00:25 Intro. 02:25 *Take It Away 05:15 Preview of Series 10:00 *Biker Like an Icon- Soundcheck 14:00 Oobu Joobu 15:43 Commercial stuff 16:00 Oobu Joobu 16:30 *Good Rockin' Tonight 17:30 A Big Talent in a Little Richard 19:30 *Lucille Macca & Richard versions 21:50 Babies and Bunnies - Little Richard 22:40 *Tutti Frutti - Little Richard 24:58 Comedy Oldie 25:40 Oobu Joobu 26:00 Cheddar Cheese Balls - Linda 27:30 Wings in New Orleans 28:10 *New Orleans - Linda McCartney 30:00 Oobu Joobu 30:20 Commercial stuff 31:15 The Stones & I Wanna Be Your Man 32:48 *I Wanna Be Your Man - Soundcheck 35:19 Oobu Joobu 35:40 How Paul got his first guitar 37:09 *Flight of the Bumblebee - W.Marsalis 38:10 Oobu Joobu 38:25 *We Can Work It Out 40:50 snippets 41:15 Commercial Stuff 47:30 Oobu Joobu 42:12 Reggae 45's 43:19 *Buttercup - Winston Scott 45:45 *Ou Est Le Soleil - demo/real version 49:20 *Atlantic Ocean Snippet 50:50 Commercial Stuff 00:00 Alan Crowder-World Renowned MPL 01:30 Oobu Joobu 02:10 *Don't Get Around Much Anymore 05:40 Jukebox 06:00 *Papa's Got A Brand New Bag - J. Brown 08:10 *Linda Lu - Soundcheck 12:23 Oil Crisis? 12:48 *Boil Crisis Snippet 13:45 Commercial stuff 14:40 *C Moon 18:35 *Put It There w/ Hello Goodbye ending 21:00 Chet Atkins & Dads 21:50 *I Still Can't Say Goodbye - C. Atkins 25:45 Oobu Joobu 25:55 Commercial Stuff 26:10 Oobu Joobu 26:20 Beatles & Buddy Holly 27:38 *That'll Be the Day - Buddy Holly 30:00 *It's Now or Never - Paul in Vegas 31:47 Greensleeves & Green Food - Jeff Beck 33:30 *Once in a Lifetime - Talking Heads 37:30 *Cumberland Gap Freight Train ending 39:00 *Akazai - Two Women from Burundi 40:26 Commercial Stuff 41:15 *Ebony & Ivory - outtakes 47:50 Goodbye 48:25 Oobu Joobu 49:38 *Tutti Frutti *- the asterik is for complete or near complete songs.
Did you ever get the feeling that Paul McCartney has a couple of "Unfinished Music" albums in him? Nothing quite as avant-garde as John's of course--even at his most off-the-wall, Paul still has pop instincts--but weird, abstract fun. Well, there's a lot of that going on in "Oobu Joobu", which between songs often sounds like outtakes from the last couple Beatles Christmas records.
But, of course, it's those songs that we came for, and I'm very pleased to report that the first installment of "Paul McCartney's Oobu Joobu" delivers quite a few fine musical moments.
I should caution at this point that I'm writing this fresh from hearing it for the first time. Apologies if I've made any mistakes in identifying any of the program contents.
Most of the unreleased music in the program appeared to come from soundchecks. (Sometimes Paul explained what things were; sometimes he didn't.) These performances were: "Biker Like An Icon", "I Wanna Be Your Man" (identified as being from Giants Stadium here in New Jersey, which would make it June 11, 1993), "We Can Work It Out", "C Moon" with a wonderful "toast" at the end, "Put It There" (with the "Hello Goodbye" ending), the skiffle standard "Cumberland Gap" (with Paul doing a little of "Freight Train" at the end), and a second soundcheck performance of "Linda Lu", the 1959 Ray Sharpe rockabilly hit. There was also a "Good Rockin' Tonight" which I think was the "Unplugged" performance, but might have been a soundcheck too.
There were also rehearsal versions of "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" and "It's Now or Never", an unreleased Linda tune called "New Orleans", a jokey version of "Tutti Frutti" done lounge-lizard style, a bit of goofing about MPL employee Alan Crowder, and more little bits of songs with the words "oobu joobu" then you'd ever think one man could write.
Happily, all of the above were presented more or less complete. Incomplete pieces aired included an unreleased song called "Atlantic Ocean" which would sound right at home on the 2-LP "McCartney II" bootleg, a lovely demo of "Ebony and Ivory", and the previously booted recording of "Boil Crisis". There was also a substantial chunk of an overdub session for "Ebony and Ivory" with both Paul and Stevie singing. In addition, a bit of a demo of "Ou Est Le Soliel?" was segued into the legitimate version.
Outside material played included a Chet Atkins TV appearance, a song called "Akazaia" performed by two women from Burundi, Wynton Marsalis doing "Flight of the Bumblebee", "Buttercup" by reggae singer Winston Scott, "Once In a Lifetime" by Talking Heads, and a few rock oldies.
Paul was a personable host but said little of substance. Jeff Beck and Little Richard each appeared briefly to make pro-vegitarian statements, and in the same vein Linda gave her recipe for Cheddar Cheese Balls from her cookbook.
I'll vote for the "C Moon" as the highlight of the show; it's about time the "toast" version, which I saw Paul perform at the Philly soundcheck in '93, made it to the public in some form (I think "Up Close" had a bit of a toast, but not as fully realized as this.)
All in all, a quite enjoyable show for the McCartney fan, although I don't know what the average radio listener will make of it. Check it out if you can.
... If I don't see you through the week, I'll see you through the window!
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