Rockestra Theme
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- Album This song officially appears on the Back To The Egg Official album.
Song facts
From Wikipedia:
“Rockestra Theme” is the fourth and final single on Wings’ final studio album Back to the Egg.
It was recorded on 3 October 1978 at Abbey Road Studios by an all-star collection of musicians dubbed “Rockestra”, although the song is technically credited to Wings. It was recorded as part of Wings’ 1979 album Back to the Egg and released as a single in France.
Musicians who performed on this song (and on “So Glad To See You Here”, also on Back to the Egg) included: Denny Laine, Laurence Juber, David Gilmour, Hank Marvin, Pete Townshend (guitars), Steve Holley, John Bonham, Kenney Jones (drums), Paul McCartney (piano), John Paul Jones, Ronnie Lane, Bruce Thomas (bass), Gary Brooker, Linda McCartney, Tony Ashton (keyboards), Speedy Acquaye, Tony Carr, Ray Cooper, Morris Pert (percussion), Howie Casey, Tony Dorsey, Steve Howard, Thaddeus Richard (horns).
One person taken out of the Rockestra Supergroup was Jeff Beck. After being asked to join by McCartney, Beck wanted to be able to have veto power over his own guitar parts, subsequently, McCartney withdrew his invitation.
In a 2001 interview on VH1, McCartney said Keith Moon was to have taken part in “Rockestra” but died one month before the recording sessions took place. Kenney Jones, who replaced Moon on drums within The Who, appeared instead. In the book Paul McCartney: Recording Sessions (1969-2013) Wings’ drummer Steve Holley recalled the session in an interview, saying “it was daunting”.
The song was performed again at the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea and released on the album and EP of the same name. This was a series of concerts featuring Queen, The Clash, the Pretenders, The Who, Elvis Costello, Wings, and many more artists which took place at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, England during December 1979 to raise money for the victims of war-torn Cambodia. The event was organized by McCartney and Kurt Waldheim, and it involved older artists such as McCartney and The Who as well as younger new wave acts like The Clash and the Pretenders. The last of the concerts was the last concert of Wings.
Most of the Rockestra wore silver suits for this performance. On the Concerts for Kampuchea home video, McCartney can be heard making a comment about Townshend before playing the song, making reference to Townshend being a “poof” (gay in British slang). “Thank you, Peter. Only lousy sod who wouldn’t wear the silver suit. Cuz he’s a poof.” Townshend made comment about it in several interviews following the performance.
Juber can be seen walking up behind Townshend after McCartney’s comment, and placing a silver top hat on his head. Townshend quickly grabs the hat and flings it into the audience.
“Rockestra Theme” won the first Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. The song was used as under the opening credits of the California Go! rad BMX sports show on ESPN.
Paul McCartney in "Conversations With McCartney", by Paul Du Noyer:
The ‘Rockestra Theme’ has good memories for me, of John Bonham in particular on drums, cos he’s the powerhouse behind the rhythm section. And all the great guys who showed up, (Pete) Townshend, Hank Marvin, a lot of really cool people. The idea was funny, but we were thinking recently of trying to revitalise it; every city has millions of people who play guitar, loads of drummers, and they only ever get together in really small units. Every city’s got millions of people who can play violin, viola and cello, and percussion, but they get together in large units. It was like an us-and-them thing. Why don’t we get together in large units?That was the idea I was trying to float. I was hoping it would take off so much that people in Cleveland and people in Carlisle, kids would all get together and form rockestras, and do things like ‘Lucille’. Imagine twenty bass players — dum-dum-dum — ten drummers — bash bash bash — it would be a great scene, man, so someone’s still gotta do that. I may not get round to it but someone will, and I want inviting to it, please.
I got this little tune as an instrumental. I thought, it is a nice and easy melody line and it might be a good thing to try a lot of guitars on the melody line and, whereas most people use orchestra’s, normal orchestra’s, I thought the idea might be good to use rock instruments instead. And have what you would call a rockestra instead of on orchestra.
Paul McCartney
I’ve been thinking about it for a long time and talking about it with various people. And you meet people in the business and you find other people saying ‘yeah, I was thinking of doing something like that’. So by the time I heard other people saying, ‘yeah, I’m gonna do that’, I thought, I’d better gonna do it, if ever I’m gonna do it, and just try to get it together. (…) So I rang up a lot of people, I thought it might be good to do it. And some of them couldn’t make it, and some of them could come. I just decided, whoever shows up, if only three of them show up, then that will be the rockestra and we’ll just see what we could do.
Paul McCartney
Last updated on October 3, 2019
Lyrics
*Oh
Yeah
We all right yeah
Yeah
Yeah
Well we might have
Not had any winter (or dinner?) no no no
Repeat*
Officially appears on
Official album • Released in 1979
2:35 • Studio version • A
- Paul McCartney :
- Bass, Piano, Vocals
- Linda McCartney :
- Backing vocals, Keyboards
- Denny Laine :
- Electric guitar
- Howie Casey :
- Horns
- Laurence Juber :
- Electric guitar
- Steve Holley :
- Drums
- David Gilmour :
- Electric guitar
- Thaddeus Richard :
- Horns
- Ray Cooper :
- Percussion
- Tony Ashton :
- Keyboards
- Gary Brooker :
- Piano
- Pete Townshend :
- Electric guitar
- Bruce Thomas :
- Bass
- Ronnie Lane :
- Bass
- John Paul Jones :
- Bass, Piano
- Kenney Jones :
- Drums
- Tony Carr :
- Percussion
- Morris Pert :
- Percussion
- John Bonham :
- Drums
- Steve Howard :
- Horns
- Tony Dorsey :
- Horns
- Hank Marvin :
- Electric guitar
- Session Recording:
- October 3-4, 1978
Concerts for the People of Kampuchea
Official album • Released in 1981
2:39 • Live • L1
- Paul McCartney :
- Bass, Piano, Vocals
- Linda McCartney :
- Keyboards, Vocals
- Denny Laine :
- Guitars
- Howie Casey :
- Horns
- Laurence Juber :
- Guitars
- Steve Holley :
- Drums, Percussion
- Thaddeus Richard :
- Horns
- Chris Thomas :
- Producer
- Tony Ashton :
- Keyboards
- Gary Brooker :
- Keyboards
- James Honeyman :
- Scott: guitars
- Dave Edmunds :
- Guitars
- Billy Bremner :
- Guitars
- Pete Townshend :
- Guitars
- Robert Plant :
- Guitars, Vocals
- Bruce Thomas :
- Bass, Vocals
- Ronnie Lane :
- Bass, Vocals
- John Paul Jones :
- Bass, Vocals
- Kenney Jones :
- Drums, Percussion
- Tony Carr :
- Drums, Percussion
- Morris Pert :
- Drums, Percussion
- Speedy Acquaye :
- Drums, Percussion
- John Bonham :
- Drums, Percussion
- Steve Howard :
- Horns
- Tony Dorsey :
- Horns
Concert From "Concert For The People of Kampuchea" in London, United Kingdom on Dec 29, 1979
Rockestra Theme (Extended Version)
12" Single • Released in 1987
6:26 • Studio version • B2 • Extended version
- Paul McCartney :
- Background vocals, Bass, Producer
- Nick Glennie-Smith :
- Background vocals, Fairlight, Keyboards
- Charlie Morgan :
- Background vocals, Drums
- Duane Eddy :
- Guitar
- Phil Pickett :
- Background vocals, Piano
- Jim Horn :
- Tenor sax
- Matt Howe :
- Second engineer
- John Jacobs :
- Recording engineer
- Session Recording:
- Feb 04, 1987
- Studio :
- Hog Hill Studio, Rye, UK
- Session Mixing:
- Feb 05, 1987
- Studio :
- Hog Hill Studio, Rye, UK
Rockestra Theme (Extended Version)
12" Single • Released in 1987
4:03 • Studio version • B1 • 7" version
- Paul McCartney :
- Background vocals, Bass, Producer
- Nick Glennie-Smith :
- Background vocals, Fairlight, Keyboards
- Charlie Morgan :
- Background vocals, Drums
- Duane Eddy :
- Guitar
- Phil Pickett :
- Background vocals, Piano
- Jim Horn :
- Tenor sax
- Matt Howe :
- Second engineer
- John Jacobs :
- Recording engineer
- Session Recording:
- Feb 04, 1987
- Studio :
- Hog Hill Studio, Rye, UK
- Session Mixing:
- Feb 05, 1987
- Studio :
- Hog Hill Studio, Rye, UK
Official album • Released in 1987
4:03 • Studio version • B1 • 7" version
- Paul McCartney :
- Background vocals, Bass, Producer
- Nick Glennie-Smith :
- Background vocals, Fairlight, Keyboards
- Charlie Morgan :
- Background vocals, Drums
- Duane Eddy :
- Guitar
- Phil Pickett :
- Background vocals, Piano
- Jim Horn :
- Tenor sax
- Matt Howe :
- Second engineer
- John Jacobs :
- Recording engineer
- Session Recording:
- Feb 04, 1987
- Studio :
- Hog Hill Studio, Rye, UK
- Session Mixing:
- Feb 05, 1987
- Studio :
- Hog Hill Studio, Rye, UK
Wingspan Hits And History (US version)
Official album • Released in 2001
2:37 • Studio version • 2001 remaster
- Geoff Emerick :
- Remastering
- Peter Mew :
- Remastering
Wingspan Hits And History (Japanese version)
Official album • Released in 2001
2:37 • Studio version • 2001 remaster
- Geoff Emerick :
- Remastering
- Peter Mew :
- Remastering
Official album • Released in 2001
2:37 • Studio version • 2001 remaster
- Geoff Emerick :
- Remastering
- Peter Mew :
- Remastering
Bootlegs
Latest concerts where Rockestra Theme has been played
Concert For The People of Kampuchea
Dec 29, 1979 • United Kingdom • London • Hammersmith Odeon