1989: Figure of Eight

The tension rises after the pre-film that has just been showed on three huge screens. It is Wednesday night, November 8, 1989, Paul McCartney is touring the world for the first time in thirteen years and this will be the first concert by Macca I get to see. In a packed Ahoy Arena, Rotterdam I’m waiting for the first notes, secretly hoping for Venus & Mars, just like on that fab live LP Wings Over America; it is still the pre-internet era, so I do not know anything about a possible set list. And then the party begins, with Paul on his five-string Wal bass guitar and the rocker Figure of Eight.

A surprising choice. Because at that moment Figure of Eight is nothing more than just an album track from the album Flowers In The Dirt and to open a concert with it, is at least courageous. It will be the last time that McCartney starts a world tour concert with a solo song. From the 1993 New World Tour onwards, Paul will do only Beatles songs as opening.

Video: Figure of Eight, Live 1990

Five days later, on November 13, Figure of Eight will appear as a single. In a different version than you can hear on Flowers in the Dirt. That first version is one of the songs that Macca recorded with Steve Lipson and Trevor Horn. These top producers of the eighties are known for sometimes working on one track for weeks. But McCartney challenges them and asks them to complete this number within two days; he wants to give the song an atmosphere of a 'one-take performance'.

He records the basic track with only drummer Chris Whitten, while he sings and plays bass. He tries to challenge Chris as well, trying to bring him to great heights, including by setting up his screaming voice. And by doing that he also gets the best out of himself; because although it is not actually the intention, he will eventually use the vocals for the final version of the song. The next day, Paul completes the recording with Steve Lipson on electric guitar and Trevor Horn on keyboards. 

Chris was playing drums on it, we were going do the drums live, it wasn’t to be computer drums. So I was in here with him and I was playing bass and I decided to kind of singing along. It had a tune that was fairly sort of lowish, quite simple, but because I was leading the drummer and trying to get him to really putting in loud, I decided to take it up a bit and start just busking it up higher. We did it live like that and the vocal and the drums are the two of that live take. We then fixed some other stuff because the bass wasn’t that good ‘cause I was doing all that silly singing.”

Paul McCartney

In the run-up to McCartney's World Tour, the song is rehearsed extensively with his new band, in which Paul also develops new arrangements with the band. Due to this he decides to partially re-record the song with the band. It is this new band version that will eventually be released as a single. The single is not very successful though, Figure of Eight reached number 42 on the UK singles chart and number 92 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Video: Single-version

Related Posts:

In Defense Of We All Stand Together
Macca’s Gems: Letting Go
Macca's Gems: Early Days

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André Homan

André Homan is a Dutch writer and journalist.

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