Paul McCartney’s third solo album was originally conceived as a Wings release. It was also his first long-player since the death of John Lennon, and contained the tribute song ‘Here Today’, as well as two collaborations with Stevie Wonder.
I wanted to work with George Martin again. I called him on the phone, asking him if he was interested, he accepted and we decided to make a very professional album. It was the first time that George Martin produced me since ‘Live And Let Die’. I really like him as a producer, and when you work with people who are really good like that it makes it easier for yourself. So after ‘Live And Let Die’ I didn’t do anything with George for a while and continued working with Wings and stuff, and on Tug Of War I just thought that it would be nice to have a change. He was interested in working with me again and we got together and made the album. It was as simple as that.
The background
Following the recording and release of McCartney II, Wings reconvened in July 1980 for a series of largely unproductive rehearsals. They took place at Finchden Manor in Tenterden, Kent, and the purpose was an unspecified future project. Among the songs worked on was ‘Ballroom Dancing’, which eventually surfaced on Tug Of War.
Paul and Linda McCartney then flew to France with Wings’ guitarist Laurence Juber. There they spent 10 days working on songs for Ringo Starr’s album Stop And Smell The Roses. McCartney produced five songs at Super Bear Studios in the village of Bear Les Alpes.
Four of the songs were for Starr. Two – ‘Private Property’ and ‘Attention’ – were McCartney compositions. They also recorded a cover version of Carl Perkins’ ‘Sure To Fall (In Love With You)’ and the studio ad-lib ‘You Can’t Fight Lightning’. McCartney also produced an early eight-minute version of Linda’s song ‘Love’s Full Glory’, which was later re-recorded and released on her Wild Prairie album.
In August McCartney, and possibly Denny Laine, made a series of recordings at McCartney’s home studio in Sussex. These were intended for an album to be produced by George Martin, and included the following songs: ‘Ballroom Dancing’, ‘Take It Away’, ‘Keep Under Cover’, ‘Average Person’, ‘Dress Me Up As A Robber’, ‘The Pound Is Sinking’, ‘Sweetest Little Show’, ‘Ebony And Ivory’, ‘Hear Me Lover’, ‘Wanderlust’, ‘The Unbelievable Experience’, ‘We All Stand Together’, ‘Boil Crisis’, ‘Give Us A Chord Roy’, ‘Seems Like Old Times’, and ‘Stop, You Don’t Know Where She Came From’.
Although some of the material was strong, other songs were substandard and Martin told McCartney to write more, saying: “If it’s really going to work out, you’re going to have to accept some stick from me, and you may not like it, because you’ve been your own boss for so long.”
Wings undertook more rehearsals in October 1980 at Park Gate Studios in England. In the same month they convened at Pugins Hall in Tenterden, Kent to begin work on what became Tug Of War. Rehearsals for the album on 30 October were lethargic, tense and lacking any positive energy, and soon afterwards McCartney formally disbanded Wings.
George Martin produced the ‘We All Stand Together’ sessions in October and November 1980, and the following month work began on Tug Of War. Wings’ guitarist Denny Laine played on many of the sessions, but Steve Holly and Laurence Juber took no part. The grounding of Wings was announced on 27 April 1981 following Laine’s decision to leave.
McCartney and Martin wished the project to be a clean slate in terms of songwriting and production, wishing to be flexible and not rely on past methods or musicians.
We decided not to be as restricted, and just write anything and then get in anyone we thought could play it. So we started a new era, working with whoever we thought was most suitable for the tune. If it was a thing that needed [drummer] Steve Gadd’s particular kind of thing, we decided we’d get him, rather than just asking someone to be like Steve Gadd.
George Martin’s discipline and unwillingness to accept substandard material meant there was a great deal of surplus. McCartney had written a large number of songs, giving him enough for a double album, but it was decided that they should be split in two. The first of these, Tug Of War, was to focus on “the struggle of opposites”, while the next album, Pipes Of Peace, was “the answer to the struggle – peace, love, positive”.
Tug Of War was the stronger of the two. Martin sifted through the numerous songs and chose the best, while simultaneously introducing some much-needed discipline to the sessions. Both men were also aware that McCartney II had divided fans and critics, and a hit was needed if McCartney’s solo career were to take off.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
Still a wonderful album, but I don’t like the 2016 remixed version at all.
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.
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.
I agree with you.
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.
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”.
Yes, much better than “Red Rose Speedway”, “Wings wild life” oder “Wings at the speed of sound”.
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.
Definitely one of Paul’s best albums. This really is the album we knew he could make and it didn’t disappoint. There’s a lot of variety with the songs he wrote and recorded. I’m glad George Martin produced it because he made this album great. McCartney himself is a good producer too.
Martin not only produced it, but also told McCartney to work on his songs for the album until they were fully developed. That is the biggest difference compared to all McCartney´s other albums. He had to work and work on the songs until Martin okayed them. That sort of input is what McCartney has always needed and still needs the most.
Tug of war is a good album, but in spite of that not as good as beatle-Paul material. This is one difference between Paul and John: John sometimes published self-penned songs who´s basic material holds Beatles quality, but McCartney has very rarely done that. He is more of a quantity before quality artist.
John Lennon songs from his solo career, that in my opinion holds about the same song material quality as his songs for The Beatles:
Imagine
Jealous guy
Gimme some truth
(Just like) Starting over
Watching the wheels
Woman
Free as a bird
Real love
Grow old with me
Mother
Working class hero
Isolation
Woman is the n—-r of the world
Paul McCartney songs from his solo career, that in my opinion holds about the same song material quality as his songs for The Beatles:
Maybe I´m amazed
Uncle Albert
No words (Chords, melodies and words basically by Denny Laine)
Ditto songs written by McCartney after Lennon´s death:
Souvenir
From a lover to a friend
Friends to go
I like McCartney´s and Lennon´s Beatles songs equally.
I strongly disagree. Looking at your list of Lennon’s supposedly Beatles worthy solo songs I would actually rate these as quantity over quality. Many of them are of the confessional soft/dad rock type for my liking. Many of McCartney’s solo songs are absurdly overlooked. I guess it’s all down to opinion though. In the seventies, both John and Paul wrote in equal measure tracks worthy of any Beatles album – just as they did when they were together in the Beatles.
Your point of view is really interesting. It is obvious that subjectivity is important when it comes to what music one likes. On the other hand it is an objective fact that practically everyone likes the material of The Beatles much more than that of Lennon and McCartney from rheir solo careers. This says a lot.
Which songs from McCartney´s solo career do you find overlooked?
I find George’s comments on Paul’s solo efforts to be rather hypocritical, arrogant even. After all much of George’s solo output after All Things Must Pass wasn’t exactly stellar; perhaps he was the one who needed to learn the difference between a good song and a bad song.
I definitely agree with you regarding that George Harrison needed someone to tell him what material he should and should not release.
George was not a very good songwriter. In my opinion he is very overrated as such. Other artists, among them McCartney, have said that he was such a good songwriter, but I wonder if they believe it themselves. Even All things must pass is not very good. My Sweet Lord is wonderful, but he stole that one. The rest of the songs are never better than the rating 5/10.
The thing is, George would not have been able to write better songs even if he had gotten honest feed back. The somewhat tragic fact about Paul, though, is that he could have done that.
I was amused to find out Wanderlust is basically a drug song (named for the boat Wings rented in the Caribbean during London Town sessions, to hang out and smoke dope on) ?