Kreen - Akrore

Song facts

‘Kreen-Akrore’ was about an Amazon tribe I’d seen, who were fighting for survival. I recorded the sound of a bow and arrow going past the mike…

Paul McCartney – From “Conversations with McCartney” by Paul du Noyer

“Kreen – Akrore” is the final track of Paul McCartney’s debut solo album, “McCartney“, released in April 1970.

There was a film on TV about the Kreen Akrore Indians living in the Brazilian jungle, their lives and how the white man is trying to change their way of life to his, so the next day after lunch I did some drumming.

The idea behind it was to get the feeling of their hunt. So later piano, guitar and organ were added to the first section. The second had a few tracks of voices (Linda and I) and the end had overdubbed breathing, going into organ and two lead guitars in harmony.

Done at Morgan. Engineer, Robin Black.

The end of the first section has Linda and I doing animal noises (speeded up) and an arrow sound (done live with bow and arrow – the bow broke), then animals stampeding across a guitar case. There are two drum tracks.

We built a fire in the studio but didn’t use it (but used the sound of the twigs breaking).

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

The TV documentary which inspired Paul McCartney was “The Tribe That Hides From Man“, directed by Adrian Cowell, and broadcast by ITV on February 17, 1970. The Kreen-Akrore tribe lived in the Brazilian jungle and was known to kill intruders who encroached upon their way of life.

For me now, it’s great memories of a happy period: getting with Linda, earliest days. She helped me, because I’d have a guitar and amp in the house and she’d say, ‘I never knew you played guitar!’ Yeah, I’d play a few blues licks, you know? I’d say I did this and that, did the “Taxman” solos… She was very encouraging, and that led me to ‘Momma Miss America’, ‘Kreen-Akrore’, which were right off the wall. Then a few more normal things crept in, and it became an album.

Paul McCartney – From “Conversations with McCartney” by Paul du Noyer

From PopMatters:

“Kreen Akrore” is the final track on the McCartney album. After watching a TV documentary about Brazil’s indigenous Kreen-Akrore tribe, McCartney was inspired to compose an instrumental track that would capture “the feeling of their hunt”.

The next day, after he recorded the drum sounds, McCartney and wife Linda did “animal noises”, including creating stampeding sounds with the aid of a guitar case. The two built a fire in London’s Morgan Studios, but only the sound of twigs breaking made it onto the final cut. Probably the most unusual addition was the sound of a bow and arrow, which later led McCartney to say that he played “bass, drums, acoustic guitar, lead guitar, piano, mellotron, organ, toy xylophone, and bow and arrow” on the album.

Unfortunately, even the most ardent McCartney fans usually overlook “Kreen Akrore”. A common complaint is that the song is pointless, or that McCartney doesn’t use much skill in his drumming. Even more unfortunate was the real-life plight of the Kreen-Akrore tribe, which was nearly killed off by common diseases three years later, when a government project brought them into contact with modern people. However, in recent years, their population has risen due to relocation.

10.30 The Tribe That Hides From Man

An explorer is clubbed to death… A plane crashes in the jungle… An American Indian war party massacres a hidden village… Foud children are kidnapped from an unknown tribe… These are the incidents that launch a long and tense search in the Amazon jungle.

The Kreen-Akrore tribe is one of the world’s last groups of unknown men. They hide in the deepest part of the forest, killing all intruders on sight.

Brazil’s two most famous explorers cut a trail into their territory. Month after month they wage a way of nerves with the Indians, who are tracking them and always watching from behind the impenetrable screen of jungle.

From TV Times, 14-20 February 1970 – From Club Sandwich N°74, Summer 1995

Last updated on April 13, 2022

Variations