Paul McCartney announces decades-spanning live album reissues

Amoeba Gig, Paul is Live, Choba B CCP and Wings Over America getting reissue treatment

Paul McCartney has announced four live albums capturing decades-spanning performances. The albums — Amoeba Gig, Paul Is Live, Choba B CCCP, Wings Over America — will be released July 12th via MPL/Capitol/UMe digitally, on CD and on both black and limited edition color vinyl. The announcement comes the morning after McCartney kicks off the 2019 North American leg of his Freshen Up Tour.

Amoeba Gig is the first full length commercial release of McCartney’s surprise free concert at Hollywood’s Amoeba Music on June 27, 2007. To date only four songs have seen wide release as the Amoeba’s Secret EP, two of which were nominated for Grammy Awards in 2008: “That Was Me” for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and “I Saw Her Standing There” for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance. A few years later in November 2012, an extended 12 song excerpt of the Amoeba show titled Live in Los Angeles – The Extended Set was made available free to PaulMcCartney.com premium members for a limited period. And come July 12, 2019, a full 21-song recording documenting possibly the most intimate L.A. show McCartney has ever played will be made available to the public for the first time. The millions of people not among the luckier than lucky few hundred rubbing elbows with the likes of Ringo Starr and Woody Harrelson during that once in a lifetime in-store set will be able to experience those performances of Beatles classics “The Long And Winding Road,” “I’ll Follow The Sun” and “I’ve Got A Feeling,” Flaming Pie’s “Calico Skies,” plus Carl Perkins’ “Matchbox,” Jan Garber’s “Baby Face” and an emotional rendition of “Here Today.” Additionally, the LP will include an exclusive soundcheck recording of “Coming Up.”

Amoeba Gig has been newly remixed by Paul’s engineer Steve Orchard and will be available in configurations including CD, 2 180-gram black vinyl, and limited edition color vinyl (LP 1 – clear, LP 2 – hazy amber transparent).

Recorded during the U.S. and Australian swings of the tour in support of 1993’s Off The Ground, Paul Is Live is McCartney’s fifth live album. Originally released that same year, the album is famous for the multiple meanings and clues embedded in its title and cover art, all of which play on the “Paul Is Dead” conspiracy/hoax. In addition to a wealth of Wings and Beatles classics, covers of Roy Brown’s “Good Rockin’ Tonight” and Leiber and Stoller’s “Kansas City” and more, Paul Is Live also offers a peek behind the curtain: Three songs improvised on the spot and exclusive to the album, all recorded during rehearsals in various locations over the course of the tour.

Paul Is Live has been newly remastered at Abbey Road Studios and will be available in configurations including CD, 2 180-gram black vinyl, and limited edition color vinyl (LP 1 – opaque baby blue, LP 2 – plush peach white opaque).

The live-in-studio Choba B CCCP (Russian for “Back In The USSR”) was released in the Soviet Union in 1988, making McCartney the first Western artist to issue an album exclusively for that market. In a conscious decision to get back to his roots, McCartney spontaneously spent two days covering his favorite hits from the 1950’s. The sessions produced 22 songs in total (and one of the outtakes being a version of The Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There”). Choba B CCCP was a deeply personal album and a way to acknowledge fans who had supported him and The Beatles since the start. “When I was very young I asked my dad if people wanted peace,” McCartney explained at the time. “He said to me, ‘Yes, people everywhere want peace – it’s usually politicians that cause trouble.’ It always seemed to me that the way The Beatles’ music was admired in the USSR tended to prove his point, that people the world over have a great deal in common. In releasing this record exclusively in the Soviet Union, I extend the hand of peace and friendship to the people of Russia.” Choba B CCCP was released in the rest of the world following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Choba B CCCP has been newly remastered at Abbey Road Studios and will be reissued as the original 11 track Russian release. It will be available in configurations including CD, 180-gram black vinyl, and limited edition opaque yellow vinyl.

Rare No. 1-charting triple live album, Wings Over America is a document of one the most sophisticated and dazzling rock shows of the 1970’s or any decade. McCartney and the band would eventually perform to more than 600,000 people at 31 shows in the US and Canada, ending with three historic nights at The Forum in Los Angeles. It’s no exaggeration to say that the excitement that greeted Paul McCartney & Wings (Linda McCartney, Joe English, Denny Laine and Jimmy McCulloch) in the spring of 1976 as they embarked on what would become their one and only North American tour was overwhelming. Having released four consecutive chart topping albums — Red Rose Speedway, Band on the Run, Venus and Mars and At The Speed Of Sound – not to mention 1973’s Academy Award-winning James Bond theme “Live and Let Die” – Wings’ career was in full flight… and as McCartney’s first U.S. tour since The Beatles, the sheer joy of both the band and its fans were off the charts throughout the 90 hours of recordings distilled into this triple album. Wings Over America was last reissued in 2013 as part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection series winning the Grammy Award for Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package.

Wings Over America will be available in configurations including 2 CD, 3 180-gram triple vinyl, and limited edition color vinyl (LP 1 – transparent red, LP 2 – transparent green, LP 3 – transparent blue) both come with original souvenir poster.

An exclusive PaulMcCartney.com live albums colored vinyl bundle is also available.

Amoeba Gig – CD | 2 LP

1. Drive My Car
2. Only Mama Knows
3. Dance Tonight
4. C Moon
5. The Long And Winding Road
6. I’ll Follow The Sun
7. Calico Skies
8. That Was Me
9. Blackbird
10. Here Today
11. Back In The USSR
12. Nod Your Head
13. House Of Wax
14. I’ve Got A Feeling
15. Matchbox
16. Get Back
17. Baby Face
18. Hey Jude
19. Let It Be
20. Lady Madonna
21. I Saw Her Standing There

Paul Is Live – CD | 2 LP

1. Drive My Car
2. Let Me Roll It
3. Looking For Changes
4. Peace In The Neighbourhood
5. All My Loving
6. Robbie’s Bit (Thanks Chet)
7. Good Rockin’ Tonight
8. We Can Work It Out
9. Hope Of Deliverance
10. Michelle
11. Biker Like An Icon
12. Here, There And Everywhere
13. My Love
14. Magical Mystery Tour
15. C’mon People
16. Lady Madonna
17. Paperback Writer
18. Penny Lane
19. Live And Let Die
20. Kansas City
21. Welcome To Soundcheck (link)
22. Hotel In Benidorm (soundcheck)
23. I Wanna Be Your Man (soundcheck)
24. A Fine Day (soundcheck)

CHOBA B CCCP 2 CD | LP

1. Kansas City
2. Twenty Flight Rock
3. Lawdy, Miss Clawdy
4. Bring It On Home To Me
5. Lucille
6. Don’t Get Around Much Anymore
7. That’s All Right (Mama)
8. Ain’t That A Shame
9. Crackin’ Up
10. Just Because
11. Midnight Special

Wings Over AmericaCD | 3 LP

[one_half]CD 1:

1. Venus And Mars / Rock Show / Jet
2. Let Me Roll It
3. Spirits Of Ancient Egypt
4. Medicine Jar
5. Maybe I’m Amazed
6. Call Me Back Again
7. Lady Madonna
8. The Long And Winding Road
9. Live And Let Die
10. Picasso’s Last Words
11. Richard Cory
12. Bluebird
13. I’ve Just Seen A Face
14. Blackbird
15. Yesterday[/one_half]

[one_half_last]CD 2:

1. You Gave Me The Answer
2. Magneto And Titanium Man
3. Go Now
4. My Love
5. Listen To What The Man Said
6. Let ‘Em In
7. Time To Hide
8. Silly Love Songs
9. Beware My Love
10. Letting Go
11. Band On The Run
12. Hi, Hi, Hi
13. Soily[/one_half_last]

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com