Rolling Stone McCartney Interview - "Paul McCartney Looks Back" - Aug. 10, 2016*

I wasn't ripping Paul for having an "off" album, and I wasn't saying that Gabriel has had a better career based on the comparison of those two albums. I was simply saying that part of the reason Press To Play seems so "dated" today is because it wasn't successful; it didn't ripen and grow in people's minds for the past three decades, so it seems trapped in the '80s with all its flaws and production tricks. Cloud 9 was nearly as "Eighties" as PTP -- awash in synths and metallic-sounding drums -- but people love the album and have listened to it consistently since 1987, so it doesn't feel so "dated."

 

...then there are those of us who hated it with white-hot passion in 1986 but grew to love it after a 20+ year listening blackout hiatus (after gentle prodding from some members here).

I was horrified by the way it sounded in 1986. In retrospect, it sounds no more "80s" than any of the 70s album sound "70s." At its heart, it's still McCartney doing McCartneyish stuff, and I like McCartneyish stuff.

 

I think Paul's songwriting on New is vastly superior to anything on Press To Play.

I really don't think the production techniques even enter into it. It's all about the songs. And for me, New is top shelf McCartney. Press to Play reveals Paul struggling.

Just my opinion.

 

Agree.

Plus the Beatles in their day were always referred to as "The Boys".

 

I don't know why that's hard to believe. There are umpteen Beatles projects going on at the same time in various stages, and that's not even his primary business. Let It Be is a project that's been discussed for decades, even sometimes having tentative release dates, so I can easily see him misremembering it having been released before. After all, there was the Let It Be Naked release plus the other Beatles movies have been re-released in several forms over the years. Remember Paul McCartney is not a Beatles nerd who can rattle over discographies and running orders and details from the past 50+ years off the top of his head. I can easily believe he has no idea what progress, if any, has been made on it because it's one of the things continually discussed and there's been apparently sporadic restoration work done on the film over years.

I can believe that Let it Be has not been released not because anyone is blocking it (if that were true, the easily available bootlegs would be cracked down upon) but because no one has the enthusiasm for it. With a film there may not only be various rights involved but restoration work needed for the image and sound, so you have to actively want to release it.

 

That's it for me too. With NEW, the songs are there. With PTP, they weren't -- imo .

 

Exactly! Excellent analysis of what he said. He clearly telegraphed that at least one person is holding up the project. And why. The perception that Someone doesn't come off well. And the first part? He thinks it should have been out years ago.

 

Am I the only one who considers the second half of NEW inferior to the first half?
It's all pretty good until Queenie Eye is over.
And I prefer Chaos over New because of the cohesive production and the gorgeous melodies.
Nothing on NEW touches my heart as "Too Much Rain", "Follow Me" or "Friends to go".

 

Actually 8 or 9 years older than "Pauly".

 

Or he is full of something perhaps.

 

I never said it was "hard" to believe; I simply said I don't believe it -- and here's why: It's the single most-requested Beatles release, it's the only one of their films never to appear on legal DVD or Bluray, and Paul is asked about it at least once a year (EVERY year) by reporters. So no, I don't believe he honestly feels like they "may have" re-released it already -- but as I said after my first post, I'd say he was being coy rather than dodging.

Nobody really knows what's holding it up. It could very well be disinterest. It's become an urban legend that the Paul and George "fight" is the sticking point, but that scene has been remastered and featured in both the Anthology and the Scorsese film. It could be the overall depressing vibe, or the fact that it isn't objectively a very good film. They put a ton of money and effort into recovering a lot of material (from bootleggers) and restoring the video and audio, but the DVD release was aborted and we only got Let It Be Naked instead. I'd say that eventual release of the project is inevitable, but they keep getting sidetracked by ideas that are more "fun" (like Eight Days A Week or 1+).

 

The love for New is great, I like the album too, but to me it's not better than Memory Almost Full!

That medley of Vintage Clothes, That Was Me and Feet In The Clouds is still absolutely fantastic to me, not to mention See Your Sunshine, Only Mama Knows and House Of Wax! These songs are absolutely excellent!

Mr. Bellemy is classsic McCartney and The End Of The End is a song that we should still be talking about!

As I said I like New, but Memory just has more fantastic songs.

I also like Press To Play more than most on these threads, I don't care about so called dated sound, I care about does a song sound good to my ears, if it does it will always sound good to my ears. I don't hear McCartney struggling at all!

I hear more top McCartney songs! How is he struggling on Stranglehold, that song is freaking awesome, and the vocals are just stunning. I heard another version with more rocking guitar work and it's even better!

What's the struggle with Footprints, Angry, It's Not True, and I absolutely love the piano solo and jazzy flavor of Write Away. These songs are vastly underrated, which seems to happen a lot with McCartney's albums. Songs that are just great don't get that credit, instead they are falsely labeled as filler!

I've thought so many times, how can people miss this fantastic song?

How dated do the early Beatle albums sound, very dated, but they are still an absolutely thrilling listen, I get that same experience listening to the vast majority of McCartney's albums!

 

I strongly disagree that it's the single most requested Beatles release. It's not a particularly good film and didn't exactly perform like gangbusters in its original release. It revolves around the creation of one of the band's weaker, if not THE weakest album. It's alternately boring and depressing as a documentary. Casual Beatles fans are disinterested in it - indeed, unless we're talking about A Hard Day's Night, casual Beatles fans aren't very interested in the movies as opposed to albums. Hardcore Beatles fans have various quality bootlegs of the film to choose from. Those fans on the middle spectrum can see the juicy bits in Anthology.

I also disagree that Paul is "asked every year" by a reporter about Let It Be's release. This is the first time in a long time I've seen a reporter ask about it. I just don't see a major demand for it - the documentary's place in pop culture is pretty much limited to the rooftop concert and the Paul and George "argument" scene (which set the myth that it prompted George to quit the band, when in reality it was an argument with John on another day). And those two famous parts of the documentary have already been restored and released.

 

It might be now because it's pretty much the only previously released Beatles product that's never been reissued, with Hollywood Bowl coming out, the videos collected, the albums remastered...

 

Just finished the RS article... I enjoyed it personally.
Still typical Paul, not much really new, a few things but pretty generic.
He kind of tries to explain things a little more from the heart I think.
Wish I could have travelled again this year to see him, but have many first row and soundcheck memories.
I actually really enjoyed "NEW" very much indeed, and hope new material will shine as that last did.
I have absolutely NO interest in this Kanye collaboration crap.

 

Well, now that the promo clips have been released, I can't think of many things that are higher on most fans' wish lists than Let It Be ... Shea Stadium, perhaps. More music from the vault, of course, but that doesn't count if we're limiting the discussion to things that are likely to actually happen. Everyone knows about the film's shortcomings, but it's historically important and most fans want it, even if they don't particularly enjoy it. Paul is asked fairly frequently about Let It Be, whether you've seen it or not -- and even if it's been a few years, there's still no way that he's forgotten that it's out of print. Besides, there's a lot more to the film than the rooftop concert and the argument -- there are plenty of performances in there that people enjoy, and not all of them were used in the Anthology. And the rooftop concert has never been released in full -- surely this would be the main selling point of an eventual Bluray.

 

Not even "Early Days"?

 

Early Days is a song that had the wrong video, with all those blues men you'd think that McCartney would do the song Get Me Out Of Here, after all it is the one blues song on the album? Never will understand that type of video for that song?

I totally agree with the songs Too Much Rain, Follow Me and Friends To Go, all are very excellent McCartney!

 

I agree. I love the song, but the video did not fit, IMO.

 

For me, I'd go 3 songs further in, so up to and including Appreciate appeals to me much more than what then follows.

 

I love every song off NEW with the exceptions being "Appreciate" and "Road". But I can at least accept them because they're attempts at appealing to a more modern audience. They're not terrible.

 

It seems to me that NEW, intentionally or not, is split in half. There is a sad/reflective side 1, and after the song New the songs pick up with positive energy, and in the now. In my playlist version I add Hell To Pay right after Queenie Eye and Demons Dance right after Hosanna to add this effect. It's pretty effective IMO

 

Melody not as strong IMO and at times I see it as Macca's attempt to remind us -unnecessarily- that he was a Beatle like Ringo does with all his mediocre songs about Liverpool.

 

In Paul's case he doesn't regularly do that, so I find it refreshing.

Regarding Ringo's Liverpool songs, I do like "Liverpool 8" and "The Other Side Of Liverpool". I don't find these two mediocre.

 

Of those songs by Ringo, my personal favourite is 'In Liverpool', a nice, catchy melodic pop song, and one that doesn't feel forced.