McCartney fans opinion of early 80’s releases?

I am a lifelong McCartney fan who had always kind of written off the early 80’s albums in favor of his amazing 70’s output. I have recently become totally immersed in both McCartney II and Tug of War . Anyone else had this epiphany?

 

Both McCartney II and Pipes Of Peace make a lot more sense (and are more enjoyable to me) since the Archive release, maybe just because of the silly amount of money I spent forcing me to pay a little more attention!

I used to rate "Pipes Of Piss" (as I used to call it) as his worst album, but I enjoy it a lot more now.

I always rated Tug Of War highly anyway.

 

Yes, I have. McCartney II, Tug of war, pipes of peace all have their share of absolute classics, although there's s fair amount of filler involved. I would steer you towards the later 80s materiel such as Press to Play and Flowers in the Dirt.

 

Sort of, I think a lot of Paul's solo work has grown on me though. I guess it comes from trying to get into his music by playing samples of it through Apple Music. He's pretty good at putting together an album really. I'm still not sure about Pipes of Peace as a whole but it starts off pretty strong just like Tug of War. I think McCartney II sounds a little bit instrumental though. Feels a bit like he's padding it out to make the album work. I think Pipes of Peace might have the best Album art but the image in the gatefold for Tug of War is pretty cool.

 

I loved "McCartney II" when it came out. I was 15 at the time and loved the fact that he was experimenting. My first McCartney album bought on release had been "Speed of Sound" and then "London Town". Both are good albums but they lacked any kind of edge and were a bit boring to me. I appreciated "Back to the Egg" and "McCartney II" and I still had that hope (pipe dream) that the next step would be rejoining The Beatles and doing something REALLY amazing. Of course, that was not to be - but I was really excited by the prospect of "Tug of War", and working with George Martin. It was (and remains) a bit of let down for me. A few really great tracks, but too many guest stars for my liking. It felt almost more like a celebratory cocktail party where friends stop by and chat awhile and then leave. Once again I was bored. I can remember listening in disbelief to "Pipes" at my college's radio station and actually being shocked by how little there was that I liked. So much so that I stopped my string of automatic McCartney purchases and didn't restart again until he began his post-Linda run. (I did pick up "Flowers in the Dirt" because of the "hype" and the Costello tunes but that was another relative let down for me.) So I guess to sum it up, aside from "McCartney II", about 1/3 of "Tug of War" and a few scattered tracks here and there, for me the 80s were McCartney's absolute nadir.

 

Personally I find sonething worthwhile on every McCartney era
The early eighties gave is McCartney2 and Tig of war. Both belongs to my all-time Paul favourites. McCartney 2 for it s freewheelin weirdness-shown to even greater effect on the glorious Deluxeedition
Tug of war because of the incredible craftsmanship, care and melodic glories it contains
After that Pipes of peace was a bit disappointing but through the years I have learnt to enjoy that one massively to

 

I personally love the guys 80s work. It was a integral part of my musical growing up. Pipes of Peace, Give My Regards, and Press To Play... and I was never much of a Beatles fan back then. But I wore those tapes out like no tomorrow.

 

Awful film though. (I am a film guy!) I did some of my research on 80s film industry in the US and UK. There were great film makers and then there were influential film makers whos' approach to visuals was a little under appreciated at the time (due to snobbishness within the cinema world and obsession with 50s and 60s art cinema) when they made and released the films, but that influence would be felt and seen for over the course of the 90s and 2000's. The only British musician from the era that contributed anything worth while to film and cinema was probably Phil Collins.

 

The strange thing about Paul is that all of his albums includes both very excellent stuff AND stuff that is not so great. On the good albums there are more of the good than bad, and vice versa. Tug is one of my many favourites, as is Press to Play. McCartney II is not on my (very long) list of favourite McCartney albums.

 

What about George Harrison - he produced many great movies in this period ....

 

McCartney II has always been a favorite of mine.

I'd give the following grades...
McCartney II - A
Tug of War - A-
Pipes of Peace - B-
Give My Regards to Broad Street - C

 

Tug of War was an instant favorite of mine as is the case with many others on this site.

Pipes of Peace is uneven, and I skip around a lot, but I played the heck out of it when I was in high school.

Broad street...well, I nearly wore out the VHS in those pre-You Tube days. It was cool to see Paul and Ringo together performing. As an 80s/90s kid, neither were on TV much, so that was it. He first time I saw most of his music videos was when VH1 would play blocks of them in anticipation of Flaming Pie (he pretty much took over the channel). The album is great.

Press to Play is odd. There is some stuff on there I really want to like, or like bits of. I'm not sure if it's a factor of working too hard or not hard enough on the songs or if stylistically he went so far off track it's hard for my brain to process.

Once Upon a Long Ago is almost like a coda to his career. I always felt that, after the failure of Press, and then relative quiet period, he closed things out with All the Best.

From there, it seemed to me like he rebooted into a nostalgia act, not a current artist trying to be relevant, or leading the charge as a tastemaker as he'd done in the 60s and 70s. Flowers was a "comeback" album - he went all in with the Beatle references and his concerts became career retrospectives, his albums going out to the loyal fans that buy everything.

I don't mean the above in a negative way. He still makes great albums and I eagerly await each one, but 1986 was pretty much the end of McCartney's days as a contemporary artist. Think of Sinatra in the 60s.

 

I stopped with Tug of War. In 2013, my daughter gave me "NEW" for Christmas. Started listening to it and realized I might have overlooked some gems. I've also added Flowers In The Dirt, Flaming Pie, and Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard. Guess I just didn't do a good enough job of keeping up!

 

Yeah...and I've posted in everyone on them.

 

Always been a fan of TUG OF WAR. I also like PIPES OF PEACE more than most people. Not a big fan of MCCARTNEY II or PRESS TO PLAY.
FLAMING PIE is the best McCartney album post BAND ON THE RUN.

 

In my opinion of course, just add Electric Arguments to your list, and you're all set for post 80's McCartney.

 

Believe it or not, Paul did the exact opposite of padding on McCartney II. There was more than enough material for a double album, but he cut it down to a single disc. Initially, he hadn't planned to release these recordings at all, but he was encouraged to do so by friends who had heard the tapes, which were recorded at home.

In hindsight, this album was ahead of its time. I find it a more enjoyable listen today than 37 years ago, but I still only rarely put it on.

 

Loved Back to the Egg, though side 2 has some weak tracks. Coming Up Live on the radio had me excited for buying McCartney 2. At the time buying albums meant being selective as I only had so much of an allowance to spend. Was really disappointed in McCartney 2 at the time, though I now like its quirkiness...to an extent.

Tug of War was, at the time, seen as a real return to form. I liked it and played it enough to wear it smooth. Today, it seems more uneven, with some dated production. Like much McCartney, it suffers from being a little too smooth/MOR. Still a strong record.

By the time of Pipes of Peace, I was a teenager and had moved onto harder rock. Didn't buy that album or any albums after that, and the songs I saw on MTV / heard on the radio (Say Say Say, No More Lonely Nights, Spies Like Us) I felt were pretty weak. Though I caught him in 1987 live, he was kind of off my radar.

Only lately have I gone back and bought all those 80s, 90s, and 00s albums. Was surprised to find quite a few gems sprinkled in there.

 

I agree with everything said above, except for the part about Press to Play. I believe that's one of his very best albums because it was so experimental.

His discography gets a bit safe afterwards IMO, with occasional flashes of excitement (Memory Almost Full, New).

 

Here's my quick summary of his 80's studio albums [bearing in mind that I am a big fan...]

McCartney II: quirky, but I like quirky [And Coming Up live as a bonus!!]
Tug Of War: definitely classic. He reached high [with help from old buddy George Martin] and succeeded
Pipes Of Peace: less successful. Seemed like leftovers [ie, not quite up to snuff] from previous album with trendy new Michael Jackson tracks
Give My Regards To Broad Street: meh. Mostly reworkings of previously done tracks [which felt a bit lifeless to me, despite good effort from Dave Gilmour, et al.] and a couple weak new tunes, No More Lonely Nights definitely the stand out track
Press To Play: back in experimental mode, with mixed results. Some good material, some slightly weaker. Lots of the production almost instantly sounded dated because of "producer of the hour" syndrome, but not as bad as people make it out to be. I prefer this over Broad Street!
Choba B CCCP: playing around with classic rock and roll tracks, fun but not especially noteworthy or essential.
Flowers In The Dirt: fairly solid effort.

 

For his 80s studio releases it goes like this for me

1. Flowers In The Dirt
2. Press To Play
3. McCartney 2
4. Tug Of War
5. Pipes Of Peace

 

I will check that one out. Thanks!

 

Yeah, to me it definitely sounded like he was trying to do things intentionally different to shake things up. Almost as if he was trying to find that missing something without quite knowing what it was..

Things like songwriting partners collaborating on every other word...

I also think that working with Elvis Costello on FITD gave him the kick-in-the-pants he was [metaphorically] looking for, as his confidence after that seemed much higher.. [Not to mention the freedom to go back to the abandoned-since-1970 Beatles-esque musical vocabulary.]

 

Absolutely - it was a "flailing" album to a degree. He just didn't know what kind of music to write or, maybe more importantly, what the public wanted to hear.

Once he reconciled with his past (musical vocabulary) it got better.

 

Love Tug of War. Have limited time for most of the others.