PAUL McCARTNEY : UNPLUGGED (THE OFFICIAL BOOTLEG)

 

  1. Be-Bop-A-Lula
  2. I Lost My Little Girl
  3. Here, There and Everywhere
  4. Blue Moon of Kentucky
  5. We Can Work It Out
  6. San Francisco Bay Blues
  7. I've Just Seen a Face
  8. Every Night
  9. She's a Woman
  10. Hi-Heel Sneakers
  11. And I Love Her
  12. That Would Be Something
  13. Blackbird
  14. Ain't No Sunshine
  15. Good Rocking Tonight
  16. Singing the Blues
  17. Junk

Label : Parlophone Records

Released : May 20, 1991

Length : 58:33

Recording Date : January 25, 1991

Venue : Limehouse Studios (The Word), London, UK

Review (AllMusic) : Released after the studied, meticulous Flowers in the Dirt, the live acoustic concert album Unplugged was a breath of fresh air, and it remains one of the most enjoyable records in McCartney's catalog. Running through a selection of oldies - not only his own, but Beatles and rock & roll chestnuts - McCartney is carefree and charming, making songs like "Be-Bop-a-Lula" and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" (which finds Paul melding Bill Monroe with Elvis) sound fresh. But the real revelations of the record are the songs McCartney hauls out from his debut - "That Would Be Something," "Every Night," and "Junk" - which sound lovely and timeless, restoring them to their proper place in his canon. They help make Unplugged into a thoroughly enjoyable minor gem.

Review (Wikipedia) : Unplugged (The Official Bootleg) is a live unplugged performance by Paul McCartney, recorded and released in 1991. Following the vastness of his world tour recently captured on Tripping the Live Fantastic, McCartney relished the opportunity to strip back his songs and appear on the newly launched acoustic-only show MTV Unplugged. Consequently, McCartney was the first in a long line of artists to release an unplugged album. Unlike other artists who appeared on the acclaimed show with acoustic instruments plugged into amplifiers (producing the sound heard), McCartney's instruments were 100% unplugged. Microphones were carefully placed close to guitars, pianos, etc. to pick up the sound (this can be seen on the album cover, where a large rectangular microphone is pictured in front of McCartney's acoustic guitar). Using the same line-up that had recently backed him (save for Blair Cunningham who had replaced Chris Whitten), McCartney used the opportunity to dust off some of his rarer tracks, including three from his 1970 debut album McCartney, alongside several ../covers and amid a helping of familiar Beatles hits. This recording was one of the first in the famed MTV Unplugged series. Several tracks performed in the show were not included on the album, as follows: "Things We Said Today", "Midnight Special", "Matchbox", "Mean Woman Blues" and "The Fool". Numbers rehearsed by the band but not performed at all include: "Mother Nature's Son", "Figure of Eight", "Cut Across Shorty", "Heartbreak Hotel", "Heart of the Country", "She's My Baby", and "Mrs. Vandebilt". "Things We Said Today" and "Midnight Special" would see official release two years later in 1993 as B-sides to the "Biker Like an Icon" single. With McCartney in a loose and carefree context, critical response to Unplugged (The Official Bootleg) was very warm. Initially released in a limited edition, individually numbered run in 1991, Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)-with artwork that recalls ????? ? ????'s-was reissued in a more permanent fashion in the late 1990s. Upon its original issue, it reached number 7 in the UK and became McCartney's highest-peaking US album in almost ten years, reaching number 14.