Paul McCartney released Paul Is Live in the UK on November 15, 1993. Drawn from the American and Australian legs of the New World Tour, the album put songs from Off The Ground alongside his Beatles and Wings repertoire. Its cover also returned him to the Abbey Road crossing, where a familiar photograph became the setting for a joke about his own supposed demise.
Off The Ground had arrived earlier in 1993, and five of its songs made the live album. “Looking For Changes,” “Hope Of Deliverance” and “Biker Like An Icon” were among the selections, giving the collection a substantial connection to the music McCartney was promoting that year. The running order moved freely between periods: “Drive My Car” opened the record, followed by “Let Me Roll It,” before the first pair of songs from Off The Ground.
Several musicians from those studio sessions also played on Paul Is Live, including Linda McCartney and guitarist Robbie McIntosh. Linda contributed keyboards and vocals to the touring band, while McIntosh received a separate spotlight with “Robbie’s Bit (Thanks Chet).” Recorded in Charlotte, his solo composition sits between “All My Loving” and “Good Rockin’ Tonight.” The sequence makes room for a band member’s own writing within a release largely devoted to McCartney’s catalog.
McCartney built the album by comparing performances from across the tour. In a June 2019 Q&A on PaulMcCartney.com, he recalled recording numerous concerts and choosing takes according to the playing and the audience response. Boulder and a New York-area show stood out in his memory. That selection process explains the album’s changing locations: each song could come from the night when he felt the band had played it particularly well.
The cover placed McCartney and his dog on the crossing made famous by the Beatles’ Abbey Road. Believers in the “Paul is dead” hoax had treated details on that earlier sleeve as evidence of his death. For Paul Is Live, he wore shoes and held the lead in his left hand, reversing details that conspiracy theorists had seized upon. In the same 2019 Q&A, he explained that considering a straightforward live-album title had reminded him of the old rumor. “This was just to have a joke with it,” he said. The resulting title worked as both a description of the recordings and a response to the hoax.
The humor extended to the material at the end of the album. After “Welcome To Sound Check,” three rehearsal performances take over: “Hotel In Benidorm,” “I Wanna Be Your Man” and “A Fine Day.” The original packaging carried a mock warning about the improvised tracks, specifically identifying “Hotel In Benidorm” and “A Fine Day.” Listeners who stayed through the concert selections therefore got to hear the band working outside the main show as well.
Paul Is Live was reissued in July 2019 after remastering at Abbey Road Studios. The double-vinyl edition retained the soundcheck recordings, placing “Kansas City,” the spoken introduction and the three rehearsal performances together on its fourth side.
