kc
Beatle Freak
Posts: 1,085
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Post by kc on Apr 6, 2016 22:50:17 GMT -5
Why can’t Paul McCartney and his associates assemble a fully rational compilation album? I mean, Wings’ Greatest, All The Best, Wingspan and the yet to be released Pure McCartney all have obvious inconsistencies, or weaknesses. I don’t passionately dislike any of them, but none of their track lists quite make sense.
The title suggests that Wings’ Greatest is a greatest hits set. However, it does not include what I count as six (two on the strength of being part of double A-side singles) Top 10 Wings’ songs up to the time of its 1978 release date. On the other hand, it does include two non-Wings’ songs.
All The Best is frustrating because both the U.K. and U.S. CD editions lack several tracks that were on the LP version. If they had made the CD version a two disc set then all of these extra tracks and more could have been included. There would have been no need for separate U.S. and U.K. issues and the album could have been more accurately presented as a best of set, rather than a second attempt at a greatest hits set.
Wingspan is unsatisfactory as well. The album’s division into a disc of hits and another of “history” was ill conceived IMO. Hits are history and what is more, some of the songs to be found on the history disc most definitely were hits. This album also repeats the inclusion of non-Wings’ material, as on Wings’ Greatest. It even includes songs released after the demise of Wings. At the time of Wingspan’s release, I recall Paul McCartney explaining that these tracks were included so as to give the album more value for money.
Unfortunately, as I have pointed out elsewhere, the same policy is not evident with the 4CD version of Pure McCartney. There is approaching an hour of unused disc space on this set. If it had been utilised most of the complaints fans have been making about missing key songs presumably would not have arisen.
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Post by debjorgo on Apr 7, 2016 17:43:39 GMT -5
What was left off Wings' Greatest? The band was still together at the time so it wouldn't have the later hits from Back to the Egg or the Coming Up single. Calling it Paul McCartney and Wings Greatest would had made the non-Wings tracks fit.
The thinking on All the Best I think was Paul had different releases on both sides of the pond and a single disc would be a better seller.
I agree that Pure McCartney should be a comprehensive best of. If Paul wants to wait until he's done recording to do the comprehensive, he should had just done a catch-up album, not including anything from the previous best-ofs.
Paul seems to be too hung up on his glory days, and giving the people what he thinks they would want. (Like they won't buy a best of album without Band on the Run on it.) He needs to have more faith in his newer material.
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kc
Beatle Freak
Posts: 1,085
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Post by kc on Apr 7, 2016 19:07:55 GMT -5
What was left off Wings' Greatest? The band was still together at the time so it wouldn't have the later hits from Back to the Egg or the Coming Up single. Calling it Paul McCartney and Wings Greatest would had made the non-Wings tracks fit. The thinking on All the Best I think was Paul had different releases on both sides of the pond and a single disc would be a better seller. I agree that Pure McCartney should be a comprehensive best of. If Paul wants to wait until he's done recording to do the comprehensive, he should had just done a catch-up album, not including anything from the previous best-ofs. Paul seems to be too hang up on his glory days, and giving the people what he thinks they would want. (Like they won't buy a best of album without Band on the Run on it.) He needs to have more faith in his newer material. Wings Top 10 songs missing from Wings’ Greatest: Mary Had A Little Lamb (UK #9) C Moon (UK #5) Helen Wheels (US#10) Listen To What The Man Said (UK#6/US#1) Maybe I’m Amazed (live) (US#10) Girls’ School (UK#1) You are probably right about the All The Best CD being a single disc for the sake of marketing. I am guessing that was also the reasoning behind Wings’ Greatest not being a double LP. I don't like either decision though.
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kc
Beatle Freak
Posts: 1,085
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Post by kc on Apr 7, 2016 19:12:28 GMT -5
What was left off Wings' Greatest? The band was still together at the time so it wouldn't have the later hits from Back to the Egg or the Coming Up single. Calling it Paul McCartney and Wings Greatest would had made the non-Wings tracks fit.The thinking on All the Best I think was Paul had different releases on both sides of the pond and a single disc would be a better seller. I agree that Pure McCartney should be a comprehensive best of. If Paul wants to wait until he's done recording to do the comprehensive, he should had just done a catch-up album, not including anything from the previous best-ofs. Paul seems to be too hang up on his glory days, and giving the people what he thinks they would want. (Like they won't buy a best of album without Band on the Run on it.) He needs to have more faith in his newer material. True.
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Post by debjorgo on Apr 7, 2016 20:06:50 GMT -5
Wings Top 10 songs missing from Wings’ Greatest: It didn't do as well in the US, hardly any airplay at all. I liked it though. A lot going on in the background. We listened to Hi Hi Hi. It didn't get flip over here. I don't think I've ever heard it on the radio. I always thought this was underappreciated. I didn't realize it made it all they up to 10. I forgotten about this song. It seems like a natural for the Greatest Hits album. I forgot this one too, although live tracks can sometimes seem out of place on a best of. This song probably gets played more than Band on the Run here. This one got played a little here. It's always been a favorite of mine. I don't think Mull ever got played on the radio here. I certainly would have preferred Girls' School on Wings' Greatest. The CD definitely had room for bonus tracks.
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Post by Panther on Apr 7, 2016 21:08:25 GMT -5
There is a Paul compilation/project that I think would be good. It would be a single-disc album called, for example, '80s Again' or something like that. The tracklisting would be Paul's best cuts from the 80s, for example:
Take It Away Wanderlust Pipes of Peace The Other Me So Bad Sweetest Little Show No More Lonely Nights Tommy's Coming Home My Brave Face We Got Married Put it There This One Back on my Feet
HOWEVER, the idea of this LP is to get the original masters entirely re-mixed by a different producer/mixer -- somebody cool like Flood or Steve Albini. He can take the masters, delete out-dated and cheap-sounding synthesizers, bring up the drums and guitar and bass, turn down the keyboards and vocals, and so on. The result would be an awesome pop/rock album of GOOD 80s-sounding music that I think would rescue this period somewhat for Paul. 'Tommy's Coming Home' is so good I can't believe he didn't issue it, so that would be a good cut to 'sell' the album with, as in "Featuring the never-before heard song...", etc.
(This same process was done to Bob Dylan's 1978 semi-turd, 'Street Legal', and officially issued by Columbia, to very good effect.)
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Post by Joe Karlosi on Apr 8, 2016 5:55:20 GMT -5
What was left off Wings' Greatest? The most glaring omission to me was "Listen To What The Man Said", which was a hit. However, I can't think of any other song to eliminate off WINGS GREATEST, which I have always thought was a great compilation just as it is. (Maybe I would axe "Hi Hi Hi", even though I love that song and it was nice to have this non-album single on the record ... but the switch would be only for the reason that "Listen To What The Man Said" was a bigger hit).
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Post by debjorgo on Apr 8, 2016 18:03:07 GMT -5
The thinking on All the Best I think was Paul had different releases on both sides of the pond and a single disc would be a better seller. Not to mention, he knew collectors would buy both.
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