Pipes of Peace

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Pipes of Peace
Paul McCartney's studio album

Publication
(s)

October 22, 1983 ( US )
October 31, 1983 ( UK )

Label (s)

Format (s)

LP , MC , CD , download

Genre (s)

skirt

Title (number)

11

running time

38 min 58 s

occupation
  • Hughie Burns: guitar
  • Geoff Whitehorn: guitar
  • Gavin Wright: violin
  • Jerry Hey: Strings, horn
  • Gary Herbig: flute
  • Chris Hammer Smith: Harmonica
  • Gary Grant: Horn
  • Dave Mattacks: drums

production

George Martin

Studio (s)

chronology
Tug of War
(1982) 		Pipes of Peace Give My Regards to Broad Street
(1984)

Pipes of Peace ( English peace pipes ) is the fifth solo album by Paul McCartney . Including the Wings albums, it is Paul McCartney's 15th album after the Beatles split up . It was released on October 22, 1983 in the US and on October 31, 1983 in the UK.

Emergence

McCartney had already worked with George Martin on the single We All Stand Together for the short animated film Rupert and the Frog Song in October / November 1980 . Martin eventually also became the producer of the planned new album McCartney, which both recorded in early December 1980 at Martin's AIR Studios in London . It was his first collaboration with George Martin since the hit James Bond film single Live and Let Die from 1973. When John Lennon was shot in front of his apartment in early December 1980, McCartney stopped working on the album and withdrew back from the public. From February 1981 McCartney stayed on the island of Montserrat , where he continued to work with George Martin on his new album, which was finally released in April 1982 under the title Tug of War after mixing .

Numerous songs had been written on Montserrat, so it was originally considered to release Tug of War as a double album. This was discarded for reasons of cost. Instead, songs that " failed the tough Tug of War selection process " such as Average Person , Sweetest Little Show , Keep Under Cover and Hey Hey were released on Pipes of Peace . Ode to a Koala Bear became the B-side of Say Say Say .

While Tug of War includes two duets with Stevie Wonder , two duets with Michael Jackson have now been released on Pipes of Peace . Jackson had already covered Paul McCartney's Girlfriend in 1979 and released it on his LP Off the Wall . Both finally worked in April and November 1981 on Say Say Say and The Man and in March / April 1982 in Los Angeles on the single The Girl Is Mine , which was released as the first duet in October 1982 and in November 1982 on Jackson's album Thriller appeared.

In May and June 1982 McCartney worked on Pipes of Peace at AIR Studios in London , followed by the recording of the title song Pipes of Peace in October , on which the Pestalozzi Children's Village Choir participated, among others. Other songs recorded for the album after Montserrat were The Other Me , So Bad , Tug of Peace and Through Our Love . Work on the album was delayed, however, because McCartney devoted himself to his film project Broad Street from early November 1982 . Originally the album was supposed to be released under the title Tug of War II on February 7, 1983, then the release date was postponed to April 1983, which was then not kept.

Filming for the film Broad Street was largely over in May 1983, so McCartney continued to work on Pipes of Peace in London in June and July 1983 .

As a pre-coupling of the album was released on October 3, 1983, the duet with Michael Jackson Say Say Say , which reached number 1 in the United States and number 2 in Great Britain. However, it cannot be ruled out that the success of the single was due to duet partner Michael Jackson, who was very successful with his album Thriller in 1983 .

The album was finally released on October 31, 1983, it is the first album by Paul McCartney that no longer reached the top ten in the US charts.

Cover design

Vincent van Gogh: Vincent's Chair with a Pipe , 1888

The cover shows a chair with various flutes and pipes protruding into the picture. The photo was taken by Linda McCartney . The chair refers to Vincent van Gogh's painting Vincent's Chair with a Pipe from 1888, which was printed on the inner cover together with the lyrics.

Track list

Paul McCartney wrote the songs on the album, except Say Say Say and The Man were created in collaboration with Michael Jackson and were also recorded as duets. Hey Hey McCartney was writing with Stanley Clarke .

page 1
  1. Pipes of Peace - 3:56
  2. Say Say Say - 3:55
  3. The Other Me - 3:58
  4. Keep Under Cover - 3:05
  5. Sun bath - 3:20
Page 2
  1. The Man - 3:55
  2. Sweetest Little Show - 2:54
  3. Average Person - 4:33
  4. Hey Hey - 2:54
  5. Tug of Peace - 2:54
  6. Through Our Love - 3:28

Information on individual songs

  • The CD bonus song Twice in a Lifetime was also recorded during the Pipes of Peace sessions and was originally intended for a feature film of the same name. The song was not used then.
  • We All Stand Together was recorded in October / November 1980 and was only released as a single in November 1984.
  • Simple as That was recorded after the press-to-play sessions and released in November 1986 on the compilation LP The Anti-Heroin Project-It's A Live-In World .

Re-releases

  • In February 1984 the album was first released on CD without bonus tracks. The CD is accompanied by a twelve-page booklet with illustrations containing the lyrics.
  • In April 1993 the CD was released in a version remastered by Peter Mew . The CD comes with a twelve-page illustrated booklet containing information on the album and the lyrics to the song. The album has the following three bonus tracks:
  1. Twice in a Lifetime - 2:59
  2. We All Stand Together - 4:22
  3. Simple as That - 4:17
  • In May 2007 the album was released in download format.
  • In October 2015, Pipes of Peace , remastered for the second time, was released by the music label Hear Music / Concord Music Group as part of The Paul McCartney Archive Collection . The remastering was done by Alex Wharton at Abbey Road Studios . The CD album has a cardboard cover that can be opened and which is accompanied by an 18-page illustrated booklet containing information about the album and the lyrics to the song. The design comes from the company YES.

It appeared in the following formats:

  • Standard Edition Two CDs: The original 11-track album with a bonus CD that contains the following songs, some of which have not been released before:
  1. Average Person [Demo] - 4:05
  2. Keep Under Cover [Demo] - 3:44
  3. Sweetest Little Show [demo] - 3:00
  4. It's Not On [Demo] - 2:56
  5. Simple As That [Demo] - 3:16
  6. Say Say Say [2015 Remix] - 6:59
  7. Ode to a Koala Bear (B-side) - 3:48
  8. Twice in a Lifetime (bonus song from 1993 re-release) - 3:02
  9. Christian Bop (instrumental, previously unreleased, song) - 2:03
  • Deluxe Edition The original 11-track album with the bonus CD mentioned above, additionally with a DVD and a 112-page bound book as well as another 64-page book with pictures and notes, the edition also contains a code to download the album the bonus titles. The DVD has the following content:
  1. Pipes of Peace (music video)
  2. So Bad (music video)
  3. Say Say Say (music video)
  4. Hey Hey in Montserrat (3 minute documentary)
  5. Behind the Scenes at AIR Studios (6 minutes documentary)
  6. The Man (4 minute documentary)
  • The album was also released as a vinyl version as a double LP (newly remastered) including the nine bonus tracks; the LP also contains a code to download the album with the bonus tracks.
  • In October 2015, the song Say Say Say [2015 Remix] - Instrumental - 3:41 was made available as a free download from Paul McCartney's official website.
  • On November 17, 2017, the vinyl album by Capitol Records was released , pressed on 180 grams of silver-colored vinyl.

Single releases

Say Say Say

On October 3, 1983, the single Say Say Say / Ode to a Koala Bear was released   and became the ninth and so far last number one hit for Paul McCartney in the United States. The 12 ″ -maxi single contains the following songs: Say Say Say (Special Version) / Say Say Say (Instrumental) / Ode to a Koala Bear . The two mixes of Say Say Say were made by John "Jellybean" Benitez and have not yet been released on CD. Ode to a Koala Bear comes from the Tug of War recording sessions.

The promotional 7 ″ vinyl single in the USA contains the stereo version of the A side on both sides . Of Say Say Say a 12 "-Promotionsingle was published in the United States.

Pipes of Peace

The second single in Europe Pipes of Peace / So Bad   took place on December 5, 1983 and became the third and so far last number one hit for Paul McCartney in Great Britain. The A-side was shortened at the beginning and at the end of the song.

So bathroom

The second single in the US was So Bad / Pipes of Peace .

The promotional 7 ″ vinyl single in the USA contains the stereo version of the A side on both sides.

Further single releases

  • On February 13, 1985, the third single The Man / Blackpool with the catalog number Parlophone R 6066 should appear. Blackpool is a previously unreleased song; In addition, it was planned to release a 12 ″ maxi single with a new mix of the A-side and an instrumental version. The single was not released.
  • In Peru , however, the single The Man / Through Our Love   and in the Philippines The Man / So Bad was   released. A 7 ″ promotional single was also released in Peru, Spain and Mexico .
  • On November 27, 2015, on the occasion of Record Store Day, the 12 ″ vinyl single: Say Say Say [2015 Remix] / Say Say Say [Instrumental] was released . The A-side was remixed by Mark “Spike” Stent, the B-side is the 1983 remix by John “Jellybean” Benitez. A promotional CD single containing a shorter version has also been released in the UK.

Music videos

Music videos were turned to the single A sides.

Chart placements

year album Chart placements annotation
DE AT CH UK US
1983 Pipes of Peace 20th 15th 12 4th 15th The album also reached number 11 in the Dutch charts, number 4 in the Swedish charts, number 1 in the Norwegian charts and number 38 in the New Zealand charts.
2015 Pipes of Peace (re-release) - - - 56 -
year Single release Chart placements annotation
DE AT CH UK US
1983 Say Say Say
Pipes of Peace 		12 10 2 2 1 Duet with Michael Jackson. The title also reached number 8 in the Dutch charts, number 2 in the Belgian (Flemish) charts, number 1 in the Swedish and Norwegian charts and number 10 in the New Zealand charts.
1983 Pipes of Peace
Pipes of Peace 		43 - - 1 (-) Pipes of Peace was released in the United States as the B-side of So Bad . The title reached number 34 in the Dutch charts and number 36 in the Belgian charts (Flemish).
1983 So bad
pipes of peace 		nv nv nv nv 23 The title was published in the United States only; as the B-side it contained the title Pipes of Peace .

Sales figures and awards

Country / Region Award Sales
Awards for music sales
(country / region, Award, Sales)
United States (RIAA) United States (RIAA) Platinum record icon.svg platinum 1,000,000
United Kingdom (BPI) United Kingdom (BPI) Platinum record icon.svg platinum 300,000
All in all Platinum record icon.svg 2 × platinum
 1,300,000

criticism

The critics received Pipes of Peace rather negatively. The Rolling Stone awarded the album two out of five stars. He called it "flooded with love" and found that McCartney's "love boat" nearly capsized in the waves of self-made love. McCartney tries to be so average that he creates below average music. Pipes of Peace is at most a second class ("mediocre") work by McCartney. allmusic wrote that McCartney appeared on the album like an aging rocker who was desperately trying to keep up with the times. Nevertheless, Pipes of Peace is "lovable, engaging soft rock" at its best.

The songs were "overall more lightweight or fragmentary and often consisted of anemic character studies or casual assurances," said McCartney biographer Peter Carlin, summarizing the album.

literature

  • Chip Madinger and Mark Easter: Eight Arms To Hold You - The Solo Compendium . 44.1 Productions 2000, ISBN 0-615-11724-4 (pp. 268-271).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Tug of War on paulmccartney.com
  2. ^ Judith Philipp, Ralf Simon: Listen to What the Man Said. Paul McCartney and his songs. A complete retrospective of the records, videos & films . Pendragon, Bielefeld 1991, pp. 117-188.
  3. ^ A b Peter Ames Carlin: Paul McCartney. The biography . Hannibal, Höfen 2010, p. 351.
  4. ^ Judith Philipp, Ralf Simon: Listen to What the Man Said. Paul McCartney and his songs. A complete retrospective of the records, videos & films . Pendragon, Bielefeld 1991, pp. 231-232.
  5. ^ Judith Philipp, Ralf Simon: Listen to What the Man Said. Paul McCartney and his songs. A complete retrospective of the records, videos & films . Pendragon, Bielefeld 1991, p. 232.
  6. ↑ See Pipes of Peace on beatlesbible.com
  7. ↑ Single: Say Say Say
  8. ↑ Maxi single: Say Say Say
  9. ↑ Promotional single : Say Say Say
  10. ↑ Promotion 12 ″ -Maxi single: Say Say Say
  11. ↑ Single: Pipes of Peace
  12. ↑ Single: So Bad
  13. ↑ Promotional single : So Bad
  14. ↑ Peruvian single: The Man / Through Our Love
  15. ↑ Single: The Man / So Bad
  16. ↑ Peruvian promotional single: The Man
  17. ^ Spanish promotional single: The Man
  18. ↑ Mexican promotional single: The Man
  19. ↑ 12 ″ -Maxi single: Say Say Say [2015 Remix ]
  20. ↑ British CD promotion single: Say Say Say (2015 Remix Edit)
  21. ↑ Chart sources: hitparade.ch , allmusic.com
  22. ↑ See overview on hitparade.ch
  23. ↑ Chart sources: allmusic.com
  24. ↑ See overview on hitparade.ch
  25. ↑ See hitparade.ch
  26. ↑ "McCartney's love boat all but capsizes in the waves of almost opiated good feeling that swell over it from all sides." Cf. Parke Puterbaugh: Paul McCartney. Pipes of Peace . In: Rolling Stone , January 19, 1984 ( online ).
  27. ↑ Parke Puterbaugh: Paul McCartney. Pipes of Peace . In: Rolling Stone , January 19, 1984 ( online ).
  28. ↑ "sounding like an aging rocker desperately trying to keep up with the time" Stephen Thomas Erlewine: Paul McCartney: Pipes of Peace. Review . allmusic.com.
  29. ↑ "ingratiating soft rock" Stephen Thomas Erlewine: Paul McCartney Pipes of Peace. Review . allmusic.com.