Complete Promo Clips Vol. 2 1980 – 1992 (Misterclaudel mcdvd-07/08)
DVD 1: Coming Up (1980), Waterfalls (1980), Ebony And Ivory (1982), Ebony And Ivory Solo (1982), Take It Away (1982), Tug Of War (1982), Here Today #1 (1982), Here Today #2 (1982), Say Say Say (1983), Pipes Of Peace (1983), So Bad (1983), No More Lonely Nights (1984), No More Lonely Nights Disco Ver. (1984), We All Stand Together (1984), Seaside Woman (1984), Oriental Nightfish (1984), Spies Like Us #1 (1985), Spies Like Us #2 (1985), Press (1986), Only Love Remains (1986), Pretty Little Head (1986), Strangledhold (1986), Let It Be (Ferry Aid 1987), All The Best UK Ad (1987), Once Upon A Long Ago (1987), My Brave Face (1989), This One #1 (1989), This One #2 (1989)
DVD 2: Figure Of Eight long version (1990), Figure Of Eight short version (1990), Put It There (1990), Put It There solo party (1990), Get Back (1990), We Got Married (1990), Distraction (1990), Ou Est Le Soleil? (1990), Party Party (1990), Birthday #1 (1991), Birthday #2 (1991), Long And Winding Road (1991), Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1991), I Saw Her Standing There (1991), All My Trials (1991). Bonus tracks: Aspel & Company June 9th, 1984, That’ll Be The Day / Royal Variety Performance November 24th, 1986, Only Love Remains / Live The Tube December 11th, 1986, Only Love Remains / Wogan November 19th, 1987, Jet, Listen To What The Man Said / The Last Resort With Jonathan Ross November 27th, 1987, Don’t Get Around Much Anymore, I Saw Her Standing There, Lawdy Miss Clawdy / Live The Roxy November 17th, 1987, Once Upon A Long Ago / Yoru no Hit Studio November 18th, 1987, Once Upon A Long Ago / Countdown November 30th, 1987, Once Upon A Long Ago / Top Of The Pops December 2nd, 1987, Once Upon A Long Ago / Yoru no Hit Studio 1989 June 7th, 1989, This One, My Brave Face / Rehearsals at The Lyceum Theatre August 24th 1989, This One
The second volume in Misterclaudel’s three volume series of Paul McCartney promo videos documents those made in the eighties to the very beginning of the nineties. The period covered begins at the start of his second solo career. The videos become more creative and elaborately staged with expensive productions, and then become more basic with simple live performance promos. This progress mirrors his time away from live performance.
The first disc begins with two videos from his first solo album of the decade McCartney II. “Coming Up” is one of his more famous. Through special effects there are ten McCartney’s including one dressed as Beatle Paul and another as Buddy Holly. It is interesting to note that this song was a minor hit for Wings and since the band technically was still in existence when the album came out could have been a band piece, but McCartney chose to make this solo. The video premiered on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” on May 17, 1980. “Waterfalls” is a rarely seen clip from an underrated single. It is a catchy tune and the video begins with Paul composing the tune at the piano only to wander off into images from the song itself including dancing polar bears, waterfalls, and a carousel. This video was taped off of VH1 and is in excellent quality.
The following six videos come from 1982’s Tug Of War, a creative peak both musically and an advancement in the videos. The first version of “Ebony And Ivory” is the better known with Paul and Stevie Wonder singing on a gigantic piano keyboard. Occasionally the scene cuts to the “backing band” the Cimarrons. Because of scheduling conflicts the performers were filmed separately and their scenes were edited together into a cohesive whole. The second “Ebony And Ivory” is McCartney’s solo version found on the 12″ single and features Paul surrounded by smoke playing the piano. These scenes alternate with a story of a prisoner in jail who is let free in the end.
“Take It Away” is a high concept video. Paul and his band, consisting of Linda, Ringo and George Martin begin the song practicing in mum’s house and play a big show. They are courted by an impresario played by actor John Hurt who signs them to a contract at the end. “Tug Of War” is a simple video showing Paul playing the song while sitting in a chair and mixing the song at AIR studios which is intercut with old black and white footage of people engaged in a tug of war.
The final Tug Of War videos are two variations of “Here Today.” The first consists of non-synchronous shots of Paul and George Martin working on the song at Abbey Road Studios. The second is one that was shown on NBC’s “Friday Night Videos” with an interview with Paul. This edit consists of the song over a montage of various still photographs of Lennon. The quality of the latter is good but looks sourced from a high generation VHS recording.
The next three videos come from 1983’s Pipes Of Peace. “Say Say Say” is taped directly off of VH1 and is in excellent quality and includes the opening dialogue, which is sometimes cut out. This is a high concept video casting Paul, Linda and Michael Jackson and nineteenth century western robin hoods. The creep factor is high with Jackson making ogle eyes at his sister LaToya, but it is still a great video. “Pipes Of Peace” is one of the most elaborately produced video in the entire selection. Depicting the 1914 Christmas true between the British and Germany troops, it features Paul playing an officer for each side as they meet at the line, play football, exchange chocolate and whisky, and photos of each other’s families.
“So Bad” is a simple clip featuring Paul, Linda, Ringo and Eric Stewart as a band playing during a photo shoot. This is followed by two variations of the video for “No More Lonely Nights” from Paul’s film Give My Regards To Broad Street. The first is the standard video shown on MTV countless times where McCartney plays a lonely projectionist and goes to the roof of the theater for a cigarette and sees the miraculous transformation of London. This was filmed on April 10 1984 at the Old Justice Pub in Bermondey. The second is a compilation called the “disco” or “dance” variation and was filmed in October at the Hippodrome in London. This one features Paul walking and miming the words while people break dance around him. Random scenes of people dancing are edited throughout the video.
The next three video clips come from the rare out of print Rupert short that was released on VHS and videodisc in 1984. “We All Stand Together” is taped off of VH1 and is in excellent quality. It begins with Paul finding his and Mike’s Rupert book in the attic and miming the song. This footage is edited with an animated short of the frogs singing the song and is an example of McCartney’s branching out from pop music in the eighties. “Seaside Woman” had a long history. It was originally written by Linda in 1972 and was featured on the very first Wings tour that year. In 1977 it was released as a single, being credited to Suzie And The Red Stripes and the video was produced three years after. The clip begins with a placard that reads: “Winner Of The Golden Palm for the Best Short Subject at the Cannes Film Festival 1980.” It is a fun calypso song with more serious social commentary. The animation follows the narrative in the song and is one of the true jewels in this set.
Another Linda written song “Oriental Nightfish” follows. She and animator Ian Emes directed this in 1978. Misterclaudel group with in 1984 to correspond with its home video release. These are followed by two variations of the “Spies Like Us” video, Paul’s contribution to the John Landis movie released in 1985. The first is the “British” edit that was produced to comply with the BBC since British labor laws prohibit non-musicians from performing in videos. The second is the normal cut which features more of the leads including Dan Aykroyd at the mixing consol, Chevy Chase pretending to play keyboards, and the female leads Donna Dixon and Vanessa Angel miming back up vocals during the up tempo second half. Both variations end with a parody of the Abbey Road cover with Paul, Chase and Akyroyd.
The next four videos come from McCartney’s 1986 release Press To Play. This album was produced by Hugh Padgham (Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Genesis) and the songs sound like mid eighties synthesized pop. “Press” is a low budget video showing an afternoon of Paul McCartney riding the tubes in London. There are funny reaction shots from other passengers as they realize precisely who is riding next to them and a very good scene of Paul talking to a young woman busking with her violin.
“Only Love Remains” was filmed on November 17 – 19, 1986 and is remixed for the video with more saxophone (what eighties hit didn’t have a saxophone?) It features Paul and the band playing with a large orchestra, Paul and Linda standing around a fireplace, and later an older couple standing by the same fireplace. “Pretty Little Head” begins with a sound byte from “She’s Leaving Home” and the narrative of the video serves as a sequel of sorts to the Sgt. Pepper’s track. The girl runs away from home to escape from her bickering parents and is beset by the trials of being a runaway in the mid eighties. Finally “Stranglehold” is another story video featuring Paul playing in a bar in the American southwest. A young boy wants to play his sax, but the bouncer refuses to let him in until Linda comes, escorts him in, and he steals the show. All of these were taped off of recent broadcasts on VH1 and are in excellent quality.
“Let It Be” is a video filmed in March, 1987 for Ferry Aid, a charity to raise money for the families of the victims of the March 6, 1987 Herald Of Free Enterprise ferry disaster. The ship was leaving Zeebrugge port in Belgium and overturned, killing nearly two hundred people. The single soon hit number one in the UK and was a success. The video features Boy George, Gary Moore, Mark Knopfler, Bananarama and countless obscure pop stars in a video that follows the stock formula of the charity pieces in the mid eighties. It begins with a close up of Paul singing the song at the piano and pans to the rest of the artists in the studio recording the song as they take turns singing the lyrics until they all gather at the end and sing in one chorus. This is followed by a short television ad for McCartney’s greatest hits package All The Best.
The final video from 1987 is for “Once Upon A Long Ago,” issued as a single and also on the greatest hits release. This is the first of four appearances in this collection and this video is an edit of two unrelated bits of footage. The first is a animated film of a family and their puppy during Christmas, and the rest is black and white footage of Paul and the band playing the track on a deserted hilltop.
The Flowers In The Dirt videos close out the first DVD with “My Brave Face.” This is a performance video intercut with a plotline centered on a Japanese collector who is looting the McCartney warehouse for Beatles memorabilia. As he snags the greatest piece, McCartney’s Hofner bass guitar, he is hauled away by the police. This is in excellent quality and there are good shots of Elvis Costello (who co-wrote the song) in the studio with Paul and the band. At the end of the video the collector is captured and McCartney is dressed as a gangster.
The first of two versions of “This One” is the European cut which features Paul and Linda meditating and having dream like visions of swans and other psychedelia. The second version is the American cut which features stop motion photos of Paul, Linda and the band in different 1960’s fashion. The videos from that LP continue on disc two with both the long and short versions of “Figure Of Eight.” They are both performance videos and the former received more airplay than the latter. These are followed by two variations of “Put It There.” The first has footage of Paul playing guitar intercut with old footage of fathers and sons and is in excellent quality. The second is Paul alone in a dark room playing and singing the song. This video received more US airplay and is in very good quality. “Get Back” is a concert performance of the track from the 1989-1990 world tour and serves as a promo for the Richard Lester film Get Back. The footage is very exciting and it is a shame the film is currently out of print.
“We Got Married” is a straight performance piece in excellent quality and “Distraction” is another working-in-the-studio video. “Ou Est Le Soleil” is a interesting concept. It is based upon a Nintendo platform video game with the character traveling around the screen. This is edited with the band miming the lyrics and random footage of African tribal dancers, discothèque footage and Paul appears at the end wearing a sombrero.
“Party Party” is a rapid motion animation in the style of Picasso. Paul and the backing band flash by in black and white. Two versions of “Birthday” issued to promote Tripping The Live Fantastic follow. The first contains concert footage from the Knebworth concert intercut with various birthday scenes, and the second is a straight concert video. The next three videos, “The Long And Winding Road,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (filmed in Rio de Janiero), and “I Saw Her Standing There” likewise are promos for the live album. “Sgt Peppers” contains colorful screens shots interspersed with the concert footage. The final video is for “All My Trials.” It begins with a short interview where Paul explains the song’s origin. The actual video has black and white footage of McCartney and band playing in a big empty room, and this is edited with random scenes of people on the street in poverty.
There are ten bonus clips on this disc which are not videos as such but rather various television appearances in the late eighties. The first is from the “Aspel & Company” show from June 9 1984. this is a short clip of Paul singing “That’ll Be The Day” as a duet with Tracey Ullman. The “Royal Variety Performance” dates from November 24, 1986 and is Paul singing “Only Love Remains.” He performs the song again two weeks later on “Live At The Tube.” This clip is followed by Paul’s appearance on Terry Wogan’s “Saturday Live” on November 19, 1987 where he plays two Wings songs, “Jet” and “Listen To What The Man Said.”
The next clip is from “The Last Resort” with host Jonathan Ross. Paul plays three songs with his band, “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” “I Saw Her Standing There” and “Lawdy Miss Clawdy.” The clip also includes a short interview with Paul where he is asked about Michael Jackson buying the Northern Songs catalogue and a running joke about Jonathan asking Paul to autograph a big stack of albums for his “friends” (“John,” “JR,” and “John-John.”) Live At The Roxy from November 17 1987 shows Paul playing “Once Upon A Time” as a flashback on stage and many children wearing hats join them on stage.
“Once Upon A Time” at Yoru no Hit Studio in Japan shows the band miming the song in the studio where a wayward stagehand turns the set from a snowy winter scene to a sunny beach scene. The bonus material is in very good quality and is a nice added touch. For Paul McCartney junkies this is a gluttonous feast of rare material and a worthy sequel to the first volume. Misterclaudel will release volume three covering the nineties and Paul’s videos in the new millennium.
