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Thursday, January 12, 1989

Recording "Motor Of Love"

For Paul McCartney

Last updated on November 1, 2022


Master session

Location

  • Recording studio: Hog Hill Studio, Rye, UK

Timeline

Master release

AlbumSome of the songs worked on during this session were first released on the "Flowers In The Dirt" Official album

Some of the songs from this session also appear on:

You played on Paul McCartney’s 1989 album, Flowers in the Dirt, the song “Motor of Love.”

I was in awe the whole time. Just the fact that I was there, I couldn’t believe it. He was super nice. I had a great time. On my way over [to England], I was thinking, “Gee, do you even bring up the Beatles or is it something he doesn’t want to talk about?” I think it was before he had made peace with the Beatles, especially during the Wings thing. Right around the time I went over, during his live shows he was doing half Beatles material and Paul solo and Wings things. I didn’t even have to bring it up. When he came in, he had an armful of record albums. He had just gotten a batch of that Russian live album he made, Back in the USSR with his name in that funny Russian lettering – some regular letters some oddball. And he hands us each one, saying “Would you like the new Ron McCaptain album? to show his name was spelled. Within five or ten minutes of getting in, he started talking Beatles stories. 

We spent three of four days in London and then went to his Hogg Mill studio [in Sussex]. He had his Beatles bass there and the last Beatles set list taped to side of it. He shows it to me and starts running through the songs – “Long Tall Sally,” “I Wanna Be Your Man,” telling us “We’d have Ringo sing one” and I’m like “I know! Of course, you did!” 

From Long May You Run: The Cars’ Greg Hawkes Turns 70 – Rock and Roll Globe
From Long May You Run: The Cars’ Greg Hawkes Turns 70 – Rock and Roll Globe

Session activities

  1. Motor Of Love

    Written by Paul McCartney

    Recording


Staff

Production staff


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.

Buy on Amazon

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

Buy on Amazon

Paul McCartney writing

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