The great British public, the cynical bunch that we are, have not always taken the post-Beatles Paul McCartney all that seriously. Other than his undisputedly monumental achievements with The Beatles, the first thing some of us may think of is that tune he wrote for Rupert the Bear. Some even believe that he has not achieved anything musically significant since he left the band in 1970. Paul is, to some degree, a victim of his own past in that everything he has ever released over the course of his 47-year career with Wings and as a solo artist has either been compared with his work with The Beatles, or if not, with Wings’ iconic 1973 album Band On the Run. I have lost count of the number of reviews I have read of new McCartney albums that boldly hail them as ‘his best work since Sgt Pepper’ or ‘his best work since Band On the Run’. And it has become rather tiresome. Music should be appreciated on its own merit, regardless of whatever went before.
Paul has been a consistently prolific writer over the years and has released a vast array of material, constantly exploring new ideas and broadening his own musical horizons. Few artists can claim to have been so productive for so long. Some of his albums have been more experimental than others and with arguably mixed results. 1986’s Press to Play was one such example. This album, though far from a disaster, received a somewhat lukewarm reception and has perhaps not stood the test of time particularly well. The follow-up, however, was another matter entirely.
Flowers in the Dirt, which recently became the tenth album to be released as part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection series, was originally released in June 1989 and was perhaps his most cohesive set of songs for some time. Listening to the album, there is a distinct feeling that Paul has made an especially concerted effort to make a solid and well-produced record. Indeed, for the first time in a decade, he was intent on going out on an extensive world tour behind this album and therefore wanted to make an album that was worthy of such an undertaking. He was evidently happy with the result, as he would subsequently embark on the Paul McCartney World Tour which stretched from September 1989 to July 1990 and took in a total of 103 shows, and was later documented by the Tripping the Live Fantastic album.
Work on Flowers in the Dirt began as far back as 1987 and recording took place over the following two years, involving numerous producers from a variety of musical backgrounds including the likes of Mitchell Froom, Neil Dorfsman, Steve Lipson, Chris Hughes, David Foster, Trevor Horn, George Martin and Paul himself. The result was a diverse mixture of songs, from acoustic based songs such as ‘Distractions’ and ‘Put it There’, to more electronic driven recordings such as ‘Rough Ride’ and ‘Ou Est Le Soleil?’
Another of Paul’s collaborators during this period was one Declan MacManus – better known as Elvis Costello. The two of them struck up a songwriting partnership circa 1987. The first result we heard of this was a song called ‘Back On My Feet’, which appeared as the B-side to ‘Once Upon a Long Ago’, from the All the Best compilation. Four of the songs they co-wrote were to make it onto Flowers in the Dirt, including the Beatles-esque lead single ‘My Brave Face’. The contrast of songwriting styles between Paul and Elvis is plain to hear on all of these songs, and they were a demonstration of just how formidable a partnership this was. Sitting together with acoustic guitars in Paul’s office above his Sussex studio, the two men would write songs together and then, immediately upon finishing them, head downstairs to make stripped down, basic recordings of their new creations. These wonderful recordings have now been released on a bonus disc with the Archive edition of the album. There is enough material here for a separate album in its own right, and it is fascinating to hear these songs at the very beginning of their life – “hot off the skillet” as Paul himself has worded it.
The fact that ‘My Brave Face’ did have that slightly Beatles-esque feel was a sign that Paul was finally ready to embrace his past, where previously he had seemed to want to escape from it. As has been well-documented, the break up of The Beatles had been somewhat acrimonious, but after nineteen years it was perhaps time to look back at the happier memories of his time with the band. Indeed, the setlists on the subsequent world tour were to be dominated by Beatles material. Even the Höfner violin bass made a comeback (with Elvis Costello’s encouragement during the recording of Flowers), and Paul has continued to use the instrument extensively ever since.
The whole album does seem to represent the beginning of a new era for Paul. He now had a steady band with whom he would tour and record over the next four or five years, and certainly when you consider tracks such as the uplifting ‘Figure of Eight’, or the big sound of ‘We Got Married’ featuring his sometime collaborator David Gilmour, his music seemed more robust than it had been for some years both in terms of the songwriting itself and the quality of production.
The deluxe set of new Archive edition of the album is as lavish as we have come to expect from the series. Everything that you can possibly imagine, including the kitchen sink, is thrown at these releases. Flowers in the Dirt takes the form of a large slipcase boxed set, beautifully covered with the album’s original artwork. The set features a book on the making of the album with interviews with Paul, the production team and his band members of the time, a facsimile notebook with handwritten notes and lyrics by Paul, a photo book with images from the making of the promotional videos for ‘This One’, and a catalogue of Linda McCartney’s 1989 Flowers in the Dirt artwork exhibition at The Mayor Gallery, London.And I almost forgot…they’ve also included some music with this set. The first disc is the remastered album itself. As has been the case with all the previous Archive releases, the remastering has brought the very best out of the original recording and the album is sounding just about as good as it ever has. The quality of these Archive remasters makes the 1993 Paul McCartney Collection remasters sound pedestrian by comparison – a clear demonstration of how far remastering has come over the last twenty years or so. The character of the original recordings has been retained, whilst enhancing their fidelity as much as possible. As mentioned previously, the second disc features Paul and Elvis Costello’s original 1987 demos, which once again sound sublime.
Also included with the set is a third disc featuring these same songs at the next stage of their evolution, recorded with Paul’s band during 1988. These make for fascinating listening, as it is interesting to hear how the songs that did make it onto the album evolved into their final versions. ‘Don’t Be Careless Love’, for instance, had a much more pronounced reggae feel when the demo was recorded. And I must mention here that the final track on this disc in particular, ‘Playboy to a Man’, is an outstanding recording. The fourth disc is a DVD which includes all the music videos produced for the singles from Flowers, as well as the excellent Put it There documentary made at the time of the album’s original release. There is also some wonderful behind-the-scenes footage included here, showing Paul and Elvis obviously having the time of their lives during some of the early recording sessions.
My one criticism of the set is that all the associated B-sides and remixes, normally included on one of the bonus CDs, have been made available as downloads only which can be accessed via the Paul McCartney website using a unique code. Given that these sets are not exactly cheap, you wouldn’t think it would hurt just to find the space for one extra disc. Still, there are some gems amongst this bonus material, a highlight being ‘Lovliest Thing’ which is, as its title suggests, rather lovely.
Realistically, Flowers in the Dirt is not among the most historically significant albums Paul has released. Though it was a critical and commercial success at the time of its release, it has not remained firmly within the public consciousness, and its lengthy and somewhat complicated production may well be an explanation for the more guitar based nature of his next album Off the Ground, released in early 1993. Nevertheless, Flowers in the Dirt was a strong effort which featured some of Paul’s strongest compositions for some time. It was proof, if any was needed, that his musical talents are just as remarkable whether with The Beatles, Wings or otherwise and deserve to appreciated as such.
Mike's Musical Musings 