Paul McCartney – Coming Up

Merry Christmas to everyone…

I was 12 when this came out in 1979 and loved it…especially the video that went with it. The live version is the one that hit really big and the single had the live and studio version. The song (Live Version) peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #2 in the UK and #1 in Canada in 1980.

McCartney played all the instruments and shared vocal harmonies with wife Linda McCartney on the studio version.

Paul McCartney on recording Coming Up

I originally cut it on my farm in Scotland. I went into the studio each day and just started with a drum track. Then I built it up bit by bit without any idea of how the song was going to turn out. After laying down the drum track, I added guitars and bass, building up the backing track. I did a little version with just me as the nutty professor, doing everything and getting into my own world like a laboratory. The absent-minded professor is what I go like when I’m doing those; you get so into yourself it’s weird, crazy. But I liked it.

Then I thought, ‘Well, OK, what am I going to do for the voice?’ I was working with a vari-speed machine with which you can speed up your voice, or take it down a little bit. That’s how the voice sound came about. It’s been speeded up slightly and put through an echo machine I was playing around with. I got into all sorts of tricks, and I can’t remember how I did half of them, because I was just throwing them all in and anything that sounded good, I kept. And anything I didn’t like I just wiped.

On John Lennon

I heard a story from a guy who recorded with John in New York, and he said that John would sometimes get lazy. But then he’d hear a song of mine where he thought, ‘Oh, shit, Paul’s putting it in, Paul’s working!’ Apparently ‘Coming Up’ was the one song that got John recording again. I think John just thought, ‘Uh oh, I had better get working, too.’ I thought that was a nice story.

Coming Up

You want a love to last forever 
One that will never fade away 
I want to help you with your problem 
Stick around, I say 

Coming up, coming up, yeah 
Coming up like a flower 
Coming up, I say 

You want a friend you- can rely on 
One who will never fade away 
And if you’re searching for an answer 
Stick around. I say 

It’s coming up, it’s coming up 
It’s coming up like a flower 
It’s coming up. yeah 

You want some peace and understanding 
So everybody can be free 
I know that we can get together 
We can make it, stick with me 

It’s coming up, it’s coming up 
It’s coming up like a flower 
It’s coming up for you and me 

Coming up, coming up 
It’s coming up, it’s coming up, I say 
It’s coming up like a flower 
It’s coming up 
I feel it in my bones 

You want a better kind of future 
One that everyone can share 
You’re not alone, we all could use it 
Stick around we’re nearly there 

It’s coming up, it’s coming up everywhere 
It’s coming up like a flower 
It’s coming up for all to share 
It’s coming up, yeah 
It’s coming up, anyway 
It’s coming up like a flower 
Coming up

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball fan, old movie and tv show fan... and a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

21 thoughts on “Paul McCartney – Coming Up”

      3. In his Playboy interview he talked it up…He liked it. He liked that song but not the rest of the album as much.

        Like

      5. Yea but it was the best thing Paul had some up with for some time. I like the studio version…it’s a little funky guitar…as funky as Paul gets lol

        Like

  4. I was 13. I bought the 45 of the studio version. I never liked the live version. The tempo changed, the words stretched out and it sounded like a bad, lounge lizard re-make. I hate when musicians screw up their own hits. I wanna slap ’em.

    In either the third or fourth season of The X-Files, they just slightly changed the repeating sound of the opening theme…and it made me nuts. It went from a pretty echo to a clear repeat. It annoys me to this day. And, I want to know why the hell they did it.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Same thing with me…I liked the studio version. I can’t understand why the live version is the one that hit. I thought it was weak.

      I don’t remember that from the X Files…I’ll have to check that out.

      Like

      Reply

      2. I have all of the X-Files I will check it out.

        I agree with the Doctor Who theme. I like the original. Some think everything has to be improved… and they don’t improve.

        Liked by 1 person

Leave a Reply

Please log in using one of these methods to post your comment:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: