Monday, February 27, 2017

4 forgotten Paul McCartney videos

Here's a sampling of Paul McCartney music videos. The man clearly wanted high production values, even in the days before MTV existed. This must go back to the experimental films he was making in his London apartment in the late 1960s.

-Coming Up: the big single from "McCartney II" was made with an elaborate video featuring several Paul's, all dressed as other people (Buddy Holly, Mick Fleetwood, that guy from Sparks). This premiered in the U.S. on an episode of SNL, in which Father Guido Sarducci yells at Paul from outside of his apartment, eventually waking him up in the middle of the night. I've always been surprised at the lack of crappy early 1980s videotape/green screen artifacts in this one. Very well done.

-Waterfalls: another single from "McCartney II," this song did well in the UK but stiffed in the U.S. For many years, the picture sleeve for this single was thought to be very rare (and thus, valuable). That is no longer the case (sadly for me, since I bought a garage full of them). This video has a slightly different mix of the song, which is one of Paul's finest.


-Ebony & Ivory: Paul's duet with Stevie Wonder was a huge hit at the dawn of the MTV era (spring, 1982), and features more well-done green screen work.


-Not a video, but the opening sequence to the ITV TV show, "The Zoo Gang," with Brian Keith. Looks like an interesting concept, but I like the graphics and the tune (which little kids also seem to like, due to the many animals). This song (in a longer version) was released as the b-side to "Band On the Run" (UK-only) in 1974.
#snl4kidz

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