Monday 9 December 2013

Missing McCartney music videos

When Paul McCartney released a compilation of his music videos on the 3 disc DVD set "McCartney Years" back in 2007, quite a few of his music videos were absent from the collection. In time, we will try to remedy that.
Missing videos (some of these have popped up or will pop up on DVD discs in McCartney's Archive Series):
3 Legs (Silent footage of Paul and Linda riding horses (played back at alternating fast and slow speeds) across their Scottish property.)
Mary Had a Little Lamb: Filmed in the McCartney barn in Scotland. The band is lip synching while various animals (most notably, baby lambs, and a rather sedate hen) wander around the scene. The first official Wings promo, never aired in the US. Live vocals over the record.
Mary Had a Little Lamb (2): The US promo for this song, premiered on the "Flip Wilson Show." Perhaps the highlight of seventies kitsch from Wings. The band wears orange bib overalls which "change color" courtesy of color screen overlay (CSO), and the band appears to float in a sea of cutesy asterisks.
Mary Had a Little Lamb (3): Aired a grand total of once, on the BBC's "The Basil Brush Show." The band is lip synching, with Denny Laine lying on his back. The backdrop is a painted matte of a farm, and real animals (including a rather sedate rabbit) abound.
Letting Go (Another simple lip-synch promo, filmed at the beginning of the 1975-76 "Wings Over..." tour. The first public look at Joe English on drums. Never shown on US television. Seen in "Rage")
Venus and Mars / Rock Show (Filmed at the same time as the "Letting Go" clip. The clip is filmed to match the edited ("single") version of the medley, rather than the longer ("album" version).)
Maybe I'm Amazed (1977)(With the release of this tune as a single, McCartney had a promo made for the live version of the song. The style is very much in line with the original promo, but the cozy pictures of home and hearth have been replaced by rock shots of the band on the road.)
Getting Closer (Largely footage of Wings pretending to drive to and from a performance in a large bus. Frequent US airings separate from the video package for "Back to the Egg.")
Arrow Through Me (A lip-synched performance by Wings, with McCartney at the keyboards. Some US TV airplay.)
Spin It On (The band lip synchs on a concert-style stage inside of an airplane hanger. Some "time lapse" shots of the band (such that they appear to be moving quickly) acting airplane-ish inside the hanger. McCartney and Laine seem to be on the verge of laughing throughout the clip.)
Winter Rose/Love Awake (Only aired as part of the video album. The first half consists of the McCartneys in and around the snow at a castle. (Lympne castle near London) The second half is connected to the first medley-style, and features Paul and the band (mostly Paul) pretending to play around a fire.)
Old Siam, Sir
Again and Again and Again
Ebony And Ivory (solo version)
No More Lonely Nights (disco)
Stranglehold
Only Love Remains
Distractions
This One (version 2)
Ou Est Le Soleil? (A nice promo, clearly based upon the "Nintendo" theme. Paul has frequently noted that during the mid-eighties he would spend time playing Nintendo with his children. Hence, this video. Other than the video game portions, Paul himself shows up in the "game screen" (notably at the end where he's seen wearing a sombrero), and periodically he and the band (along with more unconnected "dance" footage) are intercut with the animation.)
Party Party
Figure of Eight
We Got Married
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Mostly footage from the "single largest concert" in Rio de Janiero. Includes effecive use of the screen graphics (often overlaid on the concert footage) and the fireworks as well as the several-hundred-thousand crowd.)
Get Back (Promotional clip for Richard Lester's "Get Back" film. Produced in the same style as the film, but more so. However, in the world of music video the quick, disjointed cuts work relatively well. The clip was also made available as a trailer to theatres for the feature.)
Deliverance (A clip only aired on MTV Europe. Much like the song, a disjointed series of hyperspeed cuts, with no appearances from Paul. Possibly intended to be anonymous, were the "Big Mac" single a hit.)
Young Boy
Young Boy (I believe there is a second version of this)
The World Tonight
The World Tonight (I believe there is a second version of this)
Beautiful Night (There are two versions, one contains female nudity, guess which one was on the official DVD?)
Lonely Road
Your Loving Flame ( The video for "Your Loving Flame" is a virtual visual effects showcase, showing Paul winding his way through time and space in various settings. It was directed by Gavin Gordon-Rodgers, a friend of Heather Mills)
From A Lover To A Friend
Freedom
Jenny Wren
Dance Tonight
Ever Present Past
Nod Your Head

Of course, the videos that were included on the discs were severely cropped because the director wanted to make them conform to the 16:9 modern TV format, when most were made in the old 4:3 TV format. Here's a look at some scenes from the original videos (left) compared with the ones on McCartney Years (right):


Let's just pray they don't make the same blunder when they are releasing the Beatles' video clips in October next year!

So, where are the vids? For starters,  here are the four missing videos from the 2001 Driving Rain album, "Lonely Road", "Your Loving Flame", "Freedom" and "From A Lover To A Friend".

Directed by Jonas Åkerlund. Director of photography: Eric Broms.

Directed by Gavin Gordon-Rogers. Produced by Russell McLean. Cinematography by Olivier Cariou. Visual FX by Duncan Malcolm.

Probably directed by Albert Maysles.

No production information available.

We will return to the subject of "missing" McCartney videos in future posts.

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