updated Friday morning April 16th
Paul McCartney just finished basically interviewing himself on Instagram Live with singer St. Vincent aka Annie Clark. This was to promote “McCartney III Imagined” which releases tonight and includes a remix of McCartney’s song “Women and Wives” by St. Vincent. Back to that in a minute.
McCartney is in L.A., he said, to attend a screening tonight of Peter Jackson’s “Let it Be” documentary, “Get Back,” which we will see in August. He said Ringo and other friends would be there. You can surmise Ringo’s brother-in-law Joe Walsh will attend, and maybe Olivia and Dhani Harrison.
Paul also revealed that he’s recording a track with 2021 Grammy Producer of the Year Andrew Watt, who’s worked a lot trying to make Justin Bieber seem like a recording artist. The song has something to do with spotting a girl in a window as he walks by her house.
The “Get Back” project is late by a year or more but McCartney says he’s happy with what he’s seen so far. The original “Let it Be” movie directed Michael Lindsay-Hogg accentuated the Beatles at odds with each other, looking grim as they made that album in 1969. However, they went on to make “Abbey Road.” And Jackson was given all the extra footage, which actually showed the band enjoying themselves. McCartney didn’t come off well in the original film so maybe this will rewrite history and fix that idea.
St. Vincent did ask Paul about the magic of writing songs. I’m paraphrasing, but I’d say McCartney is stumped about where his genius comes from. It’s just, well, magic. He did say it’s easier now with an iPhone remember things he came up with. Although in the old days, he said, he and John Lennon would remember ideas the next day pretty easily. “I guess we didn’t have too many forgettable songs,” he said. No kidding!
“McCartney III Imagined” drops tonight, and the track to listen for is Phoebe Bridgers covering “Seize the Day.” Only Bridgers, Dominic Fike, and Beck, a little bit, really covered songs. The rest are remixes– all interesting and cool, but Phoebe could have a hit if Capitol Records puts some elbow grease into it.
I like St. Vincent. I think she needs better marketing or something. She needs some PR attention. Maybe a manager.
Anyway, I’m a big of both “McCartney III” albums, check them out if you haven’t already.
