Clint Warwick. Paul's first stand in?

[Ludwig]

Hi all, I've been lurking here for some time and I'd like to add this, if it pleases y'all. Forgive me it has been covered before.

As I'm sure you all know, when Denny Laine abruptly left the Moody Blues in 1966 it was while the group was enjoying the success of their first hit "Go Now". An odd time to split indeed. At roughly the same time their bassist Clint Warwick (nee Albert Eccles) left the band to fulfill familial obligations and returned to carpentry. During an interview, Warwick stated he had been playing steadily since the 50's and hardly seemed like the type to surrender a successful music career with a successful group. Furthermore, the wife he quit to provide for divorced him shortly after he left the Moodies leaving him wondering what it would have been like if he had stayed.
This is what I'm driving at: After JPM's death perhaps; William Sheppard was the face, Denny Laine the voice and Clint Warwick the axe, so to speak. He was a talented bassist and probably filled in nicely. Stresses of living a double life might have led him to divorce not once, but twice in his life. Perhaps Faul called on him numerous times throughout his career, while in Wings etc. as it has been stated elsewhere that Faul never layed down bass tracks in the presence of any other musicians or anyone other than Linda. Maybe Clint was a trusted part of the careful deception. At the time of the interview, Warwick was in his early sixties and told the reporter that he had dusted off his bass, picked it up and started to play as if he never stopped. "It's a bit like riding a bike" he said. That's not likely after 36 years. Add to that damaged fingers and hands after years of carpentry. It sounds, perhaps, like he never really stopped or did so for a much shorter period of time. He started a now defunct website and had completed a project with buddies but it's no longer available. He died shortly after that without a mention or obit. much less a published cause of death. There is also an interesting "coincidence" regarding one of his sons.
www.retrosellers.com/features47.htm
That's the link to the interview. Enjoy and keep up the good work! Thanks.

[abbey]

Ludwig -

[glow=red,2,300]WELCOME TO OUR HUMBLE ABODE !!![/glow]

That was a brilliant post !!! Incredible, that noone has made the connection before you. I find it very plausible indeed !!! ;D

[Ludwig]

Thank you Sister for your kind welcome ;D and many kudos to you for always sharing such wonderful photos!
I found the scenario plausible too and I got the sense that maybe Clint was a "good soldier" that was kicked to the curb when he wasn't needed anymore. His interview made me sad, particularly the image of him looking at the photo of his younger days.

[McCartneyIII]

Read this

The recording of Ram started late November, in 1970. Having selected the musicians, Paul began laying down the basic tracks at Columbia Recording Studios in studio B, accompanied by jazz drummer Denny Seiwell and a New York cat called Dave Spinoza. Both had been picked up after audtioning in a loft basement at 45th Street, in Manhattan.
Sessionman David Spinoza was the lead guitarist on the following tracks: Another Day, Oh Woman Oh Why?, 3 legs, Eat at Home and Get On the Right Thing (a tune that ended up left off the LP, being released later on Red Rose Speedway, in 1973).



Paul McCartney: "We were thinking of forming a group, at that time. Because I basically didn't want to end my career and I figured, Well, you'd better sing live then, because if you just go into a closet you'll vanish your own trouser leg, you know, mixed metaphors. So we went to New York, first of all. There, we found a grotty little basement somewhere and auditioned a bunch of people. We got someone to throw a bunch of drummers at us, out of which we picked Denny Seiwell who's one of the best, and his personality fitted.

Denny Seiwell: "A lot of the boys were put out at being asked to audition. Paul just told me to play, as he didn't have a guitar. McCartney wanted more than a drummer, he was looking for a certain attitude too. Anyway, I just played...I always say that if you can't get it on by yourself, you can't get it on with anyone.

Paul McCartney: "Then we went in, worked with him. Hugh McCracken, Dave Spinoza, a couple of New York session men and did Ram".

Dave Spinoza: "All I remember is getting a phone call from Linda McCartney, identifying herself as Mrs. McCartney. And I say: "Who?" She said, "My husband would like to meet you". So I said, " Did I work with your husband before?" Finally, she said: This is Linda McCartney, and my husband is Paul McCartney", like I was supposed to know that Paul McCartney was calling my house. She didn't make clear what she wanted me for. I thought it was a meeting or a recording session. But it turned out to be an audition.

According to Denny Seiwell, the sessions routine went on mostly in a similar way. The days would start around 9am with Linda making tea for everyone and, around 10am, Paul would play the songs of the day. Recording would start around noon and after three hours in a row of working in the tracks they would leave Paul to overdub vocals, additional keyboards and bass.
Initially, Seiwell and Spinoza would just follow Paul's instructions, playing the parts he wanted. There wasn't any kind of improvising as Paul would tell them exactly what to play.

Dave Spinoza: There's one track, which is a cute thing, a blues tune, which I think it was a unique sound and I had fun doing. 3 Legs, it's called. Paul likes to double track a lot of things. We both played acoustic on some tracks and then tripled. Sometimes Paul played piano but never played bass while we were there. He overdubbed the bass later. It was a bit weird because bass, drums and guitar would have been more comfortable.


After working on the initial batch of songs, Spinoza, who used to be very popular in the NY rock scene, ended up being fired by Paul. Macca had wanted him as a full-time employee, but the musician had another projects in mind due to the sort of irregular booking of Ram session's.


Dave Spinoza: "I'd told them I couldn't keep every week open because when Paul got back to England there are other people that are going to keep me eating. I said I could make two of the days, but not five and Linda got very indignant".

Denny Seiwell: "Well, Dave Spinoza was taking other work and would leave right after a track was done. Paul got upset with this and asked me if I knew of
another session guitarist"

There comes Hugh McCracken's break. He played his bits and received Paul and Linda's thumbs aloft, so that the sessions proceeded with the recording of Monkberry Moon Delight, Long Haired Lady, Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, Back Seat of My Car, Smile Away, Too Many People and Heart of The Country. Also, were laid down on the tape the unreleased Rode All night and A Love For You. This work was resumed at Phil Ramone's A&R studios.

Tracks as Dear Boy, Ram On (two versions), Hey Diddle, Dear Friend, Sunshine, Sometime, When The Wind is Blowing did not have the participation of the guitarist.

With the basic tracks sucessfully comitted to the reels, Paul and Linda departed to California with the mission of putting the final touches on the album. Moreover, additional overdubs and mixing were done at Sound Studios, in Los Angeles.
Down in L.A, some tracks were also taped and a few of them were picked up to include on Ram, such as Dear Boy that had Paul Beaver, a keyboard player, as another session musician working on. Other songs commited to tape at Sound Studios were Dear Friend and Little Lamb Dragonfly.


Paul McCartney: "We went over to LA just to finish it off and mix it. Did some work over there which was nice. Got us a bit of sunshine. Hang out a bit, then went in the studio. It was good - it was quite hard work because it was mainly just me and Linda doing it. But it was OK. One of my nephews said it's his favourite album of mine.

Later on, Paul commented about recording Ram in a modern studio in the US:
Paul McCartney: We went to New York to try and find the best recording studio in the world. But I tried them all, and I still think No2. Abbey Road is the best. It's the one the suits me best, anyway. It's also got many facilities there. In America, if you suddenly decide you want a harmonium, you need to ring up a firm, "Yes, we want a harmonium. Yes, we will pay for it. Yes, we'll play for delivery costs', all this business. Here In England, I just say to Tony (Clark, engineer), 'Can we have a harmonium?' He phones the man downstairs and he wheels me one up. Anyway, in New York, we got to Harlem on the subway;we had a great evening at the Apollo Theatre and we had a walk through Central Park, after hours. You may find us murdered one day (joking).

Furthermore, Paul and Linda recorded, alone, fifteen different radio spots called Now Hear this Song of Mine. which consists of short commercials to promoting the album. The tunes were addressed to Djs across the US on a promo called Brung To Ewe By.


Paul McCartney: When we wanted to do the new album, we wanted to make it fun, because it ain't worth doing anything if you can't have fun doing it...Ram is real sweaty rock and roll...It strikes me as being a hundred times better than the McCartney LP...The McCartney LP was a whole different trip that I needed to go through. This one, though, is really my music, this is really where I am.



Recording document

Date of release

May, 17th (US)
Capitol/Apple

May, 21st (UK)
Parlophone/Apple

Ram Crew

Hugh McCracken
Electric and acoustic guitars
David Spinozza
Electric and acoustic guitars
Denny Seiwell
Drums, percussion
Paul McCartney
Bass, electric guitar, fuss bass, acoustic guitar, ukelele
piano, mellotron, percussion, special effects, vocals
Linda McCartney
Backing vocals, harmonies

Additional musicians
New York Phillarmonic orchestra
(Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, Long Haired Lady, and Back Seat of My Car)
Arrangements by George Martin.

Produced by Paul and Linda McCartney

Recorded at:
Columbia Recording Studios
A&R Studios, in New York (NY)

Sound Studios in Los Angeles (CA)
(from November, 1970, to April, 1971

[Ludwig]

...and this.

abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/paulbass.htm

It's VERY telling.

Pay particular attention to Faul's quotes and recollections.

[Ludwig]

Actually;

"John Lennon: "Sgt. Pepper is called the first concept album, but it doesn't go anywhere. All of my contributions to the album have absolutely nothing to do with this idea of Sgt. Pepper and his band. But it works 'cause we said it worked."

From the same link above.

[gracemer]

Ludwig said:

...and this.

abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/paulbass.htm

It's VERY telling.

Pay particular attention to Faul's quotes and recollections.

Very telling indeed. What a moron! I'm only sure he's clueless about what strings he uses.

[abbey]

This says it all:

Dave Spinoza: There's one track, which is a cute thing, a blues tune, which I think it was a unique sound and I had fun doing. 3 Legs, it's called. Paul likes to double track a lot of things. We both played acoustic on some tracks and then tripled. Sometimes Paul played piano but never played bass while we were there. He overdubbed the bass later. It was a bit weird because bass, drums and guitar would have been more comfortable.

He mentions his nephew liking Ram the best of all his albums. Whose child is this ? Does Linda have any siblings ? Does Michael McGear have a son ?

From the second link:

Paul was one of the most innovative bass players ever. And half the stuff that is going on now is directly ripped off from his Beatles period. --John Lennon, September 1980 (footnote 1)

The operative word here folks is WAS

I became very proud to be the bass player in the Beatles -- Paul McCartney, August 1995 (footnote 2)

Maybe what he meant to say is that he became very proud to be CONSIDERED the bass player in the beatles

Paul McCartney: I'm one of the least technical people you're likely to meet. I went into a guitar shop in America a few years ago and some guy said "What kind of bass strings do you use, Paul?" I said, "Long shiny ones". I don't know about amps. I don't know about serial numbers." (footnote 2);

Could someone who ACTUALLY plays guitar comment on this PLEASE

I guess that didn't say it all, read this:

Since McCartney's major influence as a bass player was provided in the 1960s, the article is focused on his work with the Beatles.

It's too bad that this guy didn't take the next logical step. The reason "Paul" ceased being innovative in his guitar method, is because the man who is billy is not the original James Paul McCartney

[Ludwig]

From the "Paul's Bass" link:

"If those people that were digging up the "Paul Is Dead" clues had placed his death between November 11th, 1965 (the final "Rubber Soul" session) and April 6th, 1966, I'd probably have trouble disbelieving them.
And why? Because it's a whole new bass player who emerged on June 10th, the day "Paperback Writer" and "Rain" was released as a single."







Could someone who ACTUALLY plays guitar comment on this PLEASE

Actually, I'm just a drummer and I can tell you the Hofner violin bass uses unique welded strings much like the ones used on orchestra string instruments. He's grasping here and struggling to find answers.

[semolinapilchard]

I play guitar, and I'll just say this, Different techniques are often used by the same player. Perhaps Paul just got better and used a pick on some stuff. They were always experimenting.

Also, I know lots of people who play who don't give a shit about the technical aspects. Plus those guys have all their stuff bought for them. A lot of stuff they get free through promotion.

[semolinapilchard]

Hmmm, dung was not my choice of words, who runs this board, Clear Channel?

[gracemer]

Strings are a biggie. Different strings for different sounds and feels. I'm not a musician, but I know quite a few (acoustic guitar players) and it's a big deal. Maybe it's different for electric?