Yes, I agree. The heavy overproduction was always a significant barrier to my ability to enjoy this album, and I remember reading about the abortive Costello sessions at the time and thinking they likely would have been far better than what was released. It wasn't until I heard Elvis' version (with the Fairfield Four) of "That Day is Done" for example that I was able to really enjoy the song. The booming, inappropriate 80s drums and the heavy production glop on the FITD version just killed it for me. It is indeed cool this is coming out now. 80s production ruined many a potentially good album, and it's nice to see it undone in this case.
I want to know this too. As far as I know, they weren't generally circulating. (We've known for some time that some well-connected folk had heard the "So Like Candy" '88 band recording).
They're circulating at least 6 people in this thread have specifically said that they have them heard them. It's almost moot , what 2 days ? Or 3. Like many I wanted a peek. Wogblog in 5 minutes, or however long he spent writing his post explained everything perfectly , Now what's the hidden track thing ? The band version of Playboy to a man segues into something ? Not sure I like that ? Sounds like we get 3 big winners so far as "NEW" McCartney tracks, Playboy, Candy, & Tommy's Coming Home,,,, bonafide records, masters.. & most of the 5 alternates.... Excepting 20 fine fingers which he said isin't much... He praised the alternate My Brave Face, but I like the official one, so I don't care.
True enough. To be clear, by "not circulating" I meant before the contents of this set were "out there."
It wouldn't surprise me if we get some kind of 'complete albums' box as part of the new "comprehensive plan", especially as no upcoming releases are mentioned on a 'coming soon' card.
It's a bit of a stretch to say that "everybody" has the 1988 tracks! From what I've observed, only 3 or 4 people participating in this thread have heard them -- the newest one apparently being our Brazilian friend Claudio. Everyone else is just commenting based on the reporting on WogBlog. I know I certainly haven't heard them, but it's only four more days, so I'm not too worried about it.
Indeed, and I would have loved a more sparely-produced version of "We Got Married" and a couple of others too -- although being a bit overblown seems to be part of that song's DNA (based on the booted version). I won't be able to know for sure until I hear Disc 3, but I expect I'll be re-thinking the whole 1987-1989 period based on this box set.
All our dear friends we've bantered & joked with for years have them now.. someone should be calling any minute now !!!!!! I'm really chuffed & pleased to get 3 great new songs, to replace the clunkers on the end of the Flowers album... I suspect eventually I'll come to prefer a couple of the less processed alternates also. Czeskleba makes a good point about 80s gunk ruining lots of records, I don't hear it damaging the album as much as you do. But Lord as my witness, I swear to God I hate those Dx7 & D50 keyboard sounds & gloppy 80s drums as much as any living human. We got married is mired In it. I have an album like that , can't stand it, hated it then. Too bad they didn't get a good master of Twenty fine fingers, sounds like they just added a few overdubs to the actual guitar demo, using "it" as the actual backing track, I love That Day is done & My Brave Face, Distractions, This One, Put it there, You Want Her Too, as they are already. . He wrote great tunes with Costello all of them... But McCartney liked those dancy discoish, Brit pop soul things ergo get, Rough Ride, Oui Est Le Soilel. How many people has no legitimate explanation, except too much weed & too many yes men... Motor of Love like it or not, it's legit, the real McCartney showed up, that's a song, kinda boring, but legit.. I'm excited as heck, wanna hear those 3 tunes, I know Candy & Playboy are in the bag, I wanna see if Tommy coming home is great like That day is done or Let him dangle or something
Reel me back in !!!!! Yeah you knew that's what I meant, I figured oh now Claudio, somebody call !!! This is the most exciting new songs bit, since Anthology, 3 great tracks from his prime, from an album, that needs coincidentally, about 3 great tracks to make every track great... I think it was Harrison's huge success in 87-88 relying on Jeff Lynne, that might've given McCartney pause.... Oh he can't do it anymore Elvis does it for him type of stuff
Based on the WogBlog account, it doesn't sound like they used the original demo to me -- the exact wording of the description: "Similar from the CD 2 demo, but now with rhythm box/drum machine and some additional elements (like an actual drum on a few parts of the song and electric guitar). Elvis and Paul singing together." The 1988 version is also 20 seconds longer than the 1987 demo. The only track that the WogBlog description says was an overdubbed version of a 1987 demo is the hidden track on Disc 2, "The Lovers That Never Were" -- which, now that we know it's an overdubbed version of the original demo, at least its placement now makes sense.
You're probably right, I didn't read it carefully. Curious though, if the band is there, why not load up Robbie, Wix & Hamish with mandolin, zither, box guitar, accordian, like Rainclouds. Because Hamish said oh Paul the Drum Machine is so groovy man, Scot soul Mistress & Maid is so cool, Like Paul & John doing Baby's in Black but 66 with a Revolverish vibe. Carl Davis filling the George Martin role, did a stilted orchestration, just sounds stiff, great as a duet, with acoustic instruments or a Rigbyish treatment, oddly there is a guitar demo, but they didn't touch it when they did the other 9..
L I agree that Flowers us a flawed album- some below-average tracks and some overproduction of it s time. Still it contains more Killer songs than many other Paul albums. Don t think Paul regrets much. In the recent interwiew he actually said so and thought it was a great thing to unfold these things after so many years The McCartney/Costello partnership is one that has aged very well and the official release of the wellknown demos and unknown band outtakes is a proof of that. And also imo a proof that this archiwerelease is one of the most interesting so far. Not that I've heard the band out takes yet but I believe and hope they will be great
Will be interesting to see how detailed the book gets into the change in direction - we've recently had Paul admit he was tempted by the Human League type sound, and wanted some 'production' pieces from other producers. Let's say the '88 album was finished and released. Would it have been a success? How would it have affected Paul's tour? Would he go back to Costello for the follow up, or would he try and go solo with something like Off the Ground? Makes one wonder.
I'm sure that was part of it, with the other piece being that he still was desperately chasing a hit record, and clearly decided that bombastic late-80s production was his best chance to get one.
If he'd finished the album with Costello, it likely would have been more universally critically acclaimed, rather than receiving the mixed reviews FITD did. I think it probably would have achieved about the same level of sales success that Flowers did, since Flowers really wasn't that successful saleswise (at least in the US) and the 80s production didn't really pay off with the hit(s) he'd hoped for.
It is interesting to me that he didn't take more notice of the success that George had with the Wilbury's at the time; releasing a relatively stripped-down (for the time) record with another great songwriter may have seen Paul have similar success. As it is, 'Veronica' and 'My Brave Face' did both become minor hit singles, but I have always thought that a full joint collaborative album would have had better reviews and more commercial success than 'FITD', maybe as much as George had (Paul and Elvis certainly had enough quality songs) with the Wilbury's.
It is also interesting to think about what the 1989 tour would have become; would Elvis have joined Paul on the tour? Elvis could have been the opening act, and then joined Paul onstage for a section of each show, where they could have performed their collaborations and songs like 'One After 909'.
Yes indeed, and I would sticky note your "loving a more sparely-produced"comment to apply to much of Paul's 80's output, John's output post his Imagine album,, and George's output post Living in the Material World up until Cloud Nine (which sounds dated now but has more snap than most of George's albums so I give it a pass .) I've mentioned in other threads that if you really listen to say...Rubber Soul, there isn't really much going on as far as instrumentation or effects,etc., yet nothing sounds stripped down or lacking anything. The ex Fabs could still write some great songs but they slathered most of the songs in the eras I mentioned with needless extra instrumentation and reverb, etc. etc. I guess when you have 24 or 32 or 64 tracks available, and all kinds of effects at your fingertips, the temptation is to fill up those tracks with something , and utilize that effects rack. I love the stripped down versions of MOST of the songs by the three that I have heard. I'm looking forward to the Flowers reissue because of the McCartney /Costello things but otherwise I wouldn't be foaming at the mouth with excitement for a remaster of the album.
I think Paul was wary of having anyone perceived as a new musical partner with a (semi) equal status.
I could not agree more; I much prefer some of the earlier alternative mixes of the 'PTP' album for that same reason, so I can imagine that I will love the '1988 band demos'. Another example is the demo of 'Sweetest Little Show', released on the 'POP' reissue; it is a really decent song and performance, whereas the studio take was always a song that I skipped.
For McCartney, "My Brave Face" was not really that big of a hit. It actually fared worse on the US charts than "Press" did. The current narrative is that FITD was a big comeback, but from a commercial standpoint it really wasn't. Despite having a ton more promotion than PTP, as well as a worldwide tour to back it up, it only did marginally better chartwise. And at the time it received mixed reviews. In retrospect, I think he would have had a much better chance of a hit if he'd try to do something different, rather than following what everyone else was doing. George's two 1987 hits came out of nowhere, and at the time sounded unique. The Jeff Lynne sound did become omnipresent over the next few years, but in 1987 it was something new and different. Young record buyers didn't want to hear McCartney trying to sound like Phil Collins or writing songs that sounded like they came from the pen of Dianne Warren.
Dianne Warren, Phil Collins !!! Brutal !!!! Brutal !!! Love it.... McCartney with all the talent in the world can't distinguish his Hey Jude's from his Bip Bops. Harrison with less ability vocally, & less prolific in volume, had better judgement about his best stuff, & putting his best foot forward.
Yes sir. I started a thread years ago, (now long dead I think) where I posted several John Lennon early takes and I much preferred most of them to the released versions. Ditto many McCartney (like the PTP album you mention) and Harrison songs. The production reduces the enjoyment of the actual songs themselves, rather than enhancing them in many cases.
