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Released in 1970

Glasses

Written by Paul McCartney • Instrumental

Last updated on April 13, 2022

Album This song officially appears on the McCartney LP.

Timeline This song was officially released in 1970

Timeline This song was written, or began to be written, in 1970, when Paul McCartney was 28 years old)

Master album

Related session

This song was recorded during the following studio sessions:

Other songs from the "McCartney" instrumental medley

“Glasses” is a fragment of a 3-parts instrumental on the 1970 “McCartney” album – the two other parts being “Hot As Sun” and a very few seconds of “Suicide“.

Wineglasses played at random and overdubbed on top of each other – the end is a section of a song called Suicide – not yet completed.

Paul McCartney, from the press release of “McCartney”, April 1970

The title “Glasses” was fun as we ended up with a huge amount of glasses all filled with water on a big table in Number 3. All glasses were meticulously filled with water to the desired pitch of the song. It seemed a very personal and warm album to do at the time, and good fun.

Phil McDonald – Engineer – From “McCartney – Archive Collection” book, 2011

Paul McCartney revisited his wine glasses technique in 1995 and in 2005. In 1995, for the Oobu Joob radio program, he and Linda recorded an improvisation with Linda playing the wine glasses:

Inspired by Mozart’s ‘Glass Menagerie Music For Glass Harmonica‘, this bit was recorded “at the end of a rehearsal session.” In a new attempt at using a technique first heard on the McCartney LP, Linda plays wine glasses as Paul plays piano, trying to determine the key.

From “Eight Arms to Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium” by Chip Madinger and Mark Easter

In 2005, in the PBS TV special Chaos and Creation at Abbey Road, Paul demonstrated how the technique works, using a 4-track Studer machine, recording two tracks of wine glasses, one track of harmonium, and a second track of harmonium while singing the lyrics of his 1973 hit “Band On The Run“.

From Chaos and Creation at Abbey Road, 2005
From the press release of “McCartney”, April 1970

Variations

Officially appears on

Bootlegs

Live performances

Paul McCartney has never played this song in concert.

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.

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