| McCartney Leftovers Emerge In "The In-Laws"
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| April 28th, 2003 Get back, get back to what you once recorded!! Imagine my surprise when I went over to AOL, intent on checking my mail but first saw a blurb regarding a brand-new Paul McCartney ditty!?! Recorded for the soundtrack of a brand new movie, "The In-Laws"--or so one is led to believe-- the fine folks at AOL made it available for their constituency's listening pleasure! Only, while this flick itself is actually a remake of sorts, broadly based on the 1979 Peter Falk/Alan Arkin romp of the same name--this time starring the chuckle-inducing duo of Albert Brooks and Michael Douglas (...Michael Douglas?...)--it's STILL fresher than the music Sir Paul contributed to this cinematic enterprise, a little thing called "A Love For You"! Not immediately recognizing the rather non-descript title, I clicked the proper button in order to sample this "new" track, and instantaneously realized this was indeed a familiar piece of long-lost Macca. After two run-throughs, I dug out my "Cold Cuts" bootleg CD, and sure enough, there it was, initiating the festivities in the leadoff slot. True, the "In-Laws" version was shorter, and in fact most likely an entirely different take than the one included on what was once an almost-released collection of un-issued sides that Paul himself gathered together (a last minute change of mind kept the official version of this CD from consumer's sweaty little hands back in the mid-eighties, with McCartney later remarking that he had no further plans to put the collection out, inasmuch as the bootleg was pretty much available to anybody who REALLY wanted it!!...) Paul's "new" song dates back--are you ready for this?? --to the "Ram" sessions in 1971!! 1971!! That's a whole eight years BEFORE the original "In-Laws" laff-fest, one year AFTER Paul split from the other three lads, and. "choke"... THIRTYTWO years before getting a legitimate release!! As, the AOL brain trust would have it, Paul's "NEW" song!?! Yipes! Despite being shuffled off to the darkest recesses of the reel-to-reel archives all these decades, I gotta tell ya, it's actually a pretty good recording. Sprightly in the McCartney manner, with his underused falsetto carrying most of the tune, urged on by a relentless--and melodic-- acoustic guitar riff. Certainly, it's a far sight better than a fair share of stuff that none the less squeaked out of the MPL gates over the years, and yes, I'd judge it as being more memorable than "Vanilla Sky", Paul's last--and, as best I can tell, wholly contemporary--attempt at winning an Oscar for Best Song, being the title theme from the like-named filmic flop. Hey, remember that slogan NBC had for their summer reruns a few years back? "If you haven't seen it, it's new to you!!" Well, if you haven't heard it, it IS new to you!! It just ain't new to me and all the other obsessive Maccanites out there in the Pepperland's of our minds!! (..but at least it's an alternate take--must buy soundtrack, must buy soundtrack, must buy soundtrack...) Speaking of the Cute Beatle, as we seem to be incessantly around these parts, last week on my self-proclaimed McCartney Day, after I filed my report over these very airwaves, I was pleasantly surprised to see the man himself featured on the cover of my latest subscription copy of Britain's fine MOJO magazine!! What great timing! Beneath an uncharacteristically stern looking portrait of Macca ran the banner headline--"Battered. Slandered. Unbowed. McCartney--Why He's Tougher Than You Think". And right under THAT, in smaller type, in reference to another article contained within ran the blurb, "Yoko Ono--Why She's Nicer Than You Think"!?! Provocative statements, both--and more importantly, I wondered if, maybe, just maybe, there was an alternate Yoko cover somewhere out there too?!? Sure enough, right smack dab on the contents page was a small reproduction of the dreaded Yoko version!?! Only, unlike the time four different Beatles each merited their own quarter of the print run, the publisher's hastily informed us that the "super-rare " Yoko Ono cover is available only from specific retailers (check the enclosed list, all ye Beatles completists!), as a mere 1750 of these covers were printed! Rare--or uncommercial? YOU make the call!! I'm just relieved they chose to send me the, ahem, RIGHT cover, dig!?! |