Customer Reviews

Amoeba's Secret

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This four song live gem includes the riveting and rocking "Only Mama Knows" and the the reflective but upbeat "That Was Me" from Memory Almost Full. The lucky and exclusively limited concert audience was also treated with "C Moon" and the Beatles' classic " I Saw Her Standing There". McCartney has really been on fire the past few years evidenced by the high quality music contained in "Memory Almost Full" and the "Fireman" -"Electric Arguments." This CD will mostly appeal to diehard McCartney and Paul (Beatles' era) fans. That's millions of people.

Amoeba's Secret is a wonderful recording of Paul McCartney's recent "gig" at a Los Angeles music store; and although we only get four tracks this is an instant classic from the start! The quality of the sound is excellent and the artwork is very nicely done. It's great to know that despite the passage of time McCartney never stops and he sounds as powerful today as ever!

"Only Mama Knows" is, of course, a live track that genuinely rocks hard--and Paul sings this out with all his might! Paul's excellent diction enhances his performance and those guitars help the number even further. This is McCartney still at his best; and the melody is quite catchy. McCartney aces this effortlessly--but of course we know it really wasn't that easy. Paul's talents always carry him through to success!

"C Moon" is definitely a number that the crowd loves; and I remember this from a while back--but Paul delivers this rendition with so much enthusiasm it sounds all new and fresh. "C Moon" gets more of a rock and roll arrangement here but it all works very well. Indeed, "C Moon" is easily a major highlight of this album. There's also "That Was Me;" I believe this comes from Paul's more recent CD entitled Memory Almost Full; Paul does this flawlessly and again the electric guitars make this such a great number! Paul sings this quite well and I think "That Was Me" is amazing to say the least!

The four track CD ends with an older Beatles tune entitled `I Saw Her Standing There." This was always one of my very favorite Beatles' songs and McCartney doesn't disappoint when he performs this one. The guitars are emphasized more than they were for the original version of this song but Paul and the others perform this rock ballad so well it still makes me smile--it's a cute little love story!

Overall, Amazon is right--this is a "must-have" for McCartney's fans; and people who enjoy classic rock in general will also want this CD in their collections. Amoeba's Secret gives us classic rock by Paul McCartney who is clearly still at the top of his form.

This is just more evidence of Sir Paul's creative revival. The former Beatle has been by turns a pop-classicist and a studio experimentalist of late (Memory Almost Full and Electric Arguments have represented these two sides of his musical persona), but here decides to just cut loose and rock out at an unlikely venue: a record store in Los Angeles (that happens to be one of my favorites). It's to the man's credit that he didn't overpackage or remix this, but just issued it as an EP with raw, imperfect sound. It adds to the looseness and excitement. Just listen to him shout!

Somewhat disappointing, due only to being so short. So much more could have been added to this release.

The greatness of Sir Paul McCartney cannot be summed-up in a word, a sentence, a paragraph...maybe not even in a single book. His career, as a Beatle and even much longer after that as a solo-artist, is the stuff of legend -- which, he most certainly is.

One aspect of his musical greatness has been his never-ending willingness to share it with the general public, in the form of live performance. While the monetary rewards for staging world tour after world tour are sizeable, it's been a long time since Paul McCartney has had to do anything for money.

As the last of the 'Fab Four' to see that touring with that band made no sense whatsoever (they couldn't be heard and the limitations of the technology on stage made it impossible to transfer the band's ground-breaking sonic experiments from the studio to the stadium), Mr. McCartney, nevertheless, has always had a yearning to "keep music live"...but, in a music store? At the tender age of 65?

Fortunately for us, yes, and yes! This four-song snippet (from the full 12-song concert), held at the Amoeba Record Store in Hollywood, California demonstrates, once again, that with Paul and his band (comprised of Paul Wickens, Rusty Anderson, Brian Ray and Abe Laboriel, Jr.), it is, in fact, "getting better all the time."

(NOTE: If at all possible, try to get your hands on the full, 12-song, CD. It was recently given away in Sunday editions of The Mail, in the U.K.)

How does he keep doing it? Sir Paul brings down the house with classics new and old. Even "C Moon," which he clearly harbors a fancy for but I can do without, gets a nice reggae reworking. "That Was Me" is a killer. The voice isn't as strong after all these years, what do you expect? But Macca continues to amaze.

Great performances! Memorable show! But Amoeba originally touted this mini LP as a "limited run". So, I snatched up three copies (the limit to how many one could purchase) with "future collector's item" in mind. Then, what do they do? They re-release it in mass quantities! LOL! Still cool, but I felt duped into buying what I thought would not be available for very long. 5 stars for the music; -25 stars for the marketing ploy!

Enjoyable select few songs from Paul McCartney's newer album "MEMORY FULL" & the old classic, "I SAW HER STANDING THERE"

If you're a McCartney/Beatle fan this live CD is worth having. If you're not or just a casual fan then this is not a big deal.

This live set performed at Amoeba Music in the summer of 2007 is a great addition for fans of McCartney's concerts. Two of the tracks are from his 2007 album Memory Almost Full ("Only Mama Knows" and "That Was Me"), while the other two tracks are classic McCartney from the Wings-era ("C Moon") and The Beatles (the great "I Saw Her Standing There").

It's unlikely this will win over any new fans, but McCartney has always been great and this EP is no different. The intimacy of the performance may be lost to editing down a 20-track set, but the energy and fervor is present in McCartney's clean playing and brisk vocals.

The live rendition of "I Saw Her Standing There" is the best of the four tracks here, attributable to the song's classic status and rock roots, and it remains one of my favorite Paul tracks.