While The Rolling Stones were holding a launch party for their new album, Foreign Tongues, on Tuesday in Brooklyn, New York, Paul McCartney was holding a listening party for his new album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, at the same time in London at Abbey Road Studios. (Both albums were produced by Andrew Watt, who was at the Stones event.)
Like he did a few weeks ago in Los Angeles, McCartney talked about the songs for an invited group of 50 fans in Studio Two, where The Beatles did the bulk of their recordings.
“Hello, welcome to Abbey Road,” said McCartney. “I’m going to play the new album for you and try and think of stuff to say about it,” which he did for 90 minutes.
He explained why the album is very reflective of his past, saying, “It occurred to me that that’s where your big bank of information is… [The past] is a very rich field of information.”
In addition to talking about the songs, he also played an acoustic guitar to demonstrate a few things, including the main guitar sequence in “Life Can Be Hard,” but he hit a bum note and said, “I haven’t been practicing. You’d think if you knew you were doing this, then you’d have practiced. But I don’t care!”
And speaking of listening parties for The Boys of Dungeon Lane, over 150 independent record stores will host them from May 29th — the day it’s released — through the 31st. Besides hearing the album, fans will get a free postcard, an exclusive tote bag for buying a vinyl copy of the album, and a chance to win “a very special prize.”
The next single off the album, “Home to Us,” a duet with Ringo Starr, will be released on Friday.
McCartney will promote the album with a performance on the season finale of Saturday Night Live on May 16th. He’s also rumored to be the guest on the final episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on May 21st.
