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February 16-18, 1981

Recording "Take It Away", "Average Person"

For Paul McCartney

Last updated on May 9, 2020


Master session

Location

  • Recording studio: AIR Studios, Montserrat

Timeline

Master release

AlbumSome of the songs worked on during this session were first released on the "Tug Of War" Official album

Some of the songs from this session also appear on:

Stanley [Clarke] and I had worked together before. I did a few albums with him, and we worked together with Chick Corea. He was someone familiar that I knew and felt comfortable with. I had worked with Ringo before, but never with Paul. The call came in, and I said I’d love to work with him. I’d never been to Montserrat before, so I was looking forward to it. […] I’d never worked with George Martin before, and I’d never met Geoff Emerick, so it was a whole new experience. That was the first time I ever met Denny Laine, and it was the first time I met Paul and Linda and the kids. It was pretty exciting. Ringo was also there, and Ringo and I played on the tracks together.

[…] Everybody just took care of business. The music played us, you know? It wasn’t like they were putting everything under a microscope; they just wanted the music to feel good. It was really a very enjoyable experience. We struck up a friendship.

Steve Gadd, from Tug Of War Archive Collection, 2015

They rented a sailboat one day, and we went and sailed to this beach, had a picnic and waterskied. They really went out of their way to entertain us. I’ve got a lot of good memories of that project.

Steve Gadd, from Tug Of War Archive Collection, 2015

Session activities

  1. Take It Away

    Written by Paul McCartney

    Recording

  2. Average Person

    Written by Paul McCartney

    Recording

  3. Dress Me Up As A Robber

    Written by Paul McCartney

    Recording • Unreleased alternate take

    Unreleased track


Staff

Musicians


Going further

Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989

With 25 albums of pop music, 5 of classical – a total of around 500 songs – released over the course of more than half a century, Paul McCartney's career, on his own and with Wings, boasts an incredible catalogue that's always striving to free itself from the shadow of The Beatles. The stories behind the songs, demos and studio recordings, unreleased tracks, recording dates, musicians, live performances and tours, covers, events: Music Is Ideas Volume 1 traces McCartney's post-Beatles output from 1970 to 1989 in the form of 346 song sheets, filled with details of the recordings and stories behind the sessions. Accompanied by photos, and drawing on interviews and contemporary reviews, this reference book draws the portrait of a musical craftsman who has elevated popular song to an art-form.

Buy on Amazon

Eight Arms to Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium

We owe a lot to Chip Madinger and Mark Easter for the creation of those session pages, but you really have to buy this book to get all the details!

Eight Arms To Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium is the ultimate look at the careers of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr beyond the Beatles. Every aspect of their professional careers as solo artists is explored, from recording sessions, record releases and tours, to television, film and music videos, including everything in between. From their early film soundtrack work to the officially released retrospectives, all solo efforts by the four men are exhaustively examined.

As the paperback version is out of print, you can buy a PDF version on the authors' website

Buy on Amazon

Paul McCartney writing

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