Venus & Mars Deluxe McCartney Archive

It's a huge disappointment for me and stops me from enjoying it. At the very least, they could have included the original audio mix.

 

Just watch/listen to "Maybe I'm Amazed" when the backing vocals kick in for the first time. Linda is shown opening her mouth to sing, but nothing comes out!!! Anti-climactic.



And yes, it sounds exactly the same in 5.1.

 

Compare that with this, where you can actually hear the backing vocals.

 

Well, when you put it that way...

Yeah, back to back it's quite noticeable. Thanks. Now Rockshow is probably screwed for life for me.

I think the thing is, I hadn't watched it in years before the BD release, so to me it just was what it was. I kinda don't like the in-your-face backing vocals anyway.

Do you think they stripped away some of the layers of the much maligned (and often incorrectly ascribed to the album) vocal overdubs, and what we're hearing is more representative of the actual soundtrack that goes with the film?

 

Sorry about that. Between this and "Save Us," are we even?

I often have wondered if this is a more accurate portrayal of the backing vocals. However, no matter how off-key they may have been, the original backing vocals do exist and could have been used. Everything else about the mix is great, though.

 

My main gripe - besides points mentioned - with the 'Rock Show' Blu-Ray audio mix is how detached they made the vocals sound on certain tracks. Those heavily noise gated vocal tracks, hiss coming in every time there's sound. Listen to the introduction for 'Go Now', for example. A lot of hiss on the vocal track, hiss stopping immediately after the last fraction of speech, suddenly coming in again when the speech appears back, new reverb on top to cover that up.

Those quick fades/noise gates on old vocal tracks to cover up whatever is a bad trend. 'Double Fantasy Stripped Down' for example was plagued by it as well.

 

I personally love the harmony vocals, so I cannot listen to the new Rockshow. I am hoping that someone technically able will place the mix from the original release over the remastered footage from the remaster.

 

It took them how long to get it to us on DVD/blu-ray? A new 5.1 and stereo mix were shouted as part of the promotion. It turns out that that's one of the worst things about it. Sadly, this is the last mix of this for YEARS. I'm just as bummed as you. Releasing this on blu-ray would have been the best time to get a great mix, and they botched it (purposely or accidentally). I'm not getting my hopes up of ever getting another mix of this. Sadly, it is what it is.

 

I still haven't bought this yet, but I like it better mixed this way (for this song anyway). I think I'll order it.

 

Want mine?

 

Seems like things are missing in the old video version too. Paul's "oww" after his piano run is loud and clear in the new mix (at 3.35 in the first clip) but isn't there at all in the old one (3.25 in the second clip)!

 

Good catch.

No offense, but I'll take a version where Linda opens her mouth and nothing is heard over a version where Paul opens his mouth and nothing is heard any day of the week.

To me, the old backing vocals sound like about a thousand people singing and really unnatural. On this song, anyway.

 

Finally dug into my deluxe SHM-CD + DVD set of the VENUS & MARS album from Japan and am very impressed with the wonderful job all around.

 

Out of interest, what is the general consensus on the vinyl releases in the Archive collection in general?

 

Not content to what Paul gave us (I never am - I always want MORE!!), I had to go and make my own Ultimate Archive version of Venus And Mars for my own listening pleasure. Here's what I came up with:

 

And the disc artwork:

 

Talk about lame extras The Speed of Sound set is pretty lame ,bonus tracks which probably would have fit on the main cd ,a dvd which is full 20min's??? of Edited stuff ,theres simply no reason this should be big expensive set other than the Book
Venus gave you more

 

Where did the rough mix of Junior's Farm come from? I see it's listed on your tracklist with the other paulmccartney.com downloads, but I don't remember seeing it on there. Was is made available on another site, or does it come by other means? This looks amazing!

 

It was on another site, which I forget at the moment. I'm at work right now, and will try and help later on. Thanks for the kind words, btw!

 

Late to the game here, I finally got time this weekend to immerse myself into the deluxe edition of Venus & Mars after spending almost a year away from home. Here's my little review:

To start with, the quality of the book has definitely dropped a bit. Perhaps the paper is supposed to give that vintage feel but the binding is definitely on the weaker side and I had to really careful to browse all the content. OTOH, the content is just fabulous as ever! So many pictures of the band between mid-1974 and mid-1975. I wasn't very familiar with Wings history around this time and so it was very interesting to read through the Nashville days and then recording the album in New Orleans. Certainly a very busy time for the band - the Nashville sessions followed by One Hand Clapping sessions to some initial V&M recording at Abbey Road to all out-recording stateside and then prepping for the upcoming tour!

The album itself IMO is a strong follow-up from Band On The Run. Yeah, there may be some filler but its mostly dominated by strong tunes throughout. The original mix did not bother me as much as it does some other members. The remaster sounds very good to my ears! Its incredible how Paul manages to go from a rocker like Rock Show to a catchy pop tune like Listen to What The Man Says to a "granny" tune like You Gave Me The Answer........

The bonus disc may perhaps be the best so far in the series. It takes off great with the Nashville recorded single (I had never heard Sally G and quite like its feel). Then we have the two interesting instrumentals (I would've never guessed these to be Paul or Wings tunes had I not known!). With total of 14 tracks (plus 2 free web downloads), it makes a great companion to the remastered album. The bonus DVD was an OK watch and won't be leaving its place in the book many more times...

Overall, I had a lot of fun this Sunday experiencing the band's journey from the Nashville trip to the beginning of the big world tour! Next up in a week will be At The Speed of Sound. Its relatively bit light on material but should be enjoyable nevertheless. While I am soaking myself with these albums, I am also using Wings Over America & Rockshow as a companion piece to complete the picture from "live" standpoint.

Once the Wings journey here (1975-1977) gets done later this month, I plan to jump back into McCartney II deluxe edition for the natural transition to Tug Of War in October. Yeah, there's a lot of Macca time in store for me over the next 2-3 months!

 

Interesting bit of Venus and Mars trivia. On Dre's new album (Compton), there's a track called Darkside/Gone (featuring Kendrick Lamar) and on Gone, Dre samples Paul's "Spirits of Ancient Egypt." Here's a story about that:

https://www.slantnews.com/story/201...makes-more-money-on-compton-track-than-dr-dre

And apparently, Paul is making some money off of it. The guy who produced the Dre track says: "With the publishing, I got 30 percent publishing. Dre got 20 percent. But, Paul McCartney got 50 percent." Apparently the producer came across the track after buying a bunch of old vinyl for $1 apiece, and usually avoids sampling from established artists but said, "The sample was so ill, I had no choice."

So Paul's 0dd little connections with rap (Beastie Boys and others have sampled Momma Miss America, and Paul's work with Kanye, etc.) continue. But I must admit, I never expected anyone to sample this track.

 

I'm returning to this old thread once again as I've been really immersing myself quite belatedly into the last set of reissues.

The last week was all about At The Speed of Sound. Now I'd never really heard aything from this album beyond the two hits Let Me In and Silly Love Songs. Two more songs Beware My Love and Time To Hide were familiar from Wings Over America but never heard the studio versions. When the reissue was announced, most folks were questioning whether it deserved the lavish treatment and I had also somehow subscribed to that thought. Thankfully I did buy the deluxe reissue and here are my two cents...

I think I really like the album. Guess it always helps going in with low expectations.......firstly, its easy the best sounding Wings album I've heard (fantastic job by Abbey Road Studios). The book is another stellar effort that almost takes us into the studio with all those pictures. A look at few tracks:

Let Me In & Silly Love Songs - Not much new to say here other than the ease with which Paul was hitting the charts during this time.

She's My Baby - My favorite "deep" track from SOS. Yeah so what if he rhymes baby with gravy.......I find it quite groovy and seems like Paul enjoyed making this.

Beware My Love - This one sits up there with the two hits for me. Great transition from intro to verse and back...

Wino Junko - Jimmy continues where he left off lyrically with Medicine Jar but the recording/mix is much better here. Plus we get a cool guitar solo!

Must Do Something About it - I didn't know Joe could sing but he does a fine job here.

Cook Of The House - OK, I agree - this is the weakest link.

The bonus disc pleasantly surprised me as well. The demos are definitely the best we've got from Paul in this series. Great to hear him, Linda and Denny harmonizing around a piano on SLL, Paul feeling his way through SMB......then we have the fun outtake of BML with Bonhom and his kick drums!

This has been great....just getting into Macca Archive mood before the next two hit us in a month. Hopefully unlike last year, I won't be waiting almost 9 months to immerse myself into the albums..

 

I found all of those demos quite charming. I loved how Paul made the drum sounds with his mouth!

Mark

 

I think what makes of ROCK SHOW a real disappointment is when, after having seen it dozen of times, you realize that has probably been recorded in a studio. There's not a single moment when you can see the crowd and the players in the same space.

 

You do know that the song is called "Let 'Em In" and not "Let Me In" like you posted above, right? The first time I saw it, I figured it was a mistake, but then you did it again...

That reminds me of The Flintstones. "Brother Michael, Auntie Gin, Wilma, let me in!!!"