Update (12/30/08)

Update (12/26/08)

Update (12/23/08)

Update (12/15/08)

Update (12/14/08)

Update (12/11/08)

Update (12/10/08)

Update (12/8/08)

Update (12/6/08)

Update (12/5/08)

Hi Steve - from US Billboard.biz 13-Dec-08 and United World Chart 6-Dec-08:

The Fireman's ELECTRIC ARGUMENTS makes a modest debut on the US Top 200 at #67, probably selling in the 12,000-15,000 range. I've read that the entire album was/is available for free via both NPR online and MySpace. Maybe that and a lack of word-of-mouth so far that Fireman is Macca & Youth account for the tepid 1st-week sales. After all, MEMORY ALMOST FULL peaked at #3 and went Platinum, and CHAOS AND CREATION... peaked at #6 and went Gold, so wtf? The album has disappeared from iTunes' top 100 today, after showing up at #75 on Tues. and #99 on Wed. It was also down to #86 last time I checked the Amazon top 100 today. Through the United World Chart I found that ELECTRIC ARGUMENTS debuted at #79 in the UK, and #66 in the Netherlands. Back to Billboard and the US, the album is #1 on the Top Independents chart, since it is not being handled by any major label, but MPL/ATO.

Update (12/4/08)

Update (12/3/08)

Hi Steve,

This is me, once again. This is to let you know that the iTunes version of "Electric Arguments" has an extra track. It's called "Sawain Ambient Acapella". It is indeed a stripped down version of "Lifelong Passion", with vocals more upfront and less instrumentation. In order to get it, you have to buy the whole album. Once more, thanks for your web and for your kindness. I wish you and all the readers a "warmer than the sun, cooler than the air" day. Ricardo.

Update (12/1/08)

Hi everybody at abbeyrd,

Read that someone from Spain was wondering what Paul says on the hidden part of Electric Arguments endtrack 'Don't stop running' I played it backwards and Paul whispers: "Warmer than the sun, cooler than the air." Always nice it turns into something 'positive' if you make time figuring things out. It reminds me of Yoko's "Yes' upon the ceiling of which John said it was great to climb up the ladder, take the magnifiing glass and read 'Yes' and not something negative.

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!!
Henk Vrugt

If you shied away from Paul's previous efforts under his secret identity "The Fireman," don't make that mistake this time. His newest duet with Youth (co-producer Martin Glover), "Electric Arguments" is every bit as satisfying as any of McCartney's recent releases under his real name, if not more so. Unlike the previous Fireman albums, Paul sings throughout, using various vocal styles on a fairly wide range of music, from folk to straight-ahead rock with sidetrips to American pop and blues. This will grow on you. I can't recommend it strongly enough and you'll be hearing tracks on the show beginning December 6. As always, thanks for listening!

Update (11/30/08)

Hi Steve,

'Light From Your Lighthouse' is a traditional gospel song. I stand to be corrected but most credits have 'Traditional/ Arranged by Blind Willie Johnson'. The song is featured heavily in the Coen Brothers remake of 'The Ladykillers', the soundtrack of which has 3 different versions.

Bilnd Willie Johnson's version features very similar vocal stylings to the Fireman's version. (Editor's note: It's available on iTunes.)

Cheers
Adam

Hi, Steve,

Paul's "Light From Your Lighthouse" is indeed a cover of a very old African-American gospel number titled "Shine On Me." Notable renditions include those by Leadbelly, Blind Willie Johnson and Nick Cave.

As you and many of your readers may already know, Cave has the most direct connection to the modern London music scene. Both as a solo performer and as leader of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, the Australian has spent much of his music career recording versions American roots music. He has performed and recorded with a varied cast of musicians and singers, including the Flaming Lips, Marianne Faithful, Johnny Cash, Kylie Minogue, and P.J. Harvey.

Cave also is an author, a screenwriter and actor. And, according to my students' choice of references, Wikipedia, currently resides in Brighton, England.

Cheers — HP

Update (11/29/08)

Hi,

Just a quick note to inform you that "Light from the lighthouse" on the new Fireman is a cover !!! Proof here: http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=uqZc4cl5kh4&feature=related

Would you please mention the http://paulmccartney.forumactif.com for the info.

Thanks for your incredible works !

Sincerely,
Wingspan

Hi!

This is Ricardo, from Spain. Once again, I must congratulate you on your web page. I am writing to express my surprise at Electric Arguments, an album which I find as one of the most amazing things ever published by McCartney. And regarding one of the tracks there is a question I'd like to ask you (and everybody): What does McCartney say in the final backwards message? I'd be very pleased if someone told me.

Thanks a lot. Keep up the good work!
Ricardo.
P.S.: By the way, the All Together Now DVD has gone nearly absolutely unnoticed here in Spain. I don't want to sound rude, but I am glad about it! Nobody cared about All Together Now!!! Hey, Apple!!!, What about the remasters???!!!

The Fireman In The Media

"A pure listening pleasure with a great sense of spontaneity and musical imagination" Daily Telegraph – October 10th 2008 'Electric Arguments' Is Receiving Rave Reviews Radio 1 had the world debut play of the track 'Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight' and made it their 'Hottest Record In The World Right Now'. After hearing the album Zane Lowe commented, "Just awesome!"

Since then The Fireman have also received glowing endorsements and plays in the UK by Radio 1 DJ's Colin Murray, Annie Mac and Steve Lemacq. Ultra cool music site http://www.clashmusic.com described the album as, "a staggering collection of timeless adventures that touch on the best aspects of today's more leftfield sounds." UK music magazine Uncut have made 'Electric Arguments' their album of the month this month. You can read what they had to say here: http://www.uncut.co.uk/music/paul_mccartney/reviews/12444

Observer Music Monthly also gave 'Electric Arguments' a glowing review: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/nov/09/fireman-paul-mccartney-electric-arguments In the US Rolling Stone magazine have given 'Electric Arguments' a 4* review: http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/24024294/review/24196262/electric_arguments French music bible Rock and Folk have also given 'Electric Arguments'a 4* review. ??

The Fireman Speak: Last week Paul popped into London's XFM radio station where he had a quick catchup with drive-time presenter Dave Berry. You can here the interview again here: http://email.xfm.co.uk/go.asp?/bXFL001/qUUUF9/xDZZON On Saturday Paul appeared on Dermot O'Leary's Radio 2 show with Shaun Keaveny (who was standing in for Dermot)

During the week running up to release Paul dropped into Absolute Radio every night to chat with Geoff Lloyd about The Fireman and other things on his Hometime Show. The Fireman also found time to have a chat with credible US music site Pitchfork, their interview is live now: pitchforkmedia.com / http://pitchfork.tv

On the day of the album release Paul was on Steve Wright's Radio 2 show talking about working with Youth and this latest project.?

More info coming soon...

Update (11/28/08)

Hi Steve,

The "no, no, sam, it ain't no anagram" line comes from the Official Fireman webcast that occurred on October 2, 1998, around the time of the release of "Rushes."

The Fireman website that was created to promote Rushes had links to pictures similar to those in the CD art. One of the pictures on the website simply consisted of text that said, "The Fireman is no mason."

In the rather freaky webcast that featured Paul incognito, answering questions from online participants, there was this exchange about that particular phrase:

Q: carol@cnf .canal.edu asks, Does the sentence "The Fireman is no mason" use an anagram to say 'The Fireman is soon man' ? A: No, no sam, it ain't no anagram.

The interesting thing about that question from 1998, Paul's answer at the time, and Paul's desire to bring it up again now is that in the interim, some perceptive person noticed that if you take the phrase: "The Fireman is no mason" and rearrange the letters, you will find that it is indeed an anagram for "I am the risen son of man." I hope you find this information helpful.

Happy Thanksgiving,
Tafultong

Update (11/27/08)

Q: The title of the album is Electric Arguments. Does this suggest that the creative dynamic between you and Youth is one of a challenging nature? Or is there another story to the title?

PAUL McCARTNEY: The truth behind the title is that it's a phrase I pulled out from an Allen Ginsberg poem. It's as simple as that. It seemed to fit the spirit of the album.

Q: Was there a conscious decision this time to include vocals?

PAUL McCARTNEY: Yeah, it was a conscious decision. We wanted to go somewhere else to keep it exciting and it was quite interesting because I hadn’t written any songs for the album, so we had to improvise them each day and even though it was slightly scary it was really exciting learning to walk that tightrope.

Q: Electric Arguments has been described as a cross between Arcade Fire and Led Zeppelin, would you consider that a fair call?

PAUL McCARTNEY: I think it's a compliment I’m happy to accept. Both are cool sources of music so that's ok by me.

Q: It’s a very eclectic album - is that something you had in mind when you started the album or did it take a life of its own?

PAUL McCARTNEY: Yeah, it took on a life of its own. We made one or two decisions like that we would include vocals, which led us towards the song aspect of the album. Each day we would look at what the day had brought and incorporate those feelings into the track. Sometimes we wanted to get heavy and sometimes we were more in sea shanty mode.

Q: Much has been made of the one-day limit per song during the recording process, just how did the time limit actually affect the end result?

PAUL McCARTNEY: It wasn’t a strict rule, it was just that we were working so fast that things only seemed to need a day to get done. It did mean that it was exciting coming in the next day and looking at what we had done the previous day. Then we just spun off that.

Q: Will The Fireman ever play live?

PAUL McCARTNEY: There is a good chance he might. I'll ask him.

Q: In 1998 you described the sound of The Fireman as, “Ambient dreams in rainbow arches”. In 2008 how would you sum up The Fireman?

PAUL McCARTNEY: The Fireman takes your hand and leads you through the blaze to places you didn’t know you wanted to go.

Q: As tends to happen with Paul McCartney songs, there has already been much speculation about what these songs might be about, but you made the lyrics up as you went along - how did that process work?

PAUL McCARTNEY: People have always read into my lyrics and found in them more than I ever intended. This time around I dipped into poetry books, mainly those of the beat poets of the 60s, and looked for inspiration and words that I could take and make my own. Eventually this process would lead to a full song.

Q: How is this different to a PM solo record?

PAUL McCARTNEY: The original idea of The Fireman was to feel completely free in a studio atmosphere and this is something I’ve been interested in since Sgt Pepper, where we gave ourselves alter egos to achieve the same effect. It gives you the feeling that anything is possible and stops you being too serious.

Q: The first two Fireman albums were released on EMI. This time The Fireman are going the indie route. Is that exciting for you?

PAUL McCARTNEY: I'm interested in anything that keeps the process fresh, so to work with new people means that I’ll be exposed to new ideas and this keeps the excitement alive for me.

Being far out is not something I'm known for too much, but I do enjoy that side of things. If you look at things I've done, from Why Don't We Do It in the Road, which is kind of out-there, to Carnival of Light, which is so out there it hasn't even been released, you can see I like experimenting. I don't like this phrase "more than John", though. We grew up as a couple of kids in Liverpool and I think we were both as earnest and experimental as each other.

(Thanks to Rip Rense for sending us this link.)

Update (11/25/08)

Update (11/23/08)

Update (11/21/08)

Update (11/20/08)

Last week Paul popped into London's XFM radio station where he had a quick catchup with drive-time presenter Dave Berry. You can hear the interview again by clicking here.

On Saturday Paul appeared on Dermot O'Leary's Radio 2 show with Shaun Keaveny (who was standing in for Dermot) Click here to check it out.

This week (w/c 17th November) Paul will be dropping into Absolute Radio to chat with Geoff Lloyd about The Fireman and other things on his Hometime Show, which goes out from 5pm each night.

The Fireman also found time to have a chat with credible US music site Pitchfork, their interview will go live today (Monday 17th November). You can check it at http://www.pitchforkmedia.com or http://www.pitchfork.tv.

On the day of the album release Paul will be on Steve Wright's Radio 2 show talking about working with Youth and this latest project.

Paul will also be on Radio 4's Front Row show on Thursday 20th. More details to be added soon.

Paul's site also is showcasing some of the very positive reviews of the album:

• “A pure listening pleasure with a great sense of spontaneity and musical imagination” -- Daily Telegraph – October 10th 2008
• Radio 1 had the world debut play of the track ‘Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight’ and made it their ‘Hottest Record In The World Right Now’. After hearing the album Zane Lowe commented, “Just awesome!” Since then The Fireman have also received glowing endorsements and plays in the UK by Radio 1 DJ’s Colin Murray, Annie Mac and Steve Lemacq. Ultra cool music site Clash.com described the album as, “a staggering collection of timeless adventures that touch on the best aspects of today’s more leftfield sounds.”
• UK music magazine Uncut have made 'Electric Arguments' their album of the month this month. You can read what they had to say here.
• 'Inspired form' - The Guardian www.guardian.co.uk/music/
• In the US Rolling Stone magazine have given 'Electric Arguments' a 4* review. www.rollingstone.com
• Observer Music Monthly also gave 'Electric Arguments' a glowing review.
• French music bible Rock and Folk have also given 'Electric Arguments' a 4* review.

Update (11/19/08)

First "Fireman" (Paul McCartney & Youth) Album in 10 years on ATO Records!!

The Fireman returns after a 10-year break with Electric Arguments, scheduled for U.S. release on November 18th via MPL/ATO Records. The follow-up to 1998’s Rushes, Electric Arguments is the duo’s third studio album – and its first to feature vocals.

With the release of its 1993 debut, Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest, the identities of the musicians behind The Fireman were initially unknown. But soon the press revealed them as none other than Paul McCartney and Youth. “Paul McCartney has discovered dance music – the results are staggeringly brilliant,” said Melody Maker. “They take a melody and, with dexterous genre-hopping through ambient, trance and house, evolve a number of breathtaking variations.”

Last year, McCartney and Youth went into the studio with no master plan, no record company restraints and no set release date to work to. Thus Electric Arguments emerged organically: 13 eclectic tracks, each written and recorded in the space of one day. ?The record opens with a stylistically diverse trifecta: the classic rock attention-grabber “Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight,” the acoustic driven “Two Magpies” and, in another hairpin turn, the euphoric, melodic “Sing The Changes.” Electric Arguments continues in this fashion, each track exhibiting an entirely different personality yet all meshing perfectly. “Lifelong Passion” – a track The Fireman donated earlier this year to the charity Adopt-A-Minefield – showcases a traditional, song-based sound with vocals, completely unlike anything on the duo’s previous two albums. Other standouts include “Light From Your Lighthouse,” “Sun Is Shining” and “Dance ‘Til We’re High,” all demonstrating McCartney's unending interest in pure musical possibilities. Listen to "Sing the Changes" on ATO Records' MySpace NOW!!!

Update (11/18/08)

Update (11/16/08)

Update (11/7/08)

Update (11/6/08)

Update (11/4/08)

Update (10/25/08)

Update (10/22/08)

Update (10/16/08)

Update (10/11/08)

Update (10/10/08)

There was a Fireman album listening / news conference at Abbey Road where this cites come from: "What I like about cooking with Youth, is that I trust him. I trust his judgement. He made it all very simple."... "I've always had a song, melody, lyrics, title. But the process was to throw everything at Youth and just have fun." ... "This could be a terrible mistake. It could ruin my whole career. This could be the most embarrassing moment of my life. "Having written so much over the years, when I'm improvising I think I can spot what works."

And it's pretty cool "...that he'd like to do a collaboration with Bob Dylan, because he's inspirational, but whether it would work in reality, is a completely different story. He told reporters that it would have to be an organic collaboration..."

However, not so much coverage of that, just these: Macca's 'dance' preview – BBC 6 Music – 9 Oct 2008

http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/news/20081009_macca.shtml

http://www.gigwise.com/news/46691/Sir-Paul-McCartney-New-Album-Could-Ruin-My-Entire-Career

and the website http://www.thefiremanmusic.com/ has a nice layout

Update (10/9/08)

NME has similar story/Paul cite as MOJO concerning the Nothing track: From: Download A Free Paul McCartney MP3 http://nme.ipcdigital.co.uk:80/blog/index.php?blog=122&title=download_a_free_paul_mccartney_mp3&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

Paul McCartney explains: "'Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight' is a phrase that an old friend of mine from back in the 60's, a guy called Jimmy Scott, used to say down the clubs. He was actually the guy who originally said 'Ob-la-dee ob-la-da', and I made a song out of that. "You'd say to him, 'Too much, man' and he'd say, 'No, nothing too much just out of sight.' So I grabbed that and suddenly you could see where it was heading and I followed that trail."

w/nice pic (see left) and another another legal free download (4:55 full version 6,77 MB nothing_too_much_just_out_of_sigh.mp3)

beside Dub-Edit2 http://www.atorecords.com/downloads/

and the Radio edit is 3:46 according to this http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=120315153163&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=002

PaulMcCartney.com has the NME link in their news
Free Fireman Download from NME
http://www.paulmccartney.com/news.php#1472/2008-10

and there was a cite in the The Guardian (02.Oct http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/oct/02/worldmusic.popandrock):

Four Corners of fear - Nitin Sawhney Interview...

"(...)...One of the people Sawhney approached as a potential collaborator on the album was Paul McCartney; the result is the saccharine ballad My Soul, the lyrics to which - "I long to know all your secrets/ I want to walk through your fire" - eulogise, some newspapers have suggested, McCartney's relationship with Heather Mills. Sawhney stops short of confirming this. "Every day I was reading about Paul and the paparazzi," he says. "So I thought, 'Why don't I just phone him up and say, do you want to write about how you feel about what's going on?' And he just said, 'Yeah, that would be wicked.' So he came over and just hung out at the house." Sawhney laughs, as if unable to believe his luck. ...(...)"

Pity he boasts too much with the contents of Paul's Song as promotion for his album (similar to his statement in The Telegraph (UK 12 Jan 2008) and his album release party 12 Aug see BBC 6 Music http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/news/20080813_sawhney_macca.shtml

Would be more interesting if he had blabbed about when / where (his house?) the track was recorded and who plays which instrument, sings backing ... just my personal thoughts.

Evelyn Schwarz
BEATLEMANIA Magazine http://www.beatlemania.de

Update (10/8/08)

While reading the MOJO Oct 2008 issue's, I stumbled on a cite about the "Nothing Too Much" track in the McCartney interview, p 58 - inside the Ob-.La-Di, Ob-La-Da question:

"(...)... The genesis of it was a friend of mine, Jimmy Scott, who I used to meet down the clubs most nights. , a lovely guy from Africa - just a grooving guy, very cool. He'd say: "Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, bra" - "bra" and not "bro" though people tried to change it because they thought it was a sexual influence. There was another expression he used to use. I've just made a new record with Youth - we do these records as Fireman. We've just done the third one, and I've pulled out one of Jimmy's other expressions which is, "Nothing's too much - just out of sight!" He was a great native philosopher, and I always pick up on that stuff. Ob-La-Di was a direct nick from him.... (...)!"

all the best !
Evelyn

Last night, the radio edit of ‘Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight’ (Track 1 on the new Fireman album) was Zane Lowe’s ‘Hottest Record In The World Right Now’ on his Radio 1 show . The track was played between 7 and 7.30pm. For those of you who missed it, you will be able to listen to the show online for a week afterwards at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/zanelowe/.

Hey Steve, Was reading the predictable guesswork in the press, citing the lyrical references diciphered in the new McCartney/Fireman lyrics. The UK press cited "Lifelong Passion" having been written about his new love, Nancy Shevell. I was one of those who got that track via the donation to the "Night of 1000 dinners" charity event earlier this year. In the electronic info attached to the MP3, it credits Paul (not Fireman) as the artist, the "Night of 1000 Dinners" as the "album", and intriguingly, carries a 2004 date ! Cheers, Tom Frangione

Update (10/3/08)

Update (10/2/08)

I finally found time to give McCartney's excellent Quebec show the attention it deserves. The "preshow" track playing right before Paul comes out is definitely "Nothing Much Just Out of Sight."

Thanks again for the great site,
Tom in Colorado

Some comments about the song from Bob Ward:

Let's just say anyone used to the gentle hallucinogenic rhythms of "Rushes," or anyone expecting the typical melodic songcraft of the "Memory Almost Full" or "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard" is going to be knocked on their musical butt with this one. Wow! Macca is in full fury here. Quite unlike anything he's done. Great guitar work, powerful vocals. Dare I call this McHeavy Metal? The sound quality of this song is thin; it was taken from a radio program. But when we get this track in its full sonic glory, it will do serious damage to my speakers.

Update (9/30/08)

The Fireman Finds His Voice With Brand New Album Electric Arguments Album Release Date: 17th November 2008

The Fireman are back after a ten-year break and this time they have something to sing about. For the first time ever the The Fireman have found their voice, Electric Arguments is their first release to feature vocals. Electric Arguments is their third and brand new studio album and it’s not the album people might expect from the mysterious duo…

“Ambient dreams in rainbow arches describe the circles of The Fireman”, is how the duo described their music in a rare interview around the release of their last album ‘Rushes’ in 1998. Their first album ‘Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest’, released in 1993, was a solid ambient dance album heavy on electronics. Around this time the identity of The Fireman was unknown until the press exposed the duo as none other than Paul McCartney and Youth. The now defunct music bible Melody Maker heaped praise on the project, “Paul McCartney has discovered dance music – the results are staggeringly brilliant. They (The Fireman) take a melody and, with dexterous genre-hopping through ambient, trance and house, evolve a number of breathtaking variations.”

Last year The Fireman returned to work again to start work on what would become Electric Arguments. The results this time are entirely different.

Earlier this year The Fireman donated a new track, Lifelong Passion, from Electric Arguments, to the charity Adopt-A-Minefield. This new track marked a directional change for The Fireman. Lifelong Passion showcased a new more traditional song based sound with vocals, going against the sound of the first two albums. And so the speculation began. A ‘studio source’ was quoted in The Times as describing their new sound ‘like Arcade Fire meets Led Zeppelin’. So what had The Fireman been up to and what does the album sound like?

Electric Arguments is an eclectic and varied album consisting of thirteen tracks recorded in thirteen days over the period of nearly a year. Each track was written and recorded in the space of one day. The Fireman went into the studio with no plan or clear direction of how they wanted the album to sound. The project took a life of its own and the results will surprise anyone expecting to hear the previous sound of the band.

The album’s opener Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight is classic rock and an instant attention grabber. A heavy guitar riff with loud drums and souring vocals, it’s like nothing The Fireman have ever done before. The second track, the acoustic driven Two Magpies immediately takes you in a different direction, calming things right down. Then we reach the third song Sing The Changes, a euphoric upbeat song with an instantly memorable melody. Electric Arguments continues in this fashion, keeping the listener intrigued as to where The Fireman will take them next. Each album track has an entirely different personality, yet somehow this collection sits together perfectly. Other standout tracks include ‘Light From Your Lighthouse’, ‘Sun Is Shining’ and ‘Dance ‘Til We’re High’, all in keeping with the genre-hopping spirit of the first two The Fireman albums. Electric Arguments demonstrates that Paul McCartney is still interested in pure musical possibilities. This is an album set to both surprise and delight the listener. Made with no record company restraints or a set release date to work to, Electric Arguments was made with complete artistic and creative freedom.

Track listing:
The Fireman - Electric Arguments

1) Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight
2) Two Magpies
3) Sing The Changes
4) Travelling Light
5) Highway
6) Light From Your Lighthouse
7) Sun Is Shining
8) Dance ‘Til We’re High
9) Lifelong Passion
10) Is This Love?
11) Lovers In A Dream
12) Universal Here, Everlasting Now
13) Don’t Stop Running

Produced By Paul McCartney & Youth
All tracks written by Paul McCartney

Electric Arguments is released on One Little Indian

(9/29/2008) Some introductory links: