Cold Cuts - McCartney’s never released album

It almost sounded like an echo from a distant past: Suddenly, out of the blue, Paul McCartney is being interviewed on his website about Cold Cuts, one of McCartney's projects that never reached the finish line and remained on the shelf somewhere. The idea was an album with so-called outtakes, but during the more than ten years the project has been running, the various record companies McCartney is working with, don’t see the point in it. After Cold Cuts appears as a bootleg on the market, in various forms, McCartney himself eventually loses his interest in the project.

The original concept dates back to 1974: During the Wings recording sessions in Nashville, Tennessee, McCartney starts working on the album for the first time. The intention is that Hot Hitz And Kold Kutz, which was initially the title,  will be released as a low budget album in March 1975, before the release of the Wings album Venus & Mars.




The album consists of partly non-album singles, such as Hi, Hi, Hi, C Moon and Junior's Farm, and songs that have been left over from recording sessions from earlier albums and have not been released yet. A track list was never officially announced, but the songs Mama's Little Girl and I Don’t Want To Smile are known to have been included on this first version.

The original idea was based around a title I came up with and quite liked which was Hot Hitz and Cold Cuts. I thought it would be great, you just put all your top hits on it and then some “cold cuts”. But actually when I mentioned it to my record label at the time, they didn't like the idea of the cold cuts, they wanted everything to be hits, hits, hits! So they didn't particularly go for that idea.

Paul McCartney

The project disappears into the background, but when Wings takes a break due to the pregnancy of Linda McCartney in 1977/78, Paul decides to breathe new life into the idea. The 1978 version is based on the idea of a double album, with the first album containing the biggest hits and the second being filled with outtakes. But again the record company is obstructive. A compilation album comes out, but without the "cold cuts": Wings Greatest Hits.

In the latter days of Wings, the album is being worked on again; by this time the name has been shortened to just Cold Cuts. In January 1981 the band records a number of overdubs with in mind a release planned for mid-1981. But again it is the record company that is blocking the project. Five years later, in 1986, McCartney puts producer / arranger Richard Niles on the project again. His version of the instrumental Blue Sway appears in 2011 as a bonus track of the McCartney II Archive Collection. And in 1987 McCartney works on the album for the last time. A new version is compiled and mixed; but this edition is also not being released.




In the meantime, various bootlegs from Cold Cuts have appeared on the market, with various track lists. In 1987 I buy an edition consisting of outtakes that were recorded between 1970 and 1978. After the interview with Paul this week, I decide to give the album a renewed listen; as far as I can remember for the first time in more than thirty years. The first thing that strikes me is that Cold Cuts is not very balanced: the difference in sound between the oldest songs and those from 1978 is very large. The tracks may not be his best work, what you can expect from an album with mere outtakes, but they are all very entertaining.

====================================
Listen here to the 1987 Cold Cuts bootleg:
Side 1
Side 2
====================================

Over the years, a total of more than thirty songs have been named that were nominated to appear on the various versions of Cold Cuts. A large number of songs are now also better known because they are released as bonus tracks in the Archive Collections series. Still, McCartney does not rule out the possibility of an official release of Cold Cuts, sometime in the future:

Maybe one day it would make an album. The funny thing is, I was friends with an American artist that I admire a lot, called Saul Steinberg. I asked him if he would do a cover for it and he did. It's a nice thing! So, I've got the cover and maybe one of these days it will get released. The thing is, how much can you release without it looking stupid, you know? New album, Archive Collection reissues, and then The Beatles stuff! So, it's hard to slot in another thing, but maybe one of these days. It would be an interesting little thing!

Paul McCartney

Track list 1987 bootleg:
A Love For You
This song was first recorded during the RAM sessions at the end of 1970. In 1981, Paul added some overdubs with Wings members Laurence Juber and Steve Holly. This makes A Love For You the only McCartney track on which both the first and last line-up of Wings can be heard. This version is finally used in 2003 for the feature film The In-Laws and is then officially released on the film's soundtrack album for the first time.

My Carnival
Recorded during the Venus and Mars sessions in New Orleans in 1975. Released as the B-side of "Spies Like Us" in 1985 and in 2014 as bonus track on the Venus & Mars Archive Collection.

Waterspout
An outtake from the London Town sessions, recorded in 1977 in Scotland. The song was planned to be released on the All The Best compilation in 1987, for which it received some horn overdubs, but was ultimately scrapped in favor of C Moon.




Momma’s Little Girl
Better known as Mama’s Little Girl. Recorded during the Red Rose Speedway sessions in 1972. Released as the B-side of "Put It There" in 1990, as a bonus track on the 1993 remastered CD edition of Wings' Wild Life album and in 2018 as part of the Red Rose Speedway Archive Collection. 

Night Out
Recorded in 1972, in the Abbey Road Studios, and at one point regarded as a possible opening track for the album Red Rose Speedway. Through the years the outtake was overdubbed multiple times by different incarnations of Wings. Released in 2018 as part of the Red Rose Speedway Archive Collection.

Robbers Ball 
Recorded in Lympne Castle, Kent, in Autumn 1978, during the Back to the Egg sessions. The song was probably meant to be put on Cold Cuts from the start. No official release yet.

Cage
Recorded in Pauls home studio in Campbeltown, Scotland in July 1979 and removed from Back to the Egg at the last minute in favour of "Baby's Request". This song features the chords C-A-G-E as its riff. No official release yet.

Did We Meet Somewhere Before?
Rejected as the main theme for Warren Beatty's film Heaven Can Wait and recorded with Wings in Abbey Road Studios, in Fall 1977. A snippet of the track was used in the 1979 Ramones film Rock 'n' Roll High School, although it did not appear on the soundtrack album. So, no official release yet.



Hey Diddle
Recorded in 1970 during the Ram sessions as a Paul and Linda duet. Later, the track received further overdubs in Nashville, Tennessee in the summer of 1974. The original 1971 version was released in 2012 as part of the Ram Archive Collection. The Nashville version, which is on this bootleg, was released on the 2014 re-issue of Venus and Mars.

Tragedy
This cover of a 1961 ballad by the Fleetwoods dates from Red Rose Speedway sessions. The song was considered for inclusion on the double album. Released in 2018 as part of the Red Rose Speedway Archive Collection.

Best Friend
Recorded live in Antwerp, Belgium during the 1972 Wings Over Europe Tour in order to be included on Red Rose Speedway double album. Released in 2018 as part of the Red Rose Speedway Archive Collection and the live cd Wings over Europe.

Same Time Next Year
Recorded in 1978 for the film Same Time, Next Year but not used. Released as the B-side of Put It There in 1990.

Related Posts:
Listen to Cold Cuts - Side 1
Listen to Cold Cuts - Side 2

André Homan

André Homan is a Dutch writer and journalist.

Nieuwere post Oudere post