Dick’s Picks: Paul McCartney gets all roaring twenties with this trad/swing jazz inspired ’45 released under the Country Hams moniker….

Country What?

In downtime from a mid”70s Wings Nashville recording session the idea was mooted of an album of Macca songs that had been left off previous albums or had yet to find a home. ‘Walking In The Park With Eloise’ was recorded around this time (with a view to going on the album) and was said to be inspired by a conversation between Chet Atkins (who plays on the record) and Paul McCartney about their respective fathers. With that in mind Paul duly dusted off this jazz/twenties inspired ditty which was actually written by his father James ‘Jim’ McCartney – he must have been attached to the song as years later Paul chose it as one of his Desert Island Discs- put that in your plus fours and smoke it!

Flip the ’45 over and you get the Paul & Linda penned ‘Bridge On The River Suite’, a completely different beast – casually drifting in on an almost break-beat and bass led intro before the strings and horns enter the picture – top this off with some restrained guitar work from our man Chet and yer’ good to go, all in all it’s a nifty little beast that, like the A-Side is a little known nugget in the vast Macca archive!

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also including Bridge On The River Suite, both produced by Paul McCartney. This little known and unusual Paul McCartney collectable was recorded with Wings in Nashville and features guest appearances from Chet Atkins and Floyd Cramer! The title track was actually written by Paul’s father many years before, the B-side is a Paul & Linda original – Paul named this as oneof his favourite songs when he appeared on Desert Island Discs in the early ’80s.