Recorded: 2020
Producers: Paul McCartney, George Martin (‘When Winter Comes’), Greg Kurstin (‘Slidin’’)
Engineers: Steve Orchard, Keith Smith, Alex Pasco
Released: 18 December 2020
Personnel
Paul McCartney: vocals, all instruments
Rusty Anderson: electric guitar (‘Slidin’’)
Abe Laboriel Jr: drums (‘Slidin’’)
Tracklisting
‘Long Tailed Winter Bird’‘Find My Way’
‘Pretty Boys’
‘Women And Wives’
‘Lavatory Lil’
‘Deep Deep Feeling’
‘Slidin’’
‘The Kiss Of Venus’
‘Seize the Day’
‘Deep Down’
‘Winter Bird/When Winter Comes’
McCartney III is the third completely solo homespun Paul McCartney album, following 1970’s McCartney and 1980’s McCartney II.
The album was announced on 21 October 2020, ahead of its 18 December release date (moved back a week due to “unforeseeable production delays”), and was made available on compact disc, various vinyl editions, digital download, and streaming services.
It was kind of unintentional. I had to go into the studio at the beginning of lockdown to do a couple of bits of music for an animated short film. So I got got in and did that bit of work and sent it off to the director, and then I thought, ‘Oh, this is nice, I’m enjoying this, this is a nice way to spend lockdown,’ so I ended up finishing off some songs, looking at bits and bobs, making up stuff, and generally enjoying myself in the studio. And then I’d come home in the evening, and I just happened to be with my daughter Mary’s family. The combination of being able to go to work, make some music, and then hang out with four of my grandkids, I was very lucky. Y’know, we were being super careful, but being able to make music really helped.Right at the end of it, I’d just been stockpiling tracks, and I thought, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do with all of this – I guess I’ll hang onto it,’ and then I thought, ‘Wait a minute, this is a McCartney record,’ because I’d played everything and done it in the same manner as McCartney I and II. That was a little light bulb going off, and I thought, ‘Well, at least that makes a point of explaining what I’ve been doing, unbeknownst to me.’
loudandquiet.com
Cover artwork
The principal photography for McCartney III was by Paul’s daughter Mary, with additional shots by his nephew Sonny McCartney – the son of Paul’s brother Mike. Extra photographs were taken by Paul on a smartphone.
The cover art and typography is by American artist Ed Ruscha. It uses a modified version of Ruscha’s own typeface, Boy Scout Utility Modern. The tie (middle horizontal line) of the letter ‘E’ is narrower on McCartney III than in Ruscha’s normal lettering.
I first met Ed Ruscha through my daughter, Stella, and since then have visited his studio quite a few times. He is a very easy going, humorous guy and ‘of course’ a very skilful painter. His treatments are ingenious and intriguing. Nancy asked Ed to paint a picture for my birthday which uses the phrase ‘For Life’ which is taken from the song ‘My Valentine’, which I wrote for her. It is a beautiful picture with the text in his usual deadpan signature style. The lettering font he uses reminds me of art classes I used to take as a teenager in the Liverpool Institute where we learned to write the alphabet in this style and I enjoyed it so much I even offered to do the lettering on one piece of George’s homework! I feel happy to know him and his family and hope you enjoy reading the essay we have put together for the website.
paulmccartney.com, 15 March 2019
The vinyl variants contain different photographic montages inside the gatefold, with at least three different known versions.
!!!
can’t wait for McCartney 3, it’s going to be FAB
what is your sources?
1, 2, 3
I don’t yet know if this is happening, but there are enough intriguing threads to be drawn together at this stage.
Now Spotify shows a rolled dice at number three [?] on McCartney and McCartney II album cover. So, that means…. it’s confirmed!
Another clue to the rumored McCartney III album, while playing McCartney, or McCartney II on Spotify there is an image of a hand rolling a die that continuously comes up 3.
The Sun report appeared online at 9pm on 20 October when they uploaded the digital version of the 21 October print edition.
First time I’ve heard ‘Pipes of Peace’ being called a masterpiece. But that’s Macca, where every fart he produces is a revelation.
It is unbelieveable how not good the songs on this new album from Paul McCartney are. Almost everyone of them is totally meaningless. Will he never learn?
To be fair, Seize The Day, Find my way, When Winter Comes and Women and Wives are not right out terrible, but why does Paul McCartney never ever write songs of the same quality as in his Beatles days. Very strange.
I found that your criticism over Paul McCartney’s works on this site is quite strange (I think I saw you on RAM page as well). At this point, every Beatles fan should already know that he is always trying something new and his works reflect his curiosity and happiness at the time it produced. Is it really surprising for you that his best works came out at his twenties, his worst at mid-forties, and he has been largely consistent after his divorce?
My surprise, on the other hand, is that his songs are not better and often not at all good. I have nothing against him trying new things musically, but he has definitely forgotten something very important: Well crafted song material should always be a constant for any artist who produces music.
Why has Paul McCartney, after his Beatles years, not been able to release one single album with more than at the most four or five complete, good songs, more often only one, two or zero listenable songs.
Beatles quality on McCartney: Maybe I´m amazed and Every night (though the wordless middle eight comes from You never give me your money, Abbey Road). That would be someting is good but far from a complete song.
Beatles quality on Ram: Uncle Albert and the verse refrains of The back seat of my car
Beatles quality on Wild life: none
Beatles quality on Red rose speedway: none
Beatles quality on Band on the run: No words (written by Denny Laine in separate parts and sewn together by Paul McCartney) and the first two sections of Band on the run.
Beatles quality on Venus and Mars: none
Beatles quality on Wings at the speed of sound: none
Beatles quality on London Town: none
Beatles quality on Back to the Egg: none, though Arrow through me is quite good.
Beatles quality on McCartney II: Perhaps Coming up and maybe Temporary secretary
Beatles quality on Tug of war: The best album by McCartney, because George Martin had the last say everytime, regarding when a song was good enough and ready for being recorded. The pound is sinking and Wanderlust are probably Beatles quality.
Beatles quality on Pipes of peace: none
Beatles quality on Press to play: none
Beatles quality on Flowers in the dirt: none, though Put it there is a good song, which can also to a lesser extent be said about My brave face.
Beatles quality on Off the gound: none
Beatles quality on Flaming pie: Souvenir. Little willow, Calico skies and Somedays are also good material.
Beatles quality on Driving rain: From a lover to a friend, though the middle eight does not make sense regarding song quality.
Beatles quality on Chaos and creation in the back yard: Friends to go and probably This never happened before. Jenny Wren and English garden are also quite good, as is At the Mercy.
This time Nigel Godrich shouldered Martins role from Tug of war and more or less forced McCartney to stop being lazy and instead put more effort into the basic work, i.e. the so important song writing. As a result Godrich and McCartney quarrelled a lot during the work on this album, as the latter does not like to be told what to do even if he has initially agreed to it. It is obvious that Godrich´s insistance was essential for the unusually good final result, but I don´t think he will ever want to work again with McCartney because of all the hassle.
As I have said before: What Paul McCartney needs is someone to tell him when his basic song material is finished and good.
Beatles quality on Memory almost full: none
Beatles quality on New: The title song resembles Beatles quality and Queenie Eye is kind of good.
Beatles quality on Egypt station: The verse-refrains of Despite repeated warning, which are very good, and the middle eight on I don´t know.
The verse-refrains of the Egypt Station straggler In a hurry are regarding composition quality really good, but the synthetic merging with the far inferior “Never too late” section bears witness of bad musical judgement and ruins it. Frank Sinatra´s party is kind of good and entertaining.
McCartney III. none.
Maybe one should instead define the above mentioned verse-refrain of In a hurry as the verse-refrain part (“She was always in a hurry…”) leading to the bridge part (“How could she leave…”) leading to the middle eight part (“Uncontrollable laughter…”). Mentioned sections hold very high quality musically. are expressive and perfectly structured. Thereafter comes the glued on, boring and really unsuitable “Never too late…” section, which is, before being repeated, followed by a new verse-refrain and thereafter the middle eight.
Question: “How do you most effectively ruin a really good song?”
Answer: “Merge it with a less good or, as in this case, a low quality song fragment that does not even fit the really good song”.
Paul McCartney – In A Hurry (Audio) 364 101 visningar 22 nov. 2019
McCartney does the same mistake with the impeccable verse-refrain of Despite repeated warnings:
Despite Repeated Warnings 404 041 visningar•31 aug. 2018
In this McCartney cover, it becomes obvious how well written his songs can fundamentally sometimes be. Hight quality melodies and lyrics never grow old:
Arrow Through Me | Wings | funk cover ft. Madison Cunningham
@per
Good grief man, do you know who you’re talking about? When has Paul ever been known for releasing so-called “deep” songs? And he’s 78 for goodness sake, it’s a miracle he can still write catchy and pleasing melodies, of which this album has more than a handful.
Well, Paul McCartney began releasing songs inferior to The Beatles material immediately after the group spit and nothing has changed since then. If you want to know what I mean, listen to McCartney III and then to an even not very acclaimed McCartney Beatles song from 1965 and sense the difference in quality. Do the same thing with McCartney songs from other decades and the result willl almost invariably be about the same: McCartney songs had something in the 1960’s that they have mostly not had since then.
Why is it so hard for you to understand that an artist’s work could well be heavily influenced by their surroundings, love life, and friends? If you think Paul McCartney peaked during his time as a Beatle, then it just proves that the Beatles was more than the sum of its parts. He still retains his knack for a catchy melody, that’s for sure. Even as great as John Lennon, who produced two great albums after the Beatles split up, the drop in quality afterwards is much more tragic. I highly doubt whether Lennon could be as consistent as McCartney in his older days.
That was odd. What in my comments makes you draw such a conclusion, i.e. that I do not understand how artist´s could be “heavily influenced by their surroundings, love life, and friends”? Who could deny such a given?
Exactly that is what I have repeatedly said in my comments here: Paul McCartney peaked during his time in The Beatles.
We seem to agree on all but one thing: You for some reason think that I do not understand.
I have a still sealed red vinyl McCartney III album that is NOT (hand)numbered.
Cant find any info about it. Guess its a misprint.
Anybody know with this phenomenon?
I lol at some of these same paul trolls on this forum who down his very diverse catalogue of songs as lacking meaning. The very song on the site sampled is very profound lyrically. Having heard all the solo Beatles music, Paul’s is far more musically and lyrically diverse than the others, sometimes Paul’s going for a particular genre/lyrical style. He never thankfully got stuck recycling the late sixties style music and his music picked up various contemporary fads along the way and interpreted them into his own style. I just went through all of his music I could find online, some I’d heard, but much I hadn’t and it’s incredible overall and covers a breadth of styles and genres.
Rather than writing so many posts, sometimes on the same thread, against Paul’s music, they’d do far better to listen to all of it, including b sides, outtakes, archive releases and bootleg albums/songs, unreleased songs. He has so many deep cut gems partly because he’s been so prolific and he’s been recording so long. His creativity caused him never to shy away from unusual, even if eccentric music but anyone saying he’s not done anything good since the Beatles has positively not listened to all of his solo. Even critics have more recently re assessed and upgraded his older music and most like his newer music but not some of the same anti paul folks here who post like a seventies rolling stone mag paul reviewer wanting sixties Beatle Paul type music which occasionally he does but mercifully not solely as would be boring.
I have listened carefully to everything that Paul did after his Beatles period. He is definitely very diverse, but diversity does not necessarily mean quality, a fact of which Paul is a good example.
Sure, he can write many songs about many different things in an unlimited range of musical styles, but most of his output lacks substance. Exceptions to this from the 1970´s are:
Maybe I’m amazed
Every night (the middle eight has the same melody as You never give me your money from Abbey road)
Uncle Albert
The back seat of my car (but only the verse chorus holds beatle-Paul quality).
Paul can also produce songs that are on a musical level good, with lyrics that sound right and seem to mean something, but on the other hand are rather free from a deeper message.