A lost song written by Jeff Beck and Paul McCartney has been discovered in the latter’s archive.
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The track was recorded in 1994 and features a spoken pro-environmentalist message recorded by Beck, which opens with him asking: “Why are they cutting down the rainforest?” The message was later used in a US 13-part radio series presented and created by Paul called Oobu Joobu. The show featured rehearsals, demos, unreleased recordings, conversations and cameos from many of McCartney’s friends, and highlighted campaigns o issues he felt were important, such as vegetarianism.
McCartney would go on to found Meat-Free Mondays with his daughters Mary and Stella in 2009, encouraging people to think about the environmental impacts of their food.
Beck died on January 10 at the age of 78 after suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis. which led McCartney to begin thinking about the studio time they had shared almost thirty years ago. This led Paul’s team to rediscover the never-before-heard track.
“With the sad passing of Jeff Beck – a good friend of mine, and a great, great guitar player – it reminded me of the time we worked together many years ago on a campaign for vegetarianism,” McCartney said via a press release. “It’s great guitar playing, ’cause it’s Jeff!”
Elsewhere, producer Rick Rubin recently heaped praise on McCartney for his skills as a bassist and songwriter.
“I thought about how everything I’ve seen, Beatles-related, is either about the songwriting or Beatlemania,” Rubin told the magazine. “Paul McCartney the bass player, or Paul McCartney the musician, because he plays everything – that’s a little story told.
“You just think of him as Beatle Paul, yet in my opinion, he is the best of all bass players, he’s number one.”