Paul McCartney / Tug of War and Pipes of Peace deluxe editions

Yeah, I’m with LedMan. I’m not buying anything (again) previously recorded on multi tracks in studio that’s not at least mastered 24/96 and discreetly (read: rather aggressively and/or “sympathetically”) 5.1!

Just got both my Super Deluxe Editions which shipped from Canada on Monday and received in Australia on Thursday! Super fast delivery and both sets for under $170 AUD. Thx Amazon CA!

Just got an email from Amazon.it telling me that they postpone the delivery to 15 ottobre 2015 – 19 ottobre 2015 :(

I believe that the TOW remaster (disc 3) of the Deluxe Edition is the same as the 1993 The Paul McCartney Collection release.

As we now know, “Flowers in The Dirt” is the next album to receive the Deluxe treatment. But, if only one McCartney album (per year) will get the Deluxe treatment (from now on), I question whether I will still be alive to see the completion of the series. I was 16 years old when “Wings-Wild Life” was originally released, but I’ll be 60 years old next June.

Well, in the end, I obtained the two high resolution downloads(for which I had the download card) from unofficial sources, after a frustrating experience trying to download from the McCartney website. For “Tug of War”, the main album tracks are 96Khz/24-bit, but the bonus tracks are 44.1Khz/24-bit. For “Pipes of Peace”, the album and the bonus tracks are all 44.1Khz/24-bit….barely high resolution; likely 24-bit remastering of a 44.1Khz/16-bit source. I’m left wondering why I went to such effort to obtain the download, and if I just wasted a DVD-R(I play high resolution audio from home-burned DVD-Audio discs, because I don’t trust the idea of music server boxes.)

Omitted from Tug of War, the unreleased Seems Like Old Times, about Lennon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opWTXPG6uJU

to be fair about the odd-seeming omission, the sound does not fit in to Tug of War at all.

Over the course of these “Paul McCartney Archives” boxed sets, the Paul McCartney website has used several companies to administer the high resolution downloads, and none of these companies have been reliable. Some would permit you at second attempt if a download froze, but the company handling the “Tug of War” & “Pipes of Peace” downloads won’t permit you a second try. The attempt to download the 2nd & 3rd songs from “Pipes of Peace” froze, and I’m out of luck. I didn’t bother trying to download the other songs, since I wouldn’t obtain the complete album. Contact customer service? I would, but a malfunction at the McCartney website(“digital error”) stopped me from submitting my question.
Yes, I’m sure that the high-resolution download will appear of unofficial websites within a week, I’ll get my high resolution downloads, It I’ll be happy, but this all underscores why I don’t buy music downloads. Unofficial downloads are more reliable, and the FLAC format(used by unofficial sites) downloads more easily than the WAV format used by the McCartney site. With unofficial high-rez downloads, the entire album is in one download(you get the entire album or nothing, and if the attempt freezes, you simply try again). McCartney’s website has, over the course of the box set series, alternated between whole album downloads and song-by-song downloading.
I’ve bought all of the McCartney boxed sets(except “Wings Over America”), but for half of them, I’ve had to rely on others to obtain the High Resolution versions for me, even though I had the download coupon and was legitimately entitled to them. For “Venus & Mars” & “Wings At The Speed of Sound”, I was able to download the high resolution versions myself, but for “Tug of War” & “Pipes of Peace”, I won’t be able to.
And, on top of that, though my dealer of choice took care to properly package my “Pipes of Peace” & “Tug of War” boxed sets(in a large carton with lots of bubble paper), that won’t help if one of the boxed sets(“Pipes of Peace”) had already been maliciously dropped on the floor at the Chinese pressing plant used by Concord Music….corner damage that went through to one of the two paperback books in the set.
Buying music is starting to not be fun anymore.

My Tug of War SD arrived today – very sturdily packaged indeed (and just as well too because Hermes lobbed it over the gate into the back garden – I had visions of shards of red acrylic).

It does look and feel very nice, to be fair.

Very pleased to see my personal fave PM album on the ‘Coming Soon’ card – Flowers in the Dirt next.

Paul was prescient writing a song like “Stop, You Don’t Know Where She Came From” – he should have taken his own advice. Was that too low? Apologies to all…

1989’s “Flowers in the dirt” will be Paul’s next Archive release: http://wogew.blogspot.no/2015/09/paul-mccartneys-archive-collection.html

Interesting that yesterday Macca was interviewed in Dermot Oleary’s show on R2 about these releases and SSS and POP were played and then the last track played was the Frog Chorus which isn’t included on the POP reissue! Makes me wonder if either party knew….

I’m just gonna say this: I still love the Beatles, with Paul being my favorite Beatle when it comes to solo material (John and George are great and Ringo is good).
As for the forthcoming TOW/POP deluxe sets, I’m happy with the bonus content despite some omissions (the “Say Say Say” remixes by Jellybean Benitez and the solo version video for “Ebony and Ivory” to name a couple).
I sure didn’t expect the “Tug of War” album to get a new remix, but even though it will never replace the original mix it’ll be interesting to hear and point out whatever differences are noticed.
As for all the previous McCartney Archive sets, most of them have been great. Of course, the “McCartney” and “Speed of Sound” reissues didn’t offer much in bonus material, it at least managed to have a surprise or two in store (the semi-full “Suicide” on McCartney and the John Bonham early take of “Beware My Love” on Speed Of Sound). If I were to pick the best set, I’d say “McCartney II” because it offered a LOT. No worse sets on my end, because even if any future McCartney Archive sets don’t offer any bonus material that I expected I just take them as they are. Well, despite what any of you think.
I’ll close it off by saying that I hope to be alive in many more years to see the whole McCartney solo catalog be out again. You know, by the rate it’s going release-wise. I’ve been patient with every waiting period in between, and I will continue waiting.
That is all.

Hi
looking at the video ou Tug Of War unboxing at the top of the page
0.24 seconds: first page of the book, picture of paul on a terrace, lovely by the way
then 1:49 they open the same book from the same deluxe edition and first page is kinda different. again Paul on the terrace, but on the left you get something else.
Am I missing something?

thanks!!!!!!

And another exclusive MP3 download (not on the re-release) of ‘Tug Of War’ is on Paul McCartney’s website. Its the 7-inch edit of ‘Take It Away’.
http://www.paulmccartney.com/news-blogs/news/free-download-take-it-away-single-edit-2015-remaster

Why not include it on the album…(again)?

The Deluxe Editions look good – but:
There’s offered not enough exclusive contnent. Only one CD with bonus tracks (which you get on the regular Digipak Edition too). On TOW you get the album twice and a DVD with a few Videos.
What I really don’t understand is: Why not include the high resolution audio in PCM 96/24 on the DVD? There’s enough space.
This is the reason why I never bought and will buy one of these McCartney Deluxe Editions.

I started buying tapes.albums when Pipes of Peace and Thriller were released. So, I grew up loving Pipes of Peace without prior exposure to Tug of War.
The threads here say Pipes was a leftovers selection from Tug of War. Little do I know, and so I have alot to look forward to. I’ve been waiting for these two albums to be rereleased in fine quality. I can’t wait. Well I can, because I have no money right now, but I can’t wait to have the money to buy these two releases.
Then I’ll wait for Press to Play…a hidden gem.

When he releases two albums at once one seems to suffer
Pipes of Peace seems to have suffered like Speed of Sound did .
Venus and Mars box got everything and the Speed of Sound box set was very poor .
The DVDs on all these last sets are more or less empty .

Depending on the sound quality of this remaster, how long do we have to wait before the Blu-Ray Audio edition which includes all the contents of these potentially exciting sets are released? Am I the only one who would prefer owning a hard copy Hi Rez 2.0 or 5.1 version of many of these classic reissues? Sure I can pay a fee and download the tracks however I still would rather own the release even if it’s just packaged in just a standard Blu plastic case.

I think after what was done to Ram which is probably the best box of all the Archive series, everything else will pale compared to it. The closer we get to now and the less material will be available from the vault since with all these deluxe releases and re-releases every time a new album comes out (b sides, bonus tracks, dvd material, live tracks) there can’t be much left in the end. Look at the deluxe version of the NEW album, it’s like it’s already from the Archive series…
The DVDs from both Tug of War and Pipes of Peace could have been full of features, I’m sure Paul has super 8 movies from the Montserrat sessions and there were interviews filmed for the promotion of theses albums. If such interviews were good enough for McCartney II why is n’t it good enough for Tug of War and Pipes of Peace?? Also where has the video for solo version of Ebony And Ivory gone? The price is also quite steep for the content. Only the books seem to be the attraction of these boxes this time around…

Paul – this may be a dumb Q but who hand #s the extra 5 card set on the Super Deluxe edition of TOW?

Should have included all Remixes/Edits…what a waste and a rip off…why bother if you can’t put out what fans really want???!!!

I think that the “Simple as that” was also forgotten. Only the demo is on the bonus tracklist.

Compelled towards the deluxe Pipes of Peace, virtue of the video essay. But forty+ sheets is not far short of underlining the word ‘daylight’.

Not sure what to say when one of my all-time favorite albums (“Tug Of War”) is released in such a “deluxe” way. Oddly, the debut single “Ebony And Ivory” was just an okay song in my opinion. It was not until the outstanding “Take It Away” was played on the radio before I actually went out and bought the album. To this day, I play “Take It Away” more than any other song (iPod play count currently sits at 1215 total plays). As for the rest of the album, I cannot wait to hear the grunts and groans of the title track and its beautiful, closing orchestration leading into “Take It Away”, or how those coins will drop on “The Pound Is Sinking”, or Carl Perkins’ goofy laughter at the end of “Get It”. I am so ready for this release, and “Pipes Of Peace” (of which I will wax poetic on a later date).

Also missing from these editions are the 7″ versions of Take it away and Tug of war as on the album the album they go into each other. I’m think The single of Pipes of peace has a clean start without the sound effects as well but I might be wrong. According to various sources Paul did loads of demos around this period including a song called Unbelievable Experience which I’ve always liked and hoped would get released. If Paul wants to continue rewriting his history then I wonder if he’s going change the ‘dustbin lid’ line in The Other Me?

These look pretty good to me, Pipes of Peace is a pretty slight album so I’d be surprised if there was a huge amount of great stuff for that second disc.
So, 6 left. I reckon Wildlife and Red Rose, London Town and Back to the Egg, Press and Broadstreet? Or maybe Press and Flowers, and he misses out Broadstreet? Off the Ground?!!?

I’m not a big Paul McCartney fan but the re-releases of his earlier albums ( especially “McCartneyII” ) were really good – full of interesting bonus
material ( with all these “full length mixes” on “MCII” ). Great!
I was so curious about this two 80’s albums and I’m so disappointed!
No 12″ mixes, no demo’s of the best songs like “Tug Of War”, “Say Say Say”, “Pipes Of Peace”… no alternate mixes. Arghh!
And: 2015 remixes should not been included on original
album re-releases
(this it’s lauper-esque!)

I would have liked to see the 70s albums finished off, but I’ll still pick up the iTunes versions of these.

This is an odd era of McCartney for me. These albums have one of my all-time favorite McCartney songs (Say, Say, Say) and one of my least favorite songs of the decade (Ebony & Ivory… too sappy for me.) I probably like half the songs on both albums and totally disinterested in the other half.

So, I’ll be buying, but I’ll be more looking forward to whatever is coming next. (London Town, please… and let’s not wait so bloody long for the next reissues!)

I’m psyched! I’m psyched! Whoop! Whoop! :)

Judging by iTunes the new 2015 remix of Say Say Say clocks in at 6.58 min. Could this be a newly constructed 12″ mix since the original was 5.40 min?

Im a massive McCartney fan, and I love both these albums-but I never ever thought I would see the day that Pipes of Peace would have a £64.99 deluxe version (on Universal’s store). And weirdly, Im more excited for Pipes of Peace than Tug of War!

I do wish that McCartney and his team would think that maybe they should produce much more for the money they charge. Proper outtakes, ALL mixes and remixes and the like, on the DVD should be a newly recorded interview with Paul like those Genesis interviews from 2007 or make a decent documentary about the two albums. What would have made more sense would be to combine the two releases.. 30 mins of bonus audio and a 15 minute DVD is just too pricey.

That being said, the Archive packaging is fantastic.

This is where Sir Paul and I part ways.

Oh dear, no “Say, Say, Say” 12inch version. It looks like I will have to keep playing the original vinyl. This has put me off from purchasing this reissue because the track could have and should been included.

Say Say Say 12″ mixes would have sold me on Pipes… I already have the iTunes release, and consider the main album good, but not worth purchasing twice on its own.

The original 1982 release of Tug of War was mixed digitally. A new mix would be higher resolution.

Seriously going to have to dip into the wallet for the 3 CD+DVD Tug of War, one of my favourite McCartney albums. The pleasure I felt at him rediscovering his Mojo on this album however, evaporated upon the release of Pipes of Peace…ah well, just how many brilliant albums can one man make?

When I saw the original announcement on his website, because of the way it was worded I though at first they were saying that Pipes Of Peace was being included as a bonus disc to Tug Of War… which would have made some sense, actually, since it’s mostly Tug Of War rejects anyway IIRC.

What’s all this remix business though? I don’t recall the original mixes being especially bad.

See the thing is, I’m kind of interested in the deluxe book version Pipes of Peace because of the stuff about the video, but it’s a lot of money, and the DVD content is hardly must have.

I am also disappointed (and surprised) that the Say, Say, Say remixes, and the alternate Koala Bear were not included – let alone the cancelled b-side of The Man and any 12″ related bonuses to it. This is a shame – especially when so many bonuses were on Venus & Mars.

mmm Tug Of War, yes ok, but Pipes Of peace…errr… I get its a companion piece (more like Tug Of War outtakes !), I have all the other Super Deluxe Editions I guess I will get both for the sake of completeness, but really I would have preferred a London Town/Back To the Egg or a Wildlife/Red Rose Speedway double shot to complete the 70’s archives first. Hey Macca have a word with your mates Pages and Plant about the timely release of Zep archives, triple shots in quick succession keeps you fresh in the market and collectors on their toes…at the rate your going with McCartney archives collectors will be retired and/or have forgotten what and why they were collecting LOL

The deluxe editions of both albums are £46.90 buying directly from mccartney.com…much better value that amazon at the moment

Standard carrot (You won’t be happy with that)
Bigger carrot (You could upgrade some more…)
Deluxe carrot (You’re almost there…)
Super Deluxe carrot (The only way to get what you really want)

No thanks! F*** right off Paul McCartney with your greed.

Universal are still showing the super deluxe tug of war at £94 + £9 postage

Can`t belive they left out the original 12” mix of say,say, say.would of loved it to be included.