Concord Music Group gets Paul McCartney Back Catalogue (Pt. 2)

Release the box set as well as make the individual albums available and get the best of both worlds. Casual fans can pick up their favorite albums at their local Starbucks or Target whereas the more ardent fans can be enticed with box set packaging & bonus material to buy them all.

I am wondering if Paul will settle for well remastered discs (like the Beatles reissue program) or go a step further and remix the catalog (like the John Lennon reissue program).

 

There are some albums that don't rate a lot of extra attention. While I love WILD LIFE, I don't think you're going to generate a ton of publicity on a re-release of that (nor several others).

 

Actually, those are the albums that NEED the extra attention. If you pad Wild Life with a killer bonus disc, what may have been a "skip" becomes an automatic "buy." Elvis Costello was smart with his Rhino reissues, and he made sure that even the weak ones like Goodbye Cruel World had strong bonus material.

 

Exactly! How long does this dude think Macca, CDs, (and us) will live?

 

It's a good point but the big difference is that Elvis Costello thinks that every song he ever recorded is release worthy (ask Andrew S) where McCartney for some reason doesn't.

 

Agreed, but I also agree with the idea that these don't necessarily all have to be released by themselves with long stretches in between releases.

Band on the Run and some others might do fine through a standalone release. But for the most part, small batches spanning a year or two would probably be the most logical. Release 3-4 albums every couple months and you should be able to get them all out there within two years without being too cluttered.

 

(1) Band On The Run (aug 2010)
(2) McCartney, Ram, Wild Life (december 2010)
(3) Venus And Mars, WATSOS, London Town (may 2011)
(4) Back To The Egg, McCartney II, Tug Of War (dec 2011)
(5) Pipes Of Peace, Broadstreet, Press To Play (may 2012)
(6) Flowers In The Dirt, Off The Ground, Flaming Pie (dec 2012)
(7) Driving Rain, Chaos, MAF (may 2013)

And then...the Fireman, live albuns, compilations etc, as random releases.

 

What, no Red Rose Speedway?

 

Is this fact, or speculation?

 

I agree with Sean; it's the Wild Lifes and the Red Rose Speedways that need a stand-alone release in order to highlight just how good they are.

 

All of the early Wings material seems to have gotten a new lease on life. I can't figure out how it happened exactly. It seems that the albums have been mentioned from time to time in various places and the comments have been favorable. These days, Wild Life seems to be held in the esteem Ram was in the mid-eighties.

 

I think they should remix Wild Life. Not sure if the muddiness of the original mix was intended to give a raw feel but it feels somewhat sonically lacking to me.

But then again, I'm someone who likes the sound of LIB Naked and remixed POB album.

 

How about a deluxe edition of Wild Life with a second disc featuring a live show from Wings' UK university tour from '72 or whenever it was? I'd buy that.

 

Now that would be something

 

It really would be something.

 

Meet you in the falling rain ... if it's raining on release day.

 

Lennon only had 6/7 albums to remix, and Yoko only did the first 5. She sees Lennon's work as artistic masterpieces that deserved expensive and long/laborious remixing.

I don't think -

1. Paul sees his solo music in the same way

2. Even if he did, would ever be willing to go through the time/effort/expense of remixing any of them...

 

Why remix "Wild Life"? My original UK Apple vinyl is no muddy at all, and I have always loved that raw feel that album has. Now the 1993 remaster does sound muddy when compared to what I remember the vinyl sounded like.

In all honesty, I would hate any remixing revisionism on any of Paul's albums (which would inevitably lead to complains as to the future unavailability of the original mixes... exactly as is the case with the John Lennon CDs currently available).

Clean remasters, all singles a- and b-sides, stray tracks and choice outtakes will keep me more than happy.

And for those albums ("Broad Street", "Press To Play", "Flowers In The Dirt") that have spawned a plethora of remixes released on various 7" and 12" singles, just include all these versions on a separate CD. Maybe not for listening pleasure (I can hardly stand to listen to the two "No More Lonely Nights" remixes on the current 1993 "Broad Street" remaster in a row!), but to have them as archives in a handy form.

 

You'd remix Wild Life for one primary reason -- to lower the backing vocals, which are absurdly loud in the mix -- and that's something I don't think Paul would want to do, since they're mostly Linda.

 

It's obviously not fact. There won't be release dates set years in advance like that. Also, if this information was true, it would be all over the place.

It is just the poster's idea.

 

Seriously, after hearing what CONCORD has done with the latest SINATRA reissues, I fear beyond distinction, what they'll do with McCartney's back catalog! Give me a box set of outtakes or unreleased and I'm in, otherwise, I've got the Hoffman discs and the FAME "Wild Life", so outside of a few great titles, I have no real need for a catalog overhaul, especially one that most likely will be too loud and compressed somehow.

Chris C

 

I was actually asking the poster. But I apologize, I thought there might be some actual information in this endless thread. I should know better.

 

Do we know who's working on these reissues? The only piece of news that came out recently was that Paul was visiting Abbey Road studios to oversee the work on BOTR. Does that mean its the same Abbey Road team (the 'Fab' team) that's working on these?

Paul's last released work from the 70's was the 2001 compilation Wingspan which was done by Peter Mew. But since then I haven't read Mew work on any Fab related work (Lennon reissues, Let It Be Naked, Beatles Catalog, etc).

 

I'll speculate anyone hoping for a release of a show from the 72 University tour has not heard the bootlegs from that tour

 

Concord Records per se probably had nothing to do with the sound of those recent Sinatra reissues. Unless Frank Sinatra Enterprises does the mastering of the McCartney back catalog, there's no correlation to fear.