I know it may not be logical or reasonable, but I would still love to see an Unplugged Archive. Although the dearth of bonus materials might make it feel like a throwback to days of earlier Archives... CD 1: Remaster CD 2: B-sides & outtakes [Things We Said Today, Midnight Special, Mean Woman Blues, Matchbox, The Fool, We Can Work It Out alternate takes?] DVD: Unplugged show [remastered] + outtakes? Edit: Yeah, yeah, there are probably licensing issues, etc. But I can dream, too....
I don't really see 'Strawberries' as a proper album, it's more like a bonus remix disc because it is all just variations of the same thing. I like it enough in concept that I can see why Paul wanted to return to the idea, hand over unreleased tracks and really develop it into a proper ambient album (one that worked really well on the whole with some very strong moments; I can completely see why Paul worked with Youth a third time and decided to develop the concept even further with added vocals, although I would also love to hear 'EA' stripped of vocals as a companion to 'Rushes'). Looking back, I think it's a slight shame that Paul didn't add much of that almost psychedelic experimentalism from 'Rushes' to 'Flaming Pie'; merge the two and it had potential to be somewhat like 'Chaos' or 'EA', with both traditional McCartney songs and more unusual pieces.
But by your same logic, Thrillington had no business being in the Archive releases either. It's only sold 80,000 units — whereas Ram has sold 3.69 million units and Wild Life has sold 1.7 million. It's been outsold by every compilation, every live album except the iTunes Capitol Studios release, the first two classical albums and Electric Arguments — not to mention the McCartney Interview has outsold it too! Why the poor sales? Simple: lack of promotion. The only reason I even knew Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest was coming was that I happened to be flipping through Billboard waiting for the retail outlet I worked at across the hall to open and there was a small blurb about it. There was absolute no promotion that Paul McCartney had an experimental trance album coming out, and the store I bought it at only got a copy because they were specializing in odd releases (1 from most major labels). They had it filed under "Misc. F" instead of "McCartney, Paul." The reason it was included in Ram was because it was recorded prior to Ram's release with the intention of being released alongside Ram. Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest was mixed from the "Hope Of Deliverance" sessions (with some access to the Back To The Egg remaster tapes) to be part of the ambient pre-show music, and ended up being released because he had a lot of encouragement to do so. Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest is an album that belongs packaged with Off The Ground or Paul Is Live just as Thrillington was. Rushes was little better. The online video chat wasn't hyped up the way his concert would be the year after, and the album got absolutely zero airplay. You had to hunt it down to get it in those days. And while it's available digitally now, it wasn't released digitally in the initial two waves of releases on iTunes. (Had it been, I would have bought it there instead of going to eBay for a replacement copy after mine got stolen by someone at work who liked it.) Is Rushes an oddity? Hell yes. And I wouldn't expect it to come as a large Archive at all — more like a release near the end to fill in all the last gaps in the 90s. 2 CDs, 1 DVD, with a small booklet… about the size of Wings Over Europe. Because by then we'll be down to releases like that: Wings Over Europe, Rushes, Live At The Amoeba, etc. Which is why I think the classical albums may come a little faster — especially since The Liverpool Oratorio was as major an event as Wings Over America in terms of career high points. The priority right now is likely the remaining studio albums… but there aren't many left: London Town (rumoured to be part of the next release) Back To The Egg (rumoured to be the other part of the next release) Give My Regards To Broad Street Press To Play Off The Ground Flaming Pie (next) And there's no guarantee of Driving Rain the way it was ignored for Pure McCartney. The covers albums aren't great and might get a release, but note that Paul treats Choba as a live album now. So it will be live and classical to fill out the decades before he dives into albums that don't really need an Archive unless it's for completion's sake, like Driving Rain, Back In The World, Chaos & Creation, Memory Almost Full, etc. Quite frankly, the fact he lumped the live, classical and Fireman releases into a second digital wave instead of including them with all his studio albums indicates there's a tier system… and we'll be done the first tier in likely the next five years, by which time I think it's doubtful MPL won't figure on trying to continue the series rather than start a whole new re-release program instead to keep the name McCartney out there.
But by your same logic, Thrillington had no business being in the Archive releases either. It's only sold 80,000 units — whereas Ram has sold 3.69 million units and Wild Life has sold 1.7 million. It's been outsold by every compilation, every live album except the iTunes Capitol Studios release, the first two classical albums and Electric Arguments — not to mention the McCartney Interview has outsold it too! Not really true, Thrillington is an orchestral version of the actual Ram album. So you can directly relate it to that album unlike any of the Fireman or Classical albums that have zero relation to any released studio album
It's already been pointed out that SOSF has a major relation to Off The Ground, a studio album. It's also pretty silly trying to argue about any of this since the McCartney team has been consistently inconsistent. There is no rule about what can and can't be reissued. They make up as they go.
And you have left out a few Driving Rain CACITBY MAF by the time all of those are done a New or ES could be considered even. CHobba, RDR and Kisses are far more worthy and deserving releases with more mass appeal
Plus it didn’t get a standalone archive release, it was included in the Ram box. I didn’t say none of those other albums wouldn’t possibly be included in a future archive, if it makes sense to include, but the idea of any of them getting their own Archives is a pipe dream imo
While I agree with if you ever might want to monetize those sets, combining them with sets that people might actually want might be the only way in an Archive setting. But that would bolster prices of already expensive sets even more ridiculous. I think you’d see an uproar bigger than download gate if you were to hold fans hostage by making them pay for what most will not want. I stick with my constant prediction, the Fireman and Classical albums will only receive a remaster and the eventual re-issue
Exactly. It's inane to argue about costs that fans can't accept when: Flowers In The Dirt's download-only tracks were meant to keep costs to an acceptable level, Egypt Station's top edition was exactly getting a large portion of the fan base to pay for things that don't offer any value (in fact, offer less than the value of these additional recordings), The Tug Of War Archives did something similar with its offering of something most fans wouldn't pay for on top of, Look at the sales of the latest book of Linda McCartney's photographs and tell me that's unexpectedly expensive, and We already have suggested that Flaming Pie is coming with an even more expensive "big box" that will be more than £150 for it. Should Off The Ground go from 4 CD to 5 CD because they put in Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest — and justified it in the book as being another way in which Paul wanted to do something different than before with the same band as before — would the cost difference be that different? Or would including an album that most had not heard of suddenly be a turn off from a reissue of an album that (when initially offered) was not as well wanted as before? It may be a personal choice of the poster here, but we have no idea what MPL will do — especially since Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway were not part of the original plan to start with… they made the decision to continue beyond the albums with the biggest original sales first, and so far there's no indication that was a mistake at all. And see this is where our fandom differs. There's no need to remaster most of those albums, they've had – at least from Memory Almost Full onwards – at least one expanded reissue each, and the lack of focus on those albums from 1999 onwards – even from MPL's own releases – doesn't indicate there's much interest at all except for the handful of fans who want one. You're assuming that the original sales numbers mean that those who are buying the Archives (who are clearly far deeper in interest in the catalogue than the average buyer who was buying the albums when they first came out) won't be interested in filling out the entire series. The fact that it's even being talked about as a possibility contradicts that assumption, at least at its most basic level.
You can argue until the cows come home, I doubt they will be archived. Period! My opinion will not change, unless they make it through the whole catalog and then decide at the end to release the bottom of the barrel material
Your opinion (and mine and anyone else's here) has zero effect on what will or won't happen. That won't change. Period!
I didn't have a problem finding the Fireman albums. I can't remember how I knew they were coming out (possibly ICE), but I got the first two the day they were released. I had a much harder time tracking down the OTG and Flaming Pie CD singles. But I managed. Collecting music is so much easier now.
