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Special guests don’t come much more special: today, a man who needs no introduction. His 1974 album, McGear, was produced with a little help from his big brother (“Our Kid” to you). It features contributions from members of a then-contemporary band, including Linda McCartney, Denny Laine and Jimmy McCulloch, and has often been spoken of as a “missing” Wings album. But Mike’s artistry is all his own, making McGear, in a way, the album Paul never did make.
This extended conversation covers not only the brand new re-issue from Cherry Red Records (including a bonus disc of unreleased material + DVD and poster, as well as a deluxe vinyl edition) but Mike’s work with The Scaffold – the 1968 McGough and McGear album produced by Paul – and an array of other artists: Paul Robeson – Tina Turner – Pete Wingfield – Paddy Maloney, and Jimi Hendrix. (Try finding that discussion anywhere else.) Also, The Quarry Men.
Check out the reissue series here.
Fifty years on and the “Paul is dead” hoax has lost none of its power to fascinate on so many levels. Perhaps the most compelling angle for examination is how did something so clearly nonsensical in the light of day get disseminated so widely and not just dismissed out of hand? It seems that a perfect storm of circumstance gave it traction and resonance, with both what was happening within The Beatles and within the community most receptive to believing that truth was not what authority figures told us.
What happens when the surviving member of a legendary American power pop band and a Los Angeles musician whose lineage includes two giants of the Great American Songbook, both steeped in Beatles, get together to make music? The result is now two albums deep in a band called Those Pretty Wrongs. Jody Stephens, formerly of Big Star and Golden Smog is a singer/songwriter/drummer and Luther Russell is a singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/producer, formerly of The Freewheelers. Their latest release as Those Pretty Wrongs, Zed For Zulu, has just been released.
The host of the longest-running Beatles program on US radio, Carter’s passion for The Beatles has taken many forms through the years: buying the records as a child – becoming a musician himself – getting involved in Beatlesque bands – taking on a job as a broadcaster. He has now hosted the Los Angeles franchise of Breakfast with the Beatles since 2001; since its inception in 2018, Chris has also hosted the program on the Sirius XM Beatles channel.
Part Two: McCartney and Wings
