''Amoeba Gig'' is a live album by

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

taken from the recordings of a secret performance at

Amoeba Music Amoeba Music is an American independent music Record shop, store chain with locations in Berkeley, California, Berkeley, San Francisco, and Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. It stocks media, primarily music, but also fi ...

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, and released in July 2019. Tracks from the recordings were previously released in 2007 on '' Amoeba's Secret'' and as

B-sides The A-side and B-side are the two sides of vinyl records and cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a single usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or ...

to the single " Ever Present Past". The album features the complete concert recording of that secret performance.

Early releases

Amoeba's Secret

Paul McCartney and his touring band played a secret show at Amoeba Music in Hollywood, California, as part of the promotion for ''

Memory Almost Full ''Memory Almost Full'' is the fourteenth solo studio album by English musician Paul McCartney. It was released in the United Kingdom on 4 June 2007 and in the United States a day later. The album was the first release on Starbucks' Hear Music la ...

'' on 27 June 2007. The performance was later released in November 2007 as Amoeba's Secret, a limited edition 12" vinyl record. 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 A word search, word find, word seek, word sleuth or mystery word puzzle is a word game that consists of the letters of words placed in a grid, which usually has a rectangular or square shape. The objective of this puzzle is to find and mark all ...

whose letters contain hidden details of the recording. In January 2009 it received wider release on CD and

download In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar systems. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote ...

formats.

Ever Present Past

Three tracks from the ''Amoeba's Secret'' release were also released as B-sides for the " Ever Present Past" single in November 2007.

Live in Los Angeles

The Live in Los Angeles album was released only in the United Kingdom and Ireland through a special promotion run in 2010 by ''

The Mail on Sunday ''The Mail on Sunday'' is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. Founded in 1982 by Lord Rothermere, it is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK. Its sister paper, the ''Daily Mail'', was first published i ...

'' and the '' Irish Sunday Mail.'' Four of the album's twelve tracks (2, 4, 5, and 12) were previously released on ''Amoeba's Secret'', while track 3 was previously released as b-side to "Ever Present Past" single. On 16 November 2012, the Paul McCartney website released an extended version of the Amoeba show titled ''Live in Los Angeles – The Extended Set'' free to "premium" members of the website, adding the songs " Nod Your Head" and "House of Wax" to the tracklisting, the latter also being a b-side to "Ever Present Past" single.

Amoeba Gig

The complete ''Amoeba Gig'' show, with all 21 songs and remixed by McCartney's engineer Steve Orchard, was finally released on 12 July 2019 on CD, vinyl, and digital download.

Track listing

For ''Amoeba's secret'': #"Only Mama Knows" (

) – 3:47 #"

C Moon "C Moon" is a song written by Paul and Linda McCartney and performed by Wings. It was released as a double A-side with " Hi, Hi, Hi" in 1972. The single reached No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart and since "Hi Hi Hi" was banned by the BBC, "C Moon" re ...

" (P. McCartney,

Linda McCartney Linda Louise, Lady McCartney ( Eastman; September 24, 1941 – April 17, 1998) was an American photographer, musician, cookbook author, and activist. She was the keyboardist and harmony vocalist in the band Paul McCartney and Wings, Wings tha ...

) – 3:17 #"That Was Me" (P. McCartney) – 3:03 #"

I Saw Her Standing There "I Saw Her Standing There" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon. It is the opening track on the band's 1963 debut UK album ''Please Please Me'' and their debut US album '' Introducing... The B ...

" (

Lennon–McCartney Lennon–McCartney is the songwriting partnership between the English musicians John Lennon (1940–1980) and Paul McCartney (born 1942) of the Beatles. It is widely considered one of the greatest, best known and most successful musical collabo ...

) – 3:25 For ''Live in Los Angeles'': #" Drive My Car" ( John Lennon, Paul McCartney) – 2:33 #"Only Mama Knows" (McCartney) – 3:54 #" Dance Tonight" (McCartney) – 3:09 #"

" (McCartney,

) – 3:22 #"That Was Me" (McCartney) – 3:02 #" Blackbird" (Lennon, McCartney) – 2:37 #" Here Today" (McCartney) – 2:38 #"

Back in the U.S.S.R. "Back in the U.S.S.R." is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. It is the opening track on their 1968 double album, ''The Beatles'' (also known as the "White Album"). Written by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney part ...

" (Lennon, McCartney) – 2:59 #"

Get Back "Get Back" is a song recorded by the English rock band the Beatles and Billy Preston, written by Paul McCartney, and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. It was originally released as a single on 11 April 1969 and credited to "The B ...

" (Lennon, McCartney) – 3:53 #"

Hey Jude "Hey Jude" is a song by the English rock music, rock band the Beatles that was released as a non-album single in August 1968. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. The single was the Beatles' fir ...

" (Lennon, McCartney) – 7:08 #"

Lady Madonna "Lady Madonna" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written primarily by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. In March 1968 it was released as a mono non-album single, backed with " The Inner Light". The song was recor ...

" (Lennon, McCartney) – 3:12 #"

" (McCartney, Lennon) – 3:25 For ''Live in Los Angeles – The Extended Set'': For Amoeba Gig:

Personnel

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

Rusty Anderson Rusty Anderson is an American musician best known for his work as lead guitarist for Paul McCartney's touring band since 2001. He has worked with an extensive list of other artists in addition to his own solo career. Career Anderson became a p ...

– guitar, vocals *

Abe Laboriel Jr. Abraham Laboriel Jr. (born March 23, 1971) is an American session musician best known as the drummer and backing vocalist of Paul McCartney's touring band since 2001. He is the son of Mexican bass guitarist Abraham Laboriel, nephew of Mexican ...

– drums, vocals *

Brian Ray Brian Thomas Ray is an American musician best known as a guitarist, bassist and backing vocalist with Paul McCartney's Paul McCartney Band, touring band since 2002, and formerly as a musical director and guitarist for Etta James. Ray has perfo ...

– guitar, bass, vocals *

David Arch David Arch, better known as Dave Arch (born 25 October 1962, in Henley-on-Thames), is a British pianist, conductor, arranger and composer with a career covering albums, films and commercials, television and live performances. Since 2006, he is Mu ...

– keyboards *Steve Orchard – 2019 remix sound engineer

Nominations

Two tracks from ''Amoeba's Secret'' were nominated for

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

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 ...

on 8 February 2009: "That Was Me" for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and "

" 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. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but he left for Atlanta in 1997 with fellow guitarist Clay Cook, with whom he formed the short-liv ...

tracks (" Say" and "

Gravity In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...

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

Dave Grohl David Eric Grohl (; born January 14, 1969) is an American musician. He founded the rock band Foo Fighters, of which he is the lead singer, guitarist, principal songwriter, and only consistent member. From 1990 to 1994, he was the drummer of th ...

on drums during the ceremony.

Reception

Writing for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

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

commented on ''Amoeba's Secret'': "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

For ''Amoeba's Secret'': For ''Amoeba Gig'':

Release details

References

External links

* *
Paul McCartney Rocked Amoeba
at

official website
Paul McCartney's - Amoeba's Secret
at Graham Calkin's Beatles Pages {{Paul McCartney 2019 live albums Paul McCartney live albums Capitol Records live albums