Paul McCartney/Wings-song by song thread

This Hillmen thing always put me in a good mood. What on earth was Paul thinking

 

Some real stinkers there...but I hear ya about ' Graceland '
McCartney could have benefitted by putting out an album a tenth as good as that. Sad thing is he could have if he had wanted to.

 

I left out some like Chicago and Elton John being disappointing too - Chicago, Heart, Starship, Steve Winwood, Moody Blues - they all went all in for pop with 80's production - they all had hits at the cost of some of their reps. McCartney could have gone the safe pop route - but he didn't which is cool and releasing "Pretty Little Head" as a single automatically made that his weirdest A-side along with "Temporary Secretary". That one got a re-evaluation but if 'Press to Play' goes deluxe, this isn't getting a re-evaluation.

 

More about Pretty Little Head...

Remix by Larry Alexander (3:50 minutes)

The single was release in a picture sleeve on October 27, 1986:

The 7" single has this version:

 

More about Pretty Little Head...

Remix by John 'Tokes' Potoker (6:56 minutes)

The 12" single has this version:

 

More about Pretty Little Head...

Pretty Little Head (Rock Radio Remix) Remix by Larry Alexander (3:50 minutes)

There is a US 12" promo with a different name but is the same mix of the commercial 7" single...

 

More about Who Cares..

Of the 5,129 responses on this thread , 2,422 are from him.

 

I'm confused. So there were two 12-inch singles - one was 3:50 and one was over 6 minutes? This is why I don't listen to too much dance music. I can't keep track of the remixes. LOL

 

Winwood’s 1986 album hasn’t really done a lot for his rep, long term, but it certainly was the biggest album of his career and it was the album that turned me on to him. I have no desire to hear those songs any more, but it did lead me to Traffic, Spencer Davis Group, and his earlier solo stuff. It made him a star, so mission accomplished there.

And Billy Joel (Yeah, I’m mentioning him again) had The Bridge. Top 10 album, three top 20 hits, but largely forgotten now. Not his best album, but it’s got some great songs including one where Winwood guests on organ for a killer jam, and a great, bluesy duet with Ray Charles. He wasn’t playing it safe.

Paul’s album, IMO, definitely pales compared to Billy’s and even Winwood’s (Not to mention Graceland, which was the best thing that year, or Peter Gabriel’s So). I like “Stranglehold” alright, but this album never clicked with me.

Credit to Paul for not “playing it safe” like the others you mentioned, but I don’t think even Paul knew what he really wanted around that time. Broad Street tanked, hit song aside, and he just seemed... Adrift?

I don’t think Eric Stewart was any help, not the same way Costello would be soon after, and Hugh Padgham was the flavor of the month (Including having worked with Gabriel), but none of this was right for him.

Strange time for Paul... The more ambitious stuff wasn’t quite clicking, nor was it selling, but he’d score his last U.S. top 10 single with a dumb trifle (Spies Like Us) that meant nothing outside the film it was written for. Then he writes a great song for All the Best! that should’ve been a big hit, but Capitol (U.S.) rejects it?

All this, along with the failed Phil Ramone sessions (Including members of Billy Joel’s band, which sounded like a worthy idea), must’ve had Paul bewildered and confused.

 

This would have been a better album cover for Press to Play.

The long version has FGTH vibe to it. I like it.

 

I finished the 'Press to Play' podcast. With all the music played it went on for 2 hours, I had to skip through some music cause it went on for some time. I really had some issues with that episode. Between the two guys, they barely had any criticism. I think Ryan in particular did not have one issue - he liked every song, every bonus track, plus the additional songs from the era. Only "Hanglide" did he say it was harmless. When they read some critic reviews they seemed to not understand and then they didn't really get into the fact that the singles and album were so low charting relatively. The other critic had a little more balance.

I could be wrong but when you review what may be by consensus, Paul's worst album, you can't read harsh and mixed reviews, don't really acknowledge them and then end the show saying 'okay well that was 'Press to Play', a fantastic album, next time...". I really enjoy the breakdowns and back and forths and I think they're more critical on other episodes so I'll keep listening, but in 2 hours - the first 30 minutes being all non-Paul music, you gotta explain why this is considered so bad by consensus. A podcast should be more inclusive - yes it's about their opinions alone, but if they bother to put so much context in, then why not try to figure out why Paul didn't like the album in hindsight himself.

 

Yeah, I mentioned all the personal issues plus the defenses for Linda, the rumors about marriage issues, maybe it was too much adversity for him.

I did a bunch of reviews on the Traffic album thread including all of Steve Winwood's albums and I really think that's a solid album but it's shooting for commercial. There are moments where he's not playing it safe but it's not the kind of exploration he would do with Traffic or his 1st 2 albums. I'm not really a 'I hate sellouts' type so I enjoy 'Back In The High Life'. Joel's "The Bridge" is bottom tier and I just like a few songs - the singles are great and they were successful though. Forgot to mention that one, thank you. Same with Winwood but Winwood always stretches his songs so there's room for experimentation within even the commercial stuff. Costello, Gabriel and Simon really get kudos for their 1986 stuff - all challenged themselves and succeeded both commercially and critically.

 

Artists tend to be dismissive of what’s generally considered as failures. It’s always better to perceive one’s work from a distance and I think the podcast guys do succeed in their review. It isn’t all 110% positive about the album as well (especially Press and Angry get a fair amount of criticism), so they can’t be accused of fanboyism.

Pretty Little Head:
This one gets slapped, ofcourse.
It’s a direction he should have pursued more often.
Clearly Hugh Padgham getting a look in and I think it’s a very successful experiment. I also love it’s position on the album, showing it’s diversity along the lines. No complaints from me!

 

Don’t wanna get too far OT again, but for me the Winwood album just doesn’t hold up. A few solid songs, but all of it just sounds “80s” in a way I don’t go far. Especially after going back and hearing his earlier stuff (Yet, I like some of the Arc of a Diver stuff quite a bit, but I don’t listen to it much). Interesting that Stevie’s gone back to more of the Traffic stuff in later years, and his more recent music leans that way too. Plus a mini-Blind Faith reunion with Clapton (Talk about a guy whose work suffered mid-late 80s!).

Won’t go off on too much of a Billy tangent yet again, but while I like The Bridge better than you I’d argue “bottom tier” Joel is better than most of what was out at the time.

The “Modern Woman” single is horribly outdated, both production wise and lyrically, but other singles were strong and it’s the “deep cuts” I like best (Including that jam with Winwood). He was trying different things, some worked and some maybe didn’t. He never sat still, musically, in the 80s though. Not surprising he moved on from Phil Ramone after that.

Gabriel, Costello, and Simon were definitely all challenging themselves (Even if Simon was being less than scrupulous at times), while Gabriel found his commercial breakthrough. In spite of how catchy some of those songs are, I’m not sure he was really chasing “hits.”

In Paul (Macca’s) case, all of those things you and I mentioned definitely had to be affecting him adversely. Then to see George have his out-of-nowhere comeback the next year had to knock him for a loop too. Even if he was happy for George, it sure didn’t look good for Paul at the time.

OK, back to Paul folks!

 

Yes that's what I mean bottom tier for him only - still had like 3 hits off 'The Bridge' and it was a decent album to me. Gabriel never really seems to care about radio.
And George did good but Paul had success over George for quite some time by then. The first half of the 80's was Paul's all the way with George and Ringo clearing out after poor sales.

 

Could this be the Hillmen
Hill-men - Tolkien Gateway

 

This is a promo, a US 12" single, not commercially available. The 3:50 mix is available on the 7" single. The long version mix is available on the 12" single.

About keeping track of the remixes, agreed.

 

Kudos to Paul for trying something different but Pretty Little Head really isn't for me.

I generally listen to rock and pop music for interesting and/or nice-sounding melodies and/or instrumental parts (particularly bass and keyboards) and sadly can't find any of those here: 0.5/5.

 

I want to like Pretty Little Head... It’s interesting. Just not for me either.

Not that I don’t like Paul getting experimental. I love The Fireman, for instance. More, when we get there.

 

Pretty Little Head - Forgettable again. Maybe that's for the best.

 

All three of them hit upon a goldmine in a way that can only be envied. They had a short and very successful peak period which made them household names as solo artists and which surely brought in a lot of dough and yet they kept their ‘edge’, being able -and having the opportunity- to follow their muse.

 

Pretty Little Head.
I actually dig the track, It's weird and kinda creepy, but I find his vocal annoying. Had it been cut down and made into an instrumental link, then I would've liked it a lot more. Five minutes is way too long.

 

George was a little cruel when Paul showed interest in working with him at this period. I forget his exact wording but it was disrespecting Paul for not being able to have a hit so trying to ride George's success.

 

Pretty Little Head is abysmal. It's all empty posturing without anything like a real song there. It's everything wrong with P2P concentrated in one track. If I was giving it a score it would be in negative numbers. For a letter grade -- is there something below F?

 

I don't see any reason to think Paul didn't want to put out a good album. At that moment, alas, he just had no idea how to do it. That's what I meant a while back when I said he was artistically lost in this period.