Paul McCartney Archive Collection - Flowers In The Dirt*

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Sean Murdock, Sep 18, 2015.

  1. emkay

    emkay Senior Member

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    To be fair, McCartney's tour for this album was a strictly stadium-ish affair and it was pretty hot on the heels of the flowers tour. It was really too soon to hit the road for a collection of shows this large, in largely the same markets. It was a mistake of planning. Even today, with what I presume are generally lower ticket sales, McCartney's appearances are geographically spread out enough to ensure significant demand when a show goes up for sale.

    Other than that, OTG WAS a pretty good record but the marketplace had changed significantly. There was actually a pretty healthy market for music at the time and McCartney was now pretty well established as an oldies act. Ya gotta remember, commercial success is driven by a lot of things other than quality. It was no longer HIS time... doesn't mean this was not a quality effort. Not at all.

    Other than that - I gotta disagree a little bit about the B-sides for this album. Yes, McCartney is usually chock full of extra tracks and they are often better than the stuff culled for albums. BUT, for OTG they are frankly a little weak and goofy. Long Leather Coat is musically good enough, but the political quality of the lyrics just smacks you upside the head. Big Boys Bickering is just a dumb cry for attention -- ooh look, I used a potty word. I got banned! I'm still a badass! Cosmically Conscious? Seriously? Soggy Noodle? 'Nuff said...

    Best stuff was on the album. It is a more consistent collection of songs and better produced. There's some taste and restraint here missing from FITD. I know... sacrilege....

    A lot of potential buyers for this one were scooping up Ten Summoners Tales, Crash Test Dummies and bunch of other sedate, calm middle of the road adult rock titles. Hope of Deliverance was a great song, just perhaps a tad too cheery for the time.
     
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  2. emkay

    emkay Senior Member

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    Think about the contrast - one movie is about chaotic excitement surrounding a bunch of young guys making exciting new music. The other one is about a middle aged guy falling asleep in the car on his way to the office. Yeah - that's exciting. Here I am with a bunch of my old war buddies palling around at work. Awesome!
     
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  3. christian42

    christian42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lund, Sweden
    Elton John's first UK #1 single was not "Club at the End of the Street", it was "Healing Hands/Sacrifice".

    Actually, apart from this anomaly (because it was a blip, just look at everything else that was released by Elton in that timeframe. Those singles hovered in the lower reaches of the chart.) Elton had very similar singles luck to Paul at that time in the UK. He generally had one single from each album that fared a little bit better than the others, but on the whole there were no big hits. Even "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" which was so huge all over the world "only" reached #14. (Yes, I'm discounting the song for Diana.)

    It wasn't until the 00s that Elton's singles would do somewhat better than Paul's, and that's only for a few years - they both fell of the charts completely at around the same time.
     
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  4. Thrillington

    Thrillington McCartney Scholar

    Location:
    Cardiff, Wales, UK
  5. daveidmarx

    daveidmarx Forem Residunt

    Location:
    Astoria, NY USA
    Taking a few leaps here, Brian! Broad Street may have went gold, but the film it was attached to was (quite rightly) perhaps the biggest bomb of Paul's career and made him seem even more out of touch than he did latching onto Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson in an effort to have more hits. Spies Like Us may have went top-ten, but let's face it - the song was another embarrassment to us Macca fans in the mid-80s. I was in high school at the time and I remember how tough it was trying to defend Paul as a serious musical talent when he was countering by releasing tracks like this.. or Press. Yeah, that 1986 album certainly didn't do him any favors as well, nor did that silly video. On that, I will agree.

    Oh, and I don't see how Driving Rain was "helping America heal", when the only track written / recorded after the 9/11 attack was the dreadful Freedom. And let me just say this about that particular song: I LOVE me some Paul McCartney music, and I even enjoy many tracks (Kreen-Akrore, Loup, Motor Of Love) that the majority of folks dislike. But I absolutely can't STAND Freedom. It is the one McCartney song that I skip every time it comes on. Cheesy lyrics, poor song structure and (most of all) an embarrassing attempt to latch onto relevancy by cashing in on a national tragedy. If it were a decent song, then all would be forgiven, but Freedom? Hoo boy, that one should have stayed in the can.
     
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  6. emkay

    emkay Senior Member

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    Driving Rain depresses me... I had that album in advance of its release and it was playing in the car when I was on Route 17 and Route 3 heading to work and seeing a sky full of black smoke. That record was not made to heal anybody - and the addition of "Freedom" kind of cheapened the whole affair. I felt (and still feel) that it's a mediocre effort and exploits 911 to some extent. That, and I think it catches McCartney in an uncharacteristic state of mind. It's odd fitting and uncomfortable.
     
  7. daveidmarx

    daveidmarx Forem Residunt

    Location:
    Astoria, NY USA
    Being a bit harsh towards Vincent Price, don'tcha think? ;)
     
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  8. theMess

    theMess Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kent, UK
    Ha! :laugh:
     
  9. daveidmarx

    daveidmarx Forem Residunt

    Location:
    Astoria, NY USA
    My bias against this album is that it has too many embarrassing lyrics on it. Far more than acceptable on a typical Paul McCartney album. Looking For Changes, Biker Like An Icon and C'mon People in particular are just really subpar, lyric-wise. The music is good, but man those lyrics. :doh: I agree with the folks who've posted about even the B-sides not being particularly great either, but if the above three would have been replaced by Long Leather Coat (same message as LFC with better lyrics), Down To The River and Kicked Around No More respectively, I'd have a much better feeling towards this album.
     
  10. emkay

    emkay Senior Member

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    Yeah, but the lyric thing really doesn't make it any worse than just about any other McCartney record. They all have weak lyrical moments. Just last week a friend commented how alternately bad and good they were on "My Brave Face" - and that it's worst aspect was rhyming "again" with "again"... 3 TIMES! Never thought about it, but yeah!
     
  11. Darrin L.

    Darrin L. Forum Resident

    Location:
    Golden, CO
    For reasons far beyond his reach? The failure was a result of his own ego and hubris, thinking he can write and produce his own movie. The same mistake he made with MMT, which is perceived as the Beatles only failure.
     
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  12. bward

    bward Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston, MA USA
    Some of you guys have some pretty harsh memories of the Off the Ground period. Ouch!

    There was excitement leading up to the album's release. Remember the MTV special? That got a lot of attention, and I remember, pretty good reviews. It was the first place I heard most of the songs.

    As for the album itself, I just think it's too polished. Maybe that's the Human League touch that (rightly) concerned Elvis. Get Out of My Way could have been a really cool song, but the production is just too....laid back, or lame.

    I never had the problem everyone else has about Biker Like An Icon. I know the story about the song's inspiration is strange, but for me, it doesn't take away from the song at all. I like the image of the woman taking off with the stranger biker, never to be seen again. The internal rhyming just doesn't bother me.

    The album has its moments, but it is too middle of the road for my tastes. And at the time I was concerned it was a throwback to the mid 80's period which I really didnt like.

    As for the big stadium tour. My only issue with that was the fact that it was limited to those big stadiums. Sound quality was terrible. I saw the show in NYC and I swear, Penny Lane's horns just disappeared somewhere mid field.

    But it wasn't all bad. Those B-sides were really good.

    And it set up his final return to form with Anthology, and later, Flaming Pie, which continues until this very day.

    And no, Im not forgetting Driving Rain, I think it's a pretty good album, though not perfect.
     
  13. Arnold Grove

    Arnold Grove Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    At least with MMT, it was only 53 minutes (with close to half just being music videos), and it aired on TV for free.

    But with Give My Regards, it was a full-length feature film that people actually had to PAY to see.
     
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  14. Daniel Plainview

    Daniel Plainview God's Lonely Man

    I'm sorry but I found this line hilarious. Yes, I suppose the loyal McCartney fans who were still buying his records gained solace from this particular release during this troubling time, but the rest of the country was listening to Alicia Keyes, Outkast, Radiohead, and Train.

    Ah, yes, someday I'll put my grandchild on my knee and tell them about 9/11 and how in it's aftermath we all gathered around the CD player ("what's a CD?") and took comfort in "Driving Rain". McCartney gave us the strength to carry on. "She's Giving Up Talking" became an anthem of sorts, blasting from car windows everywhere as we all waved our flags in a show of national solidarity.

    "Driving Rain" couldn't heal a paper cut. In fact, it creates new pain that didn't exist before you listen to it. IMO. 1 2 3 4 5 It's not a very good album. I do like "Rinse The Raindrops", though.

    :tiphat:
     
    Last edited: Mar 21, 2017
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  15. adm62

    adm62 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    No, it will never be revalued as anything decent, because it's a terrible tune with awful 80s production and lyrics a 5 yr old could write.
     
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  16. Thrillington

    Thrillington McCartney Scholar

    Location:
    Cardiff, Wales, UK
    Makes you wonder how such a 'terrible tune' can be catchy enough to reach number 1 in multiple countries.
     
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  17. adm62

    adm62 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the record buying public (paraphrased)
     
  18. Frank

    Frank Senior Member

    Sure does.
     
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  19. Frank

    Frank Senior Member

     
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  20. Thrillington

    Thrillington McCartney Scholar

    Location:
    Cardiff, Wales, UK

    Reminds me of this, which sadly only reached number 3.

     
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  21. RAJ717

    RAJ717 Forum Resident

    Paul just posted the demo to "This One" on his downloads website.
     
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  22. longdist01

    longdist01 Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL USA
  23. Daniel Plainview

    Daniel Plainview God's Lonely Man

    [​IMG]

    "Every once in a while, you have to make a stinky-doo!"
     
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  24. Thrillington

    Thrillington McCartney Scholar

    Location:
    Cardiff, Wales, UK
    Appears to be 128 kbps.
     
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  25. Peter_R

    Peter_R Maple Syrple Gort Staff

    Location:
    Montreal, Canada
    Wow. I always loved this song. I think I prefer the demo.
    In it's simplest form, you really hear the essence of what makes a classic McCartney composition.

    With the prominent piano and harmony vocals, this song could easily have fit on London Town.
     

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