Just a couple of hours after we posted the story about the brand new Paul McCartney singles box collection, the official announcement came out ...
And it looks like we had some of our facts wrong. (We were working from the story published by Noise 11 in Australia, who leaked the track list of 159 tunes, MOST of which appeared as either an A-Side or a B-Side during McCartney's solo career.)
The set is actually a collection of eighty 7" vinyl singles, packaged in picture sleeves, just like they were released all over the world at the time of their origin. It sounds like a BEAUTIFUL "box of wax" ... but WAY out of my league ... $612 with a limited run of just 3000 sets (limit two) It also sounds like there are absolutely NO plans to release this material on CD (which is the only way I would have been interested in purchasing it ... and then, only because it was a complete collection of Macca material, all of which I already have anyway ... just nice to have it all in one collected edition.)
Anyway, for those who ARE willing to drop $612 for this set (it comes out December 2nd), here's the info ...
https://us.umusic-online.com/4YVO-5NU7-0E534993C23B13B51EI0K66DD2878BF4E57FEA/cr.aspx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX7hQa1qQz0
A nice thank you note from Harvey Kubernik ...
And a bit more of his interview with Marshall Chess ...
kk:
I've had so many kudos and heartfelt responses from my Marshall Chess Interview you displayed, I thought it deserved an encore.
More Marshall and reminisces from record producer and author Andrew Loog Oldham, who managed the Rolling Stones at the time and brought his band to Chess to record.
Q: Marshall, what do you recall about the Rolling Stones visit to Chess?
A: Besides doing a song about our address “2120 South Michigan Avenue?” I was there during those sessions. We didn’t know about the song title until the album came out. I used to fill out orders from England before I ever knew or realized some came from Mick Jagger after the Stones’ sessions at Chess, I remember driving Brian Jones back to the hotel. I had a ’64 Red Porsche convertible ‘cause I was doing good. See, I was one of the first young guys in the business. I set up Europe. My deal with my dad was that I would get a percentage of all the European royalties. He had none when I started. And all of a sudden, it made like a 150 grand. The first year I got $15,000 bucks. It was like fifty grand.
I really hit it off with Brian. I don’t know why. I drove him back to the Chicago Motel to party. He loved blues and was in awe of Chess. And, before we got to the motel, we stopped on the corner, and all of a sudden these ‘hood types’ started screaming ‘Homo’ Homo’ at him at a bus stop, because he had shoulder length hair. “Homo, Homo Homo.” I went to the hotel with him. I didn’t stay long. I had a screwdriver, ya know. I was Jewish. They were drinking out of the bottle. I also remember packing up some Chess LPs for the Stones as a gift and taking them on a tour of the offices ... introducing them to Phil and my father in the back office that they shared.
Q: In 2007, Andrew Loog Oldham emailed and recalled his Chess time with the Stones.
"It was Chess records, the vinyl actuals, that re-united Mick Jagger and Keith Richards on Dartford Station in 1962. It was Chess Records, the company, the work, that drove Brian Jones to form the Rollin' Stones. It was Chess Records - the wave, that came over me in the Station Hotel in Richmond in April ' 63 when I first saw the Stones and we began our way of life together. Chess was always the underbelly of the Stones beast; the fuel that charged the engine, even after they became their own brand. In fact, for sure after, " Spider and the Fly" in '65 and on '95's " Stripped" shows the ongoing road the Stones continue to show with all that is Chess. The first US tour by the Stones was not the Beatles tour. We had a cult following in the cities and were abandoned in the sticks. The boys needed cheering up. I could not have them de-planning in London looking like ‘The Brothers Glum.’
“I called Phil Spector from Texas, where the Stones had just supported a band of performing seals and asked him to get us booked just as soon as possible into Chess studios. Phil or Marshall Chess called back and said he'd set up two days of recording time, two days hence. Chicago was a piece of heaven on earth for the Stones. The earth had been scorched on most of our mid-American concert stopovers. We hadn't set any records; we didn't yet have the goods, apart from a trio of wonderful one-offs, ‘I Wanna Be Your Man,’ ‘"You Better Move On,’ and ‘Not Fade Away’ we had yet to find our vinyl legs.
"2120 South Michigan Avenue housed Chess Records and Studios and in two days the group put down some thirteen tracks-their most relaxed and inspired session to date, moved, no doubt, by our newfound ability to sell coals to Newcastle. Who would have thought a bunch of English kids could produce black R 'n' B in the States? And here they were in the sanctum sanctorum of Chicago blues, playing in the lap of their gods. The ground floor was a gem, as was Chess engineer Ron Malo. He treated them just like ... musicians.
“Nothing sensational happened at Chess except the music. I was producing the sessions in the greatest sense of the word: I had provided the environment in which the work could get done. The Stones’ job was to fill up the available space correctly and this they did. This was not the session for pop suggestions; this was the place to let them be. Oh, I may have insisted on a sordid amount of echo on the under-belly figure on ‘It's All Over Now,’ but that was only ear candy to a part that was already there. I can remember being impressed with the order of things and how quietness and calm got things done. I remember meeting Leonard and/or perhaps Phil Chess, and being cognizant of the fact that there was no suppressive limey stymieing from the head office to the factory floor. There was just a factory floor and a very relaxed combo of artists, musicians, engineers, and salesmen all at one with each other and getting their jobs done and royalty Cadillacs."
And just that fast, we're out of time!!! (So a Short But Sweet Edition this week!)
Gotta head out into the real world now ...
But I'll leave you first with this little ditty from FH Reader Mike Wolstein ...
