McCartney’s next archive releases
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| Advertising poster for “Tug of war”, 1982. |
According to someone who has received an advance copy of the “Venus and Mars” and “Speed of Sound” sets, the card in the package announcing the next releases are saying that these will be “Tug of War” and “Pipes of Peace”.
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| Coming soon… Photo: @GermanBeat on Twitter |
This is a deviation from the 2011 “insiders information” list, which we also posted in this blog back then. Apart from “Wings Over America” being released before schedule, this is the first major deviation.
It seems fitting to release “Tug of War” and “Pipes of Peace” simultaneously, since a lot of the tracks on “Pipes of Peace” were leftovers from the excellent “Tug of War” album recording sessions. Of course, there’s no indication as to when these new releases will be scheduled.
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| Pipes of Peace promotional photo, 1983. |
Still, those of us who wanted the full Wings ouvre to be next in line, with the promised “Wild Life”, “Red Rose Speedway”, “London Town” and “Back To The Egg”, alongside a proposed Wings live CD and DVD from 1979 are disappointed.
Update: A spokesman for Concord Music has told Beatles Examiner that despite this card, the plans for the next archive release are still not definite.
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I imagined that these albums were going out together, but not as expected upcoming releases, I really thought he was going to try to publish their albums in the 70's then go with the 80's. This means that Paul is not following a specific pattern.
Update: A spokesman for Concord Music has told Beatles Examiner that despite this card, the plans for the next archive release are still not definite.
I'd love to see these out 'soon' 😉
Confess i'm a little bit disapointed… Was expecting for Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway, but… If this comes out in the next months, will be fabulous!
Anyway, they are fine albums!
Tug Of War has a better reputation amongst music critics than Wild Life, Red Rose Speedway, London Town and Back To The Egg — so it's not surprising to me that these would be advertised as coming next.
Personally, I suspect that the Out There t-shirt with a Tug Of War-era cover shows Paul is thinking about the record.
However, we as fans want to see Wings done first. Maybe not the 1972 and 1979 live albums, but it would be great to see those missing four fill out the years so that Mary can really start working on getting the tour LPs and Anthology projects started for sure.
I do not know what to think about this. We can only wait to see if they will actually release the albums that appear on the forward card or going to finalize the publication of his previous works. We can only hope they release more signals.
The top of my wish list for the archive series is Back To The Egg. Not only is this a fine and very under-rated Wings album, but think of the extras it could contain! A "Last Flight" bonus CD and the syndicated TV special on DVD. Bootlegs of rehearsals for the late 1979 tour exist on video. There is also an obscure radio special produced around the time of the album featuring a full Wings profile that would be a great addition. Back To The Egg is often skipped over on compilations (not one track on All The Best and only one on Wingspan). I don't understand why. I've always loved this record! Sadly, I bet we see an archive version of Flowers In The Dirt before we see Back To The Egg. I think the critics have swayed Paul to believe it is a weak album over the years although it certainly is not. Or maybe it's just bad memories of how that tour ended, dooming Wings forever? Maybe a little of both. Either way, I'd rather see the 70's stuff done first before we head into the 80's material.
Must say this is exactly in line with what I'd previously concluded as the 'logic' of the reissue pattern.
McCartney and Scott Rodgers have committed to a pattern which grades albums on success/acclaim on first release and aims to remind of the former and/or improve upon the latter.
So far this has been very successful with 'RAM', 'McCartney' and 'McCartney II' as well as 'Wings Over America' being actively celebrated by contemporary critics.
Thus 'Tug of War' and 'Pipes of Peace' are next upon the basis of both success (No.1 Singles from them) and acclaim with 'Tug of War' in particular featuring 'Here Today', acclaimed at time of release and since featuring much more heavily in Paul's canon.
For those disappointed for the moment, consider that when the remaining Wings albums are reissued they will be entering a very favourable contemporary critical environment.
Upgrades in their critical rating are very likely. Which, given that each reissue, so far, has been selling roughly in the same volume, is possibly the primary objective of the campaign.
Still, "McCartney II" was a surprise hit both with sales and appraisal by the music critics when it was first released in 1980, when it followed the slammed-by-critics Wings' swan song "Back to the Egg" from 1979. A current survey among 500+ Beatles fans recently revealed that "McCartney II" was rated at no. 18 among McCartney's releases, whereas "McCartney" was at no. 7 (beaten by "New"!) and "Back To The Egg" placed at no 10. So it seems "McCartney II" has not realy benefitted by being paired with "McCartney" in the archive release schedule. Then again, I think that the 1980 success of "McCartney II" stemmed from sales to the general public, whereas the fans actually would rather have had a regular new Wings album. The survey comprised the solo careers of all four ex-Beatles and can be found here.
I don't 'McCartney II' will ever get upgraded by the Beatles fans who hated it, nor by anybody else who bought it and hated it.
What I was referring to was, if you like, its critical standing in terms of importance, having been now regarded by electronica interests as pioneering.
On release, a few people (notably John Lennon) acclaimed the combination of electronic experimentation with the lo-fi approach but it's only since its release that both aspects have come to represent significant musical activity at-large.
At the time, most critical appraisal of 'McCartney II' was focussed on its songwriting or aspects of it within McCartney's canon or the 'Rock' canon with a few noting the inspiration for it of Talking Heads etc.
The 'electronic' pop canon barely existed and it's in that field that "McCartney II' jumped up by several leagues on its recent reissue.
boy, this got me thinking. I have tried to rate my favourite solo Beatle albums before and it's not easy.
With John I can only honestly produce a list for 8. I always waiver between Imagine and Plastic Ono Band, but this time I am going for;
Imagine
Plastic Ono Band
Walls and Bridges
Mind Games (esp 2003 remix)
Milk and Honey
Double Fantasy
Rock and Roll (could have been so much better)
Sometime in New York City
Live Peace in Toronto
With Paul it moves around all over the place:
Band on the Run
Flaming Pie
Speed of Sound
Tug of War
Memory Almost Full
Venus and Mars
Back to the Egg (agree with above comment about this being vastly underrated)
London Town
McCartney
Flowers in the Dirt
Ok, 70s win
For George:
All Things Must Pass
Cloud 9
Brainwashed
331/3
George Harrison
Living in the Material World
Extra Texture
Dark Horse
Somewhere in England
Gone Troppo
And my combined list, a genuine mix because George is my favourite Beatle and therefore features on a deservedly equal footing with J&P:
Imagine
Plastic Ono Band
All Things Must Pass
Band on the Run
Cloud 9
Flaming Pie
Walls and Bridges
Speed of Sound
Brainwashed
Ringo (1973 album and deserves to be in the list)
So, going off my McCartney list I should be pleased with the current two re-releases (and I am)and I would definitely welcome Tug of War
I am really grateful that this more than superb reissue series continues.
But I guess I have to live until I am at least 120 to see all the albums reissued.
FYI to all Canadians: the V&M and SoS archives are postponed a week, most likely to get them across the border from the U.S.