Worst McCartney album?
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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 Life
I 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
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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 Life
I 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
Nice 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 .
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Macca Mad:
I think you'll find that Jeff Lynne only co produced Really Love You, Macca produced If You Wanna & Used To Be Bad .
That's what it says on the tin. And I suspect it's why they made it onto the album. Because they're Jeff Lynne style crap.
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Squid:
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.
couldn?t agree more with you on that Squid. I really wonder why Paul doesn?t just produce everything himself?.. Is it because he wants to delegate some of the grunt work and worry? Or because he literally wants someone elses input!? Why, he should know he?s the man
I mean lets be honest in a lot of respects he was producing the Beatles... He?s produced or had a split production credit on all of his best albums. The sound of early Wings is where he needs to get back to, and that?s his bit entirely, no one but Macca at the helm. I prefer that stuff and the simplicity (yet unbelievable complexity in ways), opposed to all this layered ?really good? craziness he does a lot of now. One thing I think would make a lot of things better just IMO, is if Paul went back and started replacing strings/synths and organ backgrounds with just guitars in his songs. And changing the sound of some guitars. Have guitars doing the little runs and backing harmonies and whatever.. Paul likes instrumentation way more than I care to hear sometimes. Like English Tea, just give me that on an acoustic guitar sometime and I?d love it. and straighten out the vocal slightly, less accents and tom foolery. Or just him hammering it out on a piano. as it stands it?s amazing but sort off my radar. I still say Pipes, simply due to its lower standard of song quality. Cheesy subjects done to the sounds of easy listening. Paul really started going easy listening production there in the early 80?s. but I know why.. its because a goal of his (I think) was always to compete in the ?pop? charts. While also writing songs for himself or whatever, he always wanted to have a few in mind design to rule the charts at the time. And big easy listening ballads were popular, and Paul could write them well; Tug of War, Pipes, Wanderlust, NMLN.. He succeeded too with a lot of them in the charts. I think Paul always has an ear to the scene, and trys to write to it at times. Which is awesome. For songwriters they should definitely appreciate how adept you have to be to be able to do that. All the different fads and styles Macca has hit up
its ridiculous. Even on Run Devil Run, his originals sound like 50?s songs!
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kapoo:
Squid:
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.
couldn?t agree more with you on that Squid. I really wonder why Paul doesn?t just produce everything himself?..
Well, that's curious. There's some detective work involved. Paul produced almost everything up until he renewed his partnership with George Martin in '82 on Tug of War. Many people, retrospectively, and in my view, foolishly, regard that collaboration as a hit. But why? If it was followed by the Martin-produced Pipes of Peace (which everyone seems to despise) and the Martin produced OST for the disastrous Broad Street, surely it was more miss than hit. And almost all the work after that has gone to an outside producer. I think there are two explanations - the first is the switch to new digital recording techniques. As someone who went from tube to solid state to integrated, I'm not sure Paul had the time nor the inclination to learn how to extract the sound he wanted from constantly updated equipment. Second, I think Broad Street was such a catastrophe that his confidence took a major knock. Couple that with the fact that he followed it up with Press to Play, a major commercial failure that confirmed he was no longer a sales force, and I think you have a man in creative crisis. And so the rot of outside producers got in - people who neither understood nor cared for his work, who did not love or even appreciate the songs. Paul's collaboration with Elvis Costello might have saved him years of creative torment, if he had made it a formal working arrangement. Costello producing Flowers in the Dirt? Yes, please.
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As there is no bad album for me, but a least favorite album that is "Press To Play".
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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?
Sorry Michelley, I didn't say what I wanted to say in reply. Which is that an album is a bit like a novel, or a film, or a painting - it goes out into the world as finished product and takes on a life of its own, for better or worse. Recalling it to change it would be cheating rather. I suppose those are the risks of being a creative artist. I do know that my favourite novelist, Nabokov, took the opportunity to rewrite many of his early novels when they were being translated from Russian to English. That's just about the only acceptable change I can think of. IMO, stripped down versions of many of those songs would do wonders for their reputation - but they would have to be part of an anthology style project, rather than 'rewriting' the original albums. I'm afraid those will have to stand or fall as they are. Yvonne is a great example of what Press to Play could have been. Great voice at the top of its form, great guitar. But alas...
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The new standards album by a country mile.
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Plastic Soul Man:
The new standards album by a country mile.
what are you talking about?what stanards albums?
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Plastic Soul Man:
The new standards album by a country mile.
Even if you have not heard it yet?
herc:
what are you talking about?what stanards albums?
http://maccaboard.paulmccartney.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=80390