Paul McCartney - unreleased 'Effects Tape' for McGear album - Strawberry Studios, 1974

This is a wonderful and unique studio tape, recorded by Paul McCartney for use on his brother Mike's excellent 'McGear' album in early 1974.

Engineered at Strawberry North, Stockport, in 1974, by Peter Tattersall.

This highly unusual tape of sound effects and other miscellaneous recordings including some wonderful snapshots of McCartney's creativity and Tattersall's technical engineering skills. The opening track is a lovely ditty too! For a full discussion and track-by-track analysis of this tape, please check out our podcast at https://consequences.podbean.com/

Track listing (as written on tape box):

1/ 'Hello Piccadilly' - original jingle featuring Paul on vocals and piano and Linda on backing vocals. Recorded for launch of Piccadilly Radio in Manchester, spring 1974. The jingle was played multiple times during the station's earliest days.

2/ 'Dougal bits' - brief extracts from newsreader Robert Dougall's voice-over from the public information films shown on BBC TV on five consecutive nights in February 1971. 'LSD refers to 'Pounds Shillings Penny'; 'LP' to 'Pounds (new) Pence'. Paul's brother Mike's band The Scaffold performed the songs in these films. *used in end section of 'McGear' track 'The Man Who Found God on the Moon'

3/ 'Moon talk' - extracts from a vinyl record (?) of the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing, featuring the voices of Neil Armstrong and others. *used in 'McGear' track 'The Man Who Found God on the Moon'

4/ 'Mike's kids: Harry K' - Mike McCartney's two children, recorded at home on his Grundig tape recorder singing the Hari Krishna chant. *used in 'McGear' track 'The Man Who Found God on the Moon'

5/ 'Wine glass F-chord - bounced multi-tracked mixes of three wine glasses, with Paul playing the notes F, A and C. The mixed notes are pitch-bent using a tape speed dial. *used in 'McGear' track 'The Casket'

6/ 'Glass crash'
7/ 'Metal " " '
8/ 'Car skid'
9/ 'TR3 passing fast'

Tracks 6-9 are taken from the vinyl record BBC Sound Effects Vol 2 (1970). The sound of the car skidding and crashing is a mix of various car and crash sound effects on different bands of this LP.

The tape was digitised on 21st July 2021 at 24-bit, 48k. The tape was played on a Revox PR99 and digitised on an Apple Mac running Logic Pro X. Most of the source audio will be available in full fidelity to subscribers of the Consequences 10cc podcast. https://consequences.podbean.com/

Courtesy of the Strawberry Archive

For more tape baking adventures, please visit our website at www.seanmacreavy.com