Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)

by

Paul McCartney

Edit

...the "cute" ex-Beatle decided to do a MTV "Unplugged" gig. So, instead of turning it into a TV commercial for his most recent releases, he decided instead to turn it into an opportunity to do a change-of-pace set. One thing not all that many people know about Sir Paul nowadays is that his earliest years in the Fab Four saw him and John Lennon playing a Brit variant of rockabilly. As in what Setzer and the Stray Cats were up to before he became the Crown Prince Of New Swing. If you ever read reviews describing the Beatles as Everly Brothers-influenced, that's what they were talking about. What they don't say is that for a couple of dudes who were urban rather than rural working class (and brought up nowhere near the Appalachians), they weren't too shabby at the sound created by "rocking hillbillies" Elvis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash amd Jerry Lee Lewis. In this set, McCartney proved that he was still able to hack it, some thirty years later. He also includes Beatles classics with the older standards--after all, they do belong. Even down to "We Can Work It Out", which he begins by singing the last verse in place of the first. With a self-effacing laugh, he waves the band down and starts over--he's not about to pretend he didn't blow it. Not content with that, he leaves the song in the broadcast version, screwup and all. Hell, why not a bit of comic relief? That's what "Unplugged" always been about anyway--just do the damn gig, imperfections and all. Unfortunately they seem to have trimmed that false start from this album. Even so, with that type of fun-loving informality, along with vintage rockabilly material done in a way its creators would approve of, you still can't miss with this set.

I bought this when it first was released. I even bought several more over the years and while the music and the whole idea of Paul McCartney getting unplugged is brilliant, I have just one complaint: I can hardly hear the music without pumping up the volume. If my ipod, which is connected through my stereo, is set for shuffle and it plays a song from this collection I have to pump up the volume and then the next song comes on blasting. Anytime I've played any of my cd's I always had this issue. Musically, this collection is 5 stars. But I gave it a generous 3 stars because of the volume.