MACCA SOLO ALBUMS!

I remember thinking about his recent lyric writing in relation to the poetry collection Blackbird that, I think, predates the Driving Rain album a little bit. I think he's really honed in on a new lyrical artistry that can be fairly serious in subject matter.

Oh, Alfred, I'm totally on board with FITD (especially with bonus tracks), just felt in the context of recommending things to someone who digs ToW, it should be noted that it's not quite the same the same kind of thing. Less.... warm, and less varied in sounds/styles. I should pull it out again, it's probably been a decade or more.

haven't heard FITD in 25 years. hm.

Suffers from marketplace anxiety. Four producers, etc.

Flowers In The Dirt is without a doubt my favourite McCartney album of the '80s. Tug Of War I think could have been improved by having a couple of its tracks substituted for Pipes Of Peace tracks, IMO: I would have thrown 'Ballroom Dancing' off immediately and included 'Pipes Of Peace', 'So Bad' or 'Say Say Say'.

btw the Stewart-Linda-McCartney harmonies that conclude "Take It Away" while those horns keep sassing might be his greatest eighties moment.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, February 18, 2015 11:53 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I agree, it's such a great musical moment and my favourite part of the track!

I would have thrown 'Ballroom Dancing' off immediately

;_;

It's corny as all hell, though, even by McCartney's standards! That and 'Average Person' (from Pipes of Peace) for me is just like... uh, no!!!

Oh, no, totally corny, and the country accent he puts onto "BAWL-ruuuM" is ridiculous, but I'm a sucker for jaunty-tuned, credibility-free McCartney. I would never rate it above "Say Say Say" mind you, but it's part of the 'feel' of the album for me.

Ballroom Dancing and Ebony & Ivory def let down Tug of War.

"Get It" was always the biggest dud for me, but at least it's short. Compared to the equivalent duets on other records (especially the two endless ones on "Flaming Pie") that's pretty tolerable.

Oh yeah, Get It is kind of bad, although I like the way Carl Perkins' laugh segues so eerily into Be What You See

I'm of the mindset that any missing patches in ToW should have been taken up with filled-out recordings of some of the late, weird Wings stuff that never saw the light of day, like "Boil Crisis" or "Robber's Ball." Would have made it way less of a classicist return-to-George-Martin-form record, and maybe kind of a mess, but I like that in a McCartney album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6kHDR7ysD0

'Get It' isn't one of my favourites, but yeah I'll easily take it over the Steve Miller track on Flaming Pie.

Marcello: http://nobilliards.blogspot.com/2013/07/paul-mccartney-tug-of-war.html

It's not just a lovin' machine
It doesn't work out
If you don't work at it

Listening to Flowers in the Dirt straight through for the first time in ages. The songwriting's really solid, definitely at least Tug of War level. Occasionally let down by the production or performance choices. First three tracks promise a classic but the middle half of the record kinda points up all its strengths and weaknesses. "Put It There" is a wonderful melody and sentiment - doesn't quite need the strings and definitely doesn't need Macca's whispery/"sincere" delivery. "Figure of Eight" and "This One," like a lot of his midtempo 'rockers' from here on out sounds like a wannabe Jeff Lynne production and would have benefited from a straightforward live-band rock sound or maybe even a "new country" approach which might have made a more natural bridge between his throwback rockabilly instincts and the turn of the '90s.

The drums were probably doomed to sound bottled from the beginning, just given the stable of people that would possibly be on McCartney's radar - but a "Cherry Bomb" or "Mixed Emotions" sound would have really suited McCartney and he never seemed to be able to find it. Always a little too clean and precise. "This One" in particular feels like it has the guts of a hit song, lame title aside. Note the filler outro ("some kinda solo or instrumental thing maybe will go here?").

"That Day Is Done" is such a legit kooky idea - ballad from the perspective of a corpse + Fats Domino "prom under the sea" number. Good idea, good songs, doesn't quite work on record. Maybe this one really should have been more of a 50s pastiche. The record kinda falls off after that - "How Many People" is just disposable, "Motor of Love" can't get around its horrid title and wretched Yamaha soft rock ballad sound. It's also a few BPM too slow to let the melody shine. And it's six minutes long! I would probably have a much more negative opinion of this album if I hadn't thought of it as ending with "Ou Est Le Soleil," which is stupid but at least has some kind of energy and the hint of drama on the horizon. All three of the other bonus cuts ("Back On My Feet," "Loveliest Thing" and "Flying To My Home") should have been swapped onto the album, maybe with some re-thinks (wtf is with Paul's singing on the last of those?). "Loveliest Thing" is such an album closer, I mean come on.

new remix of Tug.. is just pointless IMO. whole thing sounds like they just added a bit of reverb here or there. it's on Spotify FYI.

Love "This One," despite the outro.

Me too - Flowers In The Dirt, too, is undoubtedly one of my favourite McCartney solo records.

There was some discussion of the Tug of War project on the Pipes of Peace/Press to Play thread. (OK, it was just me reviving it every couple of weeks plus Turrican posting.) We were talking about the amount of treble on the remastered single edit of "Take It Away." My favorite track on the album is "The Pound Is Sinking," so I listened to that. Can't A/B it currently, but I find the amount of treble on it to be causing me enough listening fatigue that I'm not so inspired to listen to other tracks.

Listened on headphones so I'll try it on the stereo and I think I'm going to see what I think of the title track, too.

I think that Be What You See/Dress Me Up As A Robber might be my favourite solo McCartney track, the lurch in quality from from the penultimate to the final track on this album is really something.

is there anybody who will defend Ebony And Ivory? I get the impression that it was treated as a punchline pretty much from the moment it was released? I guess it might work better if McCartney had rewritten it as one of his woolly, non-specific 'why can't we all get along' type songs rather than trying to make it 'about' racism, but even then I thing that Ebony And Ivory would be unsalvageable and I find some of his songs in that vein kind of poignant despite/because of their sentimentality. did McCartney ever write anything else quite so cloying? it gave us the some funny piss-takes, I suppose, the snl sketch with Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo, the scene from Everybody Hates Chris

did McCartney ever write anything else quite so cloying?

"My Love." Lots of early Wings. "The Long and Winding Road" in any version.

I think in a lot of his woolly sentimental songs there is this anxiety and desperation just below the surface which makes them interesting and compelling, there is this dread that something awful will happen that seems to be motivating the desire for ppl to patch thins up/commit to one another etc, something like 'Waterfalls' kind of brings this out and makes it explicit, but it seems to have been more or less smoothed out in Ebony And Ivory

My Love." Lots of early Wings. "The Long and Winding Road" in any version.

aw, I like all of those, though

and so may songs about being left, or full of these obsessive assertions that he won't leave someone, or that they won't leave him, I know this is kind of par for the course wrt popular songs, but it seems to be particularly pronounced with McCartney

Macca is the king of that everyone-bought-it-but-then-everyone-claimed-to-hate-it thing what with Mull.. and ..Ivory and the Frog thing which i swear everyone liked when it was the supporting feature at the Broad Street showings.

"Dress Me up as a Robber" sounds pretty nice. I don't remember the percussion sounding so crisp and live.

so...what's next -- London Town and Red Rose Speedway?

it gave us the some funny piss-takes, I suppose, the snl sketch with Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo, the scene from Everybody Hates Chris

also KRS One made pretty good use of it iirc

Ha, the demo of "Ebony and Ivory" is incomplete, but you can totally imagine it as a McCartney II track.

Man. Basically everything he did in the 1980s would have been better as a McCartney II demo, all hesitant and warm and gentle. It doesn't make "Ebony and Ivory" great, but it at least makes it cozy. The double-disc McCartney II with all the additional fragmentary unfinished ideas is really great too.

What about the weird parts of the video where McCartney dances around with a Stevie Wonder stunt double?

http://i.imgur.com/XEqsPpJ.gif

Which ones supposed to be macca?

Honestly, it goes by so fast in the video, I just assumed the shorter guy.

But now, yes, I notice he's got a pointy beard and wearing a hat...

they should get together with the dancing John Lennon silhouette from the Too Late for Goodbyes video

Course, now that I think about it...

http://i.imgur.com/MqdZM5v.jpg

Pipes of Peace demo tracks "It's Not On" and "Simple as That" have to be heard!

Looking forward to hearing these. Surprised how much I like the new mix of Say Say Say.

Not much to add here but think "Mr Bellamy" from MAF is a great, spooky underrated track with a lovely melody. Reminds me of a slightly less twee Uncle Albert.

so obsessed with "Arrow Through Me" lately. what else is in this vein besides some of McCartney II? Is there more funky Wings??

Kinda no, sadly. At least, that's often sort of a standout Wings track for people who don't really dig Wings. :-/

There's an "Urban Adult Contemporary" station here that'll slip "Arrow" in there between Cameo and Chaka Khan.

so obsessed with "Arrow Through Me" lately. what else is in this vein besides some of McCartney II? Is there more funky Wings??

― Captain Maximus, Friday, November 20, 2015 9:20 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Kinda no, sadly. At least, that's often sort of a standout Wings track for people who don't really dig Wings. :-/

― Frump 'n' Dump (Doctor Casino),

Was this always the case? When a friend and I discovered it about a decade ago we wondered when a hip hop act would sample it. It took Erykah Badu.

'Write Away' from 1985 has a similar sort of feel imo

https://youtu.be/hsRdM8iBHh0

and 'Dress Me Up As A Robber' from Tug Of War which is in more of a McCartney II/Secret Friend style

https://youtu.be/f_kkiIXdkuI

"Was this always the case?" - Hrm, I dunno? I'm going mainly on ILM posts tbh though I feel like I've seen it get shoutouts elsewhere or show up in playlists or whatever.

u guys hear this??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq5KAdWJiWY

there's a clever little tasty surprise waiting if not

Ha. Wasn't expecting Paul to go that far with a "Say Say Say (Naked)".

(this post from 2009 was in the "I hate Paul McCartney so much." thread but it didn't seem appropriate to post what I was about to say there)

A friend of mine was in the same NYC studio while Paul was putting together some of "Memory Almost Full" and his story is Paul was super nice and asked him if he wanted to come downstairs and take a listen to some tracks he was putting down. My friend obliged and once they were in the room Paul proceeded to sit behind the drumkit and overdub some stuff, singing along. After they were done Paul supposedly asked for "your honest opinion" and my friend could only come up with "Yes, Sir Paul, sounds great!" I told my friend he probably wanted to hear "Could use a tighter snare sound" or something.

That is really, really awesome! I'm not sure if François de Roobabe (Capitaine Jay Vee) still posts here, but is this Soundtrack NYC? I've been in that facility and know the layout well because I know people who work there. Last time I was there (probably several years ago), I remember looking through some kind of display they had of album covers, and Memory Almost Full was one of them.

At this point, it looks like Memory Almost Full was the peak of McCartney's resurgence. I was hoping for more/better, but what we got is still much better than what I would have predicted. I never thought I'd go to a McCartney concert or get into any of his new music, but all that happened in the second half of the '00s.

I didn't think Memory Almost Full was an unqualified success, and after a month or so I started tweaking the album into something I'd enjoy start-to-finish, replacing the four tracks I couldn't like with the only four I liked from Chaos & Creation (which I found overrated if commendable). I hadn't played the CD-R I made in years but I tried it this morning and still enjoy it:

1. Fine Line
2. Ever Present Past
3. Friends to Go
4. Only Mama Knows
5. Jenny Wren
6. Mr. Bellamy
7. Promise to You Girl
8. Vintage Clothes
9. That Was Me
10. Feet in the Clouds
11. House of Wax
12. Nod Your Head
13. Dance Tonight
(hidden track) I've Only Got Two Hands

No, the studio was NY Noise down in the Meatpacking District. Gone now about 10 years. I worked there so the “friend” stuff = my old boss ( RIP Rick). We had lots of great folks come through and record in that small space - was an amazing experience - but, sadly, I had split for the evening the night Paul dropped by.