Product description
Ex-Beatle McCartney released this album in 1999, it featured mostly covers of Classic Rock & Roll era songs from The Gene Vincent « Blue Jean Bop » to Elvis’s « All Shook Up » to Ricky Nelson’s « Lonesome Town » to Chuck berry’s « Brown-Eyed Handsome man » to Little Richard’s « Shake A hand » to fat Domino’s « Coquette » to Big Joe Turner’s « Hiney Hush » to Carl Perkins’s « Movie Magg » to two more Elvis tunes to the obscure 1958 single « No Other Baby » by the equally obscure Vipers along the way McCartney turns in a Chuck Berry-like tune « Run Devil Run » & the bluesy « Try Not to Cry ». Well-worth a spin with most of the tunes growing on you. Songlist includes: BLUE JEAN BOP / SHE SAID YEAH / ALL SHOOK UP / RUN DEVIL RUN / NO OTHER BABY / LONESOME TOWN / TRY NOT TO CRY / MOVIE MAGG / BROWN EYED HANDSOME MAN / WHAT IT IS / COQUETTE / I GOT STUNG / HONEY HUSH / SHAKE A HAND / PARTY.
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Whenever Paul McCartney’s storied life has hit personal or professional hard times, he’s wisely returned–figuratively and literally–to his musical foundations. In the Beatles’ final, troubled days, it was Get Back, the aborted return-to-roots project salvaged as Let It Be, and during his late-’80s solo doldrums it was the ’50s rave-up CHOBA B CCCP (a.k.a. the « Russian Album »). In the wake of Linda’s passing, McCartney « gets back » to a motley dozen ’50s hits, B-sides, and obscurities, and pens three surprising originals that neatly fit their mold. Using a band of seasoned British vets (including Pink Floyd’s Dave Gilmour and Mick Green from Johnny Kidd & the Pirates on guitars, and Deep Purple’s Ian Paice on drums) whose own unbridled affection for this music radiates from every track, McCartney tackles the familiar (Gene Vincent’s « Blue Jean Bop, » Elvis Presley’s « All Shook Up ») and unfamiliar (the Vipers’ UK skiffle hit « No Other Baby, » Carl Perkins’s « Movie Magg ») alike with enthusiasm, if not slavish devotion, as witnessed by his nifty zydeco revamp of Chuck Berry’s « Brown Eyed Handsome Man. » The Mac originals « Try Not to Cry » and « What It Is » (and the choice of Ricky Nelson’s « Lonesome Town ») seem to deal not-so-obliquely with his love and loss, yet are delivered with an upbeat confidence that seem to belie his mourning. In the end, Run Devil Run may be as much personal exorcism as it is loving musical recapitulation, and McCartney is in peak vocal form throughout. –Jerry McCulley
