I got the Collector's Edition from uDiscover yesterday and there was not an outside box. And, yes, it did take some hits.
To each their own. I find his pre-Lord of the Rings films to be cheaply made, on the level of a direct-to-video film. As someone who watches a lot of movies, I found Lord of the Rings are a decent trilogy but only the second is a real film: the story chops off arbitrarily for the first, and the third doesn't seem to click at the end. However, as someone who's read the books, I didn't like the fact he ignored Smeagol's reverse transformation and the impact on the Hobbits themselves. The Hobbit trilogy and King Kong both evidence that Jackson as a director is overly indulgent. When you can tell all of King Kong in half the time, why remake it at double the length? The Hobbit has a very workable animated version that's less than the time of one of the three films… so why do we have to suffer for 6+ hours more that isn't all that exciting? And none of the actors' performances are really moved above and beyond what they normally do, so there's no real push as a director for storytelling either. Hence my opinion that Jackson isn't a good director. But, to each their own. I have coworkers who swear on a stack of Bibles that The Lord of the Rings is the greatest trilogy of films made over the last thirty years and will argue that it's maybe the best trilogy of all time (with Star Wars being the only competitor).
Am I dreaming or did you get 2 copies of Flaming Pie? I'd be happy just to receive my one copy... It does look really good!
It was said there were 25 tracks recorded for Driving Rain. I’ve posted multiple times about the named songs that were left off (“Washington”, etc.). Just too lazy to search my posting history to find the (sourced) quotes... Edit: ah, what the hell: Concord Music Group gets Paul McCartney Back Catalogue (Pt. 2)
Every time you outline a Broadstreet Deluxe Edition, I know it’ll never happen...but it doesn’t mean I want you to stop talking about it!
It may not happen like that, but I think it will — Paul has never shied away from the album, put its single up front in each of his compilations since, and made sure that Broad Street was part of the main wave of remasters in 1993 and iTunes offerings in 2007. Wings Over America didn't even get that treatment in the past! What I really suspect with the Archives is that the went through the catalogue and cherry picked the biggest successes: McCartney is a perennial seller as the album that broke up The Beatles, Ram is the centrepiece of the 'feud' with John that leads to interest there, Band on the Run through Wings Over America are the peak of the Wings era, McCartney II is the companion piece to McCartney, Tug Of War is the big album afterwards and Pipes Of Peace is the companion part, Flowers in the Dirt saw the return to touring and form, and Flaming Pie is the last album with Linda and the one that started the regular accolades. Up until Flowers were on the 'common soon' cards included in the sets, and it was said in these forums that Flaming Pie had already been worked on before the question arose as to where the series should go next. Management, during the Flowers re-release, did say they were talking to Paul about future sets… which means it's likely management was interested in filling the holes. It may also may very well be that MPL switched to Capitol because the latter was willing to continue the series while HearMusic was not – most super deluxe series waffle out after a while in favour of different approaches – and that's what Paul alludes to with the 'comprehensive plan' text of the announcement. Capitol sees value in these sets, and not just for Paul either, as we've seen Sgt. Pepper through Let it Be get the treatment (yes, the last isn't out but it's confirmed by everyone that something is in the works) while Plastic Ono Band and Imagine are super deluxed, and everyone is clamouring for All Things Must Pass as well. So they start with the first gap, which is Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway. MPL goes overboard with the bonus tracks because the last release was chock full of them, and – for the first time – they add the rare limited edition which sells out quickly. There's definitely an audience still for this material. But then London Town and Back To The Egg run into a roadblock and need to be delayed; Flaming Pie is pulled out and a limited edition unit cobbled together for that, which is what we have now. All indications are that London Town and Back to the Egg are still on deck for next release, and with the large delay between the last release and this one, there's no need to rush if they want to do it right. But then what happens next? Where do you go from the Wings era? The solution has to be to finish off the 1980s, and it's not hard to see the fan base would really like to see Press to Play given the treatment. After that, you're left with the Russian album and Broad Street, with the move into live albums at the end of the decades and Off the Ground being the other options. Choose the titles and how they are paired up: if they do the studio albums, and pair up the soundtrack and covers LP, plus you do the bigger live album, that leaves Paul Is Live and Unplugged together before you have to go past Flaming Pie into the era where there's less remastering required and more collection of tracks/photos. That's the logical progression, with Paul being able to make changes here and there along the way as his whim fancies him. But there is a logic to what may happen in the future.
I think it was a negative reaction to the metal Electric Arguments box set. Strange magnetic properties
Well, Covid boredom in overdrive. I made an “All the Rest” bonus tracks into the official 2 Disk set giving me an easy, CD rack complete set
When the uDiscover store failed to send my order on time, I sent them a message that automatically became a chat, with a link that can be used to keep track of what was said by both parties. They were supposed to provide a reply, but they closed the conversation and marked it as "solved" without saying a single word. I have proof of that thanks to the link they provided. I have just opened a follow-up conversation (linked to the previous one) mentioning what they did and requesting an explanation. I have also repeated my original questions that remain unanswered.
Got a shipping notification yesterday for the 2LP. Supposed to arrive Monday, so I guess it will be sitting in a blistering hot truck all weekend. I'm already mentally prepared to return it.