Paul McCartney Recorded Solo Album in Lockdown

It comes 50 years after first solo effort
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 21, 2020 3:15 PM CDT
Paul McCartney Recorded Solo Album in Lockdown
In this Monday, July 10, 2017 photo, Paul McCartney performs at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla.   (AP Photo/Scott Audette, file)

A full half-century before the pandemic, Paul McCartney, estranged from the other Beatles, recorded a solo album at home. He followed 1970's lo-fi McCartney with McCartney II in 1980, also recorded at home, away from his Wings bandmates. Now, 40 years later, lockdown has inspired him to complete the trilogy. On McCartney III, which will be released in December, McCartney sang while accompanying himself on guitar or piano and later overdubbed his drumming and bass guitar parts, the Guardian reports. The 78-year-old says that during lockdown at his home in Sussex, England, earlier this year, he returned to half-finished song fragments from over the years, not expecting an album to emerge.

"I was living lockdown life on my farm with my family and I would go to my studio every day. I had to do a little bit of work on some film music and that turned into the opening track and then when it was done I thought, what will I do next," McCartney says, per Reuters. "Each day I’d start recording with the instrument I wrote the song on and then gradually layer it all up, it was a lot of fun." He was on the farm with daughter Mary and her family. "The combination of being able to go to work, make some music, and then hang out with four of my grandkids, I was very lucky," he tells Loud and Quiet. "We were being super careful, but being able to make music really helped." (More Paul McCartney stories.)

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