Paul McCartney’s solo material will be the subject of an upcoming tribute album dubbed “Listen To What the Man Said: Popular Artists Pay Tribute to the Music of Paul McCartney.” Due Oct. 9 from Oglio Records, the project will feature reworkings of Sir Paul classics from acts like Matthew Sweet, Robyn Hitchcock, Semisonic, Sloan, They Might Be Giants, and World Party.
Proceeds from the sale of the disc will benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation in Memory of Linda McCartney, who died from the disease in 1998.
“McCartney is less like an influence and more like the air we breathe,” says Semisonic frontman Dan Wilson. “I think we couldn’t anymore choose to be a fan of his than we could choose to need oxygen. Those melodies, that voice, are imprinted in our brains somewhere near the deepest part. His sense of melody is the standard of beauty.”
Jay Ferguson, singer/guitarist for Canadian rock act Sloan, adds, “You really begin to appreciate what a truly great singer Sir Paul is when you try to cover one of his songs. Apologies ahead of time for any cracked notes.”
“It is daunting to try and reinterpret any McCartney song,” admits They Might Be Giants’ John Flansburgh. “I was always a huge fan of the first couple of McCartney solo albums in part because, like the Stevie Wonder albums of the same era, they were great examples of the intensity of homemade recordings. You can hear a lot of the experimentation and discovery right in the tracks, and that makes the recordings a kind of event in themselves.”
Citing McCartney as a prime influence, each of the participating artists waived their studio costs and royalties to ensure that a larger portion of proceeds reaches the Komen Foundation. A second compilation of covers chronicling Paul’s post-Beatles output, titled “Coming Up: Independent Artists Pay Tribute to the Music of Paul McCartney” is also due Oct. 23 from Oglio.
Here’s the complete track listing for “Listen To What the Man Said”:
Owsley, “Band On the Run”
SR-71, “My Brave Face”
Steven Page and Kevin Hearn (Barenaked Ladies), and Stephen Duffy (the Lilac Time), “Junk”
Semisonic, “Jet”
The Merrymakers, “No More Lonely Nights”
Robyn Hitchcock, “Let Me Roll It”
Finn Brothers, “Too Many People”
Minus 5, “Dear Friend”
Matthew Sweet, “Every Night”
Sloan, “Waterfalls”
World Party, “Man We Was Lonely”
The John Faye Power Trip, “Coming Up”
Virgos, “Maybe I’m Amazed”
Judybats, “Love In Song”
Linus of Hollywood, “Warm and Beautiful”
They Might Be Giants, “Ram”
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