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

Yes, that's it. I think the only footage from it that has so far surfaced is Wild Life and Hi Hi Hi.

 

I remember reading here about the animator for the Bruce McMouse film being shown footage from it care of McCartney some years back. There was also something about reels of the film being at Soho Square at some point over the last few years as well. It sounds like it was a finished product. Anyone else remember those posts?

 

I could sort of understand it with Flowers In The Dirt as it was mainly content that was originally released digitally anyway, so had always existed in that format (a first for the Archive series). This is why I could imagine them doing the same if either Flaming Pie or Off The Ground sets are released.

I'd be disappointed and surprised if they felt the need to go down that route for early 1970s content though.

 

Some people felt the series would be abandoned after Wings Over America. And Venus and Mars/Speed of Sound. And Tug of War/Pipes of Peace.

 

...and that's how they sucked me in.

Of course not. That's what streaming services are for!

 

It was me.
I can tell you that these reels definitely exist since I saw them. Well, sort of.
When I was in London in the summer of 1993, there was a big pile of metal film canisters just next to the large ground floor windows of MPL's Soho Square office, and even from outside, you could clearly see they were marked "Bruce McMouse"!

 

Frank, you are such a "now", forward thinking guy!

Me? I still wait for the eight track cartridges for all new releases.

By the way, my voodoo mind power thing is working.

Wildlife and Red Rose Speedway are the two archive editions I look forward to getting the most and...shazam!

 

Substitute "cheap" for "now" and "miserly" for "forward thinking" and you may be on to something.

 

Those words usually all mean the same thing in my world also.

 

I'm curious to see how the combined box set looks. That just might be the one for me!

 

Oh mama... gimme all of that...

 

It could be as simple as two sets in a slipcase.

 

I would get the combined one, but it'll look odd compared to the other standalone releases in the series. I'll probably go for both sets individually, given the price is reasonable.

 

I wonder if Paul hopes to do with the Wild Life Archive version something similar to what Dylan did with Another Self-Portrait...that is, take an album with a poor critical reputation and, while not boosting the reputation of the album itself, release enough bonus material to give an impression of "what could have been."

There's the bonus of Wild Life's recording sessions being inspired by Self Portrait's.

 

Agreed. There's a very admirable, almost amateurish quality to Paul simply loading wife, kids, and band in the van and driving to various colleges to put on shows. It's as if for a brief few years between being a Beatle and filling stadiums again (this time with Wings), he really was an up and coming artist once again. Of course, we know he wasn't, but the tone (that's the best word I can think of) of those early shows gives off that impression.

 

I thought he was inspired by New Morning

 

So, as someone with no real live McCartney knowledge (besides Wings Over America), what would the holy grail of live stuff be? Is 1973 great? Why or why not?

 

I guess the '72-'73 stuff would be "holy grail" since we don't have very much of it in high quality, let alone only precious few tracks released. After that would be '79 I suppose. We have a fair amount of it released, and even more in good quality, but no full concert release yet. All other tours have been documented very well between DVDs and live albums. (Unless you wanna be picky, in which case the Wings Over Europe tour never got any type of release.)

 

February 1972: Surprise tour by van at UK universities
Summer 1972: European tour by bus
May & July 1973: UK tour

 

I really hope Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway will be reissued on December 7th, so that I can pick them up in person and bring them back home with the White Album boxed sets.
Besides, they will benefit from the Christmas shopping period. I bet a few people will buy those remasters as gifts for friends and relatives.

 

Well a few of us loved both Portrait and Wild Life when they first came out

 

I wasn't born yet when either of those were released, but from what I remember I liked Wild Life when I first heard it. Still haven't heard Self Portrait, though I do love Another Self Portrait.

 

Rude Studio tapes.

 

Well, I have not very carefully sought out the early tours, so take this for what it's worth (not much!), but from what I recall from the cassettes I would pick up at those lovely, shady record stores of the mid 1980s, the early tours show a pretty low level of gloss. One would have to have a rather dedicated lo-fi aesthetic and a love for that dense mid-range 70s live sound to think of the shows I heard as any kind of holy grail. The 79 shows had a somewhat unflattering playlist, in my view, but they'd be much more professionally recorded and mixed than what I was hearing on cassette from the '72 shows many years ago. If I were to select anything like a holy-grail of unheard McCartney, I would select some of those informal performances like the 1974 Backyard Tapes, or some of his oddball solo experimental noodling like the Daumier's Law soundtrack. And then there are the famous Cold Cuts, assembled from various unreleased studio tracks of the 1970s, which are sometimes pretty great and weird (personal favorite: Robber's Ball!), and then tinkered with over the course of the 1980s for possible release. Just my two cents, of course, and acknowledging ahead of time that my 1980s impressions of the early 70s tours may be superseded by the availability of better recordings and evolving musical values. I am very much willing to listen with fresh ears to whatever MPL throws our way.