Spoiler warning for the latest Oobu Joobu!
Week 9 01:05 Intro. 02:00 Miss Ann 06:17 What's Going On - Marvin Gaye 09:45 Medley with a Russian Accent 11:45 She's A Woman 15:10 007 - Desmond Dekker 18:15 Live and Let Die 21:45 SMA - Heather McCartney 22:30 Mercury - London Philharmonic 23:57 Cut Across Shorty 25:45 High Heel Sneakers 29:58 Riders on the Storm - Doors 35:00 Rough Ride 38:00 Philo Mushroom Parcels40:45 Winedark Open Sea (Rockin' Version) 39:50 Eleanor Rigby - Carla 40:29 When I' m 64 -Metropolitan Police Male Choir 40:51 Lucy in the sky with Diamonds - William Shatner 47:30 All my Loving 42:00 We Can Work It Out - The Beatles Barkers 42:45 Let Me Roll It
On episode 9 of "Paul McCartney's Oobu Joobu". two of the most regular features of this quite irregular radio series are missing for the first time, showing that Paul is still playing around with the format as he puts the shows together. His customary opening giving little snippets of what's coming up ("we'll have some of this...and not forgetting...") is missing this week, and for the first time there is no song featuring Linda following her recipe.
Perhaps as compensation for this, we get a first that will undoubtedly please some fans and rankle others: the first recording by one of the McCartney children! Heather McCartney checks in with a rather odd punk-rock track called "SMA", the lyrics of which consist entirely of the ingredients list from a bottle of baby formula. Heather attacks the song with verve, if not with any particular tunefulness, while Dad bashes away at the drums and offers Ramones-style count-ins to each verse and adds background vocals as well (I suspect that a couple other members of the family are in there somewhere). It's a cool little track that would sound right at home on an indie hardcore compilation; if there's more like this lying around, I'd love to hear it.
The decidedly non-serious attitude foundon that track extends to some of the other pieces here as well. Paul includes a rehearsal medley where he assails several songs in mock-Russian style, jumping from "Blackbird" to "Blue Moon Of Kentucky" (with the moon now appearing in Leningrad!) and then to "She's a Woman" ("my love don't give me nylons"). Probably a good thing for international relations that he didn't put this stuff on the Russian album! This track leads into a more straightforward "She's a Woman"; since this track sounds a lot like the "Unplugged" version,a nd since the other two songs in the medley were done on that show as well, I'm guessing that this is in fact an "Unplugged" rehearsal. There's also a version of "Let It Be" with the lyrics rewritten to describe being on Vic Reeves' program; I have a feeling I'd be more amused by this if I knew anything about Vic Reeves or his program (can anyone help?). It's a fun soundcheck to have, nonetheless.
Completing the light-hearted contingent is a segment where Paul plays some classicly bad Beatle covers. The most famous of these tracks (which are only played in brief excerpts) is William Shatner's infamous dismembering of "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds", but I really enjoyed the version of "When I'm 64" by the Metropolitan Men's Choir. ("Would you lock the door--crash! bang!")
Also from soundchecks are a fun, light-hearted romp through Little Richard's "Miss Ann"; a different "Cut Across Shorty" from the bootlegged version, with prominent accordion from Wix; another song that Paul did on "Unplugged", "Hi-Heel Sneakers"; and versions of "Live and Let Die" and "Let Me Roll It" that differ little from the fine versions we all heard in baseball stadiums on Paul's last tour. Paul also plays the released version of "Rough Ride". It's particularly welcome that Paul spends a bit of time talking about the recording of both "Rough Ride" and "Live and Let Die", noting for example that the former was one of the first times he used a 5-string bass.
Outside material includes Desmond Dekker's reggae classic "007" (neatly tying in with Macca's James Bond theme), a bit of Holst's "The Planets" conducted by Sir Georg Solti", Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On", and "Riders On the Storm", the 1971 Doors hit that Paul introduces as being "from the 60's". (Mercifully, he plays the edited single version.) The show opens with the old Warner Brothers cartoon theme ("On with the show, this is it...")
Linda's recipe is for mushrooms in philo dough.
Choosing a song of the week is hard; I'm tempted to pick "SMA" for sheer originality, but it is kind of short, so I guess I'll go with the quite enjoyable "Miss Ann". There's nothing here as good as the best three songs from last week, and it's a disappointment to have so little studio/demo material (only the Heather track), but there is a lot of music and a good deal of fun on this episode.
... When I find myself on Vic Reeves' program...
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