Recording "Somebody Who Cares"

About

Drummer Steve Gadd and bass player Stanley Clarke arrived in Montserrat on February 8th.

I had a phone call while I was in a restaurant in San Francisco, saying that Paul McCartney wanted to record with me. So I went to Montserrat. I remember flying from Antigua, on a prop plane – it was not a jet for sure! […] The studio was in the middle of the jungle, and I stayed in a cottage with French windows. It was the exact opposite of the industrial area where the studios I normally recorded in at that time were!

I had met Paul at Ronnie Scott’s in London. He had come to see us play in the New Voyages and we had a chat then. We were a new kind of jazz-fusion-funk-latin band. For him to ask me to play with him was quite something, me being another bass player. Paul is great in the studio with all the other musicians, explaining to everyone how he wants to do it. Once you get into the studio, all the egos and all the fame are left behind; you are just musicians, all the same and all together. It was a privilege to record with Paul.

I was there for about a week, and I thought George Martin was the greatest producer ever. I wanted to watch how he and Paul worked together; and even when we were not recording I was pretty much in the control room all the time. It was great to see them work together. There was one moment when they were trying to work out if the tape was running fast or slow. George worked it out mathematically and this was something I had never seen anyone else do in that way. It was so ingenious.

Stanley Clarke, from Tug Of War Archive Collection, 2015

The first day of recording with the two of them was spent on “Somebody Who Cares” which had just been written by Paul the day before.

I wrote it out one Sunday afternoon. In Montserrat we used to take weekends off just to kinda have some holiday as well as recording, and this Sunday afternoon I was anticipating Steve Gadd’s arrival, and Steve and Stanley Clarke were coming in, and I liked the idea of writing something for them coming, you know, so it would be fresh for everyone.

Paul McCartney, From an interview with Club Sandwich, 1982

Last updated on May 13, 2020

Songs recorded

Staff

Musicians

Paul McCartney:

Vocal, Acoustic guitar, Spanish guitar

Denny Laine:

Synthesizer, Electric guitar

Stanley Clarke:

Bass

Steve Gadd:

Percussion, Drums

Production staff

George Martin:

Producer

Geoff Emerick:

Recording engineer

Mike Stavrou:

Assistant recording engineer