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Hear Paul McCartney Chew Celery in Unearthed Audio From Super Furry Animals Reissue

20th-anniversary edition of Welsh band’s Rings Around the World features original LP, B-sides, outtakes, demos, remixes, and curios like legendary Beatle’s vegetable solo

Super Furry Animals, 2000

Frederike Helwig

Paul McCartney chewing celery on Super Furry Animals’ 2000 song “Receptacle for the Respectable” ranks among the strangest guest appearances of the legendary songwriter’s career. Now, ahead of the 20th-anniversary collection celebrating Super Furry Animals’ Rings Around the World, the Welsh band has offered up the isolated, one-minute version of McCartney’s vegetable solo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTU78E7L1g8

After a chance encounter with the band at the 2000 NME Awards — and following SFA’s involvement in McCartney’s Liverpool Sound Academy project — McCartney agreed to appear on their then-in-the-works new album, with a catch.

“He was going to come to the studio and then decided not to for some reason,” SFA keyboardist Cian Ciarán said in a statement. “So, we sent him stereo backing tracks so he could keep time, then he sent the tape back with a message that started with a really dodgy Welsh accent. Then he goes, ‘I hope you like it’ — the next thing you know you just hear this chewing sound!”

Shockingly, this wasn’t McCartney’s first celery solo: He allegedly munched the fibrous stalk on the Beach Boys’ 1967 Smiley Smile track “Vegetables,” although his involvement and appearance on the released version remain unconfirmed. However, McCartney jumped at the opportunity to reprise his celery antics, at the band’s behest, on Rings Around the World.

The “Maccapella Celery” solo features on the upcoming Rings Around the World reissue, with the three-CD and digital versions of the anniversary collection boasting over nearly 30 unreleased recordings — unfinished songs, outtakes, demos, remixes, and more — in addition to the newly remastered 2000 LP and all the B-sides of the era.

Out September 3rd, Rings Around the Worldavailable to preorder now — will also be repressed on two-LP vinyl for the first time in two decades; original vinyl copies of the 2000 album have long sold for hundreds of dollars on the secondary market.

The 20th-anniversary reissue also features updated packaging with the original artwork and sleeve notes by music journalist Keith Cameron, while the bonus material was curated by SFA archivist and former Flaming Lips drummer Kliph Scurlock, who also serves as drummer for SFA frontman Gruff Rhys.

Earlier this year, Rhys released his latest solo album, Seeking New Gods, as well as his “selective memoirResist Phony Encores!

Hear the Rings Around the World version of “Receptacle for the Respectable,” complete with McCartney’s chewing, below:

From Rolling Stone US