"McCartney" home recordings

About

In October 1969, after John Lennon told the other Beatles he was leaving the band, Paul and Linda McCartney escaped London to isolate themselves and their two daughters (Heather and baby Mary) on their Scottish farm. It was a period of depression for Paul.

I was going through a hard period. I exhibited all the classic symptoms of the unemployed, the redundant man. First, you don’t shave, and it’s not to grow a groovy beard, it’s because you cannot be fucking bothered. Anger, deep deep anger sets in, with everything, with yourself number one, and with everything in the world number two. And justifiably so because I was being screwed by my mates. So I didn’t shave for quite a while. I didn’t get up. Mornings weren’t for getting up. I might get up and stay on the bed a bit and not know where to go, and get back into bed. Then if I did get up, I’d have a drink. Straight out of bed. I’ve never been like that. There are lots of people who’ve been through worse things than that, but for me this was bad news because I’d always been the kind of guy who could really pull himself together and think, “Oh, fuck it,” but at that time I felt I’d outlived my usefulness.

Paul McCartney – From “Solid State” by Kenneth Womack

They stayed in Scotland from late October to mid-December 1969. They then went on holiday in Antigua, where the photograph used for the cover of the “McCartney” album was taken. Back in London, in late December, Paul started recording his first solo album at home.

I really had to ask myself, “Do I want to give up music, or keep going?” I got a four-track Studer recording machine, like the Beatles used for Sgt. Pepper, put it in the corner of the living-room at my house in London and tried a very simple technique of just plugging directly into the back, not going through a mixing desk. It’s a cool way to record because it’s pure. If, say, I was doing a drum track, I’d play the drums, record it with one microphone, listen to it back, move the mike a little if there wasn’t enough hi-hat or cymbal, and then re-record. Then I’d add bass by plugging the mike into track two and overdubbing while listening to track one through headphones. I’d do that with all with four tracks. It was very hands-on, primitive way of working. In the opening track, The Lovely Linda, you can hear the door squeak as Linda came in while I was recording. It was a good take, so we left it in. I made the whole McCartney album like that, and when I needed to go further we used a little studio in Willesden called Morgan, just to get a bit more high-tech. But I played all the instruments and we did a few harmonies together. It was funky, and still sounds good to me.

Paul McCartney – From the “Wingspan” documentary, 2001

I was like a professor in his laboratory. Very simple [set-up], as basic as you can get … Even now that album has an interesting sound. Very analogue, very direct.

Paul McCartney, from an interview with Paul Du Noyer (MOJO, July 2001)

The songs recorded for “McCartney” were a combination of left-over songs from The Beatles’ era (“Teddy Boy“, “Junk“, “Hot As Sun“) and new compositions written in Scotland (“The Lovely Linda“, “That Would Be Something“…) or made on the spot.

From Wikipedia:

McCartney and his family returned to London shortly before Christmas 1969, and he started work on the album at his home in Cavendish Avenue, St John’s Wood. The recordings were carried out on a recently delivered Studer four-track tape recorder, without a mixing desk, and therefore without VU displays as a guide for recording levels. In the commentary he later supplied with the album, McCartney described his home-recording set-up as “Studer, one mike, and nerve“.

McCartney first taped a 45-second portion of a song he had written in Campbeltown, “The Lovely Linda“. As with much of the album, McCartney sung the composition accompanied by acoustic guitar before filling the remaining tracks on the Studer with a second guitar part, bass and percussive accompaniment. Although this performance of “The Lovely Linda” was only intended as a test of the new equipment, it would be included on the official release, as the opening track, complete with the sound of McCartney giggling at the end of the recording.

Reflecting the sequencing on the album, the second and third songs McCartney taped were “That Would Be Something“, also written in Scotland, and the instrumental “Valentine Day“. The latter was one of three selections on McCartney that its creator “ad-libbed on the spot”, he later claimed, along with the similarly rock-oriented “Momma Miss America” and “Oo You“.

On 3 January 1970, he interrupted work on McCartney to participate in the Beatles’ final recording session, when he, George Harrison and Ringo Starr recorded the Harrison composition “I Me Mine” at Abbey Road Studios. The next day, the three musicians revisited McCartney’s “Let It Be“, a song recorded by the band in January 1969 for their forthcoming Get Back film project. […]

On February 12, 1970, Paul McCartney took his Studer tapes to Morgan Studios, in the northwest of London, in order to copy all the four-track recordings onto eight-track tape, to allow for further overdubbing.

On February 22, 1970, he moved to the more familiar Abbey Road Studios, to complete the recording and mixing of the new album.

We decided we didn’t want to tell anybody what we were doing. That way it gets to be like home at the studio. No one knows about it, and there is no one in the studio or dropping by.

Paul McCartney – From interview with RollingStone, 1970

After John said he was leaving, I hung on for months, wondering whether The Beatles would ever come back together again and hoping that John might come around and say, ‘All right, lads, I’m ready to go back to work.’ None of us knew what to do, but we decided to wait until about March or April until our film, Let It Be, came out. But I was bored. I like to work. I’m an active person. Sit me down with a guitar and let me go. So, naturally enough, in the meantime, I began to look for something to do. I decided I was not going to sit there, sucking my thumbs, waiting for everyone to come back, so the album McCartney turned out to be the answer in my case. I had just got a new recording machine in my house and I found that I liked working on my own. At first it wasn’t going to be anything serious but it turned out to be a great time. When we had to go to the (Morgan) studios, Linda would make the booking and we’d take some sandwiches and a bottle of grape juice and put the baby on the floor and it was all like a holiday. So, as a natural turn of events, from looking for something to do, I found that I was enjoying working alone as much as I had enjoyed the early days. So, anyway, McCartney came out and Linda and I did it totally, the record, the cover, the ads, everything presented to the record company. Then there started to appear these little advertisements. On the bottom was ‘On Apple Records’, which was okay. But somebody had also come along and slapped on ‘An ABKCO managed company’. Now that is Klein’s company and has nothing to do with my record. It’s like Klein taking part of the credit for my record. All those little things kept happening, such trivia compared to what happened. Maybe that sounds petty, but I can go into other examples of this kind of thing. All these things that are continuously happening makes me feel like I’m a junior with the record company, like Klein is the boss and I’m nothing. Well, I’m a senior… The income from the McCartney album is still being held by Apple and Linda and I are the only ones on the record.

Paul McCartney – From “The Beatles: Off the Record” by Keith Badman

I loved making music and I found that I didn’t want to stop… I found that I was enjoying working alone as much as I had enjoyed the early days of The Beatles.

Paul McCartney – From “And In The End” by Ken McNab

When you were working on “McCartney” in London, was it strange not being able to bounce ideas off the others?

Yeah, it was. Because right up until that point I’d been working with John, the best collaborator in the world. Suddenly that was taken away. It was very difficult. But I thought, ‘Well, I’m not going to worry about it. I’m going to sling some ideas down, have a little go on the drums.’ I had my own stuff at the house for my own fun, I wasn’t going into the studio with The Beatles. I wasn’t sweating it. Then suddenly, it became something. “OK, this is an album.”

Paul McCartney, in UNCUT interview, January 2021

I was feeling quite comfortable, the more I went on like this. I could actually do something again.

Paul McCartney – From interview with RollingStone, 1970

Last updated on April 1, 2022

Songs recorded

Staff

Musicians on "The Lovely Linda"

Paul McCartney:

Vocals, Acoustic guitar, Bass, Percussion

Musicians on "That Would Be Something"

Paul McCartney:

Electric guitar, Bass, Drums, Vocals, Acoustic guitar

Musicians on "Valentine Day"

Paul McCartney:

Percussion, Acoustic guitar, Electric guitar, Bass, Drums

Musicians on "Oo You"

Paul McCartney:

Bass, Drums

Musicians on "Momma Miss America"

Paul McCartney:

Mellotron, Bass, Drums, Piano, Acoustic guitar, Electric guitar

Musicians on "Teddy Boy"

Paul McCartney:

Acoustic guitar, Vocals, Bass

Musicians on "Suicide"

Paul McCartney:

Piano, Vocals

Production staff

Paul McCartney:

Recording engineer, Producer