Worst McCartney album?
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Bruce M.:
3-way tie between Pipes of Peace, McCartney II and Wild Life. Each album has a couple saving graces, but 3/4 at least of each is just not any good. Following close behind (cue the howls of outrage) is Ram, 1/3 of which is pretty good (e.g. Too Many People, Heart of the Country, Eat at Home), but most of the rest of which is just cringe-inducing. Yeah, I know lots of Paul fans adore this album, but I'd rather have my fingernails ripped out with pliers than listen to "Uncle Albert" or "Long Haired Lady."
Bruce, i'm with you on PIPES OF PEACE and MCCARTNEY II, but WILD LIFE is an awesome record..DRIVING RAIN is in my bottom 3 and I like a lot of tracks on that record...After reading that MCCARTNEY II was really like the first FIREMAN record, i'm looking at it differently.
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Call me fanboy, but I like all Paul albums, solo, with Wings and with The Beatles.
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i probably say run devil run.couldn't get into this one,i would have to it more chances in the near future. i dig pipes of peace and alot of his older cataloge
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Run Devil Run was therapy for Paul. It was his cautious, boyhood-nostalgic re-emergence after we lost our beloved Linda. It should be off-limits.
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luigiram:
Bruce M.:
3-way tie between Pipes of Peace, McCartney II and Wild Life. Each album has a couple saving graces, but 3/4 at least of each is just not any good. Following close behind (cue the howls of outrage) is Ram, 1/3 of which is pretty good (e.g. Too Many People, Heart of the Country, Eat at Home), but most of the rest of which is just cringe-inducing. Yeah, I know lots of Paul fans adore this album, but I'd rather have my fingernails ripped out with pliers than listen to "Uncle Albert" or "Long Haired Lady."
Bruce, i'm with you on PIPES OF PEACE and MCCARTNEY II, but WILD LIFE is an awesome record..DRIVING RAIN is in my bottom 3 and I like a lot of tracks on that record...After reading that MCCARTNEY II was really like the first FIREMAN record, i'm looking at it differently.
An album with "Mumbo," "Bip Bop," and "I Am Your Singer" is "awesome" but DRIVING RAIN scrapes the bottom 3??? Also, I don't see a FIREMAN connection with McCARTNEY II since Youth was not involved in its creation.
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audi:
Run Devil Run was therapy for Paul. It was his cautious, boyhood-nostalgic re-emergence after we lost our beloved Linda. It should be off-limits.
RUN DEVIL RUN is a fine album.
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Squid:
Okay. Let's settle this once and for all. Paul's bottom five, in no particular order: Memory Almost Full Off the Ground Press to Play Flaming Pie Flowers in the Dirt
They are all in my top 10 !!!! The real bottom 5 are: Pipes Of Peace Red Rose Speedway McCartney II Speed Of Sound Wild Life -
Macca Mad:
Squid:
Okay. Let's settle this once and for all. Paul's bottom five, in no particular order: Memory Almost Full Off the Ground Press to Play Flaming Pie Flowers in the Dirt
They are all in my top 10 !!!! The real bottom 5 are: Pipes Of Peace Red Rose Speedway McCartney II Speed Of Sound Wild LifeI like the way you think.
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LP_Quagmire:
Macca Mad:
Squid:
Okay. Let's settle this once and for all. Paul's bottom five, in no particular order: Memory Almost Full Off the Ground Press to Play Flaming Pie Flowers in the Dirt
They are all in my top 10 !!!! The real bottom 5 are: Pipes Of Peace Red Rose Speedway McCartney II Speed Of Sound Wild LifeI like the way you think.
Ta, here's the real list of Macca albums from best to worst, i've also put the best song from each just to help you all out
1 Back To The Egg - To You 2 Flowers In The Dirt - Rough Ride 3 Press To Play - Good Times Coming/Feel The Sun 4 Flaming Pie - Heaven On A Sunday 5 Off The Ground - C'Mon People 6 Venus & Mars - Love In Song 7 Chaos - Riding To Vanity Fair 8 Band On The Run - 1985 9 Driving Rain - Tiny Bubble 10 Memory Almost Full - Mr. Bellamy 11 Ram - Back Seat Of My Car 12 Tug Of War - Wanderlust 13 Electric Auguments - Travelling Light 14 London Town - Dont Let It Bring You Down 15 McCartney - Maybe Im Amazed 16 Wild Life - Dear Friend 17 Speed Of Sound - Beware My Love 18 McCartney II - Waterfalls 19 Red Rose Speedway - Big Barn Bed 20 Pipes Of Peace - Keep Under Cover -
Macca Mad:
LP_Quagmire:
Macca Mad:
Squid:
Okay. Let's settle this once and for all. Paul's bottom five, in no particular order: Memory Almost Full Off the Ground Press to Play Flaming Pie Flowers in the Dirt
They are all in my top 10 !!!! The real bottom 5 are: Pipes Of Peace Red Rose Speedway McCartney II Speed Of Sound Wild LifeI like the way you think.
Ta, here's the real list of Macca albums from best to worst, i've also put the best song from each just to help you all out
1 Back To The Egg - To You 2 Flowers In The Dirt - Rough Ride 3 Press To Play - Good Times Coming/Feel The Sun 4 Flaming Pie - Heaven On A Sunday 5 Off The Ground - C'Mon People 6 Venus & Mars - Love In Song 7 Chaos - Riding To Vanity Fair 8 Band On The Run - 1985 9 Driving Rain - Tiny Bubble 10 Memory Almost Full - Mr. Bellamy 11 Ram - Back Seat Of My Car 12 Tug Of War - Wanderlust 13 Electric Auguments - Travelling Light 14 London Town - Dont Let It Bring You Down 15 McCartney - Maybe Im Amazed 16 Wild Life - Dear Friend 17 Speed Of Sound - Beware My Love 18 McCartney II - Waterfalls 19 Red Rose Speedway - Big Barn Bed 20 Pipes Of Peace - Keep Under CoverNice to see the love for PRESS TO PLAY! "Riding to Vanity Fair" is my favourite CHAOS track too, but "My Brave Face" trumps everything on FLOWERS (I prefer the TRIPPING version of "Rough Ride").
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Squid:
Okay. Let's settle this once and for all. Paul's bottom five, in no particular order: Memory Almost Full Off the Ground Press to Play Flaming Pie Flowers in the Dirt
What about band on the run
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LP_Quagmire:
Squid:
Okay. Let's settle this once and for all. Paul's bottom five, in no particular order: Memory Almost Full Off the Ground Press to Play Flaming Pie Flowers in the Dirt
Yes, yes, but what about in this universe???
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yankeefan7:
herc:
The title is clear.I dont know yet cause i dont have all the albums.What's your less favorite album?
I would say "McCartney II" and "Wildlife" is a close second worst.
I think you may have confused the word "worst", with the word "best".
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bottom 5: 1. Pipes Of Peace 2. Driving Rain 3. Press To Play 4. Off The Ground 5. Back To The Egg (yeah, it made my list). anyone who puts RRS in their bottom 5 must be crazy and everyone leave off Macca 2. obviously its not a great album but for what he was SHOOTING FOR, its a good album. he wasnt trying to make another RAM or something. lay off that album! same with Wild Life, he wanted that raw sound and recorded the entire album in a couple of weeks. that album is basically live. those 2 are exempt from this list i feel. as well as Run Devil Run, paul did that album for himself.
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audi:
Squid:
Okay. Let's settle this once and for all. Paul's bottom five, in no particular order: Memory Almost Full Off the Ground Press to Play Flaming Pie Flowers in the Dirt
What in the hell is Flaming Pie doing in that list??????
You will note that I said Paul's bottom five, rather than Paul's worst. Paul has never made an album that is completely awful; say, something as horrific as Pete Townsend's White City. Paul is much too talented for that. Flaming Pie has some good songs, but is overwhelmed by Jeff Lynn's piss-poor production to the extent that it's almost unlistenable. Yes, I like Calico Skies, yes, I like Great Day and Souvenir, and have a soft spot for Beautiful Night. But that's all - the rest of it is lost in some sort of Wilbury-style tribute collection. Ditto for Press to Play and Flowers in the Dirt. Good songs there, production overblown/mismanaged/stinks. Off the Ground could have been a great one, as its b-sides testify. Instead, the least worthy songs from those sessions wound up on the album. One reviewer called it 'more pop music for pot heads'. I'd say pinheads would be more in order. Lastly Memory Almost Full, which I received well at the time of release. It's the first time I bought a McCartney album that 'broke' shortly after hearing it - I can peer inside and see the broken parts, I can shake it and hear them rattle about, but they're beyond my reach to fix.
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Squid:
audi:
Squid:
Okay. Let's settle this once and for all. Paul's bottom five, in no particular order: Memory Almost Full Off the Ground Press to Play Flaming Pie Flowers in the Dirt
What in the hell is Flaming Pie doing in that list??????
You will note that I said Paul's bottom five, rather than Paul's worst. Paul has never made an album that is completely awful; say, something as horrific as Pete Townsend's White City. Paul is much too talented for that. Flaming Pie has some good songs, but is overwhelmed by Jeff Lynn's piss-poor production to the extent that it's almost unlistenable. Yes, I like Calico Skies, yes, I like Great Day and Souvenir, and have a soft spot for Beautiful Night. But that's all - the rest of it is lost in some sort of Wilbury-style tribute collection. Ditto for Press to Play and Flowers in the Dirt. Good songs there, production overblown/mismanaged/stinks. Off the Ground could have been a great one, as its b-sides testify. Instead, the least worthy songs from those sessions wound up on the album. One reviewer called it 'more pop music for pot heads'. I'd say pinheads would be more in order. Lastly Memory Almost Full, which I received well at the time of release. It's the first time I bought a McCartney album that 'broke' shortly after hearing it - I can peer inside and see the broken parts, I can shake it and hear them rattle about, but they're beyond my reach to fix.
While our taste's obviously differ I do agree with some points. Bottom 5 is a good way of putting it, even my bottom 2 of Pipes Of Peace & Red Rose Speedway contain many great songs & when I play them I enjoy them, but not as much as things like BTTE. I agree with OTG, too many B-sides were better than what made the album....the double album that got away !! I love PTP & FITD but I can understand the production issues, however for the 80's they come off quite well. The Jeff Lynne situation with FP I don't see, I thought Macca restrained him quite well & I don't detect a Wilbury's vibe at all....but hey we all hear different things !
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Squid:
audi:
Squid:
Okay. Let's settle this once and for all. Paul's bottom five, in no particular order: Memory Almost Full Off the Ground Press to Play Flaming Pie Flowers in the Dirt
What in the hell is Flaming Pie doing in that list??????
You will note that I said Paul's bottom five, rather than Paul's worst. Paul has never made an album that is completely awful; say, something as horrific as Pete Townsend's White City. Paul is much too talented for that. Flaming Pie has some good songs, but is overwhelmed by Jeff Lynn's piss-poor production to the extent that it's almost unlistenable. Yes, I like Calico Skies, yes, I like Great Day and Souvenir, and have a soft spot for Beautiful Night. But that's all - the rest of it is lost in some sort of Wilbury-style tribute collection. Ditto for Press to Play and Flowers in the Dirt. Good songs there, production overblown/mismanaged/stinks. Off the Ground could have been a great one, as its b-sides testify. Instead, the least worthy songs from those sessions wound up on the album. One reviewer called it 'more pop music for pot heads'. I'd say pinheads would be more in order. Lastly Memory Almost Full, which I received well at the time of release. It's the first time I bought a McCartney album that 'broke' shortly after hearing it - I can peer inside and see the broken parts, I can shake it and hear them rattle about, but they're beyond my reach to fix.
I'm not a technical person when it comes to understanding production issues. So my question is: If Paul wanted to (and that's a big if, I know) could these production issues be solved? Could they "redo" the production or is it too late? Are the things you're complaining about too inherent to the recording of the songs to fix? Sorry if these come off like dumb questions but I'm curious if these weaknesses could be fixed in such a way as to improve these records?
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Michelley:
Squid:
audi:
Squid:
Okay. Let's settle this once and for all. Paul's bottom five, in no particular order: Memory Almost Full Off the Ground Press to Play Flaming Pie Flowers in the Dirt
What in the hell is Flaming Pie doing in that list??????
You will note that I said Paul's bottom five, rather than Paul's worst. Paul has never made an album that is completely awful; say, something as horrific as Pete Townsend's White City. Paul is much too talented for that. Flaming Pie has some good songs, but is overwhelmed by Jeff Lynn's piss-poor production to the extent that it's almost unlistenable. Yes, I like Calico Skies, yes, I like Great Day and Souvenir, and have a soft spot for Beautiful Night. But that's all - the rest of it is lost in some sort of Wilbury-style tribute collection. Ditto for Press to Play and Flowers in the Dirt. Good songs there, production overblown/mismanaged/stinks. Off the Ground could have been a great one, as its b-sides testify. Instead, the least worthy songs from those sessions wound up on the album. One reviewer called it 'more pop music for pot heads'. I'd say pinheads would be more in order. Lastly Memory Almost Full, which I received well at the time of release. It's the first time I bought a McCartney album that 'broke' shortly after hearing it - I can peer inside and see the broken parts, I can shake it and hear them rattle about, but they're beyond my reach to fix.
I'm not a technical person when it comes to understanding production issues. So my question is: If Paul wanted to (and that's a big if, I know) could these production issues be solved? Could they "redo" the production or is it too late? Are the things you're complaining about too inherent to the recording of the songs to fix? Sorry if these come off like dumb questions but I'm curious if these weaknesses could be fixed in such a way as to improve these records?
I'm not very technical either, but the only way they could change the sound or feel of any album I think is to Remix it. This could remove certain sounds or instruments that ' date ' a song ie. Synths or sax's etc. on many of his 80's tracks. However I don't see this happening, certainly not on these reissues.
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Michelley:
I'm not a technical person when it comes to understanding production issues. So my question is: If Paul wanted to (and that's a big if, I know) could these production issues be solved? Could they "redo" the production or is it too late? Are the things you're complaining about too inherent to the recording of the songs to fix? Sorry if these come off like dumb questions but I'm curious if these weaknesses could be fixed in such a way as to improve these records?
It's not really desirable. They can be remixed of course, but really that's only shuffling the recording around. I would like the sterile dead air to be stripped out of Press to Play. It sounds as though it was recorded on a space shuttle. Pie could be greatly improved by simply removing two or three Lynn produced songs (If You Wanna, Really Love You, and Used to be Bad), thereby evening out the overall ambience of the album in favour of Paul's songwriting rather than Lynn's production. Flowers in the Dirt is a mess of both songwriting and production - the big chance was missed at that time; a co-album with Costello. That's a big regret. There is nothing to be done with OTG and MAF. They're just not very good. One thing is abundantly clear - Paul is, or was, his own best producer. He produced Ram, Band on the Run, etc. Christ, he produced Silly Love Songs. That's astonishing.
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Squid:
Michelley:
I'm not a technical person when it comes to understanding production issues. So my question is: If Paul wanted to (and that's a big if, I know) could these production issues be solved? Could they "redo" the production or is it too late? Are the things you're complaining about too inherent to the recording of the songs to fix? Sorry if these come off like dumb questions but I'm curious if these weaknesses could be fixed in such a way as to improve these records?
It's not really desirable. They can be remixed of course, but really that's only shuffling the recording around. I would like the sterile dead air to be stripped out of Press to Play. It sounds as though it was recorded on a space shuttle. Pie could be greatly improved by simply removing two or three Lynn produced songs (If You Wanna, Really Love You, and Used to be Bad), thereby evening out the overall ambience of the album in favour of Paul's songwriting rather than Lynn's production. Flowers in the Dirt is a mess of both songwriting and production - the big chance was missed at that time; a co-album with Costello. That's a big regret. There is nothing to be done with OTG and MAF. They're just not very good. One thing is abundantly clear - Paul is, or was, his own best producer. He produced Ram, Band on the Run, etc. Christ, he produced Silly Love Songs. That's astonishing.
I think you'll find that Jeff Lynne only co produced Really Love You, Macca produced If You Wanna & Used To Be Bad .