Paul McCartney Archive Collection Poll: What's Next???

Link, please?

 

What is APIS? LOL.

UPDATE: Troll

 

I'm hoping for Red Rose Speedway next, but I'd be equally thrilled with Back to the Egg. Or Flaming Pie.

 

Nice one!

 

Once again, Voo-Doo is your friend!

 

Well I'm sure we won't get a "reconstruction" of the double album. I can't see them shuffling the order of the songs on the official album interspersed with the outtakes. Not gonna happen.

Plus I doubt Paul will even bother to include the non-Paul songs included on the double album. Though the Linda song "Seaside Woman" *might* be a possibility, Denny's "I Would Only Smile" (much better than at least half the songs that were released on the single album) I highly doubt will be included - not to mention 'Henry's Blue' (but to be fair IIRC that one never got placed on either of the double album tracklists anyway)

I'd say a much more likely scenario (given the precedent of McCartney II - another unreleased double album) would be a 3CD version - CD1 the album as released/CD2 mainly the tracks that saw release back in the day on singles/CD3 mainly unreleased outtakes.

So maybe:

CD2
Hi Hi Hi
C Moon
Live & Let Die
I Lie around
Mama's Little Girl
The Mess (Live)

CD3
Night Out
Tragedy
Jazz Street (short version - hopefully)
Thank You Darling (unworthy of release to be honest)
The Mess (Studio)
1882 (Live)
Best Friend (Live)

Something like that - though I'm sure I'm missing something(s).

Country Dreamer really belongs on here (CD2) but they put it on the BOTR Deluxe.

Long shots (in descending likelihood of appearing - on CD3):
Seaside Woman (Linda song)
I Would Only Smile (quite good Denny song)
Henry's Blue (Henry song)

...or they could go crazy like they did on the V&M Bonus disc and put all IIRC 14 songs on a single bonus disc (which made it the best in musical quality and least skimpy bonus disc of the entire series so far).

...but however they do it I'm sure the least likely possibility (by far) would be a "reconstruction" of the originally intended double album.

 

No more C Moon! I feel about it the way many here feel about Bip Bop. How that song ever charted anywhere is a mystery to me. It's on compilations and he has sung it live and I don't see the appeal to this song.

 

The next release will be a triple: Choba B CCCP / Run Devil Run / Kisses On The Bottom.

But seriously, folks...

What I would *like* to see next: Londontown / Back To The Egg, followed by Wildlife / Red Rose Speedway. [This would complete the Wings-era stuff, then we could move on to the eighties with Press To Play and maybe even Broad Street (although that one is perhaps my least fave)...]
What I *expect* to see next: Flaming Pie.

 

I liked that Paul's site suggests that the series will continue

Every release in the ongoing Paul McCartney Archive Collection is supervised by Paul himself, who oversees all aspects of each and every title from remastering to the curation of lost tracks, outtakes, artwork, photographs and video from his personal vaults, and much more. The result is one of the most ambitious and personal undertakings of its kind, one that encompasses more than 40 years of cherished, classic material from the most successful songwriter and recording artist in music history.

I would love to see Back to the Egg and London Town released next as that is when I really became a Paul McCartney fan and I always worry they will not see the light of day. After that RRS and WL and everything else would be gravy.

 

For me
Red Rose Speedway
London Town
Press to Play
Back to the Egg

I agree with posts from above that RRS and Wild Life will most likely be combined releases as well as London Town and BTTE.

 

I think the "doubled up" albums would be a great idea. Tripled up might have been better in retrospect.. Wings origins would have been Ram-Wild Life-RRS and Wings end Londontown-BTTE-Cold Cuts/79-80 tour&sessions.

Realistically.. these are the albums most in need of reassessment. What happened to McCartney's Wings project and what was his vision of his solo career. I'd think that in McCartney's mind BTTE and RRS are failed projects that he would let lie if he could.

London Town might be a more realistic stand alone than any other album being mentioned. It was the last time he was a mainstream contemporary artist flirting with the top ten. coming off a contract extension, the Beatles official dissolution, a mega world tour, biggest UK seller in history... he had risen from the ashes of 1970 ..made a success with band on the run.. had two albums in v&m and sos that were big sellers and put him right at the top of the hit parade in a billion dollar record industry.

The future was bright. Whatever he did to end out the 70s SHOULD have cemented his legacy. if he had been concentrating on his music then as he is now... he'd have certainly eclipsed band on the run.. and maybe his time in the Beatles would have been a feather in his cap as opposed to his Real claim to fame. London Town was a real backing off and a real misfire but also his last working album when he was just a musician with a contract to work off as opposed to a legend who isn't really expecting you to buy this album or make it a hit. what happened? I'd be interested in press to play(wow there the question is WTF?) or RRS.. I'm a real fan of BTTE but I think Macca wants to finish sketching that Wings period after Band. Those three records where he might have changed that historical narrative before 1980 came in. My bet is London Town... he may want to rerelease that one.

 

Are you sure about that?? His next three albums (Back To The Egg, McCartney II and Tug Of War) all were top-ten albums, with 'Tug' hitting #1. He had top ten singles in the US through 1985. He also had several top ten albums from Flaming Pie onward, although I wouldn't call him "mainstream contemporary" at that point. I'd say his days as a "mainstream contemporary artist" ended somewhere in 1984-85.

 

Yes he had chart successes and major sales along with artistic success that continues to this day. But I'm referring to his commercial profile and the landmark that the Columbia deal was to his vision of himself. He was in a position in 1977 to go to the Caribbean and record on a boat, sing scrappy acoustic numbers, do Morse Moose etc. BTTE s reception was a major shakeup for Macca along with Japan, Lennon, shedding wings, broad street. Tug of War was warmly received but not Pipes of Peace, Regards,or Press. It was a real slide down hill. We were fans but the larger world viewed him as a legacy artist. I just think London Town might be one he wants to clarify as it stands between real charting prowess and a fall from those heights. He wasn't gone by any means and wouldn't be for years.. but folks would still recognize Little Luck... not so much afterwards.

 

I don't know how old you were during those years, but I was nine in 1980 when 'Coming Up' came out, and it was the first "new" Paul McCartney record I bought. I can recall that he was not touted as a "legacy" artist, but rather this was the latest hit from Paul McCartney, hit machine. This continued in 1982 with 'Ebony And Ivory' and (especially) 'Take It Away'. This wasn't the sound of someone coasting on his name, but rather of someone still near the top of his game.

 

McCartney has had a hard time accepting the fact that he is a "product of the 60's and 70's". Although he was and has produced a lot of good music (even better than the "hit-makers) since. He is considered irrelevant and an "old-timer". His desire to stay relevant has hampered his efforts.

That is a little off topic. (Sorry) I just think he needs to embrace his legacy and enjoy the wonderful music he has created and stick to what he does good, instead of "trying to fit in". (IE... getting involved with rappers, etc., just so he can say he is creating current music.) He is 75 years old. That is not young. Embrace it!!!

OK, I think the whole Archive program has been a disaster. It started off wonderfully, and maybe peaked with the Ram release. How come the Hi-Rez downloads have slowly degraded. FITD was not 24/192 and the bonus tracks/B sides were only 16/44. I was not happy about that. It seems he has slowly lost interest in the Archive program. No wonder... he has taken so so so long at forwarding it.

WAKE UP Paul/MPL us fans are interested. Make it the quality product it deserves to be.

I don't care which one is next, just get on with it!!! And complete it.

 

Usually pedestrian takes on McCartney's career are at least accurate.

London Town was the same Platinum seller as Back to the Egg, Tug of War and Pipes of Peace after it and Wings Over America, Speed of Sound and Venus and Mars before it. LOL.

The crap movie goofed him up and sucked up all his goodwill and rock cred. Even considering the goofy duet with Stevie Wonder (his actual creative nadir) he was fine before that, and it only took him 5 years to recover from the movie (it would have destroyed anyone else for life).

He has had a pretty blessed career with a bad 5 year spell where nothing seemed to go right (he produced one of my most cherished albums in this time in spite of it). People looking for some deeper story arc than that are way off-base.

 

Your take is an opinion just like anyone else's. My opinion is that there was a steady decline in his commercial fortunes probably starting with London Town and continuing pretty much forever. The only exception was probably Tug Of War which got a lot of attention coming after Lennon's death and was a pretty strong effort. Back To the Egg, McCartney II, Pipes of Peace and Broadstreet may have all went Platinum as you say, but there was a clear slipping in terms of connecting with a current audience during that time and it never really changed. There are many great songs starting on the Flowers In the Dirt album right up till today for life long fans like me to enjoy, but he hasn't been a real contemporary force in probably thirty five years.

 

It's not "Platinum as I say." I mean, facts are still facts. Something selling a million copies is pretty much the textbook definition of "connecting with a current audience during that time." Your perception of what "connected" and what didn't and why, or that of @BeatlesObsessive, or some historian or columnist's revisionist history based on an after-the-fact assessment of the quality of the output, doesn't change the numbers. In the US Tug of War is certified to have sold the exact same number as Venus and Mars, Speed of Sound, Wings Over America, London Town, Back to the Egg and Pipes of Peace, no more or less, regardless of your opinion on what did and didn't connect and why or what was and was not strong.

Facts are facts and everything else is noise. No one is a contemporary force forever, but McCartney has had it pretty good for a very long time and is still prominent pop culture figure beyond the confines of this forum and other "we're the true fans, guyz" hangouts. He connects with a current audience, just not on the hit parade like he used to. For example, he had the 7th highest grossing tour in 2016, and I don't think they flew in that audience from the past. Just because a lot of them had to be wheeled in from the parking lot doesn't mean they're not just as current an audience as a bunch of tweens streaming Lady Gaga is.

 

Wheeled in? Heck, they had to dig me up first and then lay me out in the first row. BUT I was there!!!

 

If you are going to say facts are facts, at least get the facts right. Those albums were not certified to have sold the exact same numbers just because they were all certified Platinum. They were all certified to sell at least one million copies. If you want to say that sales figures are the only measure of an artists impact I will not bother arguing with you. If the facts are the facts however I don't see how you can call Ebony And Ivory the creative nadir of his solo work since it was a massive hit. That sounds like an opinion to me which you call noise. I am aware that he is still a huge concert draw, I have attended his shows on five different occasions and enjoyed them all, but he is selling nostalgia at this point which is fine by me. He has earned the right to do anything he wants at this point in his life. I do hope he finishes up the Archive releases in a way that makes us all happy.

 

I said exactly that they were certified to have sold the same number of copies. That certified number is 1,000,000. Had they gone to 2,000,000, they would have been certified at that level. Are we down to quibbling over cents beyond that at this point? Certification figures were posted as factual evidence to back up my claim that London Town was not some sort of point of demarcation in his success. That it had been was the incorrect assertion I was refuting. And the point stands: Barring McCartney II, his albums after Band on the Run and before Broad Street enjoyed the same level of commercial success.

I didn't say I never offered opinions or generated noise. I do those quite often. I said that judging something as easily quantifiable as album sales is a matter of fact and not opinion. Offering opinion to counter fact is where the problem lies. It's fallacy.

You seem to be reading merely to find points of argument and then quibbling at them rather than to understand. That's a cynical way to do this.

 

"Tug of War" was far more succesful than "London Town". "With a Little Luck" didn't even go gold, and was the only top ten single. "Ebony and Ivory" was a far bigger hit, went gold, and you had another top ten with "Take it Away".

 

I voted for flaming pie just cause I would like it to come true.

 

His setlists tell me otherwise.