Paul McCartney Archive Collection - 'Forthcoming Releases' [TBC]

I've come around to love the original, textless cover, but seeing how this is the CD I had, this used to be my favorite look:

 

While these are great questions, I would respond that it's not 1987-1996 but rather 1979-1996, and that it's not a question of Paul not wanting to stay current for much of that time — the only time he doesn't seem to want to be current is 1981-1983, when he was working with George Martin, and even then there's moments where he is trying to be current, and an underlying logic to his actions that can be understood in context with everything else Paul has done.

That's what makes Press To Play such an interesting conundrum for me: he comes out of the sessions with George Martin hungry to connect to the many new sounds that are flooding into pop in the mid-80s, and the album reflects his interest in New Wave and the electro-pop that was rising in music by 1985. He's not the only one struggling to mix it into his own music (as has been noted about the Rolling Stones and David Bowie amongst others), but where Paul really fails — and he notes this in 1989 — is the lyrics: musically, Press To Play fits with what comes from the period, but the death of John Lennon put an unusually harsh spotlight on McCartney's ability to craft lyrics; "My Love" was often cited as poor poetry, for example. As a result, he scraps the next album of music with a more contemporary sound and turns to Elvis Costello to help write lyrics that will be more appealing to what was becoming the new 'adult contemporary' sound that so many of his contemporaries were moving to.

If you think Flowers In The Dirt and Off The Ground aren't contemporary, compare them to Springsteen's Human Touch and Lucky Town, Billy Joel's Storm Front and River Of Dreams, David Bowie's Tin Machine experiment, and other works by musicians who had a strong showing in the early-to-mid 1970s.

More importantly, it matters what he says in Put It There because Paul explains his motivation in context of the time: what helped him make the switch towards more Beatles songs was the CD releases of 1986-1987, in which The Beatles were getting noted by a new generation of audience members and he was noting songs that had (strangely) never been played before. If Paul was going to counter the lack of gravitas that Lennon had amongst critics, it would be as the Beatle which was still living and rocking away, which comes through all of the praise of his World Tour. He certainly wasn't going to get their attention with his solo material at that point — and he wasn't happy about it: in press interviews on tour, at least the ones I remember, he notes how his solo catalogue would get high praise were it not for The Beatles, but he wouldn't have it any other way.

Note that now, he's looking at the early Wings period from the perspective of time (The World Tonight has him note that he's going back and liking some of that material) and through Beatrice's eyes (as her friends go beyond The Beatles and discover her dad had some albums worthy of praise).

Were others doing it, I think Paul would think that too. But given that all of Paul's contemporaries are either dying off or doing goodbye tours that weight heavily on nostalgia, he probably thinks that being a rocker at his age that isn't willing to stop is enough.

Personally, I think it would be great to do something a bit more daring, but he needs to have the inner circle support to do so — and he's not going to get it, especially with Capitol wanting to celebrate the big hits of the past and not move forward along the time scale. The only way I can see McCartney really going into the solo material with deeper consideration is if someone at MPL finally has enough and starts compiling sets of his catalogue that focus on the hidden gems… but even then we saw with Pure McCartney that doesn't always happen.

 

I would say there's enough Bowie fans liking Never Let Me Down because the decision to keep "Too Dizzy" off the next re-release is getting noise from them.

 

Off the top of my head…

• "1882," which was clearly started during the Wild Life era
• "Give Ireland Back To The Irish"
• "Give Ireland Back To The Irish (Version)"
• "Mary Had A Little Lamb"
• "Mama's Little Girl"
• "The Mess" (also started during the period because it in the 1972 rehearsal film)
• "Soily" (same as above)

plus the rehearsal takes and early 1972 performances. So there'd be enough to fill 7-9 tracks like Speed Of Sound or McCartney did.

Red Rose Speedway has the advantage of more material, since it was aimed at a double LP, and has a single before it and after it that can be added too.

 

There's an instrumental of Tomorrow with some keyboards in place of the vocals. There's been a home demo or two of Wild Life that's been floating around for years in the bootleg market.

 

Getting off topic but I wonder if they are more interested in the new remixed version of the album instead. I know I am.

 

I've just listened to side one and note that the first three songs fit the album cover to a "t". A hippie picnic.

Wild Life, the song, puts a bit of a damper to the picnic theme. But that's okay.

There's a lot going on in Mumbo and Bip Bop. Duel guitars, cool bass lines, etc. Both are good songs.

 

Other than maybe Ram, Wild Life is the archive release I've wanted to get the most. It is unique and I don't think McCartney will ever release another album of music of such high quality again. Seriously, beautiful music, timeless music. Every second.

 

Surprised to see so many fans of WWL. Dear Friend is the gem I think, followed by Tomorrow, but never was keen on Wild Life and the otherwise charming Some People Never Know is marred by the most horrendous guitar sound (Denny? Paul? The drummer?).

 

Can I pop round for a martini & a listen, Mazzy? Thanks!

 

I have to say I consider it a low point in his catalog, but obviously many disagree. That's what makes it interesting i guess.

 

Paul seems to think people only care about his songs from 1963 to 1975, roughly. Maybe someone should tell him he carried on being great afterwards, too.

 

"Love Is Strange" is my favorite from the little album. I wish I knew how they prepared it for the single release that never happened. I understand it was shortened/edited but obviously never issued.

 

It's actually interesting to think about who exactly advises him these days, if anyone. Seems to me he listens a lot to the likes of Stella and her husband, which might not necessarily be a good thing as I suspect their focus will be on how to stay current. Any volunteers to advise the great man on his back catalogue?

 

In terms of who Paul needs to fill 20,000 seat arenas at $200 a ticket he is right that those are the songs they want to hear. I understand that die hard fans would feel different.

 

There's nothing wrong with being a 76 year (I guess?) old man. It's when a 76 year old man tries to act like he's 20 years old that he looks silly. He can still be extremely creative and probably do some of the best music of his life if he didn't worry about chart success and being current. Age has it valuable points and some good things that being young doesn't. It's how you react to it. I don't claim to understand what he feels about anything but he does seem a bit silly (to me) nowadays.

His last two albums seem as if he's trying too hard. They seem overproduced and not natural expressions. It's like he is doing market testing before they are released. That's not what made him famous. He maybe needs to go the Rick Rubin route and trust his skill and talent. He should do things quick and a little rough. "Electric Arguments" seems like that to me and for my taste it's the best thing he's done in 30 years.

The Archive releases are important but he's not doing them to be the outstanding last word that they could be but maybe that's what he wants. He's too far removed and has been for too long from being an average person so he probably can't see things the way most of his fans do. I just wish him health and happiness. Hope the Archives continue but do get better.

All this is just my opinion. Ignore or agree as you want.

 

Umm... I saw the final show of the 1990 tour. He did six songs from Flowers - exactly the same as when I saw him on earlier legs of the tour...

 

Sorry, forgot about that one — most likely because it dates from around 1974 instead of 1971.

 

Make him feel as if the present team just isn't doing it any more. Seriously: it took EMI-Capitol's lack of support for Paul in the 2000s — allowing for Yoko to veto the Love Songs compilation that they asked for, no Grammy push for Chaos And Creation In The Backyard — that got Paul to look for newer ideas, and ended him up at HearMusic, who changed his touring (small tours instead of big ones) and got him to treat his back catalogue with respect. Sadly, it looks like he took the marketing power and royalty rate of Universal-Capitol in 2017 instead of continuing down the path he was (possibly) getting bored with.

 

Around the same time as Proud Mum, right?

 

So what reworking of the tour are we talking about? Brian, can I assume you were referring to the secret shows where the setlist went to focus on some more Unplugged-type songs?

 

The two "links" on the album were trimmed down from much longer jams. Don't know how interesting they would be but it would be nice to hear them.

 

What are the running times of "No Words" and "Band On The Run" in this Archives release?

 

Agreed re both. Plus, it was pretty brave to cover Love Is Strange.

 

That's the album highlight for me.