I'm just thinking out loud here, but who thinks that with this boxset structured the way it is, and the way all the podcasts are discussing things, etc etc, that the Mc/Mac collaboration is a little bit overrated? Some of their songs together are absolutely top shelf, for example in my opinion, My Brave Face, Lovers That Never Were, and That Day is Done are 3 of Paul's best from any period. However this notion I keep hearing repeated lately that Elvis saved Paul's career, or that this songwriting collaboration is the only great thing that's Paul has done since Tug of War (!), or that the album should have just been the Paul/Elvis songs.....all of these things are really unbelievable for me. Do people really think that Don't Be Careless Love or You Want Her Too are better than post 83 classics like Somedays, Beautiful Night, House of Wax, Only Mama Knows, This One, Put it There or Jenny Wren? I'd say a good deal of the Mc/Mac songs wouldn't make my post 83 Macca Top 40. And if we include the 70s in there I think only My Brave Face would make the Top 40. I think clearly they had amazing chemistry and were getting off to a cracking good start, but their collaboration ended way too soon and produced too few songs to be as big as a lot of people are saying it is. Is this just me? I normally wouldn't even care to complain about such a thing but I got kind of heated the other day after listening to the host of Fabcast claim that the Mc/Mac DEMOS (not even the final songs or the 88 versions) were the last great great thing Paul ever did. I feel this sort of view, or even putting on any sort of pedestal at all, needlessly devalues the dozens of amazing songs that Paul wrote by himself that are as good or much better. PS all the posts saying Paul should have released the acoustic demos instead of Flowers really puzzle me. The energy is hot and its really REALLY cool "being in the room" while listening to them pull these off the skillet (tm), but clearly it's not even close to a finished product by anyone's standards (also its missing most of the best songs from Flowers but I digress)
For those paying attention to such matters, the Put It There documentary isn't quite the same as the one that was shown back in the day and released on VHS (and later, DVD). It was noted earlier that Ain't That a Shame appears in full on the new print; so too does Rough Ride (much to Arnie's likely annoyance!). There are some wonderful rehearsals in this documentary (The Fool on the Hill is especially enjoyable to these ears) and it's regrettable that MPL didn't see fit to give us a CD (or download) of the audio of these performances.
To claim that the McCartney/ Costello colabration is the last great thing Paul ever did is beyond ridicolous. In fairness I have not seen all that many state that. Personally I do think some of these songs and some of the demos/outtakes belongs in the upper region of Pauls legacy. But that can-imo-also be said about This one, Distractions, Put it there and some other non-Costello work from Flowers. However I personally think a few of the demos/outtakes a has a lot more energy and vibes than the released versions. I also think that the songs Paul and Elvis wrote together have become better as the years have gone by. In that way I think the focus on the Deluxe is justified. Although Paul should be equally proud of his own songs from the era. Not to mention all the brilliant stuff he has released post-Flowers in the dirt.
I just wish that Paul would release another four Archive sets before the end of 2017 - Wild Life / Red Rose Speedway / London Town / Back To The Egg!
I'm working at less than snail's pace on this, but I'll eventually have good clean edits of all the songs as lossless rips. So far I have Ain't That A Shame, Party Party and Let It Be.
I don't think Elvis "saved" Paul's career, but I think the collaboration was a really good re-set for Paul. Paul's sound for much of the 80's, for me, was too slick. And the songs, while pretty, didn't seem to be about anything. And it makes sense because in the 80's Paul wasn't financially struggling, he was living a comfortable life, raising a family, he wasn't touring, and I'd wager, though I can't be certain, he didn't have much meaningful contact with regular "ordinary" people. So, where was the inspiration supposed to come from? Paul, btw, was not the only 60's/70's superstar facing this dilemma. I look at the Elvis collaborations as a grounding for Paul. It brought him back to his roots and re-ignited a creative spark that didn't go out, but it may have rusted. I give a lot of credit for Paul to realize this and to do something about it. It's what artists do. I know it was Paul's manager who suggested the collaboration, but I don't think this ever would have happened if Paul didn't let it be known he was searching for something. As for the Fabcast episode, you are not alone getting heated over that. I felt the hosts were going out of their way to dump on Paul as a way to set up the Elvis collab as a lost Holy Grail. I've listened to a couple of their other podcasts and the hosts are not anti-Paul at all. In fact, they are very knowledgable fans who really enjoy Paul's early 7o's solo work. But yeah, they went over the top, in my opinion on that one podcast. Finally, I believe the Costello collab was so succesful it set up this remakable run of McCartney work that continues right up to this day, including those great songs you mentioned.
My pray hashtag didn't work!? I just can't understand it, it seems such a popular online method for resolving all manner of crises.
I can see how getting clean versions of the first two would be easy enough, but why bother with Let It Be? The track starts half way through, IIRC.
It does but I've always loved that performance (of the part of the song we hear), and the sequencing of it from the door slamming in Party Party straight in to Let It Be is ingrained in me from 28 years of watching that doc regularly!
Although being happy with this sets (considering how little or no material from the sessions we were offered for McCartney and Band on the Run), again it's a shame to see that some of the information about the song recording and personnel is sloppy. Really they don't know nothing more about the recording of My Brave Face except that it was done in October 1988? Exactly, when?? Instruments are missing from some tracks, and some performers are not listed. Why? I would have liked to know something more about the presence of Tessa Niles for the vocals (this information was given me by Neil Dorfsman in an interview for my book, but he couldn't remember on which tracks she sang... I can only guess... This One and Motor of Love, maybe?) and David Clayton, which I guess plays some keyboards on a couple of remixes.
I borrowed the double CD from the library to hear the 2nd disc and glad I did. I found the demos boring except for My Brave Face, which I liked a lot more than the finished studio version. (Not a fan of the song.) It was nice to hear the demos but I can now better understand why an entire album wasn't built on them.
Hey I think you're on to something here! Would Paul's amazing songs of the last 25 years have even happened if he didn't have that brief time with Costello give him the right inspirations? Sure their collective output was short lived and not all amazing but who knows what effect it may have had, even subconsciously, on his future solo writing? Semi-related, re: Fabcast- they only annoyed me in specific instances and overall I enjoyed the episode, especially the guy (Dave?) who worked for Capital in the 80s and his first hand stories about Paul. Anyways the related bit, I listened to their episode about Ram and while it also had cool insights, I was bothered by how often they all said "just imagine Ram as a Beatles album with John and George singing backup and Ringo drumming on all these great songs blah blah". Well yeah, that's all well and good to imagine, but I can guarantee you that most of the amazing songs on Ram would never have been written if the Beatles had stayed together.
Joking aside, I got the above FOE single a few weeks ago, but it didn't have a 5" adaptor. Unbelievably there was actually a thread on 3" singles on SH, with a link to a store in Berlin who sells them. Needless to say I ordered a couple. I have put some time in getting those CD available download only tracks I can tell you LOL. Good job I am retired