Paul McCartney- Tug Of War
Donovan Barabajagal
iPod on Shuffle:
Dowie Den’s Of Yarrow- Shelagh McDonald
Smile For Me- Huey “Piano” Smith
Yeah Yeah Yeah- Chuck Martin
Wild Horses- Johnny Hammond
Hate & War- The Clash
The Wah-Watusi- The Orlons
True Blue- Rod Stewart
Turn To Stone- Joe Walsh
Chuck E’s In Love- Rickie Lee Jones
I Do Not Miss You- Glenn Tilbrook
Heaven- Eurythmics
Do It Ina Dance Hall Dub- Sly & Robbie
Get Down Make Love (Early Take) - Queen
Deliver Your Children- Wings
9 comments:
How was Tug of War for you? It's the first solo McCartney I ever bought and I think it's a really good collection of songs. "What's That You're Doing" w Stevie Wonder is for me the funkiest McCartney ever got and convincingly so. The lesser stuff is enlivened by George Martin's production and well maybe I'm blinded by my association with it for so long. Pipes of Peace is weak, but Tug of War is delightful.
"It's the first solo McCartney I ever bough"
That means actually purchased, not first solo album you ever heard, correct?
I really like "Tug Of War." I don't think it's as great as a lot of critics say. Last four songs on Side Two kill the record for me. But I love what I love.
Appreciate your conversation. I purchased Tug of War upon its release but, for me it fared poorly - there were a lot of great albums that year (https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres82.php). This morning I gave the album a fresh listen after decades of absence. I really enjoyed it and suspect will listen again sooner. My lord is ‘Ebony and Ivory’ terrible!
Because of your share, I’ll now give London Town a new start (fingers crossed). Thanks for all you do. :)
Oh, I never heard ANYTHING until I bought it. Wasn't possible. None of my siblings were into music. The radio would be on in the car. My older brother Chris had maybe four vinyl albums -- The Who -- Who's Next, some Three Dog Night -- maybe Harmony, a Chicago album and if you put a gun to my head I still couldn't guess which one and Led Zeppelin III. I never heard any of them. And that was it for music in the home. When I worked at Publix as a bagboy, I saved all my money and was the first kid in the family to buy a stereo (cassette/radio w separate speakers). I asked for advice on what to buy and my sister Tricia who has never cared about music told my 13 year old self to buy Bread's Greatest Hits. Yeah, I was on my own. So I did buy the later Beatles albums on cassette but I never even heard all of them until they were released on CD. And my first Paul McCartney album I ever heard was Tug of War. Sadly, the second one was Pipes of Peace. I do dig the Carl Perkins duet; I think it's fun. That really just leaves a brief instrumental, "Dress Me Up As A Robber" (by far the weakest track on the album) and the heartfelt if too long "Ebony and Ivory," which I can accept. So to me just one weak track, one over-played bit of lovable schmaltz and the rest very strong. Side One is perfect and Side Two is fun until "Robber."
Hey, even Robert Christgau has Tug of War on his list! :) Is there a year without great music? I don't think so, assuming you love a lot of genres. Here's my 1982 list, though I do need to check out some of Christgau's picks. (Hey, I was just a kid then!)
THE BEST ALBUMS OF 1982
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN -- Nebraska
PHILIP GLASS -- Glassworks/Koyaanisqatsi
RICHARD AND LINDA THOMPSON -- Shoot Out The Lights
MICHAEL JACKSON -- Thriller
ELVIS COSTELLO -- Imperial Bedroom
ROXY MUSIC -- Avalon
DONALD FAGEN -- The Nightfly
PAUL MCCARTNEY -- Tug Of War
JAMES BOOKER -- Classified
BILLY JOEL -- The Nylon Curtain
VANGELIS -- Blade Runner
PETER GABRIEL -- Peter Gabriel (Security)
GEORGE WINSTON -- December
CHUCK BERRY -- The Great 28
VARIOUS ARTISTS -- Dreamgirls (Original Broadway Cast Album)
STEVIE WONDER -- Stevie Wonder's Original Musiquarium I
ABC -- The Lexicon Of Love
THE EAGLES -- Eagles Greatest Hits Vol. 2
PRINCE -- 1999
THE ENGLISH BEAT -- Special Beat Service
NEIL DIAMOND -- 12 Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
KING SUNNY ADE -- Juju Music
TOM WAITS -- One From The Heart
JOE JACKSON -- Night and Day
SQUEEZE -- Singles: 45's And Under
LYDIA MENDOZA -- La Alondra de la Frontera: Live!
TOM PETTY -- Long After Dark
DURAN DURAN -- Rio
DIRE STRAITS -- Love Over Gold
R.E.M. -- Chronic Town
First listen to Wings’ London Town since its release and I really enjoyed it. At the time of its release the only song I liked was ‘Girl’s School’ which was a double A-side single with ‘Mull of Kintyre’, and not even on the album. The album has aged well for me and I prefer it to Tug of War (at the moment. Lol!)
Clarification of my ‘lot of great albums that year’ comment: It was really geared more towards the limited finances of a college student. I don’t think minimum wage was even $4/hr and albums cost $7- $10 each. So there were serious opportunity costs related to one’s choices. Limited access to new music and even less access to money. Lol!
That’s a really solid ‘best of’ for 1982. At the time, I had about a dozen of the albums on your list (mainly major labels). Over the years I’ve picked up another dozen plus and became familiar with many others (CD reissues and streaming). Here are 15 vinyl albums that I had in 1982 that I believe qualify for best albums of the year that weren’t mentioned on either list - for consideration:
Yaz - Upstairs at Eric’s
Eddie Money - No Control
Icehouse - Primitive Man
Toto - IV
Rush - Signals
Oingo Boingo - Nothing to Fear
The Motels - All Four One
Paul Carrack - Suburban Voodoo
Nick Lowe - Nick the Knife
The Time - What Time Is It?
Simple Minds - New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)
Talking Heads - The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads
Psychedelic Furs - Forever Now
Paul Collins’ Beat - The Kids Are The Same
Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance
For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why I didn’t own either 1999 or Thriller in 1982. Research revealed that both were released at the end of the year and didn’t register until early the following year with the release of ‘Little Red Corvette’ and ‘Billie Jean’, respectively - both second singles from the albums. ‘1999’ didn’t crack the Top 40 upon it’s initial release (recall that Prince got booed off the stage as an opener for The Rolling Stones at the LA Coliseum TWICE just the year before) and Jackson’s ‘The Girl Is Mine’, while a hit, is not the strongest song on Thriller (closer to ‘Ebony & Ivory’ than ‘Beat It’).
Thanks for sharing your list. There’s a few I need to give a listen to. It was fun to reminisce. Have a great day! :)
How great is Paul Carrack's "Suburban Voodoo?" I still play that record and may just need to play it today.
I'm with you on Suburban Voodoo--still a regular play around these parts too.
Bill
Definitely with Voodoo! One of those albums that came out of nowhere - wasn’t on the radio or talked about but thankfully it found me. Lol! David Lindley’s El-Rayo-X the year before was like that for me. Constant rotation then and often played now.
Really enjoyed the Lydia Mendoza and King Sunny Ade (it been awhile for the King). Thank you again for sharing.
Please update my ‘best of’ to include Split Enz ‘Time and Tide’ - how I failed to remember this album is genuinely concerning to me. Lol! Heavy rotation for a couple years. Arguably their best.
Thanks again for all you do. BW forever!
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