- Album Songs recorded during this session officially appear on the McCartney II Official album.
- Studio:
- Home Studio, Peasmarsh, Sussex, UK
- Studio:
- Spirit Of Ranachan Studio, Kintyre, Scotland, UK
Timeline
More from year 1979
Some songs from this session appear on:
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About
In June / July 1979, Paul McCartney recorded a series of synth-based experimentations, which would later be released as his second album, “McCartney II” in 1980. To put things into perspective, in Summer 1979, Wings was still existing – soon to be on the road – for its final UK autumn tour, and the planned but cancelled Japan tour early 1980.
Those recordings were done in two of his properties – in Sussex then Scotland – and temporarily transformed into home studios by Eddie Klein:
One day I received a call asking me to meet up with Paul to discuss a recording project he had in mind. Paul explained to me that he wanted to do some recordings in the same way he’d done with the McCartney album almost ten years previously. This entailed simply plugging the microphones into the tape machine inputs and completely bypassing the recording console. […] He wouldn’t need a recording engineer standing by, and would therefore be able to record whenever the mood took him.
I don’t know of anyone else who has recorded in this way, it seems so basic and pioneering but the very idea appealed to me. […] I set up the equipment in the old farmhouse in Sussex where Paul had chosen to record and all went well. […] Delivering the equipment and setting it up for recording was all that was required of me. In fact, I rarely saw Paul. He truly recorded everything on his own. When he was finished in Sussex I would dismantle it all and take it up to the barn on Paul’s farm in Ranachan, Scotland and set it up there. Once I’d tested everything I left to return home.
Eddie Klein, from McCartney II Archive Collection, 2011
By sessions’ end, roughly 20 songs were recorded. They would be mixed soon after (in September / October) at Abbey Road, and then shelved for the time being – with the exception of Wonderful Christmastime, released in November 1979.









Last updated on September 3, 2022
Songs recorded
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Written by Paul McCartney
Recording
Album Officially released on Wonderful Christmastime / Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reggae
Going further
Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989
With 25 albums of pop music, 5 of classical – a total of around 500 songs – released over the course of more than half a century, Paul McCartney's career, on his own and with Wings, boasts an incredible catalogue that's always striving to free itself from the shadow of The Beatles. The stories behind the songs, demos and studio recordings, unreleased tracks, recording dates, musicians, live performances and tours, covers, events: Music Is Ideas Volume 1 traces McCartney's post-Beatles output from 1970 to 1989 in the form of 346 song sheets, filled with details of the recordings and stories behind the sessions. Accompanied by photos, and drawing on interviews and contemporary reviews, this reference book draws the portrait of a musical craftsman who has elevated popular song to an art-form.
Eight Arms to Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium
We owe a lot to Chip Madinger and Mark Easter for the creation of those session pages, but you really have to buy this book to get all the details!
Eight Arms To Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium is the ultimate look at the careers of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr beyond the Beatles. Every aspect of their professional careers as solo artists is explored, from recording sessions, record releases and tours, to television, film and music videos, including everything in between. From their early film soundtrack work to the officially released retrospectives, all solo efforts by the four men are exhaustively examined.
As the paperback version is out of print, you can buy a PDF version on the authors' website
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