Paul McCartney Archive Collection - Tug Of War & Pipes Of Peace coming! (Part Two)

They build us up just to break us back down.

 

Oh, I agree -- POP is dull to me, too. Just less so than PTP and DR. These for me are Paul's least 3 of his studio albums.

 

One step forward, two steps back. Sometimes, two steps forward, one step back. We'll get there by Xmas...

 

Bookmark.

 

So, if we wanted to repeatedly punch your dad in the face would we go bashing POP (Pipes of Peace)? See what I did there?

Oh, if the matriarch, east across the pond, is "mum" is the patriarch "dud"?
(We don't commonly use "mum" here in the colonies.)

Tug of War has been my fave of Paulie's since it's release so I'm waiting with baited breath for this Archive release.
Gonna be a good October I can tell already.

 

I am very excited about this release. I too like TUG OF WAR, and I am very interested in the "full package", wondering what extra tracks will be included (for both TOW and POP). All things considered from all the sessions combined around this period, Paul had some good material.

 

This is why, whenever we talk about the painfully slow pace of the Archive Collection, I always argue that they should just release all the rest of the 2-CD sets right away, en masse, and then release the book editions at their leisure. (I should also note that this is my THIRD choice of preference, after just releasing them faster (4 per year at least) or announcing a sane schedule and setting up a TIME/LIFE-esque subscription plan.) Anyway, the argument against my mass-release-the-2CD-sets plan is that it would "force" the superfans to double-dip when the book editions eventually come out -- and that's true! (Although, I know that some superfans tend to buy the book editions AND the 2-CD sets anyway... ahem...) But the argument FOR my plan is people like supermd -- fans are actually out there, delaying their enjoyment, altering their lives, because they want to hear the albums in their best sound FIRST. The complete set of albums should be available on CD while that's still a financially viable option -- but if MPL refuses to do that, at least release them all on iTunes (spare me the gnashing of teeth...) so people can enjoy them NOW and get on with their lives. (Jimmy Page did it with the Led Zep remasters, putting them out as downloads over a year ago -- and fans are still excited about the CDs and deluxe sets in 2015...)

 

Frank, from your age breakdowns of when you got the then-new albums of the '80s, it sounds like we're the same age. (Born in 1968?) So I get what you're saying, to a point. I think there are three different ways to experience an album: (1) as a young, first-generation, day-of-release fan; (2) as a second-generation fan catching up in the rush of joyful discovery; and (3) as an established fan (of any age), buying the album because it's part of the fabric of your life -- not quite an "obligation" but something you do without hesitation, and maybe without as much emotion. I see examples of all three all the time here on the forum all the time. I'm a second-generation fan -- too young to have bought Beatles albums or the 1970s solo albums when they first came out -- so my first "day-of-release" albums were Somewhere In England and Tug Of War. I have a fondness for these albums of my teens and early 20s (esp. Pipes Of Peace, Gone Troppo, Press To Play) that defies rational knowledge of their quality. They were "mine" because I knew about them beforehand, waited for them to be released, and then listened obsessively to them as I absorbed every second. I appreciate "lesser" albums that I caught up with later (Wild Life, Dark Horse, Back To The Egg) -- but even though I bought them in my 20s, they aren't "imprinted" on me like little ducklings. I think it's why I can dispassionately say that Wild Life is a terrible album -- but I can also understand the first-gen purchaser from 1971 who says, "But that's one of my favorite albums of all time!" Love doesn't have to be logical, I get it.

That said, it makes me a little sad (as a fellow fan) that you appreciate (appreciate, appreciate...) the later albums but don't love them in the same way. You weren't THAT old in 1997, man! Were you already too jaded to feel the greatness of Flaming Pie in your bones? For me, that album was a dividing line in Paul's solo career, and in my experience as a fan. Paul seemed finally at peace with his past, he was bravely facing an imminent future without Linda, and he was making grown-up albums at his own pace for his own pleasure. I am eternally grateful for this late-phase renaissance in Paul's career -- I honestly don't know if I'd still be an engaged fan if he was still churning out shiny fluff like Off The Ground. So while I admit that there's a special "tingle" to the albums I loved as a kid, I love the new stuff just as much, albeit in a different way -- and as long as it's GOOD. (Sorry, Driving Rain -- you're in the "appreciated" column.) Nobody can be their 17-year-old selves when they're 47, and as I get older I'm less inclined to blindly like something that's not actually good. So when Paul makes great albums like Flaming Pie and Chaos & Creation, they're maybe even MORE special than Tug Of War and Pipes Of Peace, because they had to be WORTHY of the love of a more discriminating fan.

 

^^^Pass me a handkerchief...

 

These official archive releases are so slow in being released because Paul is obviously taking such great pains to sift through all the studio outtakes, unreleased songs, b-sides, single mixes, and 12" single remixes in order to provide the most comprehensive collection and thus giving us the biggest bang for our buck. And don't forget the amazing DVDs that have collected together all the associated music videos and recording sessions from the respective album's sessions and era. Combine that with the tremendous amount of time spent remixing each album to bring out the beauty instead of the just kicking out re-EQ'd muddy mixes of such poor sounding releases as Venus & Mars. No. These releases are well worth the wait. MPL is obviously not wasting time focusing more on deluxe books than the music itself. And speaking of the music, you'll not find a bunch of klunky, low-fi home demos or unrelated live releases from nearly a decade later serving as filler on these releases. No sir. All the amazing unreleased songs have made this series well worth the wait as each release trickles out. This stuff takes time and by golly, we'll should all be thankful that such comprehensive releases are being done.

 

So ... not a fan?

 

You are correct....and "filler" that needs to be released in a more respectable manner, like a live Glasgow CD. I'm sure we have all heard "Last Flight". A 72/73 uk tour set would also be nice.
That's another problem with this. There are no separate/individual archival releases.
I much prefer how Dylan has done it, with his bootleg series.

 

I utterly get what you say here, Sean, but I do find myself wondering why - if you think its acceptable (if not ideal) to make fans double dip for new 2CD sets and later deluxes - why it isn't acceptable to just let them double dip for the current versions and then the deluxes when, eventually, they come out

 

Jeez Sean, I do wish you'd spend more time on this forum and less time lurking. I miss the fact that you absolutely nail my thoughts without me even having to think about how I'd put them into words.

 

I am playing "Peace" now and haven't done so in quite a while. I am amazed at how many good tunes are in fact on this album. The title track, So Bad, Through Our Love, The Man, Say Say Say...I think this one will get re-assessed as better. Not as good as "War" but better than originally thought. Heck, Paul's wonderful vocal on Pipes of Peace are equal to some of his best, IMO...And, say what you want, the MJ tracks are catchy, fun and feel-good. Who can't help but bop from listening to Say Say Say? And, dare I say even "Bip-Bop" to it as well...

 

Me, too! Me, too!
Loved the rest of that post, too!

 

I love this song, especially when it switches to the "all around the world.."

 

I think it is amazing with someone's catalog like Macca's that we can have such differing opinions on what our least favourite albums are. I would never consider POP a masterpiece and yet I so truly love Press To Play (it takes me back to that time in my life and I have fond memories of that period) and Off the Ground (same reason). If I had to pick three albums that I would be ok NOT to bring with me on a desert island it would be the following:

Pipes of Peace
Wild Life
New

NEW just seems to be a lot of ideas that exist on 24 other McCartney albums...and that is hard for me to say, but I would pick both PTP and OTG over NEW.

I am really looking forward to the TUG OF WAR archive set

 

This one is interesting. Being so young, the first album by Paul that I bought as "my first Paul album" was Chaos and Creation in the Backyard. Boy, was that a big letdown. I was just getting into Paul and The Beatles, and I had heard Wingspan and Band on the Run, and here was a new McCartney album. It was not to my liking, and it took me over 5 years to start to really like it. I like it now, but it took time, and I needed to grow, musically. The idea of having a special connection to it as a result of it being my "first" Paul album (I was 16) does not ring true here. Then, Memory Almost Full came out 2 years later and I enjoyed that one more. I still kind of do, but I base it on the mood and style of the songs. And guess what: I like New more than both of those, and that is his most recent release (I know you feel the opposite). For me, the time of my life doesn't necessarily inform my enjoyment of music. Some stuff has specific moments attached to it, but most of the time, it boils down to the craft of the song itself.

 

I could not agree more; not all of the album is first rate, but like At The Speed Of Sound, I expect that some people will appreciate the album more once they have heard the reissue, because it does have some great catchy pop songs, nice vocals and lovely melodies, even if it does have a couple of lesser tracks.

I personally think that both Jackson duets are great pop songs, So Bad is a lovely R&B ballad, Pipes Of Peace is wonderful, and that Through Our Love is a moving tribute to Linda.

I am looking forward to the bonus songs, and I hope that they include the demo of Sweetest Little Show, which I much prefer to the album version.

 

And, the video is not too shabby...I know he has done the spectrum of videos but some of his best are from the "War and Peace" era. Love "Take it Away" (George Martin on keys, Ringo with what looks like a perm ?) and So Bad (Ringo's mugging for the camera was so funny to me back in the day). And of course, there is Say Say Say, which even my kids like. Hope they unearth (or create) one for "The Man".

 

Yep!

I've just been surprised by how great a track "Sweetest Little Show" is. I've not heard the demo, but -- whoa -- that's a fun track. Where has this album been all my life??

 

Except for the "Tug of War" video, which was rather dissapointing, compared to the production of the others.

 

Because often the current versions don't sound very good, and if supermd is representative of a larger group, fans are holding onto their money waiting for the remasters. Why not let them buy those remasters NOW, enjoy them, and whet their appetites for the deluxe sets down the road?

Hey, thanks!

 

Good point, but it is charming to me. Paul and Linda look so young and supportive of one another and the old footage is at once a little funny but also somehow creepy. Of course, I am a Linda fan so anything that shows her in a good light is good with me. She was the ultimate underdog that put it out there for Paul.