Long Tailed Winter Bird

Last updated

"Long Tailed Winter Bird"
Song by Paul McCartney
from the album McCartney III
Released18 December 2020
RecordedEarly 2020
Studio Hogg Hill Mill, Sussex, England
Genre Rock, Progressive rock
Length5:16
Label Capitol
Songwriter(s) Paul McCartney
Producer(s) Paul McCartney
Music video
"Long Tailed Winter Bird" on YouTube

"Long Tailed Winter Bird" is a song by English musician Paul McCartney, released by Capitol Records. [1] The song is featured on McCartney's 2020 album McCartney III and was released on 18 December 2020.

Contents

Recording

McCartney stated that the song began "as a piece of film music which I extended. The title came about because it was extended into a full length song, we just called it ‘Long Tailed Winter Bird’" and further noted that "there is actually in my bird book I saw a long tailed duck, a long tailed winter duck I think". [2] The piece of film music in question was "Winter Bird" (also included on McCartney III), which McCartney noted he liked so much that after recording it he "then thought ‘OK let’s keep going’ and I started jamming on the same ideas but I lengthened it and then I started putting it on a guitar and drums and bass." [2] Audio engineer Steve Orchard noted it was the first full song recorded during the album's sessions, stating there were "a couple of versions of the outro music that sort of morphed into this groove that Paul’s playing - the main acoustic riff in that... that was the beginning of the whole record, it kind of took us off on this route.” [3]

Critical reception

In his review of McCartney III in Rolling Stone , critic Rob Sheffield referred to the song as "marvelous", citing its "frenzied folk guitar" as a highlight. [4] The Independent reviewer Helen Brown also praised the song, calling it an "exhilarating blast of swamp blues" and noted that its "finger-hammering fretwork and slam-strumming of the hypnotic, interwoven guitar patterns is so wild and vigorous that you'd never guess the man making it was well into the pandemic’s “vulnerable” demographic". [5] NME reviewer Mark Beaumont echoed Brown's assessment of the song as "swamp blues" while adding that the song helped "to shroud [McCartney III] in a rootsy, pastoral intimacy fitting for the times". [6]

Writing for Uncut , John Robinson positively compared the track to works by The Byrds and Crowded House. [7] Less impressed, Pitchfork reviewer Stuart Berman wrote that the song is "ultimately all warm-up with little payoff... always teasing that it's about to grow into something more peculiar and powerful, yet never quite getting there." [8]

Other versions

Along with every other song on McCartney III , partial sheet music was made available for "Long Tailed Winter Bird" prior to the album's release as part of a promotional campaign called "12 Days of Paul", [9] leading to a number of cover versions. [10] One of these, by The Umoza Music Project, was released as the b-side to their 2022 single "Home", which features McCartney on bass. [11]

As part of the remix album McCartney III Imagined (2021), "Long Tailed Winter Bird" received a remix by Damon Albarn. Another remix made by Idris Elba was added as a bonus track to physical copies of the album. [12] Elba's remix features additional lyrics performed by himself and McCartney. [13]

Personnel

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ed O'Brien</span> English musician

Edward John O'Brien is an English guitarist, songwriter and member of the rock band Radiohead. He releases solo music under the name EOB.

<i>Driving Rain</i> 2001 studio album by Paul McCartney

Driving Rain is the twelfth studio album by English musician Paul McCartney, released on 12 November 2001 as a double LP, a single cassette, and single CD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Idris Elba</span> English actor (born 1972)

Idrissa Akuna Elba is an English actor, rapper, singer, and DJ. An alumnus of the National Youth Music Theatre in London, he is known for roles including Stringer Bell in the HBO series The Wire (2002–2004), DCI John Luther in the BBC One series Luther (2010–2019), and Nelson Mandela in the biographical film Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013). For Luther, he received four nominations each for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor, winning one of the former.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Real Love (Beatles song)</span> 1979 song by John Lennon

"Real Love" is a song written by the English musician John Lennon, formerly of the Beatles. He recorded six demos of the song in 1979 and 1980 with "Real Life", a different song that merged with "Real Love". In 1988, the sixth take was posthumously released for the documentary soundtrack Imagine: John Lennon. In 1995, his demo was completed by his former Beatles bandmates as part of the Beatles Anthology project, along with "Free as a Bird".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blackbird (Beatles song)</span> 1968 song by The Beatles

"Blackbird" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album The Beatles. It was written by Paul McCartney with minor lyrical contributions from John Lennon, and credited to Lennon–McCartney, and performed as a solo piece by McCartney. When discussing the song, McCartney has said that the lyrics were inspired by hearing the call of a blackbird in Rishikesh, India, and by racial tension in the Southern United States.

<i>Chaos and Creation in the Backyard</i> 2005 studio album by Paul McCartney

Chaos and Creation in the Backyard is the thirteenth solo studio album by Paul McCartney, released on 12 and 13 September, 2005. Some 18 months in the making, the album was produced by Radiohead and Beck collaborator Nigel Godrich at George Martin's suggestion.

<i>Concert for George</i> (album) 2003 live album by various artists

Concert for George is a live tribute soundtrack album in honour of George Harrison, recorded on the first anniversary of his death, and issued in 2003 in conjunction with the simultaneous DVD release of the same name. Featuring performances of many of Harrison's best-known songs, played by his closest musician friends, Concert for George is considered a fitting and heartfelt celebration of Harrison's considerable career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free as a Bird</span> 1995 single by the Beatles

"Free as a Bird" is a single released in December 1995 by English rock band the Beatles. The song was originally written and recorded in 1977 as a home demo by John Lennon. In 1995, 25 years after their break-up and 15 years after Lennon's murder, his then surviving bandmates Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr released a studio version incorporating the demo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Venus and Mars/Rock Show</span> 1975 single by Wings

"Venus and Mars"/"Rock Show" is a medley of two songs written by Paul and Linda McCartney and originally performed by Wings that make up the first two songs of the album Venus and Mars. The single was released in the United States on 27 October 1975 and in the United Kingdom on 28 November 1975. The B-side is "Magneto and Titanium Man", another track from the album. The single version is considerably shorter than the album version of the songs; in the single "Rock Show" is cut by more than 3 minutes and "Venus and Mars" is cut by a few seconds. "Venus and Mars/Rock Show" peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, but did not chart on the UK singles chart, the first McCartney penned single to do so. In the book The Rough Guide to the Beatles, Chris Ingham praised both songs, describing "Venus and Mars" as "atmospheric" and "Rock Show" as "barnstorming".

<i>Love</i> (Beatles album) 2006 remix album by the Beatles

Love is a soundtrack remix album of music recorded by the Beatles, released in November 2006. It features music compiled and remixed as a mashup for the Cirque du Soleil show of the same name. The album was produced by George Martin and his son Giles Martin, who said, "What people will be hearing on the album is a new experience, a way of re-living the whole Beatles musical lifespan in a very condensed period."

<i>Let It Be... Naked</i> 2003 remix album by the Beatles

Let It Be... Naked is an alternative mix of the Beatles' 1970 album Let It Be, released on 17 November 2003 by Apple Records. The project was initiated by Paul McCartney, who felt that the original album's producer, Phil Spector, did not capture the group's stripped-down, live-to-tape aesthetic intended for the album. Naked consists largely of newly mixed versions of the Let It Be tracks while omitting the excerpts of incidental studio chatter and most of Spector's embellishments. It also omits two tracks from the 1970 release – "Dig It" and "Maggie Mae" – replacing them with "Don't Let Me Down", which was the non-album B-side of the "Get Back" single.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul McCartney</span> English musician and member of the Beatles (born 1942)

Sir James Paul McCartney is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One of the most successful composers and performers of all time, McCartney is known for his melodic approach to bass-playing, versatile and wide tenor vocal range, and musical eclecticism, exploring genres ranging from pre–rock and roll pop to classical, ballads, and electronica. His songwriting partnership with Lennon is the most successful in modern music history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five</span> 1974 single by Paul McCartney and Wings

"Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five" is a song by the British–American rock band Paul McCartney and Wings, released as the final track on their 1973 album Band on the Run. It has been featured on the 2001 documentary DVD Wingspan and Paul McCartney and Wings' 1974 TV special One Hand Clapping. A 2016 remix of the song was nominated for a Grammy Award. The song was referenced in Brett Easton Ellis’s novel Glamorama, driving a group of fictional supermodels to extreme terrorist acts.

The Beatles were originally a quartet, but only Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr remain.

"The Palace of the King of the Birds", also known as "The Castle of the King of the Birds", is a name given to an instrumental by the English rock band the Beatles. It was written by Paul McCartney and was originally recorded by the band during the Let It Be album sessions in three takes between 6 and 9 January, 1969, at Twickenham Film Studios. The recordings vary in length—the 6 January session is fourteen minutes one second long and turned into a loose jam, and was recorded with the demo of "Carry That Weight". The track was later forgotten, until McCartney recorded a still unreleased version, in his solo recordings, named "The Castle of the King of the Birds"; this version was recorded for the unreleased album Rupert the Bear, sometime in 1978, with Wings with a duration of 1:42. The song was used as the end-credits music for the first episode of the Disney+ documentary The Beatles: Get Back, in which it also makes a brief appearance earlier in the episode.

<i>Whats My Name</i> (Ringo Starr album) 2019 studio album by Ringo Starr

What's My Name is the 20th studio album by English singer-songwriter Ringo Starr. It was released on 25 October 2019 through Roccabella and Universal Music Enterprises. The album was again recorded at Roccabella West, Starr's home studio, and features collaborations with Joe Walsh, Benmont Tench, Edgar Winter, Steve Lukather, Richard Page, and Warren Ham. It also includes a cover of John Lennon's "Grow Old with Me", on which Starr invited Paul McCartney to sing and play bass guitar, and a solo version by Starr of "Money ", a Motown song previously recorded by the Beatles. Starr has stated that What's My Name will likely be his last full-length album, with plans to release EPs in the future instead.

<i>McCartney III</i> 2020 studio album by Paul McCartney

McCartney III is the 18th solo album by English musician Paul McCartney, released on 18 December 2020 by Capitol Records. It serves as a continuation to his solo albums McCartney (1970) and McCartney II (1980). Similar to those albums, McCartney III features McCartney on all instruments. It became McCartney's first UK number-one solo album since Flowers in the Dirt in 1989, and debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 albums chart. The album received a nomination at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards for "Best Rock Album", along with "Find My Way" for "Best Rock Song". In 2022, the album was packaged with McCartney and McCartney II as part of the McCartney I II III box set.

<i>McCartney III Imagined</i> 2021 remix album by Paul McCartney

McCartney III Imagined is a remix album of songs from McCartney III, the 18th solo album by English musician Paul McCartney. It was released digitally on 16 April 2021, with a physical version released on 23 July. It features remixes by numerous artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wild Wood (Paul Weller song)</span> 1993 single by Paul Weller

"Wild Wood" is a song by British singer-songwriter Paul Weller, released in August 1993 by Go! Discs as the second single from the singer's second solo album, Wild Wood (1993). The song was written by Weller and produced by Brendan Lynch, peaking at number 14 on the UK Singles Charts and being certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). A music video directed by Pedro Romhanyi was produced to promote the single. Portishead remixed the song for the 1999 re-release.

<i>McCartney I II III</i> 2022 box set by Paul McCartney

McCartney I II III is a box set by English musician Paul McCartney. Released on August 5, 2022, it contains McCartney's three eponymous solo albums: McCartney (1970), McCartney II (1980), and McCartney III (2020). The release was made available on CD and both limited edition colored and standard black vinyl. All three albums feature McCartney on all instruments and vocals, with the exception of harmony vocals provided by Linda McCartney on McCartney, and the track "Slidin'" from McCartney III, which features drums and guitar performed by members of his backing band. Additionally, the three albums were primarily recorded at McCartney's home studios, with the first recorded in London, the second in Scotland and the third in Sussex.

References

  1. ↑ McCartney III by Paul McCartney, 18 December 2020, retrieved 28 March 2023
  2. 1 2 Smith, Thomas (23 December 2020). "Paul McCartney: read the exclusive track-by-track story of 'McCartney III'". NME. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  3. ↑ Williams, Stuart (18 December 2020). "Exclusive: The making of McCartney III". Music Radar. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  4. ↑ Sheffield, Rob (17 December 2020). "Paul McCartney Delivers a Playful Gem with 'McCartney III'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  5. ↑ Brown, Helen (17 December 2020). "Paul McCartney III review: Melodic charm, craftsmanship and open-minded optimism make this solo album a real treat". The Independent. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  6. ↑ Beaumont, Mark (17 December 2020). "'McCartney III' review: an unpredictable quest of musical evolution". NME. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  7. ↑ Robinson, John (17 December 2020). "Paul McCartney – McCartney III". Uncut. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  8. ↑ Berman, Stuart (17 December 2020). "McCartney III". Uncut. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  9. ↑ "The 12 Days of Paul... as in McCartney". iHeart Radio. 11 December 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  10. ↑ "12 Days of Paul". McCartney III. 6 December 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  11. ↑ ""Home" single". Facebook. 17 June 2022. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  12. ↑ "McCartney III Imagined". Paul McCartney. 16 April 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  13. ↑ "Long Tailed Winter Bird [Idris Elba Remix]". Genius. 23 July 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  14. ↑ "'Long Tailed Winter Bird'". The Paul McCartney Project. 18 December 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.