Paul McCartney - Egypt Station appreciation thread

I was 15 or 16 when it came out. It sucked then too.

 

This is probably all about perception again. I’m a kid of the 80s and Flowers is the first record I looked forward to (and loved so still do). Not sure exactly when I heard Press but the production never bothered me, nor did the lyrics. I had no conception of Paul ‘chasing trends’ back then, though I have no doubt you’re probably right. Whether that’s a bad thing, as with Fuh You, is of course open for (never ending) debate.

 

I’d hope so but that doesn’t seem to be Paul’s modus operandi. Would love to be wrong though. In fact, I wish he’d use the rumoured ten unreleased Kurstin tracks as the basis of another record, and get it out quick.

 

He deserves #1 because the album is worthy.

 

I agree. Better than relegating them to forgotten bonus tracks on a deluxe edition, plus he can capitalize on the success of ES.

 

Where will Paul be celebrating the news New York. Liverpool..London?

 

The Steve Hoffman Music Forum!!!

 

We helped shift x amount of units why not.

 

This was a great laugh.

+1 for Clem865

Maybe where they would call back "water", instead say Fuh You or Bip Bop.

 

Anywhere will do. Everybody talks about: POP MUSIK!

 

Wow!

 

I will be absolutely delighted if/when this album is a US number one. I am so very disappointed but not surprised it didn’t make it here in the U.K.!
For some reason he’s not that popular and that irritates me no end ! Maybe it’s a bit like you never appreciate The tourist attractions and sites in your own town !
I really think the U.K. need a good TV documentary about Paul to Remind us how good he is!


peace and love✌Dave

 

There’s a German proverb which says that the prophet is not valued very much in his own land...

here

 

But this is the world we now live in. Unless you’re someone like Adele. I have bought a handful of albums in the last several years. It’s all been streaming for me I’m afraid. And I’m 43.

 

I don't think it's about popularity as such. It's more that, at least in the UK, many people over the age of 30 have absolutely no idea what records are released, in the charts, hovering over the charts, etc etc - they all need a large prod with a big stick. They grew up with magazines that aren't there any more, music shows that aren't there any more, and so on - unless something leaps out from a paper/commercial and says 'This is the new album' they really don't know. Why in the music industry they no longer think this is worth doing I don't know, but music lovers never went away, they just don't know what's still to love these days.

 

I get that and agree but I get a lot of negative feedback when I bring his name up. Maybe I need a new circle of friends!


peace and love✌Dave

 

I don’t want to jump back into the fray on this topic and have my posts deleted again,
So I won’t go into arguing or quoting your interpretation, @Pawnmower

But I did want to let you know that there are two different characters in Despite Repeated Warnings: The Captain (the antagonist) and the Engineer (the protagonist/surrogate to the narrator). You seemed a bit confused by this when trying to draw your political parallels.

The Engineer is actually the one with the daughter Janet and who believes he works with the best crew on the planet. This in fact emphasizes the conflict in the song. He loves the rest of his fellow crewmates, but not his Captain.

 

But then who's Paul in that story? Another sailor? Or simply the narrator? Because he talks to the Engineer at some point and in the end "so WE went to the captain", seems like he's playing different characters?

 

That would be nice. Wherever he is, hopefully he is doing great. He deserves it.

 

Though I do think Spotify is unfair to artists financially, I also do think it addresses the issue you are writing about. My family have been on a Spotify family plan for about 6 months and we share, talk about, and enjoy a wider variety of music than ever before. For instance the new Tony Bennett and Diana Krall album would have never been heard or purchased by any of us in the past, but since it's release on Friday we have listened to it multiple times and had multiple discussions about it in our home. We are also exploring previous works by both of these wonderful artists.

 

Heck if I were Paul I’d celebrate each location! Fingers crossed....

 

I don't doubt what you say, but it's all about how far your head is in the maw. The majority of my friends, far from elderly!, probably don't even know what Spotify is. It's all very specialised these days when you're talking about the general public rather than the daily internet forumites. That's partly what's - quite unnecessarily - wrecked music appreciation in a practical sense these days. There's a HUGE audience who've been abandoned by the old TV/radio shows and they just have NO idea what is being released each week.

 

See that’s interesting (btw I saw your edit after I dove back into the lyrics myself)

I was gonna say that he is just a third person narrator, but there are certainly a lot of “We”s in the text. So that does make him a first person narrator (of sorts).

If I was being really nerdy about this (if? haha I’m well past that aren’t I?), I'd say that he is alternating between third person narrator (when describing characters and situations) and acting as kind of a Greek chorus (during the “What can we do?” and “How can we stop him?” parts, as well as the overlapping conclusion).

 

What I really find so amazing about DRW is (and this has probably been noted ad nauseam in the 200+ pages before I presume) how Paul's voice seems to sound younger and younger as the song progresses. By the time 'it's the will of the people' is sung at the end it is like a time warp! No idea how they did it but it is nothing short of a miracle.

 

Cough.

Billboard?