Comments on: Tug Of War

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 04 Nov 2018 00:39:37 +0000

Sorry, I forgot to mention his later work, which you completely dismiss, too.
So you say “Electric arguments” is an album “where nothing happens”. ‘kay.
Making a (highly acclaimed) jazz-album for the first time means “nothing happens”, too, to you. Uhu.
“New” and “Memory almost full” weren’t as great or consistent as “Tug of war”, but still very good and at LEAST as good as “Driving rain”, for sure.
Dude, if that’s your taste, so be it. But calling “Electric Arguments” an album “where nothing happens” when it may be his most versatile album since Ram you don’t give yourself much credibility.
Just saying.

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 04 Nov 2018 00:31:37 +0000

I strongly disagree, while sharing dislike for “Give my regards” and the praise for “No more lonely nights”.
But “Once upon a long ago” is just as good as that one, and “Tug of war” has so many great tracks on it that it’s rightfully considered one of his most consistently good albums.
“London Town” is surprisingly good, too, btw. Not many hits at all, but I hardly ever skip any track on it.
TOW is a different animal though. First class musicians, first class production, first class sound, first class songs (I don’t like Ballroom dancing, but it still has this fantastic clarinet).
If you don’t like it – fine, but obviously it’s very far from being “just horrible” and very far superiour to albums like “Red Rose Speedway”, “Wings wild life” oder “Wings at the speed of sound”.

By: BeatlesFan82

BeatlesFan82 — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 00:34:42 +0000

everything after wings over america and before flowers in the dirt is just horrible. except for “no more lonely nights”, his best 80s song. “dress me up as a robber” from this album is pretty good too, but as a whole it’s a bad album. “pipes of peace” is even worse, there’s not a single good song on that one. tug of war, pipes of peace, give my regards and press to play are so horrible that you can’t make an album out of all of them combined.
I recommend the stuff from RAM up to wings over america, then skip to flowers in the dirt. since flowers up to driving rain he was great. then he started sucking again since chaos.
he’s very unstable, he can be the best genius in pop and rock music in one album and then spend 10 years making awful uninspired albums where nothing happens.
at least his live albums are great.

By: Todd

Todd — Sun, 15 Jul 2018 05:19:50 +0000

People who get certified geniuses when they’re young tend to lose the ability to edit themselves and practice quality control. I think it’s fair to say that of McCartney, of Dylan, and of Prince, all three. Of course, they’re all great and need prove nothing, but in all three cases, their work started getting inconsistent around the time they turned 30. Then, any above-average album would get a “He’s back! He’s turned the corner!” type of critical/fan response.

I do not think any of the Beatles ever escaped the shadow of the Beatles — George’s and John’s solo outputs were no less spotty — but Paul gets more guff for his because it’s gone on the longest and he hasn’t taken any long breaks. Also, some of his uninspired work was commercially successful, so more people know about it. If you go through almost 50 years of Wings/Paul material and choose the cream of the crop, you could make a four-disc box set that would make it look like one triumph after another. But those great tracks get swamped in filler and half-realized ideas. I agree that Tug of War is one of his strongest sets.

By: per

per — Tue, 03 Apr 2018 22:35:42 +0000

Tug of War is the only LP by Wings or McCartney that I was impressed with on the whole. Paul is somewhat of a slouch and George Harrisons remark “Everybody needs someone to tell him what is good” says it all. Without George Martin Tug of war would have been just another uncompleted and to a degree disappointing LP by Paul.

McCartney´s problem is that he does not understand if a song is good and if it is finished. On the other hand, deep inside he knows. He understood that Maybe I´m amazed was good and his favourite on Flaming pie was Souvenir, the best song on that CD. It is his laissez-faire side that so often ruins it. He is a rather lazy composer and lyricist.

By: Patsounds

Patsounds — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 10:29:59 +0000

Still a wonderful album, but I don’t like the 2016 remixed version at all.

By: Metz77

Metz77 — Tue, 06 Dec 2016 02:55:05 +0000

Probably the all-time best McCartney album. There’s maybe two or three tracks that aren’t among the best in his catalogue, and even those are better than most musicians can do on a good day. Wanderlust is the absolute standout track and probably the pinnacle of his career in my opinion.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 20:57:32 +0000

I don’t think TOW is one of Paul’s very best post-Beatles albums – there are too many tracks on it that I skip, and I would never say that about… say, Ram, Band on the Run, Red Rose Speedway – heck, even Flaming Pie. But the songs on it that I do like I like a great deal: “Wanderlust,” “Take It Away,” and “Here Today” deserve the acclaim they’ve already received here, and the title track is suitably grand to merit, well, being the title track. I’d also like to throw in a good word for “The Pound is Sinking.” It is redolent of “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” to it with its shifts in tone and tempo, and his vocal, particularly in the little section toward the end (i.e., “I knew you for a minute, oh it didn’t happen”) is magnificent. On the repackaged remaster release that came out in 2015, there are a couple of tracks that I absolutely adore: “Rainclouds” and “I’ll Give You a Ring” are just perfect Paul, and were apparently B-sides that I like better than their A-sides.

“Ebony and Ivory” is one that I don’t listen to often, I admit. I was a young kid when it was like radio wallpaper, and it hasn’t perhaps aged as well as it might have, but melodically and vocally it’s a beautifully crafted and delivered little song.

By: Lafe Purcell

Lafe Purcell — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 03:16:48 +0000

Say What?!? Take It Away was the album’s big hit??? I could’ve sworn that the song only climbed to number 10 on the U.S. charts. That’s certainly not shabby at all but c’mon, what happened to Ebony And Ivory? I kind of think staying at number 1 for seven weeks AND being ranked as the 59th greatest song of the rock era (Billboard) kind of makes Ebony And Ivory a slightly bigger hit than Take It Away.

I think it’s a question of taste otherwise. My personal favorite on the album was always Wanderlust. I really don’t think McCartney’s voice was ever finer or clearer. Here Today gets a lot of attention due to the subject matter, but had the song been written 5 years earlier it would likely have been easily – and rightly – overlooked as filler. It’s stylistically not a lot different from You Gave Me The Answer and certainly doesn’t deserve to ascend the Olympian heights of songs like Yesterday (or even George’s All Those Years Ago) just because of the weeping violins thrown in for mood.

All that said, I always thought this album was McCartney’s true masterpiece. Conventional opinion says the honor belongs to Band on the Run, but I think that track for track, Tug of War is a more fully realized album with songs that – had they been written by lesser songwriters – would’ve represented career achievements. (Band on the Run would be right behind it.

By: Danny

Danny — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 17:55:36 +0000

Any info about the technical aspects of this recording? It was “mixed digitally” – were the actual tracks recorded to tape and then digitized in the mix?

By: Graham Paterson

Graham Paterson — Sun, 01 Mar 2015 11:23:25 +0000

Tug Of War is a great album and one of McCartneys best solo efforts in conjunction with his old mentor George Martin. Take It Away, the big hit is a brilliant song and a real favorite of mine. As also are the great title track Tug Of War, Ballroom Dancing and the beautiful Wanderlust. But it is his oh so moving tribute to his old partner John Lennon – Here Today – that really takes the cake.