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   CLUB SANDWICH 82

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            HEAVEN ON A SUNDAY

            Paul was sailing his boat in America in August 1996 when 'Heaven On A Sunday' - the most recent composition on Flaming Pie - materialised. Enjoying the notion of the celestial city being busy in the week but peaceful on a Sunday, he developed the tune from there, its relaxed ambience reflecting his holiday mood.
            The song was recorded on the McCartneys' return to England, and the middle section was endowed with a bluesy feel on the spur of the moment. The guitar solos are shared by Paul and his 19 year old son James, making his first disc appearance with the instrument. "I played the simpler stuff and left the Young Turk to play the hot electric stuff," says Paul. James McCartney's talent on the guitar is the result of some ten years' practice and home-development while listening to the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd, rather than formal lessons. When his father suggested these, James's response, "Well you didn't, Dad", echoed down the decades from 1950s Liverpool.
            Like father, like son, indeed. Or, as Paul puts it, "The saga continues..."

            USED TO BE BAD

            Having enjoyed cutting 'Young Boy' with Paul, Steve Miller was keen to extend the collaboration, insisting that he wanted to get Paul singing some blues. As a consequence, Miller arrived at their second set of sessions with dozens of blues guitar riffs. This prompted Paul to climb behind the drum kit and the pair played away for some time, kicking around ideas, and later Miller began adding words to the jam. Once the live piece had gelled as 'Used To Be Bad' Paul overdubbed bass guitar and Steve added some solos before the crucial decision was made to alternate the lead vocal lines.
            This was not the only blues duet recorded by the pair this day; another may be released on Steve Miller's next album. Additionally, the previous day, Paul and Steve cut 'Broomstick', released in Britain on the second 'Young Boy' CD single.

            SOUVENIR

            Pretty much everyone who's anyone has covered a Paul McCartney song but the writer himself warms the most to soul recordings of his music. He will, occasionally, aim to spark this by imagining certain artists as he writes, thinking of Ray Charles with 'The Long And Winding Road' and Aretha Franklin with 'Let It Be'. (Remarkably, both did indeed release their versions of these songs.) 'Souvenir' is cut of the same cloth, written by Paul during a particularly relaxing afternoon on holiday in Jamaica at the beginning of January 1995.
            A studio recording of Souvenir did not occur for another year, but Paul was nonetheless anxious to replicate the atmosphere of his original Jamaican demo, and to avoid, as Paul says, "introducing an uptight feeling to something relaxing". The final touch - the scratchy 78rpm sound reminiscent of 'Honey Pie' - was added after Paul observed that his co-engineer Jon Jacobs carried with him a key-fob with a built-in sound sampler. The vocal effect was added to the end of the song using this as the medium.

            LITTLE WILLOW

            'Little Willow' is an achingly touching ballad written by Paul upon hearing of the death of a close friend, whom the McCartneys visited in hospital and continued to keep in close contact with until she died. Being on holiday at the time, and therefore out of reach, Paul wasn't given the news for some days, but instantly created 'Little Willow' not only as a personal response to the sadness but, hopefully, as a salve for his late friend's children. The studio recording, begun ten months later (on the day that The Beatles Anthology 1, with 'Free As A Bird' was released), is an eloquent combination of voice and instrumentation, Paul's work being augmented by Jeff Lynne.

            REALLY LOVE YOU

            The day after Ringo Starr had joined Paul to record 'Beautiful Night' the pair returned to the studio, where the instruments remained set up as before, and began a good old-fashioned jam session, Paul plucking his Hofner Violin bass, Ringo beating the drums and Jeff Lynne playing guitar. Three separate pieces evolved inside half an hour, one being 'Looking For You' (issued on the B-side of first UK single 'Young Boy' and first US single 'The World Tonight'), another 'Really Love You'. This latter track best charted the desired R&B groove, with Paul adding a live vocal. Forced to invent the lyric on the spot, he duly grabbed the words out of "left-field". "There's one verse that doesn't make any sense," Paul admits, "which goes 'I need your heart hopping on a plate'. I remember thinking, ' What did I just say?' But I just had to keep going."
            Credited to McCartney/Starkey - even after all this time this is still a first-ever credit for a released tune - the jam was completed by some guitar overdubs and mixed after Ringo had returned home. Played to him over the telephone by Paul, his response - "It's relentless!" - remains the best description of the finished result.

            BEAUTIFUL NIGHT

            Working together on The Beatles Anthology prompted Paul to suggest to Ringo that the two work together again, which they hadn't done for fully ten years. Although, in the end, more than one piece evolved from the revived collaboration, it was with 'Beautiful Night' in mind that Paul invited Ringo to join him in the studio once more. The song was a decade old itself, and a recording made in New York had been lying on the shelf, unused, since 1986, admired by those who had had heard it but not quite the ideal version as far as Paul was concerned. Now, with some minor lyric changes, he was preparing to have another go.
            With Paul at the piano and Ringo on drums, the song came together comfortably. Wanting to play some guitar on the end, Paul introduced a new element to his composition, the uptempo finale, and the microphone caught some characteristic ad-libbing by Ringo and Paul as they prepared to leave the studio. The recording then remained the same for nine months before Paul decided to have it enhanced by an orchestral arrangement, scored by George Martin and recorded in Studio One at Abbey Road on 14 February 1997.

            GREAT DAY

            Seeking a short, simple song to close the album, Paul has searched back some 25 years to find 'Great Day', an acoustic number that he and Linda used to perform "sitting around the kitchen or when the children were dancing" when they were raising their young family in the early 1970s. The candlelit evenings caused by Hurricane Bob in August 1991 not only led Paul to write 'Calico Skies' but also found him plucking this one from the memory bank. So, a year later, in the same session that he recorded his new number with George Martin, Paul also committed 'Great Day' to tape for the first time (despite its years), not changing a hair of the arrangement or lyric. "It's a little upbeat song of hope, really," he says, "to the point and in the spirit of the whole album."