EGYPT STATION
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All the songs on "Egypt Station" really reverberate in the back of your mind long after th last track has played! Really fond of this album!
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For those who make the argument that Macca's early 70's worked was helped by his brand, I would make the opposing argument. His early 70's work was unfairly criticized by both critics & fans at the time because it was being constantly compared to his Beatles work. It was clear that Paul was not trying to sound like the Beatles & the fact that he was able to both experiment & be commercially successful is a testament to the quality of his 70s work. Seriously, there are so many hits & hidden gems on Paul's 70s work - more that virtually any other artist in that period - that its hard to believe any fan would call his 70's work mediocre.
Also, if the quality wasnt there, fans would stop buying the albums & singles. Its happened to many solo artists after they left successful bands. We also saw it with the other solo beatles. Ringo, George & John's sales dropped dramatically after the quality of their early 70s work dropped. Meanwhile, Paul's sales & hits continued to climb or stay steady throughout the 70s & early 80s.
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Yankeefan2 wrote:
B J Conlee wrote:
Kestrel wrote:
Bruce M. wrote:
Kestrel wrote:
Frank wrote:
joeysmith2 wrote:
Has Egypt Station reached Platinum sales yet? It's a big seller for Paul.
Unfortunately not anywhere near. It dropped to 152( I believe) on Billboard. Hopefully it’ll go gold during the second leg of US shows next year. By the way ES is proving staying power on the German Charts : 1 - 4 - 11 - 15 - 16. Way smaller market than the US but bigger than UK. And still no German live dates....
Currently #92 in the UK after just 5 weeks on the chart.
Barring some major new publicity, the album's sales run in the U.S. is pretty much over. That's typical for older artists, alas -- a good week or two, then pfffftttt...
Its just as well that Paul has done a lot of well received publicity for the album otherwise the album would have made even less of an impact. Had Egypt Station been a classic album, like Band On The Run for example, an album that would have appealed to rock fans generally and not just McCartney fans then it would have sold a lot more copies. As it is, ES is fairly mediocre and is only really appealing to an ever shrinking audience, who are literally dying out.
Kestrel...to each his own but personally I don't think that ES is mediocre in the least. At this juncture and having heard the album many times, I believe ES is Paul's best Solo album. I have a hard time comparing Paul's solo stuff (1980 onward) to his 70's "top of the charts" era but as far as Solo only, I give ES a slight edge over Tug of War, Flaming Pie and Chaos.
As far as ES's overall "Sales"...it probably has had its "chart run" at this point but we will have to wait and see if there is any second wind. While you obviously can't compare the Band on the Run Paul era to today's current music climate, Band on the Run did have a massive "secong run" once the title track became the album's 3rd top 10 single in the US. It returned to #1 after about a year later from its US released date(I think this is true but the time might be off).
Unfortunately, Paul has not helped himself on ES Sales by only playing a couple of songs (and not the best ones on the album) on his subsequent "Freshen Up"tour. As others has said, it is "baffling" to me. It is inexplicable to me why Paul and the Band weren't ready to "play" at least 6 of the most inspiring ES songs. "Come On To Me" and "Fuh You" are good catchy songs but not nearly the best songs on ES. In today's internet/utube world, millions seeing "live versions" of the best ES songs, could have helped prolong ES Sales a little longer.
The other thing is that it seems non-logical to me that a second single (since the double sided "Come On To Me" and "I Don't know" was released way back in August) has not been released by now. Songs like Dominoes and Who Cares would have been great choices in my opinion.
Tough to rate the top solo albums BJ, I would slightly differ with you. CHAOS is still my #1, just find it haunting and flawless. In addition, his vocals are still wonderful. It is toss up for me between "Egypt Station" and TOW, each are very good but have a some minor flaws. That being said, I don't find anything on "Egypt Station" as good as songs like "Wanderlust", "Here Today", "Take It Away" and "Tug Of War" on TOW. So I would have CHAOS #1 followed by TOW and then "Egypt Station". Just my opinion, no right or wrong - lol. Once again, I will agree with you regarding McCartney's choices of singles, "Who Cares" being a single should have been a no brainer. Song rocks, lyrics are relevant to the world we live in and it is radio friendly but what the heck do I know - ha ha.
Hey Yankeefan...been away from the Board for more than a week. Got married on Oct. 28 and then we went on our Honeymoon in St. Augustine. While there's always a glitch or two with Weddings, the "big things" with the Wedding went great. As far as St. Augustine, I would recommend this beautiful and historic beach Florida town to anyone. We had a "blast" to borrow one of Paul's words in "Dominoes".
I agree with you totally that rating top Paul Solo albums is very tough. I also agree that from the early 80's...Chaos, Tug and Egypt Sta
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First of all, congrats BJ on your recent wedding. Hope you played a few McCartney tunes at the reception. Anyway, have never been a huge fan of Chaos and Creation; I like it, but don't love it. I absolutely LOVE Egypt Station. For it to debut at #1 in the US is quite frankly amazing. And it absolutely deserves this honor. In my list of favorite McCartney LP's, it sits easily at 3rd, behind only RAM and BOTR. I simply cannot stop playing this album, two months after its' release. Only wish Paul had replaced Back In Brazil and Hand In Hand with the two bonus songs, Get Started and Nothing For Free. Still a bit puzzled by all the negative statements about "Fuh You"; it is easily one of my favorite songs on the album, along with "Dominoes", "Happy With You", and "Caesar Rock".
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wingsoverkc wrote:
First of all, congrats BJ on your recent wedding. Hope you played a few McCartney tunes at the reception. Anyway, have never been a huge fan of Chaos and Creation; I like it, but don't love it. I absolutely LOVE Egypt Station. For it to debut at #1 in the US is quite frankly amazing. And it absolutely deserves this honor. In my list of favorite McCartney LP's, it sits easily at 3rd, behind only RAM and BOTR. I simply cannot stop playing this album, two months after its' release. Only wish Paul had replaced Back In Brazil and Hand In Hand with the two bonus songs, Get Started and Nothing For Free. Still a bit puzzled by all the negative statements about "Fuh You"; it is easily one of my favorite songs on the album, along with "Dominoes", "Happy With You", and "Caesar Rock".
He would have to replace Hand in Hand over my dead body. It's one of my favorite Paul songs ever.
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Bruce M. wrote:
wingsoverkc wrote:
First of all, congrats BJ on your recent wedding. Hope you played a few McCartney tunes at the reception. Anyway, have never been a huge fan of Chaos and Creation; I like it, but don't love it. I absolutely LOVE Egypt Station. For it to debut at #1 in the US is quite frankly amazing. And it absolutely deserves this honor. In my list of favorite McCartney LP's, it sits easily at 3rd, behind only RAM and BOTR. I simply cannot stop playing this album, two months after its' release. Only wish Paul had replaced Back In Brazil and Hand In Hand with the two bonus songs, Get Started and Nothing For Free. Still a bit puzzled by all the negative statements about "Fuh You"; it is easily one of my favorite songs on the album, along with "Dominoes", "Happy With You", and "Caesar Rock".
He would have to replace Hand in Hand over my dead body. It's one of my favorite Paul songs ever.
Ha! I wouldn't replace Hand in Hand either. A fine song. Only one song I would replace, but I don't want to sound like a broken record (CD/digital download)....
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wingsoverkc wrote:
First of all, congrats BJ on your recent wedding. Hope you played a few McCartney tunes at the reception. Anyway, have never been a huge fan of Chaos and Creation; I like it, but don't love it. I absolutely LOVE Egypt Station. For it to debut at #1 in the US is quite frankly amazing. And it absolutely deserves this honor. In my list of favorite McCartney LP's, it sits easily at 3rd, behind only RAM and BOTR. I simply cannot stop playing this album, two months after its' release. Only wish Paul had replaced Back In Brazil and Hand In Hand with the two bonus songs, Get Started and Nothing For Free. Still a bit puzzled by all the negative statements about "Fuh You"; it is easily one of my favorite songs on the album, along with "Dominoes", "Happy With You", and "Caesar Rock".
Thanks wingsoverkc. Played a fair amount of Paul/Beatles tunes but our playlist really stuck to traditional wedding songs so there was a wide mix. During the dancing part, I had our DJ play a mix from Nat King Cole, Sam Cooke, a lot of 60's to some of today's artists like Ed Sheeran and Jason Mraz. We did play Chubby Checker's Twist since it was the first song I ever danced with my sister and then we followed it up with Twist and Shout and I Saw Her Standing There. I had plenty of Paul during the cocktail hour with songs like Mabye I'm Amazed, And I love Her, Blackbird, Here There and Everywhere etc.
Still loving Egypt Station too!
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B J Conlee wrote:
Yankeefan2 wrote:
B J Conlee wrote:
Kestrel wrote:
Bruce M. wrote:
Kestrel wrote:
Frank wrote:
joeysmith2 wrote:
Has Egypt Station reached Platinum sales yet? It's a big seller for Paul.
Unfortunately not anywhere near. It dropped to 152( I believe) on Billboard. Hopefully it’ll go gold during the second leg of US shows next year. By the way ES is proving staying power on the German Charts : 1 - 4 - 11 - 15 - 16. Way smaller market than the US but bigger than UK. And still no German live dates....
Currently #92 in the UK after just 5 weeks on the chart.
Barring some major new publicity, the album's sales run in the U.S. is pretty much over. That's typical for older artists, alas -- a good week or two, then pfffftttt...
Its just as well that Paul has done a lot of well received publicity for the album otherwise the album would have made even less of an impact. Had Egypt Station been a classic album, like Band On The Run for example, an album that would have appealed to rock fans generally and not just McCartney fans then it would have sold a lot more copies. As it is, ES is fairly mediocre and is only really appealing to an ever shrinking audience, who are literally dying out.
Kestrel...to each his own but personally I don't think that ES is mediocre in the least. At this juncture and having heard the album many times, I believe ES is Paul's best Solo album. I have a hard time comparing Paul's solo stuff (1980 onward) to his 70's "top of the charts" era but as far as Solo only, I give ES a slight edge over Tug of War, Flaming Pie and Chaos.
As far as ES's overall "Sales"...it probably has had its "chart run" at this point but we will have to wait and see if there is any second wind. While you obviously can't compare the Band on the Run Paul era to today's current music climate, Band on the Run did have a massive "secong run" once the title track became the album's 3rd top 10 single in the US. It returned to #1 after about a year later from its US released date(I think this is true but the time might be off).
Unfortunately, Paul has not helped himself on ES Sales by only playing a couple of songs (and not the best ones on the album) on his subsequent "Freshen Up"tour. As others has said, it is "baffling" to me. It is inexplicable to me why Paul and the Band weren't ready to "play" at least 6 of the most inspiring ES songs. "Come On To Me" and "Fuh You" are good catchy songs but not nearly the best songs on ES. In today's internet/utube world, millions seeing "live versions" of the best ES songs, could have helped prolong ES Sales a little longer.
The other thing is that it seems non-logical to me that a second single (since the double sided "Come On To Me" and "I Don't know" was released way back in August) has not been released by now. Songs like Dominoes and Who Cares would have been great choices in my opinion.
Tough to rate the top solo albums BJ, I would slightly differ with you. CHAOS is still my #1, just find it haunting and flawless. In addition, his vocals are still wonderful. It is toss up for me between "Egypt Station" and TOW, each are very good but have a some minor flaws. That being said, I don't find anything on "Egypt Station" as good as songs like "Wanderlust", "Here Today", "Take It Away" and "Tug Of War" on TOW. So I would have CHAOS #1 followed by TOW and then "Egypt Station". Just my opinion, no right or wrong - lol. Once again, I will agree with you regarding McCartney's choices of singles, "Who Cares" being a single should have been a no brainer. Song rocks, lyrics are relevant to the world we live in and it is radio friendly but what the heck do I know - ha ha.
Hey Yankeefan...been away from the Board for more than a week. Got married on Oct. 28 and then we went on our Honeymoon in St. Augustine. While there's always a glitch or two with Weddings, the "big things" with the Wedding went great. As far as St. Augustine, I would recommend this beautiful and historic beach Florida town to anyone. We had a "blast" to borrow one of Paul's words in "Dominoes".
I agree with you totally that rating top Paul Solo albums is very tough. I also agree that from the early 80's...Chaos, Tug and Egypt Sta
Yankeefan,
(To continue the rest of my reply above)...Chaos, Tug and Egypt Station at this point are also in my Top 3 Paul Solo Albums from the 80's onward. Maybe because ES is the newest, I have it as #1. But comparing Chaos and ES is trying to say which Beatle album is better...Revolver or Abbey Road. Probably the easiest answer why I slightly favor ES over the other 2 (besides being the newest) is the wide variety of music and the overall instrumentation/orchestration on many of the songs. On a good number of Chaos songs it is practically all Paul. That's good of course but I tended to get tired of the songs faster since they were more simple. Don't get me wrong, they are both great albums in my opinion. Tug of War is equally great but as much as I tried to like "What's That You're Doing" it felt so out of place (a Stevie Wonder song totally) and it was way too long (like 6 minutes). It was the dud on an otherwise great album. I don't think that Chaos and ES have any duds. While "Fuh You" is kind of out of place on ES, it is very catchy music wise and it is only slightly over 3 minutes.
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I'm seriously starting to consider ES as my favorite post-Beatle Paul album (though on principle I dislike ranking things). It's the most consistent in terms of quality, easily the best in terms of lyrics, and I think really stands out in the way music/lyrics/arrangements work together for maximum effect. I'll always have a soft spot for Tug of War, but ES is at least as good and maybe a shade better IMHO.
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B J Conlee wrote:
Yankeefan2 wrote:
B J Conlee wrote:
Kestrel wrote:
Bruce M. wrote:
Kestrel wrote:
Frank wrote:
joeysmith2 wrote:
Has Egypt Station reached Platinum sales yet? It's a big seller for Paul.
Unfortunately not anywhere near. It dropped to 152( I believe) on Billboard. Hopefully it’ll go gold during the second leg of US shows next year. By the way ES is proving staying power on the German Charts : 1 - 4 - 11 - 15 - 16. Way smaller market than the US but bigger than UK. And still no German live dates....
Currently #92 in the UK after just 5 weeks on the chart.
Barring some major new publicity, the album's sales run in the U.S. is pretty much over. That's typical for older artists, alas -- a good week or two, then pfffftttt...
Its just as well that Paul has done a lot of well received publicity for the album otherwise the album would have made even less of an impact. Had Egypt Station been a classic album, like Band On The Run for example, an album that would have appealed to rock fans generally and not just McCartney fans then it would have sold a lot more copies. As it is, ES is fairly mediocre and is only really appealing to an ever shrinking audience, who are literally dying out.
Kestrel...to each his own but personally I don't think that ES is mediocre in the least. At this juncture and having heard the album many times, I believe ES is Paul's best Solo album. I have a hard time comparing Paul's solo stuff (1980 onward) to his 70's "top of the charts" era but as far as Solo only, I give ES a slight edge over Tug of War, Flaming Pie and Chaos.
As far as ES's overall "Sales"...it probably has had its "chart run" at this point but we will have to wait and see if there is any second wind. While you obviously can't compare the Band on the Run Paul era to today's current music climate, Band on the Run did have a massive "secong run" once the title track became the album's 3rd top 10 single in the US. It returned to #1 after about a year later from its US released date(I think this is true but the time might be off).
Unfortunately, Paul has not helped himself on ES Sales by only playing a couple of songs (and not the best ones on the album) on his subsequent "Freshen Up"tour. As others has said, it is "baffling" to me. It is inexplicable to me why Paul and the Band weren't ready to "play" at least 6 of the most inspiring ES songs. "Come On To Me" and "Fuh You" are good catchy songs but not nearly the best songs on ES. In today's internet/utube world, millions seeing "live versions" of the best ES songs, could have helped prolong ES Sales a little longer.
The other thing is that it seems non-logical to me that a second single (since the double sided "Come On To Me" and "I Don't know" was released way back in August) has not been released by now. Songs like Dominoes and Who Cares would have been great choices in my opinion.
Tough to rate the top solo albums BJ, I would slightly differ with you. CHAOS is still my #1, just find it haunting and flawless. In addition, his vocals are still wonderful. It is toss up for me between "Egypt Station" and TOW, each are very good but have a some minor flaws. That being said, I don't find anything on "Egypt Station" as good as songs like "Wanderlust", "Here Today", "Take It Away" and "Tug Of War" on TOW. So I would have CHAOS #1 followed by TOW and then "Egypt Station". Just my opinion, no right or wrong - lol. Once again, I will agree with you regarding McCartney's choices of singles, "Who Cares" being a single should have been a no brainer. Song rocks, lyrics are relevant to the world we live in and it is radio friendly but what the heck do I know - ha ha.
Hey Yankeefan...been away from the Board for more than a week. Got married on Oct. 28 and then we went on our Honeymoon in St. Augustine. While there's always a glitch or two with Weddings, the "big things" with the Wedding went great. As far as St. Augustine, I would recommend this beautiful and historic beach Florida town to anyone. We had a "blast" to borrow one of Paul's words in "Dominoes".
I agree with you totally that rating top Paul Solo albums is very tough. I also agree that from the early 80's...Chaos, Tug and Egypt Sta
Congratulations on your wedding !! I loved St. Augustine the one time I visited there for a few days, like you said beautiful and historic.
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B J Conlee wrote:
B J Conlee wrote:
Yankeefan2 wrote:
B J Conlee wrote:
Kestrel wrote:
Bruce M. wrote:
Kestrel wrote:
Frank wrote:
joeysmith2 wrote:
Has Egypt Station reached Platinum sales yet? It's a big seller for Paul.
Unfortunately not anywhere near. It dropped to 152( I believe) on Billboard. Hopefully it’ll go gold during the second leg of US shows next year. By the way ES is proving staying power on the German Charts : 1 - 4 - 11 - 15 - 16. Way smaller market than the US but bigger than UK. And still no German live dates....
Currently #92 in the UK after just 5 weeks on the chart.
Barring some major new publicity, the album's sales run in the U.S. is pretty much over. That's typical for older artists, alas -- a good week or two, then pfffftttt...
Its just as well that Paul has done a lot of well received publicity for the album otherwise the album would have made even less of an impact. Had Egypt Station been a classic album, like Band On The Run for example, an album that would have appealed to rock fans generally and not just McCartney fans then it would have sold a lot more copies. As it is, ES is fairly mediocre and is only really appealing to an ever shrinking audience, who are literally dying out.
Kestrel...to each his own but personally I don't think that ES is mediocre in the least. At this juncture and having heard the album many times, I believe ES is Paul's best Solo album. I have a hard time comparing Paul's solo stuff (1980 onward) to his 70's "top of the charts" era but as far as Solo only, I give ES a slight edge over Tug of War, Flaming Pie and Chaos.
As far as ES's overall "Sales"...it probably has had its "chart run" at this point but we will have to wait and see if there is any second wind. While you obviously can't compare the Band on the Run Paul era to today's current music climate, Band on the Run did have a massive "secong run" once the title track became the album's 3rd top 10 single in the US. It returned to #1 after about a year later from its US released date(I think this is true but the time might be off).
Unfortunately, Paul has not helped himself on ES Sales by only playing a couple of songs (and not the best ones on the album) on his subsequent "Freshen Up"tour. As others has said, it is "baffling" to me. It is inexplicable to me why Paul and the Band weren't ready to "play" at least 6 of the most inspiring ES songs. "Come On To Me" and "Fuh You" are good catchy songs but not nearly the best songs on ES. In today's internet/utube world, millions seeing "live versions" of the best ES songs, could have helped prolong ES Sales a little longer.
The other thing is that it seems non-logical to me that a second single (since the double sided "Come On To Me" and "I Don't know" was released way back in August) has not been released by now. Songs like Dominoes and Who Cares would have been great choices in my opinion.
Tough to rate the top solo albums BJ, I would slightly differ with you. CHAOS is still my #1, just find it haunting and flawless. In addition, his vocals are still wonderful. It is toss up for me between "Egypt Station" and TOW, each are very good but have a some minor flaws. That being said, I don't find anything on "Egypt Station" as good as songs like "Wanderlust", "Here Today", "Take It Away" and "Tug Of War" on TOW. So I would have CHAOS #1 followed by TOW and then "Egypt Station". Just my opinion, no right or wrong - lol. Once again, I will agree with you regarding McCartney's choices of singles, "Who Cares" being a single should have been a no brainer. Song rocks, lyrics are relevant to the world we live in and it is radio friendly but what the heck do I know - ha ha.
Hey Yankeefan...been away from the Board for more than a week. Got married on Oct. 28 and then we went on our Honeymoon in St. Augustine. While there's always a glitch or two with Weddings, the "big things" with the Wedding went great. As far as St. Augustine, I would recommend this beautiful and historic beach Florida town to anyone. We had a "blast" to borrow one of Paul's words in "Dominoes".
I agree with you totally that rating top Paul Solo albums is very tough. I also agree that from the early 80's...Chaos, Tug and Egypt Sta
Yankeefan,
(To continue the rest of my reply above)...Chaos, Tug and Egypt Station at this point are also in my Top 3 Paul Solo Albums from the 80's onward. Maybe because ES is the newest, I have it as #1. But comparing Chaos and ES is trying to say which Beatle album is better...Revolver or Abbey Road. Probably the easiest answer why I slightly favor ES over the other 2 (besides being the newest) is the wide variety of music and the overall instrumentation/orchestration on many of the songs. On a good number of Chaos songs it is practically all Paul. That's good of course but I tended to get tired of the songs faster since they were more simple. Don't get me wrong, they are both great albums in my opinion. Tug of War is equally great but as much as I tried to like "What's That You're Doing" it felt so out of place (a Stevie Wonder song totally) and it was way too long (like 6 minutes). It was the dud on an otherwise great album. I don't think that Chaos and ES have any duds. While "Fuh You" is kind of out of place on ES, it is very catchy music wise and it is only slightly over 3 minutes.
I am trying to remember the critical reaction at the time of the Stevie Wonder songs on TOW. The album did pretty well critically from what I remember and I know RS loved it at the time. I know I never really thought of those two songs being out of place on the album until you mentioned it. I think "Ebony and Ivory" was obviously the better of the two songs because it was a duo and was obviously intended to be a commercial hit single. "What's That Your Doing" in retrospect should have been the one song left off and made a B side of a single.
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Bruce M. wrote:
I'm seriously starting to consider ES as my favorite post-Beatle Paul album (though on principle I dislike ranking things). It's the most consistent in terms of quality, easily the best in terms of lyrics, and I think really stands out in the way music/lyrics/arrangements work together for maximum effect. I'll always have a soft spot for Tug of War, but ES is at least as good and maybe a shade better IMHO.
Bruce...I'm pretty much feeling the same way. Post 1980, I know Yankeefan and I both agree that Paul's top Solo albums are Tug, Chaos and ES. I also rate MAF very high as well as complete albums.
Besides what you said, I also really like the way Paul "finishes" ES with the 2 classic multi-part songs. He hasn't always achieved a strong finish with some of his albeit generally good albums like Flowers in the Dirt or Red Rose Speedway just to name a couple. Despite Repeated Warnings in my opinion is a classic, epic Macca song with really smart lyrics and all the changes musically going on. And I just really like the way Hunt You Down, Naked etc sounds together as 3 songs melded into one. Hopefully, the Grammy voters will see the genius in ES as a classic Solo Paul album...beginning, middle and end.
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I love "What's That You're Doing" on "Tug Of War" 'cause it's a zesty toe tapper that adds to the variety, makes you want to dance, and it's the great Stevie Wonder. I love Egypt Station even more than "Chaos" because there's more variety. An interesting viewpoint is Herc's in Athens, Greece who used to post here and now has his own Paul fan group on Facebook who says he prefers the album "New" to ES although he also loves the latter. He or someone on there said they feel Paul should produce his own albums himself, more often. I'm sure he has a strong hand in producing all his songs. "Egyptian Station" features some wonderful artsy classical music flourishes, "art rock" touches here and there which sound like George Martin had a hand in, harkens back to Beatles sounds that I suspect Paul put in there. Feels like a big wink to avid Beatle fans.
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B J Conlee wrote:
B J Conlee wrote:
Yankeefan2 wrote:
B J Conlee wrote:
Kestrel wrote:
Bruce M. wrote:
Kestrel wrote:
Frank wrote:
joeysmith2 wrote:
Has Egypt Station reached Platinum sales yet? It's a big seller for Paul.
Unfortunately not anywhere near. It dropped to 152( I believe) on Billboard. Hopefully it’ll go gold during the second leg of US shows next year. By the way ES is proving staying power on the German Charts : 1 - 4 - 11 - 15 - 16. Way smaller market than the US but bigger than UK. And still no German live dates....
Currently #92 in the UK after just 5 weeks on the chart.
Barring some major new publicity, the album's sales run in the U.S. is pretty much over. That's typical for older artists, alas -- a good week or two, then pfffftttt...
Its just as well that Paul has done a lot of well received publicity for the album otherwise the album would have made even less of an impact. Had Egypt Station been a classic album, like Band On The Run for example, an album that would have appealed to rock fans generally and not just McCartney fans then it would have sold a lot more copies. As it is, ES is fairly mediocre and is only really appealing to an ever shrinking audience, who are literally dying out.
Kestrel...to each his own but personally I don't think that ES is mediocre in the least. At this juncture and having heard the album many times, I believe ES is Paul's best Solo album. I have a hard time comparing Paul's solo stuff (1980 onward) to his 70's "top of the charts" era but as far as Solo only, I give ES a slight edge over Tug of War, Flaming Pie and Chaos.
As far as ES's overall "Sales"...it probably has had its "chart run" at this point but we will have to wait and see if there is any second wind. While you obviously can't compare the Band on the Run Paul era to today's current music climate, Band on the Run did have a massive "secong run" once the title track became the album's 3rd top 10 single in the US. It returned to #1 after about a year later from its US released date(I think this is true but the time might be off).
Unfortunately, Paul has not helped himself on ES Sales by only playing a couple of songs (and not the best ones on the album) on his subsequent "Freshen Up"tour. As others has said, it is "baffling" to me. It is inexplicable to me why Paul and the Band weren't ready to "play" at least 6 of the most inspiring ES songs. "Come On To Me" and "Fuh You" are good catchy songs but not nearly the best songs on ES. In today's internet/utube world, millions seeing "live versions" of the best ES songs, could have helped prolong ES Sales a little longer.
The other thing is that it seems non-logical to me that a second single (since the double sided "Come On To Me" and "I Don't know" was released way back in August) has not been released by now. Songs like Dominoes and Who Cares would have been great choices in my opinion.
Tough to rate the top solo albums BJ, I would slightly differ with you. CHAOS is still my #1, just find it haunting and flawless. In addition, his vocals are still wonderful. It is toss up for me between "Egypt Station" and TOW, each are very good but have a some minor flaws. That being said, I don't find anything on "Egypt Station" as good as songs like "Wanderlust", "Here Today", "Take It Away" and "Tug Of War" on TOW. So I would have CHAOS #1 followed by TOW and then "Egypt Station". Just my opinion, no right or wrong - lol. Once again, I will agree with you regarding McCartney's choices of singles, "Who Cares" being a single should have been a no brainer. Song rocks, lyrics are relevant to the world we live in and it is radio friendly but what the heck do I know - ha ha.
Hey Yankeefan...been away from the Board for more than a week. Got married on Oct. 28 and then we went on our Honeymoon in St. Augustine. While there's always a glitch or two with Weddings, the "big things" with the Wedding went great. As far as St. Augustine, I would recommend this beautiful and historic beach Florida town to anyone. We had a "blast" to borrow one of Paul's words in "Dominoes".
I agree with you totally that rating top Paul Solo albums is very tough. I also agree that from the early 80's...Chaos, Tug and Egypt Sta
Yankeefan,
(To continue the rest of my reply above)...Chaos, Tug and Egypt Station at this point are also in my Top 3 Paul Solo Albums from the 80's onward. Maybe because ES is the newest, I have it as #1. But comparing Chaos and ES is trying to say which Beatle album is better...Revolver or Abbey Road. Probably the easiest answer why I slightly favor ES over the other 2 (besides being the newest) is the wide variety of music and the overall instrumentation/orchestration on many of the songs. On a good number of Chaos songs it is practically all Paul. That's good of course but I tended to get tired of the songs faster since they were more simple. Don't get me wrong, they are both great albums in my opinion. Tug of War is equally great but as much as I tried to like "What's That You're Doing" it felt so out of place (a Stevie Wonder song totally) and it was way too long (like 6 minutes). It was the dud on an otherwise great album. I don't think that Chaos and ES have any duds. While "Fuh You" is kind of out of place on ES, it is very catchy music wise and it is only slightly over 3 minutes.
I'm still mystified that he left "I Want You To Fly" and a rocker, the name of which escapes me at the moment, off Chaos. He has that tendency. I thought "Write Away" should have been on "Press To Play." Funky song! There are other examples.
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It is stupid to bring charts on the time that Paul lives today ! And in the UK even worse yes it it is Paul country but they never like that much our macca!just compare...on the UK charts Press to play was number 8 with 6 weeks on chart,Off the Ground was number 5 with 4 weeks on chart,Driving Rain was number 46 with 3 weeks on chart!!!!!,Chaos and Creation on the Backyard was number 10 with 4 weeks on the chart!!!!!! Memory Almost full was number 5 with
6 weeks on the chart.....and how can anyone say he did worse?! Well He did number 3 with 5 weeks ! You can only say if that album is better or not than his other albums if his fans, his real fans, like it or not in forums like that and i really like Egypt Station a lot and for what i read most of fans love it!!!
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Beatles4Ever&Ever wrote:
I'm still mystified that he left "I Want You To Fly" and a rocker, the name of which escapes me at the moment, off Chaos. He has that tendency. I thought "Write Away" should have been on "Press To Play." Funky song! There are other examples.
From Chaos - Summer of 59?
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oobu24 wrote:
Beatles4Ever&Ever wrote:
I'm still mystified that he left "I Want You To Fly" and a rocker, the name of which escapes me at the moment, off Chaos. He has that tendency. I thought "Write Away" should have been on "Press To Play." Funky song! There are other examples.
From Chaos - Summer of 59?
Love this song !!!
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Yankeefan2 wrote:
oobu24 wrote:
Beatles4Ever&Ever wrote:
I'm still mystified that he left "I Want You To Fly" and a rocker, the name of which escapes me at the moment, off Chaos. He has that tendency. I thought "Write Away" should have been on "Press To Play." Funky song! There are other examples.
From Chaos - Summer of 59?
Love this song !!!
I do too! There are some great unreleased songs! I love I Want You To Fly too.
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oobu24 wrote:
Yankeefan2 wrote:
oobu24 wrote:
Beatles4Ever&Ever wrote:
I'm still mystified that he left "I Want You To Fly" and a rocker, the name of which escapes me at the moment, off Chaos. He has that tendency. I thought "Write Away" should have been on "Press To Play." Funky song! There are other examples.
From Chaos - Summer of 59?
This is yet more reasons why McCartney needs a "true" Post Beatles Compilation for the "real" fans "By DECADE". Each decade Paul has songs done during respective album's sessions that he ends up leaving off albums. As we have all mentioned, many are good songs that people (except big fans like us) who still like Paul have never heard before. On top of the Chaos and MAF sessions (and I love "This Loving Game"and "Comfort of Love" too) look at the Off the Ground Sessions that had a whole album of extra songs. The Press to Play sessions is another good example. I thought we were going to get many of these good rarities, unreleased, b-sides ect. with Pure McCartney but I was sadly disappointed.
Love this song !!!
I do too! There are some great unreleased songs! I love I Want You To Fly too.
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Beatles4Ever&Ever wrote:
SusyLuvsPaul wrote:
Beatles4Ever&Ever wrote:
joeysmith2 wrote:
70''s material overrated??? I can't believe what I'm reading. There's a damn good reason that Paul was the 2nd most successful solo act of the decade behind only Elton John. Being overplayed doesn't diminish how great the material is. Song for song BOTR is a melodic masterpiece and nothing Paul did post 80s can even compare.
Except Paul was getting lots of airplay largely because of the massive amount of good will left over from his Beatle days. The quality of the material may have been somewhat of a factor....but not the driving force. Had he come out of nowhere with his first two or three albums, he would have sunk. Being a Beatle carried him for years.
I know, Nancy, when I read tI busted out laughing his, that "being a Beatle (Paul) carried him for years"--although Beatles 4Ever has a right to their opinion, and I respect that. It's just that it's so obvious McCartney is a musical prodigy, one of the extreme examples of an uber-talented musician, and not being a Beatle anymore could not and did not change that. I can visualize "Egypt Station" winning Album of the Year at the Grammys, and Kanye West had better not charge up to the stage and snatch it away from him ! (LOL)
So happy that my commentary was so amusing to you that you "busted out laughing." Paul's first album would never have seen the light of day...even with "Maybe I'm Amazed"... were he not Paul the Beatle. HIs second, "Wild Life," had he found a company that would have released it, would have sunk. For the most part that album is an embarrassment. "Mary Had a Little Lamb," had any company relased it, would only have made Paul a total joke. Actually, no one would have heard it, so the joke would not have been on him. Had he not been who he was and had not accomplished so much with the Beatles, he would never have gotten off the ground (no pun intended) with that early largely mediocre output. Laugh all you want. Doesn't matter to me. Everyone in the world knows Paul would never have been had the opportunity to get around to "Band On The Run" were he not who he was.....Beatle Paul, which...like it or not.... got him airplay for years. Our opinions differ....wildly...no doubt about it. I love Paul to pieces and know he has great abilities. I seriously doubt any of that would have gotten him all that far with the shaky start he had....were he not who he was.
Your thinking is flawed. "Paul's first album would never have seen the light of day....were he not Paul the Beatle." Let's assume McCartney was never a member of the Beatles and in 1970 he was a new artist. He would have had a backlog of material he'd written such as Let it be, Long and Winding Road, Oh Darling, Lady Madonna, Yesterday, Maybe I'm Amazed, Every Night.....etc. Those songs would have been on his debut album and he'd have been a major 70s star and he'd have had plenty of material to bridge the gap from 1970 to 1973. The point is, a new artist wouldn't have the luxury of presenting a DIY home recording as a debut so that wouldn't have happened. Just like an unknown John Lennon would never have been able to spring the dreadful Two Virgins on the public. McCartney brought a backlog of material to the Beatles, and he'd have brought a backlog of material to his career as a new artist in 1970.
