Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)

Unplugged (The Official Bootleg) is a live album of unplugged performance by Paul McCartney, recorded and released in 1991.

Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)
Live album by Paul McCartney
Released	20 May 1991
Recorded	25 January 1991
Venue	Limehouse Studios, Wembley, UK
Genre	Acoustic, folk, country, blues
Length	58:29
Label	Parlophone
Producer	Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney chronology
Tripping the Live Fantastic (1990) Unplugged (The Official Bootleg) (1991) Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio (1991)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[2]
The Essential Rock Discography	6/10[3]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[4]

Overview

Following the vastness of his world tour recently captured on Tripping the Live Fantastic, McCartney took the opportunity to strip back his songs and appear on the acoustic-only show MTV Unplugged, which had only been on air for over a year at that point. Subsequently, McCartney was the first in a long line of artists to release an album of their performance on the show.^[5]

Unlike other artists who appeared on the show with acoustic instruments plugged into amplifiers, McCartney's instruments were entirely unplugged. Microphones were carefully placed close to guitars, pianos, etc. to pick up the sound (this can be seen on the album cover, where a large rectangular microphone is pictured in front of McCartney's acoustic guitar).

Using the same line-up that had recently backed him (save for Blair Cunningham who had replaced Chris Whitten), McCartney used the opportunity to bring out some of his rarer tracks, including three from his 1970 debut album McCartney, alongside several covers and amid a number of familiar Beatles hits.

Songs

Several tracks performed in the show were not included on the album, as follows: "Mean Woman Blues", "Midnight Special", "Matchbox", "The Fool" and "Things We Said Today".^[6]

"Things We Said Today" and "Midnight Special" would see official release two years later in 1993 as B-sides to the "Biker Like an Icon" single. "Mean Woman Blues" was also released on promotional single only.

Songs rehearsed by the band but not performed at all include: "Mother Nature's Son", "Tequila", "Cut Across Shorty", "Cumberland Gap", "Hey Liley, Liley, Lo", "Froggie Went A-Courtin'", "Love Me Tender", "Rock Island Line" and "Freight Train".^[7]

Release

Critical response to Unplugged (The Official Bootleg) was very warm. Initially released in a limited edition, individually numbered run in 1991, Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)—with artwork that recalls Снова в СССР's—was reissued in a more permanent fashion in the late 1990s. Upon its original issue, it reached number 7 in the UK and became McCartney's highest-peaking US album in almost ten years, reaching number 14.

Track listing

Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Be-Bop-A-Lula"	Gene Vincent Tex Davis	4:04
2.	"I Lost My Little Girl"	Paul McCartney	1:45
3.	"Here, There and Everywhere"	Lennon–McCartney	3:16
4.	"Blue Moon of Kentucky"	Bill Monroe	4:21
5.	"We Can Work It Out"	Lennon–McCartney	2:48
6.	"San Francisco Bay Blues"	Jesse Fuller	3:29
7.	"I've Just Seen a Face"	Lennon–McCartney	3:01
8.	"Every Night"	McCartney	3:24
9.	"She's a Woman"	Lennon–McCartney	3:39
10.	"Hi-Heel Sneakers"	Robert Higginbotham	4:08
11.	"And I Love Her"	Lennon–McCartney	4:17
12.	"That Would Be Something"	McCartney	4:02
13.	"Blackbird"	Lennon–McCartney	2:09
14.	"Ain't No Sunshine"	Bill Withers	4:05
15.	"Good Rockin' Tonight"	Roy Brown	3:42
16.	"Singing the Blues"	Melvin Endsley	3:46
17.	"Junk"	McCartney	2:26

Personnel

• Paul McCartney – acoustic guitar, vocals, drums on "Ain't No Sunshine", harmony vocals on "And I Love Her"
• Linda McCartney – Indian harmonium, percussion, vocals
• Hamish Stuart – acoustic bass guitar, acoustic guitar and lead vocals on "And I Love Her" and "Ain't No Sunshine"
• Robbie McIntosh – acoustic guitars, Dobro, vocals, piano on "Ain't No Sunshine"
• Paul "Wix" Wickens – piano, keyboards, accordion, percussion, vocals, acoustic bass on "Ain't No Sunshine"
• Blair Cunningham – drums, percussions, vocals

Charts

Chart performance for Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)

Chart (1991)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[8]	81
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[9]	42
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[10]	13
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[11]	20
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[12]	39
UK Albums (OCC)[13]	7
US Billboard 200[14]	14

References

1. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Unplugged at AllMusic
2. Larkin, Colin (2006). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th edn). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 1257. ISBN 0-19-531373-9.
3. Strong, Martin C. (2006). The Essential Rock Discography. Edinburgh, UK: Canongate. p. 696. ISBN 978-1-84195-827-9.
4. Randall, Mac; Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds) (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th edn). New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. p. 526. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
5. "This Day in History: Nov 26, 1989: MTV Unplugged premieres". History. Archived from the original on 7 March 2010.
6. "JAN 25 1991 Paul McCartney Setlist at Limehouse Studios (The Word), London, England". setlist.fm. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
7. https://www.the-paulmccartney-project.com/session/unplugged-rehearsals/
8. Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (PDF ed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 181.
9. "Dutchcharts.nl – Paul McCartney – Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
10. "Norwegiancharts.com – Paul McCartney – Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)". Hung Medien. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
11. "Swedishcharts.com – Paul McCartney – Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)". Hung Medien. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
12. "Swisscharts.com – Paul McCartney – Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)". Hung Medien. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
13. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
14. "Paul McCartney Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 25 August 2022.