By D.J. Claw
Rolling Stone syndicate
March 10, 1975
Paul McCartney slipped quietly into this graceful city of swamps and sin while the vast apparatus of the Super Bowl cranked up to a climax. He slipped out a month later, in the wake of another local fever known as the Mardi Gras, with an album under his belt and rumblings of his first possible American tour since the days of the Beatles.
McCartney arrived on January 16 with his band Wings, his wife Linda, and their kids to cut an album at Allen, Toussaint's Sea-Saint Studio, a brilliantly gifted producer, arranger and keyboard artist who has worked with Van Morrison, the Band and Dr John, was recommended to McCartney by Paul Simon when the two met in Jamaica some time ago.
"Years ago, when we did an American tour with The Beatles, everyone said, what a pity it was. We never got to see New Orleans," McCartney noted, after being a fortnight into the palm fronds and gumbo buckets. "So what we're doing now is combining work, cutting an album, and doing the tourist bit. It gives you a sense of adventure."
"Actually, we get tired of the cold," Linda McCartney added as she sat next to her husband on the rear deck of the pleasure boat Paul had rented for a brief go round with the press.
Much of the time, they had been shuffling back and forth between the French quarters, the Richelieu Hotel, and the Toussaint Studio.
` Drummerless since the departure of Denny Siewell after the Red Cross Speedway [sic] album, McCartney has recruited a Macon, Georgia drummer named Joe English. Until the phone call from McCartney, English had spent the last three years playing with a group called the Jam Factory and living at Greg Allman's mansion in Macon. He has been recommended to Sea-Saint staff arranger, Tony Dorsey, by the Allman drummer, Jaimo.
Asked if the Mardi Gras was inspiring any of the music they were making. McCartney said, "I wrote a song about it called 'My Carnival', but it won't be New Orleans music. It'll be distinctly McCartney."
Yet he had obviously been impressed by the scene, adding that "This time of the year in New Orleans, there certainly is a great deal of lunacy in the air." The as yet untitled album has an anticipated May release date.
As for live performance possibilities, so far, talk about the anticipated tour has emanated chiefly from McCartney's able army of publicists. The 1972 European and 1973 British tours have been his only experience with live audiences since the disintegration of the Beatles. And McCartney was careful to point out that the band won't go out "until we're musically ready".
Asked if the disastrous reviews accompanying the recent George Harrison tour had discouraged him. McCartney said, "No, we loved it. We had a ball! In defense of the audience, though I thought George should have played more of his hits, more of his music. George was not accustomed to a great deal of prolonged singing, and perhaps the tour was too long." Returning to his own touring prospects, McCartney said that he was "excited by the prospect of getting out before a lot of old, friendly faces."
And were there any circumstances which might draw the Beatles back together? "I don't think that's possible," McCartney answered. "After all, we came out of the sticks and went full circle with the group. If you ask any of the others, I think you'll find they're very happy with what they're doing. We're all doing something new and stretching ourselves a bit. That's really how it should be."
A strict security blackout has been posted by McCartney and his production people, with warnings issued to the musicians and the Sea-Saint studio staff against discussing what was going on in the recording sessions. So when McCartney decided to meet the media, it was by way of a vehicle designed to take inquiring minds off their business on a warm, languid February afternoon, McCartney hired the services of the 50 year old tourist river boat Voyager to put- put around the bayou with 50 reporters and photographers for the occasion.
McCartney also hired the New Orleans Tuxedo Brass Band to liven up the dockside proceedings while sweating delivery men unloaded boxes of freshly boiled shrimp, crayfish, as well as terrains of gumbo. A pair of white limousines delivered McCartney, Linda, and Wings all decked out with Top Hats and walking sticks, plus a somewhat overwhelmed Joe English and studio partners Toussaint and Marshall Seahorn.
Pulling out of the Canal Street berth, clutches of tourists clad in Bermuda shorts goggled as The Beatles and Co. Voyager made for the lazy, spooky bayous --the mangrove swamps --where, through the course of an hour and a half, McCartney tried to definitely evade telling anyone what he was up to.
"Yes, I wrote nearly all the music. We came here to see Professor Long Hair, an elderly jazz pianist in New Orleans, a fixture. No, we haven't named the album yet. It'll be out in about two months. It'll be better than Band on the Run."
His obligations to the press were discharged, and McCartney and Voyager swung back to Canal Street. Waiting at the dock was yet another cargo of good grub, red beans and rice, ham hocks, sausages and mustard greens, bottles of grog, and a second shift of grinning passengers. This dime-a-dozen local musician with whom McCartney would cheerfully spend the better part of the night floating through the swamps, jamming and wailing while clouds of bugs hovered over the ham hocks.
McCartney spent the muggy night out on the Bayou with the cream of contemporary New Orleans music, Robert "Barefootin" Parker, Earl "Trickbag" King. Lee "working on the coal mine" Dorsey, Ernie, "mother-in-law", K-Doe, Mylon LeFevre, Clarence "Frogman", Henry, Alan Toussaint, the Meters, a band called Chocolate Milk, and Paul's longed for Professor Long Hair.
Under the more than five-hour cruise party, the Meters and Chocolate Milk performed, but it was not long before McCartney and Wings joined the Meters and Ernie K-Doe in a rendition of "I want to hold your hand", quite unlike the 1963 original, one observer reported. Followed by a trust of "Get Back" off the Hey Jude album and a wrap-up Soul melody as the ship steamed back to the Canal Street dock for the last time.
In a phone interview from the studio later, McCartney described his Riverboat Shuffle as a "ball." But when asked why he hadn't used any of the local artists on the album, he said adamantly, "because we're recording the ideas to be among the ambiance, not to record with it. Band on the Run was cut in Lagos, Nigeria, but it didn't have anything to do with Lagos."
As for the actual proceedings, McCartney still refused any attempts to describe it, though he said he was joining the Tuxedo Brass Band momentarily to lay down a track. Evidently, their appearance on the album and some earlier keyboard work by Toussaint would be McCartney's sole exception to his avoidance of the locals.
Paul and Linda finished recording in New Orleans by the 24th of February, preferring to avoid any additional three weeks of mix downs and polishing. They're evasive about their next steps, but indicated they were bound either West for LA or back across the barney seas to England, or changing their plans, they may always rely on their multidienuous disguises.
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