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Apr 29 5 comments
New Releases

More on the ‘McCartney’ and ‘McCartney II’ expanded editions

McCartney LP, 1970

McCartney LP, released 1970

Last month I announced here that Paul McCartney will follow up last year’s expanded issue of Band On The Run with the same treatment for his McCartney and McCartney II albums. These will be issued as special edition and deluxe sets for both original 1970 and 1980 albums, along with plenty of extras, on June 14th, 2011 by Concord Music Group.

For the McCartney album there will be a CD of the original album remastered (see here for track listing), plus a second CD of bonus materials including Suicide (an out-take – likely not the same recording of it that I posted here) and Maybe I’m Amazed (from film One Hand Clapping). Also there are three tracks from his 1979 Glasgow concert (Maybe I’m Amazed, Hot As Sun and Glasses). Finally there is an out-take called Don’t Cry Baby and a demo called Women Kind. There is also a bonus DVD that will contain coverage of parts of the One Hand Clapping film (not seen in the Band On The Run DVD), as well as Paul at the Concert for the People of Kampuchea (Every Night, Hot As Sun) and MTV Unplugged (Junk, That Would Be Something).

McCartney II, released 1980

McCartney II, released 1980

For the McCartney II album there will be a CD of the original album remastered (see here for track listing), plus a second CD of bonus materials including the track Blue Sway (with the Richard Niles Orchestration), Coming Up (live at Glasgow, 1979 – the live single version), Check My Machine (edited, b-side of Paul’s Waterfalls single), Bogey Wobble, Secret Friend (from b-side of Temporary Secretary 12 inch single), Mr H Atom / You Know I’ll Get You Baby (out-take), Wonderful Christmastime (edited version of 1979 single), and All You Horse Riders/Blue Sway (out-take). The DVD edition will also include another bonus CD with full length versions of Coming Up, Front Parlour, Frozen Jap, Darkroom, Check My Machine and Wonderful Christmastime. This CD will also include a ‘no vocals’ version of Summer’s Day Song and the DJ edit of Waterfalls. Finally, there is a bonus DVD that will feature a ‘meet Paul McCartney’ feature, music videos of Coming Up, Waterfalls and Check My Machine, plus two 1979 live performances of Coming Up at both the Concert for the People of Kampuchea and Lower Gate Farm. There is also a feature on the making of the Coming Up video and the out-take track Blue Sway.

Both original remastered albums and bonus audio content will also be issued as 2-disc 180gm audiophile vinyl editions, which will come with an MP3 download of all included audio. The special and deluxe versions of McCartney and McCartney II will also be made available digitally worldwide.

Read about or purchase these related releases from Amazon:

1) McCartney Deluxe 3-disc deluxe edition

2) McCartney II Deluxe 4-disc deluxe edition

3) More Amazon links for your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

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Adam

The Beatles and their solo stuff always is packaged so nicely with remasters. I like the slip cases as opposed to the jewel ones.

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Elliott Marx

Stacia, you spoke the truth. It is frustrating to be on the consumer end of all of this. But, perhaps an anthologized collection of the mini-docs will some day be released. It just happened this week with a Springsteen documentary which was initially only included with a sweeping set of River outtakes. Now it exists as a stand alone DVD.

I don't demand that the extra CD be chock full of 79.5 minutes of music (or whatever a CD will hold,) but I do think these are too skimpy. I mean McCartney is a relatively short album to begin in, it looks like all of those bonus tracks and McCartney could fit on a single disc. While that may damage the integrity of the album as a stand alone unit, it sure would be a nice thing to do for fans who may be strapped for cash in this economy. Adding insult to injury, we all know that there is a whole lot more from this era, which means in a few years it'll be packed up in some other way - costing more. These bonus audio discs should be at least 50% full of music, right?

It seems like a whole lot of people are talking about these - why not do the back catalog right?

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Stacia

I think Paul has been really gracious with these sets. I don't get the idea that one must fill up a CD to make it worth purchasing. One Hand Clapping is pretty crappy - in terms of film quality and content quality. But he's laid it out for us. Some would argue that everything from McCartney II is crappy but here it is, the third release of what, like 20+ albums. I think he's giving us and casual fans "the best of the worst." I do, though, agree with Elliott's comment about the need for a comprehensive set. Which leads me to...

What DOES annoy me, and something always does, is why can't I just get a full version of One Hand Clapping? It's "officially" ripped apart now. And, why do I need to buy the CDs to get the DVD - why can't I buy the vinyl and still get the DVD and downloads of the extra songs? All the different variations are needlessly confusing.

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Elliott Marx

Happy Nat,

You would know better than anyone I know, isn't there still a lot of missing stuff from these albums not represented on these reissues? I look at disc two of each, and it looks like it is likely less than 40 minutes or so long. Same with the DVDs.

I want to support Paul as fully as possible, and I'm sure the remastering will sound really great, but there seems to be some gouging going on. I'm glad the extended mixes will be available, but when I get excited for a deluxe edition, I'm hoping for more than a hopelessly dated extended disco mix of 2 or 3 minutes of an intro looped for dancing purposes.

Where are the demos and alternate version or songs left on the chopping floor?

Maybe I'm asking for too much, or maybe the big plan is for Paul to release a comprehensive 4 disc set of obscurities - like everyone else started doing 22 years ago.

Were you satisfied when you saw the track list?

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Happy Nat

Oh, I'm looking forward to this and yes there is always more. Paul is known for being a bit of a perfectionist and my take is that if it's not good enough in his opinion, then why would he want us to hear it? I think otherwise he likely feels he's opening himself up to criticism and a lower number of sales. I do know there's more though and I have a lot of it myself. I'll see if I can locate something that was left off and include it in a future post. Stay tuned...

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