Paul McCartney Archive Collection - Tug Of War & Pipes Of Peace coming! (Part Two)

Actually, Denny looked out into the audience and saw a little kid who he felt would later become a collaborator of Paul's.

"I wish that I could be....John Denver....or Kanye!"

 

The recent George Harrison Apple albums did just that, with each having very few bonus tracks, including some with only 1 bonus track. For good or bad, this is how they've decided to release stuff.

With regard to Paul, no one at MPL ever said these Archive sets by Paul are going to be fully comprehensive and complete. Again, the goal has been to reintroduce the MAIN ALBUMS along with some bonus material, including pertinent non-LP singles and other tracks. If it doesn't please you, or me, then you or I do not have to get them. But they aren't forcing us.

 

To me it just reinforces the hope that there will be some behemoth box sets coming out as part of this series or separately (I seem to be on repeat with this statement every few days lately....)

 

I agree with you but I don't think it's a question of him being surrounded by Yes Men. It's his catalogue, his music and he's the boss. He's ultimately responsible and, at the end of the day, they're his records with his name on them. Those working for him can, and probably do, put forward the case but, as Mr Lewisohn noted in the first volume of his Beatles tome, McCartney won't be told what to do...

 

I feel like what happens is they present McCartney with a list of all the songs they have from that period, and he chooses what he thinks is interesting. He probably sees various mixes of the same song and thinks "who'd need these if they already have the song?"

 

I repeat myself: the word "complete" is the worst enemy of Paul and MPL's marketing.

 

I'm fairly sure Denny is saying 'Carl Wayne', who was in The Move and who Denny would have known from the 1960s, when Denny Laine and the Diplomats and Carl Wayne and the Vikings were swapping members.

 

AGREED!

We're constantly getting screwed. And it's not just by Paul's camp but by all of these labels that make these side deals with Target and Best Buy and what ever other vendor will host the album and agree to "exclusive" content.

I've seriously just about had it. Most (if not all) of us don't make Paul McCartney money. Sure, we're willing to put out some dough to buy the deluxe boxes and that should really be enough for these people. I'm not going to buy 4 different versions of these releases to secure all the content. I'm feeling like a real bitter bug about this series these days, but how could you not?

 

Yes, I think it's as simple as that.

 

Okay...fair point.


BUT...maybe he SHOULD be a little more open to criticism and suggestion. I love that during the sessions for "Chaos..." Nigel Godrich told McCartney where to put some of those crappy songs he was working on. No one else will do that with him unfortunately because they all fear for their livelihood (which I do sympathize with - entertainment jobs are hard to get AND keep).

McCartney needs to take a step back and get people in there that will really help him and this project out. You could probably count on two hands the amount of people that he trusts artistically and some are either gone or don't really work all that much anymore.

 

Never was it said that these Archive Collection releases were supposed to be "complete" editions or anything like that.

 

It's so simple, it makes you wanna cry.

 

COMING SOON:

The Paul McCartney Archive Special: The 12" Mixes --- a 10-CD set containing every variant of the following 6 songs:
No More Lonely Nights
Ou Est Le Soleil
Spies Like Us
Press
Once Upon A Long Ago
Figure Of Eight

 

Obviously they are not forcing us. But they do want this to be desirable, I would have thought? A deluxe edition is largely desirable due to the bonus content within. We are now in the era of the 1980s, the era of the 'extended remix' and the first thing Paul does is ignore a really good extended version.

I flatter myself running the SuperDeluxeEdition blog and reading people's feedback on deluxe editions day-in, day-out, that I know what people want. In the UK there were only three non-album tracks across both singles and Paul hasn't included two of them. I'm not really interested in what his 'goal' is. Deciding on bonus tracks on a disc 2, or 3 of a deluxe edition isn't like finessing a work of art. It's not like he's struggling over the running order of Sgt Pepper. It's not that difficult. "Are fans going to want this track? On it goes..." That should be the mindset.

With Venus and Mars we got unreleased demos as digital bonuses, now with Pipes of Peace we've got commercially released material from singles being left off, so logically when Press To Play is reissued, we'll only get half the album on the CD in the deluxe edition and the other half will be a free digital download! Hooray! By the end the reissues will be a book with a download link.

 

I acknowledge one thing once more - the bigger the artist, the weaker the reissues.

 

If only that would explain the absence of "Blackpool." Amazing how the song would have come out as a b-side if the single wasn't canceled, but never appear as a reissue bonus track. I mean, it's no "All You Horse Riders," but hey...

The "Pipes of Peace" bonus disc clocks in at 32:00.

 

Sorry, but that is a bit of a weak argument. It's generally accepted that 'deluxe editions', 'expanded editions', 'archive editions' 'anniversary editions' etc. at least do a reasonable job of gathering up relevant material of the era.
That *starts* with associated material that was commercially released at the time, that has never been issued on CD. That is where you start. You then move on to demos, alternates, live stuff, etc. But you start with the obvious: B-sides, remixes etc.

 

Many possible reasons:
---It is going to turn up as a bonus track on a so-far-unreleased Archive set.
---It is being saved for a "Cold Cuts" type of CD collection or box set.
---Paul is still thinking of using "Blackpool" for some other new project, or he's thinking of re-recording it.
---Conversely, Paul hates the song, so he does not want to release it.

 

I am half-expecting/hoping that we will see a single mix of "The Man" b/w "Blackpool" released as a single before October, both digitally and perhaps on vinyl if the busy pressing plants can find time to spare.

 

This will probably be the first deluxe reissues that I won't auto pre-order. Unfortunately, both these albums don't carry the same level of excitement and I am seriously debating going the 2-CD route here. However, the lure of the those gorgeous books will likely break that thought soon tho........

I guess I perhaps have a strong reason to at least order the deluxe Tug Of War. We were both born the exact the same day!

 

I've been thinking the same. The One to One concert film has been rumored for a while and could be Yoko's vehicle to celebrate John's 75th birthday. It also fits really well with the "activist" image of John that they like to market.

Speaking of 75th birthdays though, Ringo recently had his and I was secretly hoping they would announce some form of an Apple box or deluxe reissue of Ringo to celebrate it. Somehow there is no love for his back catalog at Apple......

 

Anyone wonder if the move to early October was made to possibly connect with what would have been Lennon's 75th birthday? After all, you've got Paul's most personal song about John on one of these reissues...

I'd almost bet that at least SOME of the Lennon 75 online articles will have a link to the (conveniently just reissued) "Here Today" video.

 

Personally, I don't mind the digital bonuses as long as they offer them in lossless quality just like the remasters. What they did with V&M was give us free downloads of 128 kbps mp3 (seriously MPL, are we in 1999?) when deluxe buyers should've been offered those in at least CD quality FLAC or 24/96 downloads.

 

You say it's a good thing that Nigel Godrich was bold enough to tell Paul "where to put those crappy songs" during the Chaos sessions, and I don't disagree. So why do you feel so put out that Paul - or possibly someone else - is doing the same thing here? Does Paul really feel he has to put out everything? Stuff that he didn't think quite came off back then, let alone over 30 years later? As someone suggested, I figure he probably listens to a compilation of all the demos, 12" remixes and outtakes and then agrees to release the recordings he either likes - or can at least live with. Surely an artist shouldn't feel obligated to release home demos made purely for his own reference (that someone has subsequently stolen and bootlegged already?) I'm sure John would certainly have liked to have been around to block the release of some of his Dakota recordings instead of seeing all his 'dirty washing' put on general release. I know I've certainly experimented with a few home demos of my own through the years that I'd be horrified to think were one day put on official release! Besides... all these 12" mixes and demos are out there already if you really want 'em?

 

It's a bit funny reading people getting so upset with these type of releases ; McCartney , Zeppelin ....... It humors me and I'm a collector too.