''Amoeba's Secret'' is an EP by

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

recorded during a secret performance at

Amoeba Music Amoeba Music is an American independent music store chain with locations in Berkeley, San Francisco, and Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1990 in Berkeley, California, and remains in operation, having survived the decline o ...

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

, California, on 27 June 2007. The EP reached 119 on the ''Billboard'' 200 albums chart, despite relatively little promotion. The low-resolution album art is intentional, as to make the EP resemble a

bootleg recording A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. Making and distributing such recordings is known as ''bootlegging''. Recordings may be copied and traded ...

. The back of the sleeve features an incomplete word search whose letters contain hidden details of the recording. All four songs on this EP were later included on the 2010 12-track promotional CD '' Live in Los Angeles''. Both of these were subsequently replaced by the remixed and expanded 21-track 2019 release of the entire performance called '' Amoeba Gig''.

Release

The EP was originally released in November 2007 in a limited 12" vinyl edition. In January 2009 it received wider release on CD and download formats. The songs "

Only Mama Knows Only may refer to: Music Albums * ''Only'' (album), by Tommy Emmanuel, 2000 * ''The Only'', an EP by Dua Lipa, 2017 Songs * "Only" (Anthrax song), 1993 * "Only" (Nine Inch Nails song), 2005 * "Only" (Nicki Minaj song), 2014 * "The Only", by ...

" and "That Was Me" were also released as b-sides to the " Ever Present Past" single in 2007. All the tracks of the EP were later included in the limited edition 2010 live album '' Live in Los Angeles''. The concert in its entirety was released 12 July 2019 on an album titled '' Amoeba Gig''.

Track listing

" (

) – 3:47 #" C Moon" (P. McCartney,

Linda McCartney Linda Louise McCartney, Lady McCartney ( Eastman; September 24, 1941 – April 17, 1998) was an American photographer, musician, animal rights activist, vegetarian cookbook author and advocate, and entrepreneur. She was the keyboardist in th ...

) – 3:17 #"That Was Me" (P. McCartney) – 3:03 #" I Saw Her Standing There" ( Lennon–McCartney) – 3:25

Personnel

*Paul McCartney – lead vocals, bass, guitar, mandolin, keyboards *

Rusty Anderson Rusty Anderson is an American guitarist and singer-songwriter who is best known for his work as the lead guitarist for Paul McCartney's touring band though he has worked with an extensive list of artists in addition to his own solo career. Car ...

– guitar, vocals *

Abe Laboriel Jr. Abraham Laboriel Jr. (born March 23, 1971) is an American session drummer. He is the son of Mexican bass guitarist Abraham Laboriel, nephew of Mexican rocker Johnny Laboriel, and brother of record producer, songwriter, and film composer Mateo ...

– drums, vocals *

Brian Ray Brian Thomas Ray (born January 4, 1955) is an American session musician, guitarist, bassist, singer–songwriter, and musical director. He is best known for his work as a bass, rhythm, and lead guitarist with Paul McCartney's touring band, ...

– guitar, bass, vocals *

David Arch David Arch, better known as Dave Arch, is a British pianist, conductor, arranger and composer with a career covering albums, films and commercials, television and live performances. He is Musical Director and arranger for BBC Television's '' Str ...

– keyboards

Nominations

Two tracks from this EP were nominated for

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

s in 2008 for the

51st Grammy Awards The 51st Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, on February 8, 2009, honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2007, through September 30, 2008. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were the b ...

on 8 February 2009: "That Was Me" for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and " I Saw Her Standing There" for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance. Neither song won, and both lost to

John Mayer John Clayton Mayer ( ; born October 16, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Born and raised in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Mayer attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but left and moved to Atlanta in 1997 with ...

tracks ("

Say Say may refer to: Music *''Say'' (album), 2008 album by J-pop singer Misono * "Say" (John Mayer song), 2007 *"Say (All I Need)", 2007 song by American pop rock band OneRepublic * "Say" (Method Man song), 2006 single by rapper Method Man * "Say" ( ...

" and "

Gravity In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stro ...

" respectively). McCartney performed "I Saw Her Standing There" with

Dave Grohl David Eric Grohl (born January 14, 1969) is an American musician. He is the founder of the rock band Foo Fighters, in which he is the lead singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter. Prior to forming Foo Fighters, he was the drummer of gru ...

on drums during the ceremony.

Reception

Writing for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...

commented: "Sadly, this is just a taste of the full 20-song set, but it's a good one, containing two songs from Memory (the best being "That Was Me," sounding randy and funny in a way it wasn't on LP), a giddy run through "C Moon," and an energetic closer of "I Saw Her Standing There." It's a little of everything from Sir Paul, all of it good, all enough to make you wish you were there, or at least that the whole thing came out on CD."

Charts

Release details

References

External links

Paul McCartney Rocked Amoeba
at

official website
Paul McCartney's - Amoeba's Secret
at Graham Calkin's Beatles Pages {{Authority control 2007 EPs Live EPs Paul McCartney live albums 2007 live albums Hear Music albums