Paul McCartney: Ode to a Koala Bear (1983)

 |   |  <1 min read

Paul McCartney: Ode to a Koala Bear (1983)

Okay, at a time when Paul McCartney's whole recording career has been given serious consideration at Elsewhere, this seems frivolous and cruel.

But fun.

This odd song appeared on B-side of the single of Say Say Say -- McCartney with Michael Jackson -- and again on the 12" remixes of SSSay by Jellybean.

And perhaps that's all that needs to be said about it . . .

Except that the sleeve featured this hilariously bad illustration of the former pals (they never spoke again after Jackson bought the Beatles catalogue) . . . and to wonder what George Martin the producer must have been thinking.

He'd been there for all those classic McCartney songs in the Beatles era and beyond but now was sliding the faders on this?

Ah well, truth to tell he'd heard worse from the same source.

And the clip for Say Say Say could be read as an unconscious reference to what snake-oil salesmen they had all become by this time.

For more unusual music or songs with a back-story see From the Vaults.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   From the Vaults articles index

Rufus Thomas: Itch and Scratch Part I (1972)

Rufus Thomas: Itch and Scratch Part I (1972)

One of the most natural funk artists this side of James Brown, Rufus Thomas struck gold with Walking the Dog and Do the Funky Chicken in the Sixties, but this song from just a little later captured... > Read more

Reuben Bell and the Casanovas: It's Not That Easy (1960)

Reuben Bell and the Casanovas: It's Not That Easy (1960)

Recently we posted a fine but obscure track by Jimmy Conwell lifted from the recent compilation This is Lowrider Soul 1962-1970 (Ace through Border in New Zealand). That 24 song collection... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

JOHN SURMAN: The casually-dressed career

JOHN SURMAN: The casually-dressed career

The European jazz label ECM rarely uses photos of musicians on its covers: usually they are blurry photos taken out a moving vehicle; monochromatic landscapes; eerily evocative imagery . . . They... > Read more

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . THE DISCO SUCKS MOVEMENT: Divide and . . . conk out

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . THE DISCO SUCKS MOVEMENT: Divide and . . . conk out

It’s both easy and hard to explain the rise of the Disco Sucks movement at the end of the Seventies. In some parts of the world the zenith of disco coincided with the emergence of punk,... > Read more