I Am Your Singer (Paul and Linda McCartney)

Recording: July 25th-27th, August and October, 1971 Location: Abbey Road Studios, London Release: December 1971, Wild Life

 

After the first vocal partnership in RAM, McCartney made room for his wife’s vocals also in Wild Life.  An innocent love song, “I Am Your Singer”, nonetheless, deserves a mention for its original harmonic structure and for its sweet Linda and Paul’s vocal blending.

In a fitting metaphor, Paul ties himself to the loved one as a singer does with his song, succeeding in effectively describing the magic of his relationship with Linda.

For the recording McCartney used keyboards as the main instrument, creating a very soft and intimate atmosphere. Tony Clark: “We used an electronic keyboard, not the usual Fender Rhodes electric piano.”[1] Then, McCartney added a short recorder solo that contributed to the enchanted atmosphere of the song. Paul was not a beginner on recorder. He had played it with the Beatles in “Fool on the Hill” and “Glass Onion” but in this case it’s uncertain if he did take it upon himself. Seiwell: “Paul played that part… He brought in all these Irish flageolets. I played one on the instrumental version of ‘Give Ireland Back to the Irish’!”[2]

Clark has a different memory: “The recorders were played by the Dolmetsch Family. And they were overdubbed in Abbey Road Studio One.”[3]

Brian Blood from the Dolmetsch: “Listening to the track, it certainly sounds like us! There is a recorder consort involved – not just the top part but all the way down to bass. Apart from the Blood and Dolmetsch families, there were very few working consorts in England at that time. The tone, intonation and rhythmic bite in the top part identifies the Dolmetsch way of playing. I am very confident we are hearing recorders and a whole consort of them.”[4]

The Dolmetsch are indeed credited on the Wild Life sleeve: but it’s not clear if they are listed as performers or as the suppliers of the instruments.

Alan Parsons, Wild Life sound engineer along with Clark, recalls a detail: “Wild Life was actually the beginning of my career as an engineer, as opposed to an assistant, because every so often (Paul) would disappear with the band, and ask Tony Clark, or myself, to make tapes for him to listen to the next day so he could assess the situation, and decide what he wanted to do next. But one of the songs on the album, I actually mixed myself, as a rough mix, so he could decide what he wanted to do with it. And this was ‘I Am Your Singer’, which I'm delighted to say ended up being used on the album!”[5]

Scheduled for release as the B-side to the single “Love Is Strange” – a reggae-style cover of Mickey and Sylvia’s “Peaches and Herbes” also recorded during the sessions – it was cancelled at the last moment as a result of the disastrous sales of Wild Life. Paul included “I Am Your Singer” in the 1972 Wings Over Europe Tour: it was one of the few soft moments of the show.

Musicians:

Paul McCartney vocals, electric piano, bass (?), recorder (?) · Linda McCartney vocals, organ (?), harmonium (?) · Denny Laine electric guitar, bass (?) · Denny Seiwell drums, maracas · The Dolmetsch Family: Brian Blood, Peter Blood, Cristine Blood, Paul Blood, Jeanne Dolmetsch recorders

 

 

 

[1] Interview courtesy of Tony Clark, 24/01/2013

 

[2] Interview courtesy of Denny Seiwell, 13/11/2011.

 

[3] Interview courtesy of Tony Clark, 27/11/2012.

 

[4] Interview courtesy of Brian Blood, 28/11/2012.

 

[5] From the cd The Complete Audio Guide to the Alan Parsons Project, Arista, 1983.