McCartney Archive Collection - Venus & Mars and Speed of Sound "Coming Soon"

Arnie, the stock copies and the promos feature the same remix done by Alan Parsons and different from the LP version.

 

Personally I'd love ten demos and versions of Wino

 

That's a pretty tasteless comment, I must say.

 

What period were the mellotron heavy, Wide Prairie & Oriental Nightfish from? Venus and Mars or Red Rose Speedway?

 

Wide Prairie - Nov.'73
Oriental Nightfish - Oct.'73

 

Buy them used. Problem solved. Personally for some of these I would be ok with them not all being deluxe releases. Honestly, not all of Paul's albums are classics. I like Wild Life quite a bit but there are just as many that can't stand it.

 

I've got a feeling that these will be the final "Deluxe" archive editions & that the rest will be released as just standard cd's.

 

Will we get the James Paul Mccartney TV special on DVD on one of these sets??

 

Yeah, I got into McCartney's solo work late in the game and never acquired a copy of Red Rose Speedway. Hopefully this one gets the reissue treatment as well - one reason being that a lot of material was recorded for the album that would be nice to potentially have in one place.

 

My two cents' worth ...

1) My guess is that McCartney and team don't want to get too far ahead of themselves. I suspect they feel that two is enough for planning purposes for now, given that: a) he has other projects in the works (new album, touring, any Beatles-related activity) and the archival releases are not his priority on an ongoing basis; b) leaving it open-ended allows them not to commit themselves to something they may not ultimately see through to completion; c) there still may be considerable internal discussion on what the next step is, and even Paul himself may not know what he wants to do with it; and d) that always-present concern over sales levels remains a variable going forward, i.e. do the sales of the next issues justify continuing or killing the project, or reformatting downward in scope, more toward digital, etc. etc.?

2) I see it as neither, rather simply a factual statement of what has been decided to date. Quite possibly we read too much into it.

3) While I'd like to think that they would come out simultaneously, I suspect that they will be separate, as there is no inherent "link" between the two albums (e.g. songs recorded for V&M that were held back until SoS) beyond the band lineup (at least factoring out whatever Geoff Britton did on the former) and separate releases allow for separate promotion, more individual and more detailed media and fan (such as here) coverage, and less-to-no cannibalization of sales between them. I know, that's not what we want to see and hear, but it makes sense from a business point of view.

4) I think others here have made good cases for what to pair with what if it comes down to it, but I don't see it happening in reality, for all of the previously cited business reasons. The suggestions that others have made are quite sound musically, though, and I'd like to think that McCartney and his associates have taken that into account already. Short of that, let's hope some of them are reading these boards and taking notes. ...

 

The "McCartney" albums were released simultaneously. So there's no reason they can't do it with other titles.

 

I actually am quite fond of the Joe English vocal version -- to me it is a very underrated track on the album and his voice is quite nice. The McCartney version is sung a bit sloppily, though given that it may simply be a guide vocal, the lack of polish would be understandable.

Beyond the leftover Cow Palace live tracks for SoS bonus audio -- not to mention unreleased songs, of course -- are there no soundcheck songs from the 1975-76 tour that might be good to flesh it out? That's really what I had hoped for on Wings Over America as bonus audio. Can someone better informed than I am say what was performed during the soundchecks for that tour? I've always wondered about that.

 

All I REALLY care about would be a 2-CD release with the remastered album on one disc and bonus tracks on the second. Some of these will warrant a DVD, but I'd rather get the music itself first.

 

It should definitely be included in the Red Rose Speedway Deluxe set as it dates from 1973 and features songs (like My Love and Big Barn Bed) from that album. Arnie

 

Thanks for clarifying that. So it should be a bonus track then on Venus and Mars. Arnie

 

very true.... they should really go as far as they can to not just reissue a better copy of these two albums as they currently sound. There was a thread here about singles that should have been huge hits and one of the suggestions was Letting Go.. but I don't think anyone listens to that album version and wonders why considering how detached the sound of it is. In the last few months I heard the single mix and suddenly it was the song I remember being so excited hearing back in 1975. I don't know if Geoff Emerick is responsible or not.. but at the very least V&M, SOS, and London Town deserve some serious reconsideration as far as their original mixes and mastering are concerned.

 

One vote from me for these to be in the BOTT, Macca and Macca II book format. I bought Ram, and it was nice, but am sitting out WOA at current prices. Prices of $100 aren't attractive and I prefer the book editions: tidy, narrow and very pretty, with enough emphasis on the music. These are albums after all, not book reissues with bonus music...or are they?

I'd love to see what they do with V&M audio-wise. Could be a great opportunity to improve the sound dramatically.

 

Possible Bonus Material for SPEED OF SOUND:​

There is not as much obvious bonus material compared with the possibilities for the Venus & Mars bonus disc (see above).​

Alternate live cuts from the Cow Palace (1976).​

Cook Of The House--live in 1979 (UK tour)​

Demos/Alternates of The Note You Never Wrote and Must Do Something About It (and Cook Of The House?) BUT with Paul on lead vocals.​

​

Possible: Walking In the Park with Eloise / Bridge Over The River Suite (also recorded Nashville 1974 as The Country Hams)---These were previously released as bonus tracks on the old CD of Speed of Sound, but they probably belong with Sally G (which should appear on the Venus & Mars bonus disc).​

​

Question: What about Rudolph The Red Nosed Reggae? This didn't appear along with Wonderful Christmastime on the Macca II Deluxe set; and some say it was recorded in 1974 or 1975 or 1976 (I don't know). Any thoughts on this?​

​

Arnie​

 

So far, we have gotten every commercially released single with its appropriate album.....but for that trend to hold, we will have to get lunch box/odd Sox and Rudolph with v&m, as they have no other logical home. If they are not there, that will mean we're not going to get everything officially released, and for me that is the top priority, even above getting unreleased stuff. I think the v&m bonus disc will probably contain only previously released songs and should look something like this:
1. Junior's farm
2. Sally g
3. Walking in the park with Eloise
4. Bridge over the river suite
5. Letting go (single mix) - my number one priority of the whole series
6. Venus & mars/rock show (single edit)
7. Lunch box/odd Sox
8. Rudolph

 

I'm guessing Venus and Mars and Speed of Sound will return to the book format for the Deluxe versions. I still don't understand why WOA Deluxe, with all its bells and whistles, wasn't a Christmas market release.

The release of the other two more affordable titles (in book format) outside a gift giving season, just makes more sense to me.
Unless WOA is meant to tap the Fathers Day market, of course.

I believe the Archive project will be re-evaluated after the next two releases. I hope they keep going, through all of the Wings material, on up to Tug of War.

I think the other releases are worthy of Archive attention, but I'm being realistic here.

As for big boxes, I think RAM and WOA are it. BOTR should have gotten a big box, and maybe it will. However a BOTR box will need a lot of unreleased audio goodies to tempt me into buying yet another version of that release.

There could be some nice swag to add to Venus and Mars (how bout some pix of the Queen Mary release party with George Harrison in attendance?) but I don't see it at this point.

Waiting for my Deluxe WOA, on with the Archives series!

 

What about My Carnival? That one has to go somewhere too. Recorded in 1975 in New Orleans, although not released until 1985. It should be tacked on too as a V&M bonus track. Not sure if the regular version and the 12-inch party mix of that song would both be included. Arnie

 

That's got to be the most underwhelming bonus track list I've seen. I except JF which is great, but available in many other places.

 

It's halfway there with Juniors Farm, Sally G, Venus and Mars single edit and Letting Go single mix. The rest is yes I admit very underwhelming. Maybe Speed Of Sound and Venus and Mars will gather up the other unreleased live versions from The Cow Palace concert to flesh them out.

 

Paul's one-man-band demo for Rock Show is quite good. There's the 1974/5 Piano Demos too... which includes early versions of some of the V&M tracks... and another version of Woman Kind TOO. There's lots of rough mixes, alternate performances of songs from V&M, not so much for Speed Of Sound, except where noted... Paul's guide vocal for Must To Do Something About It, alternate takes of She's My Baby and early versions of Silly Love Songs (no horns). One possibility. The rehearsals for the World Tour were recorded professionally. Lots of it leaked out a few years back (cassette dubs), but high quality rehearsals might make good bonus tracks. Ron

 

Is this what you mean?