live And Let Die," and "You Gave Me The Answer," the still-unreleased McCartney torch song "Suicide" and an early live band run-through of "Let 'Em In" taped before it was recorded for "Wings at the Speed of Sound." Also included were outtakes from "Tug of War."
The crown jewel, according to a source called Plastic Mac, is the long-time sought "Must Do Something About It," featuring Paul McCartney on the vocals instead of Wings’ drummer 1975-1977, Joe English. Also included is a version of "Silly Love Songs" that appeared without its horns and strings arrangement but with Paul’s voice emulating how he wanted it to sound in the record’s post-production.
Beatlefan editor Bill King says in the report he believes there's a direct relationship to last week's announcement of the McCartney reissue program planned by Concord Music.
"The leaking of these tracks -- for whatever reason -- whether it's a disgruntled employee who's upset about the box set reportedly being shelved for a while, or if these tracks perhaps had already leaked out and someone was just sitting on them for a while -- y'know, there's a lot of different theories. But for whatever reason that these things have suddenly come out, I think it's not coincidental. I think that it happened a day or two after the Concord reissue program was announced is probably instructive. Y'know, there's a cause and effect relationship there," King says.
But according to Plastic Mac, the outtakes became available from "a brave collector who, aimed by his love for Paul’s music, decided to share his precious pieces with other fans of the same breed."
In a blog posted Thursday, King noted that one project being considered is a deluxe "Wings Over America" with a remastered "Rockshow" DVD. Excerpts of a cleaned up "Rockshow" were included in "The McCartney Years" release.
Here's a list of at least some of the tracks with the possible origin of each. We don't know that this is complete:
The Trevor Jones tapes: Beware My Love (Instrumental, complete acetate version), Beware My Love (uncomplete version), Must Do Something About It (Paul on vocal), She's My Baby (Take 1), She's My Baby (version 2), Silly Love Songs (without strings or horns), The Note You Never Wrote (without strings)
Time To Hide (instrumental), Wino Junko (rough mix)
January-February 1976 Wings At The Speed Of Sound sessions: Richard Cory, Soily -- Richard Cory appears to be a live rehearsal for Wings Over UK tour. As for Soily, it belongs to the "One Hand Clapping" rehearsals.
Newt Rack (instrumental) - A Rude Studio track rescued for the "Tug Of War"/"Pipes Of Peace" sessions in London and Montserrat (1981). Apparently, it is a monitor mix.
Mull Of Kintyre (count-in): Not very different from the released version. Just add the 1,2,3 count-in.
Daytime Nighttime Suffering (early version): Harps in the middle-eight are apparently the main different bits in this recording.
Take It Away (monitor mix): This tracks’ highlight in my opinion is the song’s bitter end, without editing.
What's That You're Doing (rough take): This Wonder/McCartney collaboration features the jam session feel reported by McCartney years ago.
Choba B CCCP Medley (Part 1), Choba B CCCP Medley (Part 2): Here we got 20 songs edited professionally and the highlights are the 5 unreleased tunes taped in July 1987: "Cut Across Shorty," "No Other Baby," "Poor Boy," "Lend Me Your Comb" and "Take This Hammer." Plus, we have “Ain’t That A Shame, originally released on the album, but with an alternate vocal.
Fabulous, Momma's Little Girl (Intro), Momma's Little Girl, Take It Away, No Values, Denny's Song: All the above tracks were product of a rehearsal done by the final Wings line-up back in 1980. Until then, we’ve had lots of tracks from this session, including early takes of “Average Person”, “Keep Under Cover” and the yet to be released “Blackpool”. Highlights here are the completely different incarnation of No Values, that would be included on Give My Regards To Broad Street.
Little Woman Love / C Moon, You Gave Me The Answer, Live And Let Die (Part 2 working Session): Early September 1975 rehearsal at Elstree Film Studio in London.
Junior's Farm (Version 1), Junior's Farm (Version 2), Let Em In (Take 1), Little Woman Love / C Moon, Old Man River, Soily, Stealin’, Suicide: More Elstree rehearsals, likely the second day Wings spent in the sound stage. Let’Em In appears here as a novelty, as the track hadn’t been recorded at this time.
Venus And Mars, Rockshow, Jet, Let Me Roll It, Picasso Last Words / Richard Cory, Bluebird
I ve Just Seen A Face, Yesterday, The Long And Winding Road, You Gave Me The Answer, Magneto And Titanium Man, Medicine Jar, Go Now, Letting Go, Lady Madonna, Live And Let Die, Call Me Back Again (Incomplete), Listen To What The Man Said, Band On The Run, Hi Hi Hi, Soily: Likely one of the final run-through of the songs for the UK 1975 tour (Elstree Studios).
Did We Meet Somewhere Before: Very clear mix compared to the versions on Cold Cuts, the most famous McCartney bootleg (that were actually due to be released officially).
Reception (Long Version), Cage (Instrumental), Getting Closer (Instrumental), Rockestra Theme So Glad To See You Here (Instrumentals): These Back To The Egg rough outtakes could be taped in early 1979.
Another Day, Hi Hi Hi: Acetates of the singles released in 1970/1972, respectively.
Waterspout, A Love For You: The last tracks on this list are clearly early mixes of the same songs included on Cold Cuts, though with better sound quality.
(Note: This report is for information only.)
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Comments
If you manoeuvre around a bit, you can find these tracks. There may be even more than we realise. At least we have what we do. Some artists keep theirs in Fort Knox so this doesn't happen! There's never a shortage of material to listen to. Thanks for typing this, Steve!
Again, as reported earlier, there is no link with the forthcoming releases. The tracks shared on the web (thar are still available elsewhere) have nothing to do with Paul McCartney's re-releases or archival projects. The lad who made available to collectors aimed no profit or even spoil the official releases. He just put them out to coincide with Paul's solo 40th anniversary. It was just the desire of sharing with McCartney fans.
After listening to about 2 hours of material, I am thrilled. What a great way to start the summer. These are great for driving around and just grooving to Paul.
Love come in, love comes out. At the bottom, at the bottom of the Waterspout.
I don't know why Paul doesn't just release this stuff. We're in th age of digital now. We're not restricted by box sets, or 80 minutes of length on a CD, etc. Make it available to the fanatics like myself (and I have tons of this stuff, but just not the best quality-- I WANT studio quality, professional sounding versions!). There are many of us out there. I'll re-buy even the tracks I have.
Come on, Paul.
If we send the unreleased tracks into outer space, maybe the aliens can enjoy them, at least.
Excellent info, big Macca outtake fan here and somehow I had completely missed out on this fabulous release, working on it now ;-)
Anyone willing to share tips on what to google to find any of this?
You guys sure become fired up..95% of this stuff has been around since the early 80's...Most of it sounded as if it were recorded off an early telephone..This guy used to sell this stuff to a DJ, who is no longer with us...Same source as the "Fairy Tale" Tape, Rupert Bear, and The Bathroom stuff, Scotland.You haven't heard the "GOOD" stuff yet......
It could be found still by torrents
FYI, there's a good Paul interview today on the BBC in which he mentions in passing that's he's working on an old four-track machine on some old songs of his. No doubt for one of his solo reissues. I wonder ....
Arthur... I wouldn't say 95% of this stuff had been available before. Only stuff that was available were the Cold Cuts tracks and a few of the BTTE things.
A few corrections to the list above though:
"Newt Rack" is not a Rude track but an impromptu studio performance from March '81.
"Daytime Nightime Suffering" is the same early mix that's been available for years. Those harps in the middle 8 are also on the released version as well.
got em
I actually have many of these recordings and know they've been around since the late 1980s.
What is interesting is the late Wings recordings from 1979-80 that are still in the can or
have been re-recorded through the past 30 years. Wish MACCA would release the official
versions because they are stronger coming at the heels of British punk!
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