Paul McCartney: Tug Of War

I like this album.

a travesty that's based on an utterly false conceit. as has been pointed out before, ebony and ivory do not in fact stand side by side on my piano keyboard in perfect harmony. quite the opposite. adjacent black and white notes on the keyboard make a most dissonant sound.

One of the reasons I don't listen to oldies stations is they never play songs like this.

i kinda like the debut (and yeah, "every night") but ram is one of the worst albums i've ever heard: it's like fucking "maxwell's silver hammer" stretched out to 40 minutes!

E&I is one of those songs so detestable on first hearing that it needs to buried away like nucear waste and is not eligible for reappraisal until 202004.

I love Ram and it would probably be my favourite of his. It's a big old mess of a record with some silly songs, some great songs and though it was recorded in studios in the US still maintains that home made feel that saves 'McCartney' from being a terrible record. It only works because it has the charm of being recorded at home though Maybe I'm Amazed, Junk, Every Night and possibly That Would Be Something are all great.

I can think of one other ILX regular who might well agree with this. I expect him to appear within the next ten posts.

"Pipes of Peace" btw, is too often wrote off... there's little of the greatness perhaps, of the main 4 above that I note, but there are few outright failures. All at least is enjoyable in a lightweight way. And the title track is *great*. And "We All Stand Together" is a bonus track on the re-issued CD! Need I add more to that...?

The LP I like. Others, including May and J.D., have already noted some of its highlights. As a wee lad I loved 'Ballroom Dancing', 'Wanderlust' and perhaps more. Probably 'The Pound Is Sinking' scared me. And 'Here Today' stunned me with its poignancy, 3 summers ago.

I do not know that the LP is the best post-Beatles solo record. I think Macca's best solo record is probably Wings' Venus & Mars - does that count as solo? If so, it's my bid: better even than All Things Must Pass, better even than... Tug of War.

As for other McCartney albums, again, "Flowers In The Dirt" is absolutely excellent. I find it a bit more inconsistent than "Tug Of War", but the highlights are just as strong, with "My Brave Face", "How Many People", "Figure Of Eight", "This One", "You Want Her Too" and "Distractions" all among his best solo work ever.

The fact that he usually follows up the most sweet beautiful Idea Songs with a SCREAMING GLAM BONANZA that careers headlong into a music-hall FANCY about taking tea with the queen is only TESTAMENT to his mighty genius at the time. Macca only got rubbish around about "Pipes Of Peace" when he stopped doing EXACTLY what he felt like doing and started trying to get back into the charts again. When he was writing songs like "Single Pigeon" or "Dragonfly" or indeed "Magneto & Titanium Man" he was untouchable.

i have an entirely irrational love of this song.

move along, nothing to see here...

The thing that makes "Get It" particularly great is the vocoder dealy that comes right after. Go cat, go!

mike a otm about Macca moments and forgettable filler. He is ill-served by not having a good editor.

I mentioned this bit upthread I think. I had it going rou and round my head during a French A-Level exam. CReepy.

True, but Press To Play is easily his most underrated record. Much more experimental (and consistent, even) than TOW, it's also got tunes like "However Absurd," "Stranglehold," and "Footprints," which have to rank among his career highlights.

And as enthused as I was to hear his work with Horn/Lipson, I've always felt Flowers In the Dirt was a bit of a letdown by comparison — just a lot more hit n' miss and tossed off (and not in a good way).

I recently acquired most of George's 70s solo albums via my fiancee's mom dumping off four crates of records on us. They're pretty spotty in general, but there are definitely some diamonds in the rough. The Ravi Shankar and Friends album in particular is a pretty fascinating document. "Living in the Material World" is probably the best of the lot - it's my favorite because it contains this absolutely *gorgeous* bit of Spector-pop "Don't Let Me Wait Too Long". "The Lord Loves the One Who Loves the Lord" is also a pretty track. The next one "Dark Horse" made a bit less of an impression on me. And then by 1979 and his self-titled, LA strings infested s/t album things are pretty uninteresting. Apart from realizing how many songs George wrote about the Beatles and their legal troubles - it's odd that George comes across as the most bitter about it all, and makes very obvious lyrical statements to that effect. I could forgive it if the tunes themselves were strong, but "Sue You Sue Me Blues" et al get tired pretty quick. All that being said, George is still my favorite Beatle. Also search: "Cheer Down" from some 80s sdtk, now that was a great single.

No way is it worse than Pipes of Peace, Geir, sorry. No way. "However Absurd" is rubbish? The production is totally space-age and the bridge is unquestionably glorious!

That and, as of now, Press To Play is the last time he seemingly had a bug up his ass to experiment in the studio.

Whatever. Without Macca experimenting in the studio, there's no McCartney, no "Back Seat of My Car," or "Little Lamb Dragonfly." There's no vocal tag to "Venus and Mars (Reprise)," or aping of Eno in "Summer Day's Song." There's no progged-out coda to "Getting Closer" or steely horn riff on "Arrow Through Me."

I only wish there was no "Flaming Poo."

That said, there is some really good material on this record and "The Pound Is Sinking" is stunning.

I certainly agree that a pop album doesn't have to be that way, however. But this album still feels a lot like dinosaur music to me, whereas maybe something like Bowie's Let's Dance feels fresher.

Look, I'll defend Cloud Nine and a handful of his solo singles, but that's as far as I'll go.

And really, when you have "Tug of War," "Take It Away," "The Pound Is Sinking," "Wanderlust," "Ballroom Dancing," and "Dress Me Up As A Robber," surely you can accept the far less adventurous exercises like "Somebody Who Cares" and "Get It." (The main problem I have with Pipes of Peace is that it's composed so overwhelmingly of the latter.) With Paul, you veryrarely get clear "I have a vision, and I am going to make an album!" gestures, and many of them verge on being high-concept blunders. His most rewarding albums are the ones where the "guess it's time to make a record again" impulse coincides, happily, with a period of particularly lucrative whimsy and noodling. This is what seems to separate "Tug of War" from "Pipes of Peace"; "Red Rose Speedway" from "Wild Life"...

Paul will never bowl you over with his experimental daring (even when he's trying specifically to do so) but he can delight you with the little touches during fertile periods. Tug of War is a great example - if he were really just an aimless dinosaur knocking out pretty tunes by the numbers and trying desperately to stay hip, Tug of War would play a lot more like the LPs that immediately follow it. (I'll wait for a dedicated Press To Play thread to give it a more charitable treatment..let it suffice for now to say that "Pretty Little Head" is almost, but not quite enough, to justify owning this otherwise obnoxious and irritating album.)

I'm pretty sure there IS a thread; and I may have started it (or Matthew, or Tim)

let it suffice for now to say that "Pretty Little Head" is almost, but not quite enough, to justify owning this otherwise obnoxious and irritating album.)

"Stranglehold" and "Press" have that effect on me.

http://home.att.net/~rarebird9/ghst.jpg

Material is great all the way through and "Blow Away" and "Faster" are both ... uh ... stunningly gorgeous - you bet. It was interesting seeing the "Blow Away" video on youtube and seeing him with a Les Paul. I've wondered for a LONG TIME how he got that guitar sound during those years. Must have been the Les Paul, after all! One of the few players to use a Les Paul for a "light," "chiming," "spindly" sound. Listen to his slide playing on that record or the rhythm guitar on "Your Love Is Forever," for examples. Gorgeous guitar sound.

Speaking of George on youtube, there's an intersting clip of him and band playing "Dark Horse" in '74. Not very good quality, but surely this was the best song on that record. Band includes Willie Weeks and two flautists. Who knows where it's from - they're playing live, but it's not footage from the 1974 tour. Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VEWfVHqK5U&search=george%20harrison%20dark%20horse

I like that Harrson LP a lot too - it was part of my childhood.

Hongro wasn't that way off about Tug of War, in my view. In the Macca stakes I think it's ahead of highlights McCartney II, Flaming Pie and Flowers In The Dirt, but maybe still in the #2 slot behind Venus & Mars - probably my favourite post-Beatles Macca.

How to compare any of them with All Things Must Pass (which I like, though it goes on a bit) I'm not sure.

HarrIson LP. George deserves to be spelled properly!

I now see that I posted to this thread 5 years ago, and I haven't really changed my view, except that I know more solo McCartney now than I did then, or a fortnight ago.

Hongro wasn't that way off about Tug of War, in my view. In the Macca stakes I think it's ahead of highlights McCartney II, Flaming Pie and Flowers In The Dirt, but maybe still in the #2 slot behind Venus & Mars - probably my favourite post-Beatles Macca.

How do you rate "Chaos & Creation In The Backyard"? For me it is up there with his very, very, best work. Although I like "Ram", "Band On The Run" and "Venus And Mars" a lot, I find myself getting more excited by his work from the 80s onwards, when that "do it yourself" approach was less evident.

Compared to what I wrote 5 years ago, "Press To Play" has grown on me, somewhat. Still not considering it among his best, but some of those "weird" tracks are OK too. "Pretty Little Head" is not though.

http://mlaudio.ornith.cornell.edu/audio/122552/122552.mp3

Macca only got rubbish around about "Pipes Of Peace" when he stopped doing EXACTLY what he felt like doing

But wasn't "We All Stand Together" a perfect example of this?

I don't think I really like Band On The Run, though I don't own it.

I've just been discovering Ram - it does have some OK material including 'Back Seat Of My Car' which N loves so much.

Chaos & Creation I think must be the best since Flowers In The Dirt. It seems strong to me, for late McCartney. But then I think Memory Almost Full may be underrated! That song 'at the end of the end' is quite moving!

"Memory Almost Full" is not a bad album, but it suffers from way too much compression. Typical 00s problem.

How is everybody ignoring the shocking, beautiful, intense, and unique "Plastic Ono Band" album if you're going to talk about the best post-Beatles' solo album? For that matter, how can you call "Tug of War" better than "Venus and Mars," "Band On The Run," or "Ram?" Or yes, as others have noted, "All Things Must Pass?" I agree completely with the compression problem on "Memory Almost Full," it wrecks the enjoyment that one could derive from the album which must be played at very low volume to be tolerated. This is the wrong thread, but it appears that there is actually a remastered version of "A Bigger Bang" out now! I wonder if its even more compressed that the original release from 2000tenminutesago.

The world's waited for it.

God, this is a well-produced record. I called it "shockingly listenable" upthread and I think it takes me by surprise every time I put it on just how lovely the sounds coming out of the speaker are. Very strong songwriting, too; the lyrics are iffy in places but the melodies are some of his best ever. "Wanderlust"!

This was probably among the very first few CDs I ever bought. Still holds up really well. And can I say that I love the cover? The saturation, the red and the blue, on a mint condition sleeve it just glows.

OK, "Get It" is maybe a little hokey but that's sort of inevitable yeah? Carl Perkins has a nice voice though and I like the line "A life of Cadillac and ultra for sure."

helter skelter is the most hilariously unrocking while trying to be rocking song i've ever heard

Love "Take It Away."

Well I feel my dear that it's eminently clear
That you can't see the trees for the forest
Your father was an extraordinary man!

That bit gets stuck in my head all. The. Time.

Yeah so good.

And the album is so good too. Up there with McCartney II and Ram

I love the little Be What You See link. Wish a longer version had been made, I'd slip it into all sorts of mixes and playlists

I checked out the super deluxe edition from a library and it's really beautifully done. Not just the design and the photographs but creating the context to really appreciate this album. No one can forget that it came in the wake of Lennon's death, not when there's a song like "Here Today," but when I read the detailed liner notes, it really sank in how much losing Lennon probably weighed on him, and how even a guest star like Carl Perkins reflected that. (The book has a wonderful anecdote where Perkins plays the McCartneys a song, not realizing it would bring them to tears.) I always liked that number even though I understood how a lot of people thought it was a minor track, but if you look at the album as part of McCartney's way of coping with his grief, it doesn't feel disposable or an unimportant - it's like when a friend or close relative dies and you find company with mutual friends or someone you all had a connection to.

well put

It goes double for the Stevie Wonder tracks.

I really like the line

"Like someone has taken the wheels off your car
When you've got some place to go
Well it's annoying
Just knowing you won't get very far
I know
I know how you feel"

No Paul, you wouldn't know how I'd feel if that happened to me. I'd be a lot more than simply "annoyed".

Corny, likely tactless, I still like the flow and the rhyme scheme

*actually it's "somebody", not "someone". It just flows nicely, even though it's typical Macca throwaway silliness