Paul talks about his playing.....

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Mackenzie...

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:36 pm

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I know this might seem old, but I just found this old Guitar Player
magazine printed 19 years ago. This might seem a little outdated, but
I have found it and it is interesting-here it is (also there is a
section about Paul's touring equipment):

Question: Although you obviously didn't abandon guitar altogether
with the Beatles, did you ever feel that you had hopelessly locked
yourself in the role of bassist?

Paul McCartney: It's funny, actually. I have problems with one of the
books that has been written about us, because the guy obviously didn't
like me. That's fair enough. But this guy started to make up a whole
story of how I was so keen to be the bass player that I really did a
number on Stuart Sutcliff, the original bass player. He made it sound
as if I had planned this whole thing to become the Beatles bass
player. I remember ringing George up shortly after this book came out,
and I asked him, "Do you remember me really going hard to chuck Stu
out of the group and be a bass player?" And he said, "No, you got
lumbered with bass, man. None of us would do it." I said, "Well,
that's how I remembered it." Because it's true: We all wanted to be
guitar players.

Question: Do you have any favorite guitar parts that you played with
the Beatles?

Paul McCartney: I liked "Taxman" just because of what it was. I was
very inspired by Jimi Hendrix. It was really my first voyage into
feedback. I had this friend in London, John Mayall of the
Bluesbreakers, who used to play me a lot of records late at night --
he was a kind if DJ-type guy. You'd go back to his place, and he's sit
you down, give you a drink, and say, "Just check this out." He'd go
over to his deck, and for hours he'd blast you with B.B. King, Eric
Clapton -- he was sort of showing me where all of Eric's stuff was
from, you know. He gave me a little evening's education in that. I was
turned on after that and I went and bought an Epiphone. So then I
could wind up with the Vox amp and get some nice feedback. It was just
before George was into that. In fact, I don't think George did get too
heavily into that kind of thing. George was generally a little more
restrained in his guitar playing. He wasn't into heavy feedback.

Question: So, even hearing Jimi Hendrix and John Mayall's records
didn't make you think that you should give up bass to pursue guitar?

Paul McCartney: Not really, no. I'd always felt that the bass thing
was really it, because we had to have a bass player. At the very
beginning, I did think, "Well that's put shot to any plans I had of
being a guitar player." But I got interested in bass as a lead
instrument. I think around the time of Sgt. Pepper -- "With a Little
Help from my Friends" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" -- there
were some pretty good bass lines. Like Motown. Like Brian Wilson's
lines in the Beach Boys. So, it was okay by the time I came to do
that. But with "Taxman," I got the guitar and was playing around in
the studio with the feedback and stuff, and I said to George, "Maybe
you could play it like this." I can't quite remember how it happened
that I played it, but it was probably one of those times when somebody
says, "Well, why don't you do it then?"

Question: Rather than spend the time teaching someone else?

Paul McCartney: Rather than spend the time to get the idea over. And I
don't think George was too miffed. But when people say, "Great solo on
'Taxman'," I don't think he's too pleased to have to say, "Well, that
was Paul, actually." I didn't really do much like that -- just once or
twice. I also kind of liked the part I did on "Blackbird" on acoustic;
that was one of my favorites.

Question: How did you react when, in the late '60s, a new breed of
lead bassists such as Jack Bruce and John Entwistle emerged?

Paul McCartney: I thought it was quite interesting. To me, it depends
who you're talking about, and what record, but often I thought it was
too busy. I often thought it was like the bass as lead guitar, and I
don't think it makes as nice a noise as lead guitar. It's sort of like
speed merchants. I've never been one. I remember reading where someone
said that someone's the fastest bass player ever, and I thought, "Big
deal." You know, there used to be a guy in Britain -- I think he's
still around -- called Bert Weedon, who used to come onto the
children's TV programs. He used to say, "I'm now going to play 1,000
notes in a minute." And then he'd get one string and go dididididid
and play up and down, hitting it very, very fast. It was quite funny,
actually. It's one thing to be fast, but that's short-lived. I think
I'd rather be melodic. I'd rather have content than just speed.

Question: Any favorite bass players or guitarists today?

Paul McCartney: I like Stanley Clarke. We only really met once, and
just had a bit of fun in Montserrat. And he played on a couple of
tracks. I admitted to him, "Hey, I'm trying to steal your licks, man!"
He said, "Oh, you've got licks of your own." So, we just had a bit of
fun. I decided not to steal his licks after all; he was right. He's
got his style; I've got my style. And he's a great guy. I like Eddie
Van Halen as a player. He gets it right quite often. I like a lot of
heavy metal guys because they wind it up. What I usually like in a
heavy metal band is the guitar player. But when it's just miles of
scales, I lose interest. I like some of the hot sounds. And I also
like David Gilmour. I think Clapton is real good, particularly these
days. But I still like Hendrix the best.

Question: Have you ever had any doubts about your playing?

Paul McCartney: Definitely. Often. Probably every time I've done a
bass part. I have some self doubts because I think, "Oh, my God; I've
made so many records. How am I going to make this sound fresh?" But if
you're lucky, you just get a little thing, like, you know, in "Rain."
Where there's this sort of high stuff. Then you go, "Ooh, I've got
it!" And the rest of the part flows because you've got something to
feel special about. "Paperback Writer" -- there's something. Or the
lines that I discovered in "With a Little Help from My Friends." And
what gets rid of the self-doubt is just plugging at it, and finding
something to sort of release myself with.

Question: On guitar do you mostly fingerpick or flatpick?

Paul McCartney: I normally use a flatpick. John learned, I think I
read recently, off Donovan or one of Donovan's friends who were more
into the folk thing, so they would fingerpick in the proper way, first
string, third string, and all that -- the proper thing. I got my own
little sort of cheating way of doing it, so on "Blackbird" I'm
actually sort of pulling two strings all the time. But then, when it
gets to the little fingerpicking sort of thing, it's not real. I
figured, anyway, that everyone else was doing that correct stuff, so
it wouldn't hurt.

Question: It certainly doesn't sound like strum, strum, strum.

Paul McCartney: No, it's more like fingerpicking. I kind of liked it.
I was trying to emulate those folk players. John was the only one who
actually stuck at it and learned it. If you listen to "Julia," he's
playing properly with fingerpicking on that. I was always quite proud
of the lad. I think he just had a friend who showed him, and that's a
really nice part on "Julia." But I could never be bothered, really,
learning things. You know, I'm a great learner. I always sort of
figure something out. Like, I've never had guitar lessons, bass
lessons, piano lessons, music-writing lessons, songwriting lessons, or
horse-riding lessons, for that matter, or painting -- I do some of
that. I always jump into things, and so by the time I'm ready for my
first lesson, I'm beyond it. I always did try to have music lessons. I
always tried to have someone teach me to notate music, because I still
don't know to this day.

Question: You're doing okay.

Paul McCartney: But I figure I'm doing okay, yeah [laughs]. I tried
when I was a kid, and I just couldn't get it -- it just didn't seem
like nice fun to me. It seemed like hard work. I tried piano lessons
when I was 16, but then I'd already written "When I'm 64" -- the
melody of it, anyway. And so the guy taking me back to five-finger
exercises was really just hell, it was torturing me. I'd been plunking
around on little chords, and I had a little bass line. So I never got
on with that. And it was the same with everything -- like I say,
fingerpicking or anything else. I've always just sort of busked it and
learned, and I enjoyed the accident.

Question: You're doing a lot more guitar now, including part of the
album that was only released in the U.S.S.R. Did you suddenly feel
that you could get up and play a set of rock and roll without
restraint?

Paul McCartney: Well, the thing is, it's brilliant because you see
these kids nowadays playing air guitar. When I look at them I go,
"Ooh, I know just what you mean!" Guitars are like that, aren't they?
They're beautiful! Kids can even play them without their guitar and
get a vibe. So, I happened to see an old blues guy on T.V. in England,
and he said, "Well, man, I've been playing this guitar 20 years now,"
and I started to think how long I'd been playing. And it was longer,
you know. When you hear a blues guy say he's been playing 20 years, it
sounds like he's paid his dues, there's heritage. I'd never thought
about how long I've been playing. I've been playing longer than 20!
God, I'm qualified, therefore. I've kind of got my license to fly. And
so if kids are into air guitars, well, I think I might just plug it in
and do the same thing as they're doing and have some fun with it --
not worry about it, and just go for it. And so that's kind of what I
do now. I know what I like to hear. I try to keep it simple because
I'm not the world's fastest or anything, and like I say, I've never
practiced scales in my life, so I couldn't do some of these heavy
metal runs. I figure a lot of that is just because the guys are
properly trained, and that's what they've learned -- scales. Some of
it, I think, is, well, boring. Some of it is just endless scales. But
probably why I like some of the heavy metal thing is because it's the
guitar that generally turns me on.

Question: You used fuzz bass very early. Was it a sort of substitute
for playing guitar?

Paul McCartney: I love fuzz bass. Yeah, it helps you be a bit more
lyrical because it makes the notes linger, gives you a bit more
sustain. That used to really turn the whole thing around.

Question: The Rickenbacker bass seemed to do that without the fuzz.

Paul McCartney: Well, the thing now is that the new fuzzes are not
quite as good as the old fuzzes were. The technology's changed. And
there were a lot of primitive things that we used to use in the
Beatles -- prehistoric machines. One of my theories about sound
nowadays is that the machines back then were more fuck-upable. I'm not
sure if that's in the dictionary. But they were more destructible. You
could actually make a desk [recording console] overload, whereas now
they're all made so that no matter what idiot gets on them, they won't
overload. Most of the old equipment we used, you could get to really
surprise you. Now a brand-new desk is built for idiots like us to
trample on. We used to do a great trick with acoustic guitars, like on
"Ob La Di, Ob La Da." I played acoustic on that, an octave above the
bass line. It gave a great sound -- like when you have two singers
singing in octaves, it really reinforces the bass line. We got them to
record the acoustic guitars in the red. The recording engineers said,
"Oh my God! This is going to be terrible!" We said, "Well, just try
it." We had heard mistakes that happened before that and said, "We
love that sound. What's happening?" And they said, "That's because
it's in the red." So we recorded slammin' it in the red. And these old
boards would distort just enough, and compress and suck. So instead of
going [imitates staccato "Ob La Di" riff] dink dink dink dink, it just
flowed. So, a new fuzz box just won't go as crazy as an old one would.
And it does make it all a little bit cleaner, which I'm not wild on,
actually. I'm a big fan of blues records and stuff, where there's
never a clean moment. Nothing was ever clean. It was always one old,
ropey mike stuck somewhere near the guitar player, and you could hear
his foot more than some things.
So I was able to get back into playing guitar with Hamish
in the band. I was able to get back to one of my dreams. And Linda was
a big fan of my guitar playing, whereas I've got my doubts. I think
there are proper guitar players and then there are guys like me who
love playing it, but we haven't played it for 20 years. But what's
nice about that is that since I haven't been playing for 20 years, I
haven't run out of ideas. I haven't actually tried half of my ideas on
guitar yet. So this tour has given me a chance now, with Hamish, to
open up. I'm actually playing some solos and getting more comfortable
with electric -- because I do love it. I do have quite a good feel on
it, but I haven't got 20-year-old chops -- I mean 20 years of playing,
not a 20-year-old person [laughs].

Question: You've got a good sound

Paul McCartney: Yeah, it's alright. And it's slightly different. I
notice Lou Reed playing guitar now, and I think it's the same kind of
thing. You suddenly realize, "Jesus, I started off as a guitar
player." I've been playing longer than some dudes around. Maybe I can
do it. And you just get rid of this bass-player mentality for a few
numbers, and it's great.

Question: Meaning you play a little lighter on guitar?

Paul McCartney: It depends. I like the real sort of dirty stuff.

Question: Why did you choose a Les Paul for this tour instead of, say,
a Stratocaster?

Paul McCartney: I've got a Strat, actually -- I've got a large
collection of guitars. It's really just because it performs very well.
I tried a couple of guitars. But onstage like this, because I'm new to
this particular experience, I wanted something that I knew was great.
And I know Les Pauls are great. I wanted something reliable. And I
know you can get subtle tones and subtle combinations of sounds, but I
don't need that. I only need, like, bing, bing, bing -- three tones.
And I'll only use two: treble pickup and bass pickup. And I hardly
ever use the bass, although sometimes I flick it on and hit the
distortion pedal, and I get a nice, sort of Isley Brothers sound. It
seems to sustain better with the bass pickup. It's really good fun for
me.

Question: Do you ever just sit around at home and tweak your amp to
explore its tones?

Paul McCartney: I do that mainly in the studio, which is almost like
home. I can go in and just goof, and sometimes I just work on guitar
sounds. I can get a nice clean sound fairly easily. It's the pumped-up
sounds that I like to experiment with. I've got one of the old Vox
AC30s that Jeff Beck used to call "the old Beatle bashers." I once
asked him if he used them, and he said, "What? Those old Beatle
bashers?" Then he realized what he'd said [laughs]. But I love the
sound of them; I actually love the straight sound. It's pokey. It's
not too clean. I'm not a big fan of clean in rock and roll. It's
funny, in a way, because I guess I've got a reputation for being a
fairly clean rock and roller. But my taste doesn't extend that way.

Question: If you really want a clean sound, you can always go
acoustic.

Paul McCartney: Yeah. Or, [whispers] you can just turn down. That's
the perfect way to get clean. But that's no fun at all! This is Back
to the Future, guys. You want a whole wall of this stuff. So, yeah. I
sit around and experiment with pedals, too.

Question: Have you ever gone on an equipment-buying spree?

Paul McCartney: Occasionally. My first Epiphone was one of them, where
I just went down to a guitar shop after having heard B.B. King, Eric
Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix, and I wanted something that fed back. He
said, "This Epiphone will do it, because it's semi-acoustic." And he
was right. The only reason I don't use it onstage is because it's a
little too hot. It's great in the studio. You've got to stand in the
right position for it not to feed back -- we always had to do that in
the studio, but nowadays guitars don't do this.

Question: That's a right-handed guitar, isn't it?

Paul McCartney: Yeah, it's right-handed, but I play left -- I had the
nut changed.

Question: Do you run your picking arm into the knobs all the time?

Paul McCartney: Yeah, but that's all I know. It was only much later in
my career when I got the luxury of having it my way 'round. You know,
I'm kind of used to playing what we call in Liverpool cac-handed.
Spell that as you will; nobody's done it yet. Or, gammy-handed, which
is what they also call left-handed people.

Question: How did you get this band together?

Paul McCartney: We started during the making of Flowers in the Dirt.
First of all, I wanted to play live, because I was in the studio every
day doing bits and pieces. And the easiest thing to do was have a jam
once a week -- invite a few people, see who shows up. The original
idea was to have a kind of thing where anyone who wanted to showed up.
But that started to get a little too inexact, because one week you
might have no one show up, or you might have 50 people show up. So we
invited people to a Friday-evening jam, and each week we had a
different lineup of people. Basically, when I'm jamming, I just run
through all the old rock and roll numbers that I know. So that's songs
like "Lucille," "Matchbox," "Lawdy Miss Clawdy," "Bring it on Home" --
you know, all those kinds of standards. And the drummer who always
stood out was Chris. He wasn't too set in his ways.

Question: And?

Paul McCartney: [Laughs.] Well, we're talking drummers here, and if
you get a drummer who's absolutely set in his ways, sometimes you'll
get one who'll say, "I can't play to that." So you need someone who's
a little bit flexible. He's young enough not to be set in his ways,
and good enough to hold a good, strict tempo. Younger guys normally
have trouble with things like shuffles. They're not from those times.
People like Ringo have an automatic shuffle -- it's part of his
repertoire. It's like a gear he can go into. And I know from the
little bit of drumming I do that a shuffle is pretty hard to do -- to
get a nice loose shuffle. Apparently, Chris was nervous as all hell,
and it was the worst day of his life. But he played great anyway, so
we invited him back, and he became a regular. I decided to do some
recording from those, because the jams were feeling good and we were
building up a loose repertoire. So we did what became the album that
was released exclusively in Russia.

Question: Was it your original plan to release an album at that
stage?

Paul McCartney: Originally, it was just going to be jams. Then the
next move was, "These are sounding good, man. You should record 'em."
So we went down to my studio for two days, and did 18 songs the first
day. It was, like, unheard-of; I'm sure no one will ever try that, but
it's actually great fun. We got a lot done, and out of it we had some
pretty good stuff -- you surprise yourself with it. So we did that for
two days. The second day was a different lineup, and each time we
spent five minutes on each song. And in the end, we had quite a nice
selection of rock and roll stuff. I said, "Well, look. I'm not really
happy to release this as my next album."

Question: It wouldn't show all sides of you very well, since you are
also a songwriter.

Paul McCartney: Well, actually, I wasn't really looking at that side
of it. It just seemed like unfinished work, just jams. It was just
like looning around at home. But then people said, "What's this? It
sounds fresh; it's spontaneous." We wanted to pretend the Russians had
done a bootleg in London. And we were going to manufacture some
records as bootlegs, and say, "Look at this! It's a Russian bootleg of
some secret McCartney tapes." But then the record company and my
manager said, "No, you can't do that in your position," and all that.
I said we could have done that when we were starting out. They said,
"Yeah, but things are different now." So I said, [with mock sneer]
"Oh, you bunch of wimps! I hate you. You're so predictable." I really
was quite disappointed by it. I thought it was a brilliant idea. And
risky! That's what I liked about it, that element of fun,
electricity.
But then my manager, who also was disappointed that we
couldn't do it, came back later and said we should do something with
it. So we decided to come out with it exclusively in Russia, and
nowhere else. That had never been done. It's a great glasnost thing.
And it was the first gold disk to come out of Russia. So then it was
time to get on with my proper studio album, Flowers in the Dirt, and I
wanted somebody to work with on guitar and singing. So, one way or
another, we knew that Hamish was not doing a lot -- well, he was
writing and he had just gotten into a minor record deal in L.A. with a
band that the record label had put together. We figured he was
committed to it, but that he might be persuaded to do something else
with us.

Question: Did it take heavy persuasion?

Paul McCartney: Yeah, you know, we had to break his knees [laughs].
So, he came along, and we just goofed around in the studio for a day,
and we made up a track, just to see how he could work in a spontaneous
situation, rather than audition him. Because I think it's rather
embarrassing to do an audition, when you're talking about fully grown
musicians who have had careers. You can't audition them. It's
humiliating. So we made up a song, and I was really impressed with the
way Hamish harmonized with anything I did. He was really listening to
what I was doing, and our voices blended nicely. He played good
guitar, and I noticed that he also played good bass. If I wanted to
play guitar on this tour, I needed someone who could handle bass, so
Hamish was in. He, Chris, and I were the backbone of the album.
Linda came in to do harmonies; she, Hamish, and I blended
well. I've heard a lot of flack in the past from people who have said,
"Well, she's untrained. How come she's in?" And I say, "Look, man, you
name me any decent group, and hardly any of them are trained."
Everything from your roots, everything you love -- like the Shagri-Las
-- has that ballsy thing. I'd much rather have that. I did, once or
twice, try some bona fide session singers, but they were so
professional that I didn't enjoy myself. It was on. It was in tune.
But, I hate to say, I just didn't really like the noise that came out.
I asked her if she wanted to join the band, to go through the rigors
of getting out on the road again, and she was up for it.
Then we were looking for a guitar player. And I'm very
fussy about guitar players. I go back too far to be satisfied easily.
I knew Jimi Hendrix when he was playing in London, and I was a major,
major fan. In fact, he still is my favorite guitar player -- just
through his whole attitude and his playing. I mean, I like attitude,
but it's no good unless you can play. In fact, some of the attitude
kinds of things, like picking with his teeth, Jimi didn't really want
to do. It was just show, and he got fed up with that very quickly
because he was a real proper guitar player. He played lovely acoustic,
too. He was the first guy to really wind it up, to get into heavy
feedback. I caught his first gig in London, and I used to follow him
around London, like a fan. It's a very small area, and people would
ring me up and say, "Jimi's playing at Blazes tonight" or at the Bag
O' Nails -- and I was there.
One of my greatest memories was that we released Sgt.
Pepper's on Friday night, and on Sunday night Jimi was playing at the
Savile Theatre, which Brian Epstein used to run, just for something to
do on a Sunday night. There was never any entertainment on for Sunday
night, so Brian began to book people in, like Chuck Berry and Fats
Domino. And we could go into a little, special box, and not be
bothered, and we could watch all these great acts. So Jimi came on,
and he opened up with Sgt. Pepper's, which had only been released on
Friday. That was a great, great memory. Since then, I've seen people
like Clapton, who I admire a lot, and David Gilmour. And there's just
something there about what I'd call a real guitar player. They hold
the instrument right, they play it right. They have the right attitude
about it, and they've got something individual that each one of them
that's special brings to it. In the jams, I suppose I was mildly
disappointed that I never really found the guitarist who really blew
me off my feet -- although there were some really good players. Johnny
Marr showed up, and we had a great time. The kind of guy I was looking
for was more of a Hendrix type, where Johnny's more of a rhythm
guitarist cum lead. All these guys were brilliant.
Robbie eventually showed up for a session to do a bit of
overdubbing, and Chrissie Hynde, who he's worked for previously with
the Pretenders, had said to Linda, "Robbie would be a great guitarist
for you guys. He's Beatles-mad." He knows all the Beatles repertoire;
in fact, I reckon he knows it better than me. He's one of the guys who
knows all the solos. He learned them all as a kid; he's just that much
younger than me. He was a fan when he started out. So, I was impressed
-- and I think we were all impressed with each other's sense of humor
by that time. So it got kind of like, "Well, there's no sense in
bustin' this crowd up."
Eventually Wix [Paul Wickens], who was a friend of
Robbie's, came along. He was a session man cum producer and a keyboard
wiz. We figured we needed someone who was really up on sampling if we
weren't going to take out brass or strings. He's more than that, but
can cover that angle. So Wix came in as more of a computer/keyboard
wiz, and Linda was happy to take a kind of second keyboard chair.
That's what she's happier with. The kind of music she likes is
simpler. She's not a great jazz fan, for instance; she wouldn't like a
solo because it has a million notes in it. Like me, she's a big fan of
Jimi Hendrix. She's into sound. It has to sound right for her -- which
I really dig. I think that's really right. Sometimes a guy can play no
notes at all, and sound incredible.
So that's the band, anyway. And, between us, we all had
this silly sense of humor. We kept looking for a name for the band,
and couldn't decide on anything. Lumpy Trousers was the consensus
everyone came up with, but we ended up not naming it anyway. So the
tour took my name, which seemed like the best idea at the time.

Question: Did you work up much of the music with the band before
recording?

Paul McCartney: No, it was just like a regular studio album, with guys
coming in to play. We didn't play very much of it live. We played the
backing tracks live. But the band wasn't assembled as a whole for the
album; it was just me, Hamish, and Chris for backing tracks. Linda
came in later for vocal overdubs, and Robbie and Wix came in for
sessiony overdubs -- sweetening and little rhythm parts and solos. So
we haven't actually made an album with this band, the first one will
be the live album from this tour. So that was sort of exciting. And
I'm really looking forward to the next studio album with this band,
because I think we'll write stuff and then rehearse it like we do at
soundchecks.

Question: This is the first permanent band you've had since Wings
disbanded in 1976.

Paul McCartney: It's the first sort of definite band, yeah. You know,
after the Beatles, anyone could be forgiven for saying, "Well, that's
it. I've been in a band." I heard Brian May of Queen say, "You're only
ever in one great band." I kind of know what he means, spiritually,
but I think I've been really lucky. The '76 lineup was real good --
with little Jimmy McCulloch. Strange little lineup, but a magic one.
I'm very excited about this band, because it's pretty musical. We can
sort of go anywhere with it, which is very interesting, and a little
bit daunting, because if you can go anywhere, where do you go? It's
like going on holiday: If you've got the power to go anywhere, you're
really stuck for choices. But I'm not really worried about that,
because I've got a pretty firm direction of where I want to go with
the next stuff, so I'll try that out and see what comes of it.

Question: Do you like having someone full-time who can pick up, say,
bass if you want to play guitar?

Paul McCartney: Yeah. That was one of the big attractions of Hamish.
He's interested in bass -- not just as a minor instrument; he's quite
into it. I started on acoustic guitar, and I played Hamburg on guitar,
and all. As I said, when it got busted I had to switch to piano. Which
was quite good, because I'd had a piano at home. My dad was a good
pianist, but not trained. Like I've picked it up, he picked it up; he
learned it by ear. I used to say to him, "Teach me some of your
stuff." And he said, "No, you've got to learn properly." He felt he
wasn't good enough to teach me, which was okay, actually. I just did
what he did; I emulated him and just picked things up that I heard off
records. We all sort of started with middle C, found the chord of C,
found F and found G, and then we found Am, and then the rest of it --
got into all the augmented and that sort of stuff as we went along.
So, I never really got to go back to guitar, except for
the odd solo with the Beatles, where I'd do odd little things, like
"Taxman." "Tomorrow Never Knows," I played stuff there. "Paperback
Writer," I played the riff on that. Then there were the acoustic
things, like "Yesterday" and "Blackbird."

Question: You played with Carl Perkins on "Get It" [from the album Tug
of War]. How did you two get together?

Paul McCartney: I rang him up, and he was in the States playing clubs.
We met him in the very early days with the Beatles, and he was a good
old friend, such a down-home boy. I love Carl -- he's so great. I'll
tell you a story about Carl; I don't think he'll mind me telling this.
We were recording at Montserrat, and a musician friend was sailing
around the world on a yacht -- a bit of a tax dodge, I think [laughs]
-- and he sailed into Montserrat, and came to see us. He invited us to
his boat. There was this British naval crew piping us aboard this
spotless yacht. Carl was really impressed with the buffet and the
champagne, and the way it was all laid out. He came over to me and
said, "Paul, where I come from they call this shittin' in high
cotton." It's one of my favorite expressions. After that, we recorded
"Get It." At the end of the song, you can hear both of us laughing --
and that's the joke we're laughing at. We had to cut the joke out,
though, because we'd have never gotten it played on the radio.

Question: Did you both play guitar on that song?

Paul McCartney: Yeah, I just played a little bit, and Carl played a
rhythm part. The fun tended to come when we had a free moment. He and
I sat on the floor of the studio, and we were talking, and there was a
mic on. I was just telling him about some of his old songs that we
loved, like "Lend me Your Comb" and "Your True Love." I told him we
were big fans of his and we used to do "Your True Love." Then we'd
sing together. Then we'd stop, and he'd say, "Well, you know, Paul, I
used to do this," and he'd show me some fingerpicking thing he used to
do.

Question: Back in the early days of the Beatles, you did "Matchbox"
and other songs by Carl Perkins. Were you awed to meet someone who, to
you, was a legend?

Paul McCartney: Absolutely. Anyone who was a legend in our formative
years is still a legend. I haven't grown out of that. Carl is still
the guy who wrote "Blue Suede Shoes," and he can never do any wrong.
It only took one guy to do that, and he did it. Elvis recorded it and
beat his version, but, still, Carl wrote it. There's some magic stuff.
We used to love those early albums -- very primitive, very simple, but
just such soul. Carl has lovely stories about how he was taught by an
old black gentleman [John Westbrook], and he speaks of him with great
reverence. It's very nice to hear. He said, "You know, Paul, I used to
pick cotton in the field, and when we had a break, we'd sit down and
this old black gentleman would show me some of his licks." It was very
exciting for us kids to hear that. We'd grown up in a kind of urban
world, and we didn't really know about that stuff. He's still an
idol.
Little Richard was another idol. And, in the same way,
the magic didn't fade any when we met him. He's great -- wacky. He
always gives me a bit of fun: Whenever he does an interview, he looks
into the camera and says, "Now, Paul, you know I taught you how to do
that woooooooo." It's true; he did! He says it like I don't admit it,
but I admit it quite happily. In fact, the first thing I ever did,
showbiz-wise, was at the end of term, when on the last day of school
you'd have a bit of a blowout. All the kids would party around, and
there wasn't a lot of work, and the teachers were too busy cleaning
the desks and getting out of there. I remember standing on a desk in
Cliff Edge's room -- his real name was W. Edge, the history master --
and we used to like him because he was a bit looser than some of the
other teachers. Anyway, I was standing on the desk -- it was like a
scene out of an old rock and roll movie -- and I was clapping and
singing "Tutti Frutti" like Little Richard, and all the guys in the
class were going, "Yeah!" and rockin' around.
I still owe a great debt to Little Richard and a lot of
those guys, just because they turned us on. It's something when people
turn you on, something I don't think you ever forget. It's so deep
when you're young, too. The turn-on, when you're younger, is so
intense. It burns itself into your soul, hearing "That'll Be the Day"
and "Heartbreak Hotel" and "What'd I Say?" They burned themselves into
my being.

Question: And you can't get them out?

Paul McCartney: I wouldn't want to get them out, ever. That's
something I'm really proud to have burned into my soul, branded in me.

John Hammel on
Paul's Guitars

John Hammel has worked with Paul McCartney for the past 15 years. Here
he takes us backstage to rummage through Paul's touring equipment.

"Paul's main stage guitar is a cherry sunburst 1960
Gibson Les Paul that we got from Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick. Paul
loves it. What's great about it is that it has the type of neck that
they quit using when they brought out the SG-type Les Pauls. It has a
great feel. For a backup electric, he has a left-handed '57 goldtop
Les Paul. It's quite rare. We got it from the Left-Hand Guitar Shop.
"His main acoustic is a black Alvarez, which Carl Perkins
got for him. The guitar had a right-handed neck, and the dots were on
the side facing away from Paul. Someone from Alvarez found out Paul
was using one of their guitars, so they made two for the tour with the
dots on the proper side. The second one is tuned down a whole-step for
"Yesterday." The Alvarez doesn't have a soundhole, and it has a pickup
built into the bridge. It has bass, treble, midrange, and master
volume controls. You can turn it flat out, and there's no feedback. So
for live work, my prayers are answered.
"The acoustic goes into an amp, and then the signal's
sent to the P.A. If anything went wrong with the amp, it would still
come out front and through Paul's monitors.
"Paul doesn't like his guitar strings too heavy. On the
Les Paul, we have Ernie Balls, with a .009 on the high E and a .042 on
the bottom. On the Alvarez, it's .010 -054 Ernie Ball Earthwood bronze
strings.
"Other guitars we bring along include Paul's old D-28
Martin, which is a spare, and we have his 1964 Epiphone Casino, which
is the guitar he used on "Taxman" with the Beatles. It's right-handed,
with a Bigsby tremolo tailpiece. Of course, it's set up left-handed.
We also had to redo the bridge so that the intonation would be
correct.
"To amplify the guitars, we have two Mesa/Boogie Studio
Preamps running through a Mesa/Boogie Strategy 295 power amp and into
two 4x12 cabinets. Side A is for the electric guitar, and side B is
for the acoustic guitar. There's a Pete Cornish unit for switching
preamps and distortion on and off. Paul has one set of control pedals
for it, and I have the other set offstage. My switcher has a mute
button, so when Paul comes onstage, or when he changes guitars, I can
cut the signal. Then there's a switch for selecting guitar or bass,
and a switch that I can whack in or out for the Mesa/Boogie preamp.
There's also a T.C. Electronic 1210 Spatial Expander/Stereo Chorus,
which we only use for chorus on the electric."

Mackenzie...

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 5:42 pm

Guest

On Jun 25, 10:27 pm, "RichL" <rpleav... at (no spam) yahoo.com> wrote:

Quote:

I quite agree with this statement. If I can remember correctly,
Hendrix had a single out near the end of 1966, it was "Hey Joe" as the
A side, and "Stone Free" was its flip side. That would place the
release of the single around November or December of 1966. I, for the
life of me, can't remember if The Experience released any more singles
after this but it is possible that John Mayall and Paul listened to it
months after the "Taxman" solo (wiki has the release of 'Taxman' on
August 5, 1966 and the recording on April 20-21 of the same year). He
is obviously mistaken that the inspiration came from Hendrix.

RichL...

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 9:27 pm

Guest

Interesting interview, thanks for posting it. A couple of things did
strike me as odd, however. Perhaps you or someone else in the know can
clarify:

1. He mentions the Epiphone (I assume he's talking about the Casino) a
few times and the implication is that its purchase was somewhat inspired
by Hendrix. He also says that the lead he played on Taxman (on which he
used the Casino) was somewhat Hendrix-inspired. But the timing seems
off: Taxman was presumably recorded sometime between April and June of
1966. Is it possible that Paul knew of Hendrix's work that early?

2. The question was asked about using fuzz bass very early. Paul
responds in a dodging manner ("I love fuzz bass") but doesn't
acknowledge that George actually played fuzz bass on "Think For
Yourself", which I believe was the Beatles' first use of a fuzz box. In
fact, I can't think of another Beatles song that uses it! Someone help
me out here, am I mistaken?

RichL...

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 11:03 pm

Guest

Mackenzie <jade_f45 at (no spam) yahoo.com> wrote:

Quote:

On Jun 25, 10:27 pm, "RichL" <rpleav... at (no spam) yahoo.com> wrote:
Interesting interview, thanks for posting it. A couple of things did
strike me as odd, however. Perhaps you or someone else in the know
can clarify:

1. He mentions the Epiphone (I assume he's talking about the Casino)
a few times and the implication is that its purchase was somewhat
inspired by Hendrix. He also says that the lead he played on Taxman
(on which he used the Casino) was somewhat Hendrix-inspired. But the
timing seems off: Taxman was presumably recorded sometime between
April and June of 1966. Is it possible that Paul knew of Hendrix's
work that early?

I quite agree with this statement. If I can remember correctly,
Hendrix had a single out near the end of 1966, it was "Hey Joe" as the
A side, and "Stone Free" was its flip side. That would place the
release of the single around November or December of 1966. I, for the
life of me, can't remember if The Experience released any more singles
after this but it is possible that John Mayall and Paul listened to it
months after the "Taxman" solo (wiki has the release of 'Taxman' on
August 5, 1966 and the recording on April 20-21 of the same year). He
is obviously mistaken that the inspiration came from Hendrix.

If our assumptions are correct, it just goes to show that one can't
really rely even on direct quotations, even though there is no intent to
deceive.

Bernie Woodham...

Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 10:03 pm

Guest

"Mackenzie" <jade_f45 at (no spam) yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:2fd232c6-7ecc-4376-ab09-53f3618dd65c at (no spam) y21g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...

Quote:

But I could never be bothered, really,
learning things. You know, I'm a great learner. I always sort of
figure something out. Like, I've never had guitar lessons, bass
lessons, piano lessons, music-writing lessons, songwriting lessons, or
horse-riding lessons, for that matter, or painting -- I do some of
that. I always jump into things, and so by the time I'm ready for my
first lesson, I'm beyond it. I always did try to have music lessons. I
always tried to have someone teach me to notate music, because I still
don't know to this day.

Question: You're doing okay.

Paul McCartney: But I figure I'm doing okay, yeah [laughs]. I tried
when I was a kid, and I just couldn't get it -- it just didn't seem
like nice fun to me. It seemed like hard work. I tried piano lessons
when I was 16, but then I'd already written "When I'm 64" -- the
melody of it, anyway. And so the guy taking me back to five-finger
exercises was really just hell, it was torturing me. I'd been plunking
around on little chords, and I had a little bass line. So I never got
on with that. And it was the same with everything -- like I say,
fingerpicking or anything else. I've always just sort of busked it and
learned, and I enjoyed the accident.

I try to keep it simple because
I'm not the world's fastest or anything, and like I say, I've never
practiced scales in my life, so I couldn't do some of these heavy
metal runs. I figure a lot of that is just because the guys are
properly trained, and that's what they've learned -- scales. Some of
it, I think, is, well, boring. Some of it is just endless scales. But
probably why I like some of the heavy metal thing is because it's the
guitar that generally turns me on.

I just don't believe McCartney. I've got nothing against the guy. I think
he's a fabulous bass player/composer/singer. It was mainly his songs that
made me realize early on that there was something more to The Beatles than
just a rock 'n roll band.

But McCartney's always had this need to engage in PR so bad that I tend to
think his radar is on 24/7. Here he is saying that he's tried to pick up on
notation and just couldn't get it. I don't believe it. I think he can "get"
anything he sets his mind to. Now we hear him say he's never practiced
scales. Just what was he learning in those formal piano lessons?

Now, this is bothersome to me also because the last couple of months I"ve
picked up guitar again and have been practicing scales. I admit that I have
no idea how to use them. But, everytime you look around for ways to play,
everyone is pushing scales. And in a way I agree with Macca. They are damn
boring and it seems you can get into a rut playing around with them. So,
hearing McCartney say this makes me feel like I'm wasting my time.

McCartney is a great musician and an extremely creative person. I just think
he's also a bit creative when it comes to the truth.

RichL...

Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 10:18 pm

Guest

Bernie Woodham <birnhamwood at (no spam) insightbb.com> wrote:

Quote:

Now, this is bothersome to me also because the last couple of months
I"ve picked up guitar again and have been practicing scales. I admit
that I have no idea how to use them. But, everytime you look around
for ways to play, everyone is pushing scales. And in a way I agree
with Macca. They are damn boring and it seems you can get into a rut
playing around with them. So, hearing McCartney say this makes me
feel like I'm wasting my time.

Bernie, check out alt.guitar.beginner. I won't go so far to say that
practicing scales is a waste of time, but it's close to that. There are
a handful of very experienced teachers on that group, and the vast
majority of them support my view. You want to play songs, right? So
practice playing songs.

Bernie Woodham...

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 12:36 am

Guest

"RichL" <rpleavitt at (no spam) yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:tf-dnbfaY7x1xvnVnZ2dnUVZ_uSdnZ2d at (no spam) supernews.com...

Quote:

songs. I've learned the Pure Prairie League's Amie from some YouTube vids,
re-learned "The Wind Cries Mary" but I still need to work on it. The
discussion of "All My Loving" made me decide to learn that and I do have the
rhythm for the first 15 bars. And there is other stuff.

My main obstacle is my reluctance to do ear training. I'm way too dependent
on tab and now videos. I keep thinking that if I learn enough fretwork from
tab and videos the ear training will come from familiarity.

...

Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 7:07 pm

Guest

On Jun 27, 8:37 pm, O'Leary III <moobowowokqhjdan1 at (no spam) ;powjfdr.com>
wrote:

Quote:

Mackenzie wrote:
Oh, absolutely. It's interesting to hear his take on the "Taxman"
session. He tells the reporter that George wasn't miffed at his
playing the solo, and then says that it must irritate George to hear
people say, "Oh, great solo on Taxman" when he'd have to say, "That
was Paul." He's hinting that the grudge existed, but doesn't say it
out front.

Remind you of anybody?

YTs?

RichL?

Sean Carroll...

Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 12:14 am

Guest

"Mackenzie" <jade_f45 at (no spam) yahoo.com> wrote

Quote:

If I can remember correctly,
Hendrix had a single out near the end of 1966, it was "Hey Joe" as the
A side, and "Stone Free" was its flip side. That would place the
release of the single around November or December of 1966. I, for the
life of me, can't remember if The Experience released any more singles

The Jimi Hendrix Experience never really considered themselves a singles
band. Their main focus was albums and live shows. But they did in fact
release a number of singles throughout their brief career, just like any
other group.

In the UK:

Hey Joe / Stone Free (12 December 1966)
Purple Haze / 51st Anniversary (17 March 1967)
The Wind Cries Mary / Highway Chile (5 May 1967)
Burning of the Midnight Lamp / The Stars That Play with Laughing Sam's Dice
(19 August 1967)
All Along the Watchtower / Long Hot Summer Night (18 October 1968)
Crosstown Traffic / Gypsy Eyes (11 April 1969)

In the US:

Hey Joe / 51st Anniversary (1 May 1967)
Purple Haze / The Wind Cries Mary (19 June 1967)
Foxy Lady / Hey Joe (23 December 1967)
Up from the Skies / One Rainy Wish (16 March 1968)
All Along the Watchtower / Burning of the Midnight Lamp (21 September 1968)
Crosstown Traffic / Gypsy Eyes (30 November 1968)
Stone Free / If 6 Was 9 (? December 1969)

--
--Sean
http://spclsd223.livejournal.com

Chase: If people are incapable of being nice, why even bother having the
word?

House: Ah, the ontological argument. The existence of the word proves the
existence of the thing. Watch out for those minotaurs on your drive home!

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