Check Your Magazine

The latest issue of Wax Poetics has not one, but TWO contributions from yours truly. The subject of today's post is my first attempt at writing a "Re:Discovered" column where a lesser known or misunderstood song or album gets highlighted in (hopefully) an amusing or interesting manner by the column's author. I won't copy the text here as I'd like to support the magazine and encourage you to pick up a copy here. But what I can is showcase the inspiration for the column with the MP3 that inspired my prose as well as the even rarer original version of the song from the bootleg album "The Lost Paul McCartney Album."

I first heard of this track on a bootleg dance music compilation in Brazil that masked the original artists in an attempt to avoid lawsuits. Its a cool comp with a Tim Maia jam, some 80s funk and then this Paul McCartney track. I would have had no idea it was the "cute beatle" but the notation next to the track read "PMC" and this sherlock pieced it together!

Paul McCartney - Check My Machine (single version)
This one is not too tricky to find out in the field. The A-side, "Waterfalls", was a pretty popular track so it can be found here and there. I even noticed that there is a Brazilian 12" with this track on the flip, presumably in it 5+ minute "single" version.

Paul McCartney - Check My Machine (original version)
This came from a double-LP bootleg of the sessions that resulted in the "McCartney II" album. I apologize for the crappy quality of the MP3, but I'm pretty sure its a result of the crappy bootleg, not my recording technique or equipment. (UPDATE: thanks to Brion, we have a CD quality version now uploaded - thanks, Brion!)

I think most of you will agree that the single version is superior to this one, but for completists like myself, this is illuminating. Listening to this one after the released version you get to see the benefits of judicious editing. Also, note that the computer voice that opens the track "Hi George . . . Morning Terry" is omitted as it goes right into the Flintstones' dialog "Sticks & stones . . ."