By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
August 16, 2000
Thirty years after the Fab Four broke up, Paul McCartney has put together a “new” Beatles single.
McCartney announced Tuesday that the new single, “Free Now,” offers snippets from the band’s recording sessions in the 1960s.
“It’s a new little piece of the Beatles,” McCartney told London’s Sun tabloid newspaper. ” `Free Now’ is an outbreak from my normal stuff. It’s more underground than what you usually hear from me, but I like to be free enough to do this sort of thing.”
The recording, which was created at the request of artist Peter Blake as a soundtrack for his Liverpool exhibition “About Collage,” will be released on an EMI label some time in the next few months.
“Peter Blake asked me to create a sound collage about Liverpool,” McCartney said. “I compiled sounds and made the basic collage. I asked Cian Ciaran of [the Welsh pop group] Super Furry Animals to mix something from it, which he kindly did, and my mate used his talents to add a final touch.”
Backed by Super Furry Animals, the song is reported to have a strong techno vibe, similar to the work of the Chemical Brothers.
“Free Now” incorporates sounds of the Beatles’ native Liverpool–including the River Mersey and everyday clamor at a local fish and chips shop–as well as bits of conversation between McCartney and the late John Lennon.
“OK, Paul, you ready, boy?” Lennon can be heard saying. “This is it.”
McCartney responds, “I feel it. I feel free now, free now.”
The last “new” Beatles record, “Free As a Bird,” was released five years ago by the remaining Beatles–McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
