Post by TotalInformation on Nov 18, 2003 17:40:49 GMT
(Scottish) Sunday Mail
November 16, 2003
By Mike Merritt
billy McCARTNEY has spoken of his joy of hearing one of his greatest songs finally released the way he wrote it 33 years ago at his farm in Kintyre, Argyll.
The Long and Winding Road the track that sparked the break-up of the Beatles will go on sale tomorrow.
The new version has been stripped of the effects and orchestration of controversial producer Phil Spector, which led to Paul walking out of the band.
The beautiful ballad rated as one of his finest is on the album Let It Be... Naked, which returns the record to Paul's original plans a pianodominated song.
A dispute between John Lennon and McCartney over the track led to the break-up of the Beatles in 1970.
Lennon insisted on the Spector version and a furious McCartney quit the band.
But yesterday he said he was delighted his original version would now be available.
He said: "I just sat down at my piano in Scotland, started playing and came up with that song, imagining it was going to be done by someone like Ray Charles.
"I was not particularly trying to put my own feelings into it.
"Lines like don't leave me waiting here' arrive and it's to do with your personal situation at the time. You just don't realise it.
"A lot of songs particularly at that time were about my personal feelings. What I tend to do in a song is to put feelings in some kind of analogy.
"I don't say I've been a long time getting here' I'll say a long and winding road led me here'.
"It's an artistic device that anyone writing a song or a novel or play would use.
"That's really all I sat down to do pick out a nice melody and this idea of a long and winding road started to come to me in Scotland. In my head, I was singing it like Ray Charles.
"I love the idea of releasing the record stripped down so that it's just the band.
"You get a clear picure of how the band were singing and playing at that time and what a good little band it was."
Paul's love affair with Scotland is wellknown. But he was in a different mood when he retreated to his High Park Farm in Kintyre to write the song for the Fab Four's last album, which was recorded asthey drifted apart. Paul, 61, said: "That was the thing about the Beatles, we were always a great little band. And that's what shows on this new album.
"Whether we were struggling to keep the band together, whatever was going on in our personal lives didn't matter.
"It's the music that matters.
"When we're talking about the tensions between the music, unfortunately that sticks because it was a group breaking up.
"I can't say yeah that was easy to deal with' or that it's a great memory because it was my favourite band in all the world breaking up.
"But what is great and what is a great memory is the music we made. And now here it is in its unadorned form exactly as we made it. It's a beautiful memory and the shining glory of the events thattook place at that time is the music." Fellow ex-Beatle Ringo Starr told Paul: "You're bloody right again. It sounds great without Phil."
Immediately after the Beatles split, McCartney fled to Kintyre and suffered a minor breakdown hitting the bottle and not getting out of bed for days.
There are few more special places for the McCartney than High Park Farm, near Campbeltown.
Paul said: "I have always found inspiration in the calm beauty of Scotland. I just love the country."
Kintyre was where he discovered vegetarianism but got busted for growing cannabis. With his late wife Linda, he rebuilt his shattered confidence after the break-up of the group.
Great songs flowed out of his farm home, like Maybe I'm Amazed, Mull Of Kintyre one of the biggest-selling singles of all time. He bought the farmafter viewing it with former fiancee Jane Asher. But it was left in a rundown state for years until the Beatles split.
Paul apologised to his Scottish fans earlier this year and said he was "gutted" when he had to cancel a planned gig in Scotland.
His daughter Stella also showed what the country means to all the family when she married at the Mount Stuart mansion on the Isle of Bute in August.
Life's long and winding road could not be more different today for Spector and McCartney.
Spector, now 62, could face a murder trial after the death in February of a strip club hostess at his Hollywood mansion.
But Paul, who is worth pounds 760 million, is juggling the recording of a new album due out next year with the joys of fatherhood after his new wife Heather Mills gave birth to their daughter Beatrice Millie last month.
-- 30 --
(Posted for fair use purposes of education and discussion.)
November 16, 2003
By Mike Merritt
billy McCARTNEY has spoken of his joy of hearing one of his greatest songs finally released the way he wrote it 33 years ago at his farm in Kintyre, Argyll.
The Long and Winding Road the track that sparked the break-up of the Beatles will go on sale tomorrow.
The new version has been stripped of the effects and orchestration of controversial producer Phil Spector, which led to Paul walking out of the band.
The beautiful ballad rated as one of his finest is on the album Let It Be... Naked, which returns the record to Paul's original plans a pianodominated song.
A dispute between John Lennon and McCartney over the track led to the break-up of the Beatles in 1970.
Lennon insisted on the Spector version and a furious McCartney quit the band.
But yesterday he said he was delighted his original version would now be available.
He said: "I just sat down at my piano in Scotland, started playing and came up with that song, imagining it was going to be done by someone like Ray Charles.
"I was not particularly trying to put my own feelings into it.
"Lines like don't leave me waiting here' arrive and it's to do with your personal situation at the time. You just don't realise it.
"A lot of songs particularly at that time were about my personal feelings. What I tend to do in a song is to put feelings in some kind of analogy.
"I don't say I've been a long time getting here' I'll say a long and winding road led me here'.
"It's an artistic device that anyone writing a song or a novel or play would use.
"That's really all I sat down to do pick out a nice melody and this idea of a long and winding road started to come to me in Scotland. In my head, I was singing it like Ray Charles.
"I love the idea of releasing the record stripped down so that it's just the band.
"You get a clear picure of how the band were singing and playing at that time and what a good little band it was."
Paul's love affair with Scotland is wellknown. But he was in a different mood when he retreated to his High Park Farm in Kintyre to write the song for the Fab Four's last album, which was recorded asthey drifted apart. Paul, 61, said: "That was the thing about the Beatles, we were always a great little band. And that's what shows on this new album.
"Whether we were struggling to keep the band together, whatever was going on in our personal lives didn't matter.
"It's the music that matters.
"When we're talking about the tensions between the music, unfortunately that sticks because it was a group breaking up.
"I can't say yeah that was easy to deal with' or that it's a great memory because it was my favourite band in all the world breaking up.
"But what is great and what is a great memory is the music we made. And now here it is in its unadorned form exactly as we made it. It's a beautiful memory and the shining glory of the events thattook place at that time is the music." Fellow ex-Beatle Ringo Starr told Paul: "You're bloody right again. It sounds great without Phil."
Immediately after the Beatles split, McCartney fled to Kintyre and suffered a minor breakdown hitting the bottle and not getting out of bed for days.
There are few more special places for the McCartney than High Park Farm, near Campbeltown.
Paul said: "I have always found inspiration in the calm beauty of Scotland. I just love the country."
Kintyre was where he discovered vegetarianism but got busted for growing cannabis. With his late wife Linda, he rebuilt his shattered confidence after the break-up of the group.
Great songs flowed out of his farm home, like Maybe I'm Amazed, Mull Of Kintyre one of the biggest-selling singles of all time. He bought the farmafter viewing it with former fiancee Jane Asher. But it was left in a rundown state for years until the Beatles split.
Paul apologised to his Scottish fans earlier this year and said he was "gutted" when he had to cancel a planned gig in Scotland.
His daughter Stella also showed what the country means to all the family when she married at the Mount Stuart mansion on the Isle of Bute in August.
Life's long and winding road could not be more different today for Spector and McCartney.
Spector, now 62, could face a murder trial after the death in February of a strip club hostess at his Hollywood mansion.
But Paul, who is worth pounds 760 million, is juggling the recording of a new album due out next year with the joys of fatherhood after his new wife Heather Mills gave birth to their daughter Beatrice Millie last month.
-- 30 --
(Posted for fair use purposes of education and discussion.)
