2016 Paul McCartney compilation album - "Pure McCartney" *

Yeah looking back Alan Parsons is a studio whiz, but that is crazy thinking 45 years ago by Paul. Even "Wild Life" fans will admit how raw and rough and unpolished the album is.

 

To me the remastered "Wings Over America" truly makes this one of the greatest live albums ever. For sound and voice quality I would say "Back in the US/Back in the World". Check those out!

 

For Live albums you have a few choices:

• Want to hear Wings in all its 70s glory, with minimal Beatles numbers? Go with Wings Over America.
• Want to hear Paul tackle the Beatle classics? I'd opt for Back in the World (better than the Back in the US collection). Paul actually sounded better on that tour in 2002 than he did for Tripping The Live Fantastic or Paul is Live (the '89-'90 and '93 tours). It's also preferable to Good Evening New York City (2009).
• Want to hear something a little different? Go Unplugged. Much more of an emphasis on cover versions (7!) of mostly pre-Beatle material and a warm, intimate sound on the familiar Beatle/solo numbers (no "Wings" numbers at all).

Since Pure McCartney skips the live albums completely, they should sound quite fresh to you. If you're at all fond of pre-Beatle rock (Presley, Gene Vincent, Little Richard, etc.), be aware that his two (mostly) covers albums, Run Devil Run & CHOBA B CCCP are also skipped on Pure. RDR is preferred by most here, thanks to the stellar band he recruited for it, but I prefer both to the sometimes lyrically weak original material that Paul's done over the years.

 

Yeah check out all of the "Archive Collection" titles, clearly these are historically his biggest sellers/personal faves with "Flowers in the Dirt"...Coming soon...............

 

Did we ever see the results of the poll where we rated every Macca song on whether it should have been on Pure McCartney or not?

 

What has everyone ordered so far..........besides the obligatory tote bag????

 

Pure McCartney Tracklist Survey »

 

Why don't they ever make anything COOL like an LP box?

 

LP holder, CD holder etc. sounds good to me......MPL?

 

Sorry I missed this survey!

 

Amazing. That was a huge job. Well done!

 

Wild life is less polished and that for me, is exactly why it holds up so well. So many of Paul's albums are of the time and sound dated now. McCartney, Ram and Wild Life are three that seem more timeless and are not prisoners of heavy production. All IMHO.

 

It's possible your SHM set could have a slightly different SQ due to the SHM aspect? The London Town tracks on my 4CD don't sound particularly great to me...Girlfriend is a little murky and With A Little Luck sounds a drop too heavy IMO, it's not as clear as I would like it.

Do your LT tracks shine and sound clear or similar to what I just described?

 

Who knew Parsons also sang on the album:


From Recording Engineer Producer Oct.'76

HC: Let's talk about your work with McCartney.

AP: The first thing I did with McCartney was a bit of mixing on the WILD LIFE album. ('71) I was fairly new to engineering at that time and did a mix on a song called I AM YOUR SINGER while no one was there, partly for my own amusement and partly because they wanted some ref copies anyway. They ended up using mine which made me very pleased. I also did some singing on TOMORROW. Remember in the middle - eight where it goes ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba -baba. (chuckle) Then soon after that was some of RED ROSE SPEEDWAY with other engineers.

HC: How does McCartney work in the studio?

AP: There is no special approach, just go in and see what happens. He kind of uses the studio to rehearse and he is not at all good at describing the effect he wants to get.

HC: For example he doesn't say "Give me +4 at 10k".

AP: Right. He'll say, "Make it sound better ". (laughter) So I look for the "better" knob. (laughter all around) Chris Blair (EMI cutting engineer) has literally got that in one of the cutting rooms at Abbey Road - knobs labeled "funky ", "heavy" .

HC: (laughter) "Disco " . . .

AP: (laughter) "Laid Back ".

HC: Any comments on HI HI HI or C -MOON?

AP: Oh, HI HI HI took forever. We spent weeks and weeks and weeks, must have mixed it about 8 times.

HC: How did you feel about the final mix?

AP: I wasn't too happy with it. I tell you, what upset me most about HI HI HI was I thought the way they used to do it "live" was better. It used to have a different rhythm to it. I remember we spent a long time mixing it on small speakers trying to make it sound good for radio. I think we were going over the top on EQ as a result of that, and we'd play it on little speakers and they'd say "We can't hear the bass and the bass drum". So you'd turn it up so you could hear the bass and the bass drum and then you play it on the big speakers and it would blow your head off! (laughs)

HC: So Paul wanted something that would be compatible in one mix for small and large speakers.

AP: (laughter) Yes. We also went around Europe in the Rolling Stones truck taping concerts and it was better then. Also, out of all that stuff came one song - THE MESS - out of five days. He's very good at spending money for things like that and then doing nothing with it.

HC: What about mikes for RED ROSE SPEEDWAY?

AP: I think I was using an 87 on snare because the 84 was new to us at that time ... probably C38A on tom -toms, even C38 on the bass drum which I favored at that time.

HC: How about Paul's bass . . . was it direct?

AP: Nearly always, yeah.

HC: Rickenbacker?

AP: Yes. He had an Epiphone guitar also. He had the Hofner bass stolen and it was a big tragedy because it was one of the original Beatle basses, stolen from a van or something.

HC: How about Henry McCullough and Denny Laine's guitars?

AP: They were probably 87's. I think choice of mikes for electric guitars is a sort of very unimportant thing because it's an artificial sound being produced in the first place.

 

I've got the four- and two-disc Japanese SHM-CD versions of PURE McCARTNEY and I think the discs sound excellent.

 

I wish more artists adopted this box set type approach, meaning the style of the packaging. It's easier to handle and much nicer than an awkward oversized box

 

Great stuff from Alan Parsons, as a big "APP" fan I must say not a lot of praise in that interview. Over 40 years later he still sounds frustrated about the whole working experience!

 

Listen to Pure 5th time today.
AWESOME trip with sir Paulie.

 

So big barn bed has been remastered on here ?

 

Looking back on all this, I can say the Pure McCartney deluxe on Spotify has been my "go to" Paul album in the car. Sounds good and it's a good mix of songs that's still surprise me in the sequence. I haven't really listened to the vinyl much, but it is a very nice package and well worth the money.

Pure McCartney has done it's job for me, quite a successful set(not talking sales)

 

Try the 4 CD set and not the compressed Spotify and you will be amazed at the quality-that and the 4 vinyl box!