In one memorable sequence, McCartney recalls Lennon playing him a fast-paced song he’d just written, “Come Together”, before they realised it was too close to Chuck Berry’s “You Can’t Catch Me”. He neatly sums up their differing personalities with examples from their songwriting (McCartney would write a line like: “It’s getting better all the time”, to which Lennon would reply: “It couldn’t get much worse.”) and talks in depth about how they would push each other’s songs into unexpected directions. Perhaps the most exciting moments for Beatles devotees come when McCartney digs deep into his relationship with Lennon.
It comes as no surprise when the producer reveals that, as a teenager himself, he learned to meditate because it was something The Beatles did. At several points, including when McCartney offers to play him “Thinking of Linking”, the first song he ever wrote at age 14, Rubin literally sits cross-legged at the feet of the master. He keeps his contributions to a minimum, just steering McCartney with enough questions and prompts to keep his memories flowing. Rubin is an excellent host for this format, which is another way of saying he knows when to shut up and listen. At one point, listening to “With A Little Help With My Friends”, Rubin observes: “It’s like a lead bass, essentially.” There’s a particular focus on a lesser-talked about aspect of McCartney’s genius: his inventive, melodic bass playing. The result is relaxed, loose and always charming. As McCartney and Rubin talk, they jump back and forth through his incredible career, touching on music from Wings and cult favourite album McCartney II as well as the old Beatles favourites. McCartney 3,2,1 is by no means a definitive documentary about the life and times of the planet’s greatest living songwriter, but it doesn’t set out to be. The camera lingers on him as he air trumpets along, sheer ecstatic joy painted all over his face. The tale is one thing – the inside story of how an incredibly familiar piece of music came to be – but McCartney’s reaction to hearing the original recording played loud is quite another. McCartney tells the story of seeing trumpeter David Mason play a piccolo trumpet during a BBC broadcast of a Bach concerto and deciding he’d be perfect for a solo on “Penny Lane”. Take, for example, one of the series’ most delightful moments. Any fears that time and familiarity may have withered his excitement for the songs he wrote as a young man is quickly dispelled in the new three-hour docuseries McCartney 3,2,1, which captures the music icon in conversation with legendary producer Rick Rubin while listening to the band’s original master tapes, specially retrieved for the purpose from Abbey Road. Just as McCartney’s 1970 release marked Paul’s return to basics in the wake of the biggest band break-up in musical history, and the 1980 avant-garde masterpiece McCartney II rose from the ashes of Wings, McCartney III finds Paul back on his own, turning unexpected circumstances into a personal snapshot of a timeless artist at a unique point in history.Paul McCartney, now 79, has not been a Beatle for more than 50 years.
McCartney III spans a vast and intimate range of modes and moods, from soul-searching to wistful, from playful to raucous and all points between - captured with some of the same gear from Paul’s Rude Studio used as far back as 1971 Wings sessions. And Paul's array of vintage instruments he played on the new album have an even more storied history, including Bill Black of Elvis Presley's original trio's double bass alongside Paul's own iconic Hofner violin bass, and a mellotron from Abbey Road Studios used on Beatles recordings, to name but a few. Recorded earlier this year in Sussex (UK), McCartney III is mostly built from live takes of Paul on vocals and guitar or piano, overdubbing his bass playing, drumming, etc. Gatefold featuring photography by Mary McCartney, Sonny McCartney and Paul McCartney (it’s a family affair!)ġ80g black vinyl disc with printed inner disc sleeveĥ0 years following the release of his self-titled first solo album McCartney, featuring Paul playing every instrument and writing and recording every song, Paul McCartney will release McCartney III on December 11 th. Paul hadn’t planned to release an album in 2020, but in the isolation of 'Rockdown,' he soon found himself fleshing out some existing musical sketches and creating even more new ones. Before long an eclectic collection of spontaneous songs would become McCartney III: a stripped-back, self-produced and, quite literally, solo work marking the opening of a new decade, in the tradition of 1970’s McCartney and 1980’s McCartney II. Written, composed, and produced by Paul McCartney
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