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

Luckily, artists put their new releases there, too, and also make money that way.

 

They could have a bonus disc of the '72-'73 UK tour, since I've given up on them doing a stand alone release of anything.
I think we might be misinterpreting the rational behind what is and what isn't deserving of the archival treatment. Rather that past sales, critical standing, narrative, etc. I think it has more to do with how he perceives an album, or that particular time in his life. The narrative may be just a marketing strategy, as opposed to being the impetus.

 

The simplest narrative that works for me: "ex-Beatle Paul McCartney" with whom I've been following ever since.

 

I heartily disagree with that. Just look at the Beatles for as much of an apples-to-apples comparison. Check any of the threads on pre-rerelease of albums such as Pepper, White Album, Let It Be, and the talk is dominated by thoughts of outtakes, rarities, and what's interesting in the vault. Dylan, Elvis, Beach Boys, you name it, it's a repeated driving factor.

 

Weren't the tracks for McCartney recorded in July 1979, well before the end of Wings? Not that it really matters - it's a fun record whatever.

 

Yes...because "Wonderful Christmastime" was the first to be released from that output.

 

Really? I do.

 

Nothing amazing about Bogey Music? I heard someone say without it, life is incomplete!

 

I'd spin "McCartney II" before "Red Rose Speedway" or "London Town" any day of the week, though I suppose they would come in handy if I was having trouble falling asleep...

 

Yes, and "Coming Up" was fully formed by the time Wings were playing live in Dec, 1979.

 

Absolutely!!! The whole Dylan Bootleg series is based on "outtakes and the like", and yet the "vast majority of music fans" aren't interested in this stuff???
There's a reason the Pepper Box had...how many discs of outtakes? As opposed to coasters, dice, guitar picks, coloring pages, etc.

 

Bingo.

You hit the nail on the head. That's the only narrative any prospective buyer cares about. Nobody is buying Venus and Mars for the narrative. Is a narrative interesting to us hardcores or those who like to delve a bit deeper into their albums? Yes. Will it make or break a sale? No.

 

I think this is fairly misguided and unaware of the breadth of "younger folks" out there. I consider myself a "younger folk" and McCartney II is one of my favorite McCartney albums; my jaw nearly dropped in delight when he performed "Temporary Secretary" live when I saw him last. My wife and I are both huge McCartney fans who have seen him in concert 5 times and I know and have known many people high school-college aged who voraciously seek out and eat up music that might surprise some of you.

Not all millennials are just listening to Rihanna, or Pultizer-Prize winner Kendrick Lamar.

 

Here's a narrative: a former Beatle became one of the best-selling artists as a solo performer. Here's what he released in year X.

 

I'm 24 and every single person I know uses Spotify. People definitely use YouTube as well, but Spotify is free and has access to nearly anything an average music consumer would want to listen to. So much music is listened to on one's phone with headphones and that is going to almost always be Spotify or Apple music.

 

Indeed, Paul is such a talent it's the overall arc or his songwriting career that most interests me.

Paul McCartney's coming out with a new album?

I am so there warts & all....

 

I have heard some complaints about Spotify shuffle mode, which is the only way to listen to it in free mode. With YouTube, kids (and adults) can make playlists of whatever they wants that is on there.

 

Nope, the old guy was Kanye.

 

Narrative Smarrative. It's about the music. And to a McCartney obsessive (who else are buying these expensive deluxe packages?) ANY narrative is considered interesting, but not particularly necessary.

I've said all along that the packages were being released in the order of most popular (most sales) to the least. Of course that gets tricky when a couple are being released at the same time, but I think that formula has been used thus far. I had posted a list of McCartney's album sales previously, but I can't find it now. I did find this list (which is a list of all solo album sales that I edited from here PAUL McCARTNEY- USA Album Sales Posted October 13, 2012 ):

1. Paul McCartney & Wings – Band On The Run ( 1973 ) – 3,700,000
2. Paul McCartney – McCartney ( 1970 ) – 2,500,000
3. Paul McCartney – All The Best ( 1987 ) – 1,800,000
4. Wings – Wings Greatest ( 1978 ) – 1,600,000
5. Paul & Linda McCartney – Ram ( 1971 ) – 1,400,000
6. Wings – Wings Over America ( 1976 ) – 1,400,000
7. Paul McCartney – Tug Of War ( 1982 ) – 1,325,000
8. Wings – Wings At The Speed Of Sound ( 1976 ) – 1,300,000
9. Paul McCartney – Wingspan: Hits And History ( 2001 ) – 1,250,000
10. Wings – Venus And Mars ( 1975 ) – 1,200,000
11. Wings – London Town ( 1978 ) – 1,200,000
12. Wings – Back To The Egg ( 1979 ) – 1,100,000
13. Paul McCartney – Pipes Of Peace ( 1983 ) – 1,100,000
14. Paul McCartney – Back In The U.S. - Live 2002 ( 2002 ) – 1,050,000
15. Paul McCartney & Wings – Red Rose Speedway ( 1973 ) – 850,000
16. Paul McCartney – Flaming Pie ( 1997 ) – 800,000
17. Paul McCartney – Memory Almost Full ( 2007 ) – 725,000
18. Paul McCartney – McCartney II ( 1980 ) – 700,000
19. Paul McCartney – Flowers In The Dirt ( 1989 ) – 650,000
20. Paul McCartney – Chaos And Creation In The Backyard ( 2005 ) – 625,000
21. Wings – Wild Life ( 1971 ) – 600,000
22. Paul McCartney – Tripping The Live Fantastic ( 1990 ) – 600,000
23. Paul McCartney – Give My Regards To Broad Street ( 1984 ) – 550,000
24. Paul McCartney – Off The Ground ( 1993 ) – 525,000
25. Paul McCartney – Driving Rain ( 2001 ) – 525,000
26. Paul McCartney – Press To Play ( 1986 ) – 400,000
27. Paul McCartney – Unplugged: The Official Bootleg ( 1991 ) – 375,000
28. Paul McCartney – Good Evening New York City ( 2009 ) – 355,000
29. Paul McCartney – Run Devil Run ( 1999 ) – 285,000
30. Paul McCartney – Kisses On The Bottom ( 2012 ) – 275,000
31. Paul McCartney – Tripping The Live Fantastic: Highlights ( 1990 ) – 250,000
32. Paul McCartney – Paul Is Live ( 1993 ) – 250,000
33. Paul McCartney – Choba B CCCP - The Russian Album ( 1991 ) – 200,000
34. Paul McCartney – New ( 2013 ) – 200,000
35. Paul McCartney & Wings – Band On The Run: Archive Series ( 2010 ) – 130,000
36. Paul & Linda McCartney – Ram: Archive Series ( 2012 ) – 75,000
37. Paul McCartney – McCartney: Archive Series ( 2011 ) – 60,000
38. Paul McCartney – McCartney II: Archive Series ( 2011 ) – 35,000
39. Paul McCartney – iTunes: Live From Capitol Studios ( 2012 ) – 20,000

So, this list is USA sales. Finding these numbers on-line isn't easy (for me). This particular list is from 2012 and even includes some of the early archive sets towards the bottom. So this doesn't exactly reflect the order of releases of the archive sets, but it's close. London Town and Back to the Egg, in terms of sales, hold their own. Red Rose Speedway isn't too far behind and of course Wild Life is a bit further down the list.d

 

I agree with this, though I enjoy the videos and books. At this point, I just want the music.

 

I enjoy seeing sales numbers and appreciate when folks post them (and/or chart position data). However, I think one has to question what one sees from time to time. The BOTR archive number seems quite high to me, for example. It sold 130k since 2010? When there was already a 25th anniversary issue from just a decade or so before? If we look back through old threads, initial sales of the 2010 version were 16,500, and first-week sales is when most of these go out the shops...

EDIT: Billboard reported first-week sales of 17,000 in 2010 for the newest BOTR.

“Tripping - Highlights” is listed with 250k sales since 1990, yet it was certified platinum (1,000,000 sales) over 26 years ago. Similarly, Good Evening NYC is listed with 355k, but was certified gold (500k) in December 2009. Anomalies like this are enough to make me question the list overall. It’s a shame we don’t have a dues-paying soundscan informant that could query all the numbers for us on a regular basis.

 

This is kind of embarrassing, but until last night since I hadn't given it much attention I always thought that the Back To The Egg cover was of Wings playing billiards with Paul up with the cue stick. Not looking down on Earth in a spaceship.

 

Well...I think for the 2 disk and 3 disk sets, it gets rather confusing. For a 2 disk set, one copies equates to two units.