McCartney III rumoured …again

Will “McCartney III” finally see the light of day this year?

The internet is full of speculations about Paul McCartney having recorded a new album in his studio “The Mill” in England while having kept himself in isolation with his family in the early months of the Covid19 pandemic – and that this album is no other than the highly anticipated “McCartney III”.

After the album “McCartney II” was released in 1980, fans started speculating that perhaps these self-titled albums was a series, which should come out at the start of every decade. This because the album “McCartney” came in 1970 and “McCartney II” a decade after. Both albums had McCartney himself handling all instruments and contained a few instrumentals among the songs, and were released at the start of a new decade. Of course, it’s not strange that multi-instrumentalist Paul McCartney handles most instruments himself, he did that on the 2005 album “Chaos and Creation in the Backyard” too, but he was not involved in the production of that album. “McCartney” and “McCartney II” were both self-produced.

Paul McCartney’s studio set-up in Scotland during the recording of “McCartney II” Photo: Linda McCartney

Promo-CD for “(I Want To) Come Home”

So when 1990 came around, many people expected the release of “McCartney III”. It didn’t happen – and not in 2000 either. In 2009 news was that Paul had recorded around 20 songs with his old friend Geoff Emerick engineering, for a “McCartney III” project in 2010. That never materialised either, but for one song. “(I Want To) Come Home” was released, and was recorded during these sessions. The song was played in the Robert DeNiro movie “Everybody’s Fine” and was released as a digital single in March 2010. Physically it only exists as a promo-CD and was not included on the movie’s soundtrack album. Paul McCartney handled the vocals as well as all the instruments: acoustic, electric and bass guitars, piano, drums and tambourine. Strings were then overdubbed.

McCartney and McCartney II became part of the Paul McCartney Archive in 2011.

Now the rumour is that 2020 will be the year “McCartney III” comes to fruition. Supposedly the recording of this album was McCartney’s way of killing time while being isolated with his family during the Covid19 pandemic. If it wasn’t for this, he would have been touring, and occasionally dipping into some studio work with other musicians and a producer, which is how he usually spends his time – when he isn’t holidaying. But one other thing he did do during his time in England was to give an interview to the magazine GQ, where he revealed that he had been finishing off some songs that had been lying around for a while. “I’ve been able to write and get into music, starting songs, finishing songs. I’ve had a few little things to write and it’s given me the time to finish some songs that I hadn’t found the time to get around to, you know? I’ve been recording using lots of hand wipes and disinfectant and social distancing, which was good because I don’t like not working.”

In the printed interview (also available online) he was depicted in a series of photos taken by daughter Mary. It was her mother Linda who took the pictures used on both the “McCartney” album as well as on “McCartney II”, so it would only be appropriate that Mary (who, as a baby, also was in the back cover photo of the “McCartney” album) would take the photos for an upcoming “McCartney III”.

Paul was recently photographed in a recording studio in Sag Harbor, on the eastern end of Long Island, New York. Behind Paul is a camera operator wearing a face mask, capturing Paul on film for an unknown project.

Some people have been looking at songs registered by McCartney on the ASCAP site, and found these unreleased titles: “Special Day”, “Quiet Moment” and “Til You Drop”.

I was contacted by someone who had heard from some “insider” that McCartney had recorded a new album while he was isolated in Sussex earlier this year. Then it became the subject of discussions in several internet forums, and it was recently revealed that the domain name mccartneyiii.com had been registered by CSC Corporate Domains on August 28, 2020 – this is the same company who registered paulmccartney.com, and recently flaming-pie.com. So I guess we just have to wait and see. A likely release date may be in December, and we will probably see an announcement after the celebrations of John Lennon’s 80th and the “Gimme Some Truth” releases are out. If there is something to these rumours.

Speaking of the “McCartney” album, we have got a few photos of the upcoming Record Store Day half-speed mastered edition, due out Saturday 26 September.

The upcoming half-speed mastered “McCartney”.

Detail from “McCartney”

The back, daughter Mary under the jacket.

Registration of the domain mccartneyiii.com