Mike McGear - Do Nothing All Day (1981)

Peter Michael McCartney, known professionally as Mike McGear, is a British musician and rock photographer who was a member of the groups The Scaffold and GRIMMS. Oh, and by the way he's Paul McCartney younger brother. When the Beatles became successful, he was working as an apprentice hairdresser alongside future actor Lewis Collins, and was also a member of the Liverpool comedy-poetry-music group The Scaffold, which included Roger McGough and John Gorman. McCartney decided to use a stage name, so as not to appear to be riding his brother's coattails, and after first trying out Mike Blank, he settled on Mike McGear, 'gear' being the Liverpudlian equivalent of 'fab'. The Scaffold recorded a number of UK hit singles between 1966 and 1974, the most successful being the 1968 Christmas number one 'Lily the Pink', and in 1967 he composed the band's next biggest hit 'Thank U Very Much'. In 1968, he and McGough released the album 'McGough & McGear', which included the usual Scaffold mix of lyrics, poems, and comedy, after which he signed a solo deal with Island Records, releasing 'Woman' in 1972, as well as another album with The Scaffold, 'Fresh Liver'. The Scaffold then added several more members and released two albums on Island as GRIMMS, an acronym for (John) Gorman / (Andy) Roberts / (Neil) Innes / McGear / McGough / (Vivian) Stanshall), but after the second album McGear quit due to tension between himself and one of the poets in the group, signing to Warner Brothers Records and releasing what is generally regarded as his finest album, 1974's self-titled 'McGear'. The record was a collaboration with his brother and his band Wings, and mixed melodic pop, hard rockers, heartfelt ballads, and a dose of eccentricity, as well as containing one of his best ever songs in 'The Man Who Found God On The Moon'. 'Leave It' had already been released as a single and paved the way for the album to become his biggest success, and when it was recently re-issued McGear raided his vaults to uncover a number of previously unreleased recordings - enough in fact to make up a companion album to 'McGear'. It includes the earlier single 'Dance The Do' (with Vivian Stanshall), as well as subsequent singles 'Do Nothing All Day' and 'All The Whales In The Ocean', to which I've tagged on his 1981 tribute to Princess Diana as Mike McGear & The Monarchists, 'No Lar Di Dar'. Add in a few choice out-takes, a couple of road safety ads and an alternative take of 'Leave It' and you have a great little collection which shows just how much talent runs through the family. 

Track listing

01 Sweet Baby
02 Dance The Do
03 Leave It (alternative version)
04 Do Nothing All Day
05 A To Z
06 Keep Cool (Version 1)
07 Girls On The Avenue
08 All The Whales In The Ocean
09 Blowin' In The Bay
10 Keep Cool (Version 2)
11 I Juz Want What You Got - Money
12 Let's Turn The Radio On
13 No Lar Di Dar (Tribute To Diana, Princess Of Wales)
14 God Save The Gracious Queen 

Paul McCartney & Wings - C Moon (1973)

As I mentioned in the 'Red Rose Speedway' post, once we'd worked which songs were going to be included on that proposed double album, we could then take all the other out-takes, non-albums singles and b-sides, and compile them into a couple of nice little collections. 'Hi Hi Hi' / 'C Moon' was released as a 7" single in 1972, but radio stations became a bit uneasy about playing a song with 'high' in the lyrics, so they flipped it over and started playing the b-side, resulting in 'C Moon' becoming a surprise number 2 hit single for the band. 'Walking In The Park With Eloise' / 'Bridge Over The River Suite' was released as a 7" single in 1974 by The Country Hams, who were in fact Wings, plus a couple of guest musicians on the b-side. Both tracks were instrumentals, and not really in the normal style of Wings' other material, so McCartney issued them under a pseudonym, just as he did with the 'Percy 'Thrills' Thrillington' album some  years later. 'Live And Let Die' is a classic Bond theme, and one of the best ever attached to the films, but the version I've used for this album is by just the band, with no orchestral overdubs, and I think it fits in so perfectly with the rest of the album that you hardly notice the lack of strings. 
'Jazz Street' and '1882' were originally intended for 'Red Rose Speedway', but there were just too many songs under consideration for the final track listing, and so these two had to be left off the proposed double album version of that release. '1882' was going to be a live version of a song that had been hanging around since 1970 but never properly recorded, but as I can hear no audience noise on this version then it must be the rumoured studio recording from January 1972. 'The Great Cock And Seagull Race' was another old song, recorded during the 'Ram' sessions, and was originally planned to be the b-side of the 'Hi Hi Hi' single, but it was replaced at the last minute by 'C Moon', and 'Little Woman Love' was another song recorded during the 'Ram' sessions, and released two years later as the b-side to 'Mary Had A Little Lamb'. 'Give Ireland Back To The Irish' was the band's debut single in 1972, and you might be hearing it for the first time here, as although it breached the top 20 in the UK, US audiences felt alienated by the overtly political stance, and airplay was so marginal that it was in effect banned from US radio. 'Helen Wheels', named after Paul and Linda's Land Rover, was much more successful, hitting number 12 in the UK, and although it was included on the US edition of their 1973 album 'Band On The Run', in the UK it remained a stand-alone single.

Track listing

01 C Moon (single 1972)
02 Jazz Street (previously unreleased 1972)
03 1882 (previously unreleased 1972)
04 Walking In The Park With Eloise (single 1974)
05 Hi Hi Hi (single 1972)
06 Bridge On The River Suite (b-side of 'Walking In The Park With Eloise')
07 Helen Wheels (single 1973)
08 Mary Had A Little Lamb (single 1972)
09 Live And Let Die (single 1973)
10 Little Woman Love (b-side of 'Mary Had A Little Lamb')
11 The Great Cock And Seagull Race (previously unreleased 1970)
12 Give Ireland Back To The Irish (single 1972)

Paul McCartney & Wings - Junior's Farm (1975)

During late 1973 and through to 1975 Paul McCartney and the band recorded a number of songs destined for one-off singles, b-sides, or projects that were later shelved, and the best of them are gather here. 'Proud Mum' was recorded during the 'Venus And Mars' sessions, and was originally intended to be used in a Mother's Pride bread advert, but I think it nicely book-ends this album. 'Junior's Farm' was one of their best singles, and yet it's never appeared on any album other than Greatest Hits collections, while the b-side 'Sally G' was McCartney's attempt at a credible country song. This led to a challenge for Denny Laine to write a country song as well, and with a little help from McCartney he came up with 'Send Me The Heart'. In late 1973 the band recorded a number of songs which were to be the basis of a Linda McCartney solo album, under the name of Suzy And The Red Stripes. 'Seaside Woman' was completed and released as a single, and was also intended for inclusion on the double album version of 'Red Rose Speedway', before if was removed when that album was slimmed down to a single record. Also recorded at those sessions were 'Luxy' (a tribute to Radio Luxembourg?), 'Oriental Nightfish', 'I Got Up', and an eleven minute take of 'Wide Prairie'. All of these songs eventually appeared on the posthumous Linda McCartney album 'Wide Prairie' in 1998, while 'Oriental Nightfish' was also used as the soundtrack to an animated film of the same name in 1978. 'Soily' was often performed during their concerts, usually as an encore, but the version here is a rare studio take, and 'Zoo Gang' was written as the theme tune to a UK crime drama TV series, and also turned up as the b-side of the 'Band On The Run' single. All in all this is a great collection of rare and hard to find songs from the peak period of the band's popularity. 

Track listing

01 Proud Mum (previously unrleased 1975)

02 Junior's Farm (single 1974)

03 Oriental Nightfish (Suzy & The Red Stripes sessions 1973)

04 Luxy (Suzy & The Red Stripes sessions 1973)

05 Wide Prairie (Suzy & The Red Stripes sessions 1973)

06 Sally G (b-side of 'Junior's Farm')

07 One Hand Clapping (previously unrleased 1974)

08 I Got Up (Suzy & The Red Stripes sessions 1973)

09 Soily (previously unrleased 1974)

10 Zoo Gang (b-side of 'Band On The Run' 1973)

11 Send Me The Heart (previously unreleased 1974)

12 Going To New Orleans (My Carnival) (previously unreleased 1975)

13 Proud Mum (Reprise) (previously unreleased 1975)

Paul McCartney & Wings - Red Rose Speedway (Double album) 1973

Back in 2013 the godfather of these sites, soniclovenoize of Albums That Never Were, posted a reconstruction of the legendary double album edition of Wings' second album 'Red Rose Speedway'. For many years I enjoyed this expanded edition of one of Paul McCartney's most under-rated albums, and was impressed at the number of rare songs that he'd unearthed to make up the album. Move forward five years and 'Red Rose Speedway' is treated to a Deluxe re-issue, and as part of the promotion, Paul himself was asked by the excellent The Paul McCartney Project website if a recently unearthed 1973 track-listing was what he would have liked to have used, and he obliged with the answer, saying “You know, this is actually how I recollect that double album. I don’t remember exactly why we changed it. Possibly because of the label? But, to be honest, it’s more likely that I would have just said it’s so much easier to deal with a single album. They’re so much easier to deal with! But it’s great the double album will finally get a release!” So this post is basically an update of sonic's post, but with the tracks in the order that McCartney had intended that they should have been, and housed in anew cover. Now that we know which of the many out-takes that have surfaced over the years were actually meant for 'Red Rose Speedway', we can take the rest of them, add a few singles and b-sides, and compile a couple of interesting early albums that could have been issued in 1973 and 1974, which I'll be posting later. But to start this short series here is the expanded edition of 'Red Rose Speedway'.

Track listing

01 Night Out
02 Get On The Right Thing
03 Country Dreamer
04 Big Barn Bed
05 My Love
06 Single Pigeon
07 When The Night
08 Seaside Woman
09 I Lie Around
10 The Mess
11 Best Friend
12 Loup (1st Indian On The Moon)
13 Medley
     a) Hold Me Tight
     b) Lazy Dynamite
     c) Hands Of Love
     d) Power Cut
14 Mama’s Little Girl
15 I Would Only Smile
16 One More Kiss
17 Tragedy
18 Little Lamb Dragonfly

Paul McCartney & Wings - Hot Hitz & Cold Cutz (1978)

Rumours circulated throughout the 80's and 90's that Paul McCartney was going to release an album called 'Hot Hits And Cold Cuts', which would have been a collection of hit singles and some rarer tracks. For whatever reason, this never happened, and so it was up to us to put together our own compilations. My own personal one collected early non-album singles and b-sides, together with a few later hits which which I didn't have in my collection, so this was really just for me. However, I think there's enough rare stuff on here for the average fan to enjoy.

Track Listing

01 Another Day
02 Maybe I'm Amazed
03 Mary Had A Little Lamb
04 Give Ireland Back To The Irish
05 Hi Hi Hi
06 C Moon
07 My Love
08 Rockestra Theme
09 Live And Let Die
10 Helen Wheels
11 Sally G
12 Junior's Farm
13 The Zoo Gang
14 With A Little Luck
15 London Town
16 Goodnight Tonight
17 Comin' Up
18 Old Siam, Sir
19 Waterfalls