Tug / Pipes for September
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| coming in September, according to Music Tap |
According to the website Music Tap the next two releases in Paul McCartney’s series from the archives are set for release September 18, 2015, which usually means the day before in Europe and the Friday before in Germany. it has now been confirmed that the two albums in question will indeed be “Tug of War” and “Pipes of Peace”. The two albums was the product of a reunion of Paul McCartney and the old Beatles producer, George Martin. Martin suggested that Paul strayed from his usual gang of musicians, Wings, and instead recruited musicians who suited the songs he was going to record. Denny Laine from Wings was still part of the proceedings, which also included Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Carl Perkins, Steve Gadd, Eric Stewart, Stanley Clarke and Ringo Starr. Hits from the albums: “Ebony and Ivory” and “Say, Say, Say”.
Hope our Paul doesn't forget London Town and Back to the Egg. Re-listens of those albums reveals some great music put out during a time when it was fashionable for the music press to bash Paul. Granted, not every cut on them is stellar, but on balance, they are good, melodic, and well played albums that have vastly different styles.
Wild Life is another album that (IMHO) was not fairly reviewed during another Paul- bashing in the music press period. It attempts a being basic but melodic were often successful in songs like "Dear Friend", "Wild Life" (put the soulful live version as an extra on that), "Love Is Strange", and yes, even George admitted "Bip Bop" wasn't that bad.
I think any of the above mentioned beats Pipes of Peace, although we are glad to have it.
It's too bad he couldn't have combined Tug, Pipes and Broad Street into one mega-archive collection, seeing as Pipes had some Tug leftovers, and Broad Street was recorded around the same time.
I don't understand the logic behind all this… why these and not the ones that complete the wings era?
Paul thinks of them AS part of the Wings era. Look at Wingspan.
As for why these now, look at the chronology of CD releases on EMI. The order so far has been the same with the exception of Red Rose Speedway, which Paul may be delaying until the next release with Wild Life because there's much more work to be done on those than these — maybe a rights issue with James Paul McCartney, maybe some transferring process on the 1971 rehearsal film… whatever.
Tug Of War and Pipes Of Peace are fairly easy to get out comparatively.
Not a major point, but a point all the same – the release dates for CDs has recently been standardised worldwide to combat piracy. If this hasn't already been introduced it will be over the next few weeks. As far as I am aware European releases, at least, are now on a Friday.
A UK Universal Music has said that this release date (as reported by Music Tap) is unknown to him.
Universal Music shouldn't be releasing these albums in the UK — it's Hear Music, which is a separate company. My guess is that Concord/Hear Music (which is Starbucks basically) has chosen the release date but not made the official announcement, which is why many outlets are reporting it as unknown or unconfirmed. [Alternatively, someone's seen a blip on Paul's website that's not fully accessible.]
You'll know things are accurate when the bonus tracks and video content appear — that means someone's had access to the press release ahead of time which not only announces this release to the general public but allows for retailers to effectively take preorders because they know it's coming.