Paul McCartney
McCartney III

Paul McCartney's life is well exemplified by Geoff Dunbar's animated video that accompanies "Winter Bird/When Winter Comes". A bearded man at peace, serene with a wife and children immersed in a rural life. McCartney was the absolute pioneer of this way of being, family man the malevolent press labeled him in the early '70s. With all that fame, the money, why on earth should he derive pleasure from planting fences in the middle of nowhere to protect a two-room shack and driving a Land Rover he himself christened "a hell on wheels". The essence of Paul McCartney, the spiritual father of all indie and low-fi that has many followers, including the latest addition Taylor Swift, is all there. Recording and working, thinking and singing. The first "McCartney" in 1970 upon release was labeled "unfinished", "raw", "far from the sound of Abbey Road" but today it is revered by all as the oracle of all homemade records, a sacred source of inspiration for all the indies in the world. That record was born out of the rejection of Beatle Paul, born out of the total love for an American photographer one year older than him, at the time practically a scandal, divorced and with a daughter...something inadmissible in the UK. Moreover, even Beatle John paid for his Japanese love with the same dose of malice...older, divorced, a mother, foreign."McCartney II" in 1980 was the need to experiment and test a 16-track recorder, it resulted in a collection of sketched songs, electronic ditties, and acoustic gems always immersed in that domestic life to which Paul always returned, the countryside to reach by commuting by train with chaotic London. Forty years later we are all demoralized, weakened, but Paul finds a way to turn his lockdown into a "Rockdown" and isolated, he resumes an old piece from 1992, "When Winter Comes" on which MPL is working to produce an animated short. From that little work, a gem crafted with George Martin with good flavor of old standard, comes the need to give a follow-up to "II". "McCartney III" is born from the experimental sap of "II" and the imperfect warmth of "McCartney". A record of experimental pieces, "Deep Deep Feeling" and masterful ballads, "Women and Wives". The cover photo is by Mary, the firstborn daughter who as a newborn appeared on the back of the '70 album immersed in Paul's jacket. The internal photographic collage is an homage to the one in the first chapter while the blue frame on the back and the grainy photo reference "McCartney II". Needless to recall McCartney's talent, he has always played in fields too distant for many. What surprises is that his quest for the perfect song is not yet over, that taste for finding and engineering those songs that always surprise and you never know where they will take you.

Thank you, Paul, you've helped give meaning to this 2020.