McCartney hopes to release funky Beatles track
LONDON – Paul McCartney says it's time an experimental Beatles track saw the light of day.
McCartney says he wants to release "Carnival of Light," a 14-minute experimental track the Fab Four recorded in 1967 but never released.
The band played the recording for an audience just once, at an electronic music festival in London. It reportedly includes distorted guitar, organ sounds, gargling and shouts of "Barcelona!" and "Are you all right?" from McCartney and John Lennon.
McCartney said during a recording session at Abbey Road studios he asked the other members of the band to "just wander round all of the stuff and bang it, shout, play it. It doesn't need to make any sense."
"I like it because it's The Beatles free, going off piste," he told the BBC in a radio interview to be broadcast Thursday. Extracts of the interview were published Sunday in The Observer newspaper.
McCartney said he still had a master tape of the piece and "the time has come for it to get its moment."
McCartney, usually regarded as the most melodically minded Beatle, told the BBC he had a long-standing interest in avant-garde music. He said "Carnival of Light" was inspired by experimental composers John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
He said he had wanted to include the track on the Beatles' "Anthology" compilation, but was vetoed by his bandmates.
McCartney would need permission from Ringo Starr and the widows of Lennon and George Harrison to release the track.
McCartney Wants To Release 40-year old Beatles Song
by Paul Cashmere
Paul McCartney says he wants the currently unreleased Beatles song `Carnival Of Light` to be heard by all.
The 14-minute jam was recorded in one take around the time The Beatles were working on ‘Penny Lane’. In fact, specifically, it was recorded on January 5, 1967.
Speaking with John Wilson on the BBC, McCartney said that he feels the time is right to release the avant-guard track. 'I like it because it's the Beatles free, going off piste,' he said. ‘We were set up in the studio and would just go in every day and record,' McCartney tells Wilson. 'I said to the guys, this is a bit indulgent but would you mind giving me 10 minutes? I've been asked to do this thing. All I want you to do is just wander round all of the stuff and bang it, shout, play it. It doesn't need to make any sense. Hit a drum, wander to the piano, hit a few notes ... and then we put a bit of echo on it. It's very free".
McCartney said in the interview that the track was almost released in 1996 on Anthology. We were listening to everything we'd every recorded,' McCartney says. 'I said it would be great to put this on because it would show we were working with really avant-garde stuff ... But it was vetoed. The guys didn't like the idea, like "this is rubbish".'
McCartney was at the BBC to talk about his new album as The Fireman with Wilson for his Front Row radio show in Radio 4. The interview will be heard this Thursday on BBC 4.
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