The Art of McCartney, a new tribute album to Paul McCartney featuring some of the world's greatest artists

The Art Of McCartney is a long awaited and very special project celebrating one of the most universally acclaimed songwriters of all time, Sir Paul McCartney. With backing provided by McCartney’s long time band, classic tracks from his Beatles and solo career, including Wings, have been recorded by some of the world’s greatest artists.
The calibre of artists showing their respect to Paul’s songwriting genius is truly staggering: Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, The Cure, The Who’s Roger Daltrey, Brian Wilson, Alice Cooper, Def Leppard, Dr John, Yusuf (Cat Stevens), Barry Gibb, Jamie Cullum, KISS, Chrissie Hynde, ELO legend Jeff Lynne, and many more have recorded McCartney songs exclusively for this album.

The Art Of McCartney is the brainchild of Los Angeles producer, Beatles and McCartney fanatic, Ralph Sall, who has driven this project from conception to delivery: Sall met and worked alongside Paul in 2003 when they revived a song from the 1971 Ram sessions for a movie soundtrack ("The In-Laws"); Ralph then asked Paul and his publishing company if they would support his making this album to honour him. They came back with Paul’s own blessing and thumbs aloft for the project to go ahead.

Ralph became a man on a mission, first recruiting McCartney’s gifted backing guitarists, Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray, keyboard player Paul “Wix” Wickens, plus the larger than life drummer, Abe Laboriel, Jr; they know Paul’s extensive back catalogue intimately and this is the first time they have recorded his songs with anyone else since they first started working together with Paul over 12 years ago.
Ralph then set about approaching the world’s greatest performers to invite them to step forward and make their mark. This has been a labour of love, not only for Ralph but also for the artists who gave their time to be part of it. All have spoken of the importance of McCartney and his songwriting in their own careers and wanted to show their appreciation.


Legendary Beach Boy, Brian Wilson, was the first to take up the challenge. Undoubtedly he set the bar very high with his rendition of Wanderlust from the underrated 1982 album Tug Of War.
There are very few artists whose own work rivals The Beatles, so when producer Ralph Sall approached Bob Dylan to take part, he knew it was ambitious. Dylan’s choice was Things We Said Today – a track from The Beatles’ soundtrack A Hard Days Night – and audiences will be captivated as he growls his way through his remarkable version.

All aspects of Paul’s peerless back catalogue have been explored from The Beatles to his experimental early solo work, to Wings and his latter solo output. Lesser-known hidden classics such as Junk and Every Night are given a fresh outing and interpretation.

Released on November 17th in several formats:

-2CD with the following tracklist:

CD1

1. Maybe I'm Amazed - Billy Joel
2. Things We Said Today - Bob Dylan
3. Band On The Run - Heart
4. Junior's Farm - Steve Miller
5. The Long And Winding Road - Yusuf/Cat Stevens
6. My Love - Harry Connick, Jr
7. Wanderlust - Brian Wilson
8. Bluebird - Corinne Bailey Rae
9. Yesterday - Willie Nelson
10. Junk - Jeff Lynne
11. When I'm 64 - Barry Gibb
12. Every Night - Jamie Cullum
13. Venus And Mars/Rock Show - KISS
14. Let Me Roll It - Paul Rodgers
15. Helter Skelter - Roger Daltrey
16. Helen Wheels - Def Leppard
17. Hello Goodbye - The Cure Featuring James McCartney

CD2

1. Live And Let Die - Billy Joel
2. Let It Be - Chrissie Hynde
3. Jet - Robin Zander & Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick
4. Hi Hi Hi - Joe Elliot
5. Letting Go - Heart
6. Hey Jude - Steve Miller
7. Listen To What The Man Said - Owl City
8. Got To Get You Into My Life - Perry Farrell
9. Drive My Car - Dion
10. Lady Madonna - Allen Toussaint
11. Let Em In - Dr. John
12. So Bad - Smokey Robinson
13. No More Lonely Nights - The Airborne Toxic Event
14. Eleanor Rigby - Alice Cooper
15. Come And Get It - Toots Hibbert with Sly & Robbie
16. On The Way - B.B. King
17. Birthday - Sammy Hagar

Amazon's exclusive version will also have the following bonus tracks:
   18. C Moon (Amazon Bonus Track) - Robert Smith
   19. Put It There (Amazon Bonus Track) - Peter, Bjorn & John

-2CD + DVD "The Making of The Art Of McCartney" featuring behind-the-scenes and interviews with the artists contributing to the project; the 2CD tracklist is identical to the above and also in this case Amazon will have an exclusive version with the same two bonus tracks

-3LP with the same 34-song tracklist as the standard 2CD

Also, on 15th December, two limited run boxsets will be released:

-vinyl-only boxset, with four 180-gram coloured vinyls (see below for the bonus tracks of the 4th LP) and an illustrated guide within a 12" bound book

-Deluxe boxset, featuring apart from the 2 CDs and DVD as above:

• 2 pieces of specially commissioned artwork by Alan Aldridge
• Höfner guitar USB with FLAC files of 34 tracks
• The Making of The Art Of McCartney - Audio documentary about the making of the album narrated by Bill Nighy
• Illustrated guide within a 64-page 12” hardback book
• 4 black and white artcards
• 42 track quadruple 12", 180 gram coloured vinyl
• Certificate of authenticity hand numbered
• A bonus CD with the following bonus tracks:        

1. C Moon - Robert Smith
2. Can't Buy Me Love - Booker T-Jones
3. P.S. I Love You - Ronnie Spector
4. All My Loving - Darlene Love
5. For No One - Ian McCulloch
6. Put It There - Peter, Bjorn & John
7. Run Devil Run - Wanda Jackson
8. Smile Away - Alice Cooper

[Source: The Art of McCartney]

 

The Love we Make: McCartney a New York l'11 Settembre

Dopo essere stato proiettato in alcuni cinema degli USA, è uscito il mese scorso, in DVD e Blu-Ray, un documentario intitolato "The Love We Make", che documenta il post-attacco delle Torri Gemelle di New York dell'11 Settembre attraverso gli occhi di Paul McCartney, che per coincidenza quel giorno si trovava lì (era in aereo, dal cui finestrino ha assistito all'attacco ed è voluto ritornare subito a New York per dare il suo contributo); inoltre viene dato ampio spazio all'organizzazione e al dietro le quinte del concerto "Concert For New York City" che si tenne sei settimane dopo per raccogliere fondi, a cui parteciparono tra gli altri Elton John, Billy Joel, James Taylor, Eric Clapton, Sheryl Crow, Keith Richards, David Bowie, Pete Townsend...
Girato in 16mm e rigorosamente in bianco e nero da Albert Maysles, il film documentario vede la telecamera seguire Paul dappertutto, per le strade, in macchina, negli studi TV mentre rilascia interviste, mentre si intrattiene con i partecipanti al concerto (riservando anche un bacio in bocca a Sir Elton...!) e dietro le quinte del concerto stesso mentre commenta gli artisti che si esibiscono.
Raccomandato per tutti i fan di McCartney ma anche di tutti gli altri artisti protagonisti dello storico concerto (anch'esso disponibile già da tempo su DVD).


Ovviamente tutti i proventi vanno in beneficenza alle associazioni che si occupano delle famiglie delle vittime dell'11 Settembre.

Billy Joel va al college per un concerto intimo

Ieri 14 Dicembre il famoso cantautore e pianista Billy Joel ha tenuto un concerto-lezione all'Università del Massachusetts, davanti a un pubblico di 900 studenti.
Joel ha cantato il brano natalizio "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas", "Piano Man", un suo famoso classico su cui ha fatto anche dell'ironia dicendo che non meritava di essere una hit a causa del testo troppo lungo, e "Leningrad", duettando con gli studenti; ha fatto delle imitazioni di Ronald Reagan, Bob Dylan e del suo amico-rivale Elton John, eseguendo la sua notissima "Candle In The Wind" (Joel e John hanno fatto parecchi tour insieme sotto il nome di "Face2Face", scambiandosi anche i rispettivi brani e duettando insieme, vocalmente e pianisticamente); ha raccontato aneddoti e storie sulla sua carriera e ha persino rivelato alcuni segreti, tra cui quello che il brano "And So It Goes" del 1990 parlava della sua relazione con la modella Elle Macpherson.


Fonte: Boston Herald