Paul McCartney
Pipes Of Peace

THE REVIEW

After twenty years of continuously producing splendid songs and albums both with the Beatles and with Wings, full of interesting ideas, 1983 sees McCartney releasing a decidedly mediocre work, lacking the engaging and passionate atmospheres of his previous works. In reality, the album is nothing more than a record completed with tracks discarded from "Tug Of War," those composed for the occasion are mostly tired exercises or squalid duets, like "Say Say Say" with Jackson or the insipid "The Man." The only savior is "Pipes Of Peace", an excellent ballad characterized by a piano musical base supported in its progression by the Moog's cues, the melody then flows into a little march where the chorus joins for the refrain, a splendid song, but part of a disastrous work, the video is memorable.

"Keep Under Cover" is a leftover from the last sessions with Wings, chaotic and predictable, but pleasant. "So Bad," sung in falsetto by Paul with Ringo on drums and Eric Stewart on guitar, is simply bad, with an infantile lyric, light-years away from McCartney's best. The rest is routine, a reprise of "Tug Of War" in "Tug Of Peace," another Wings leftover, "Average Person," a dynamic track, the last appearance of Denny Laine in McCartney's life, their relationship ends very badly due to the musician's companion, by chance Japanese, who is poorly tolerated by the McCartneys, and who will push Laine to tell Paul and Linda's private life to "The Sun." The 1993 edition adds "We All Stand Together," from the animated film "Rupert The Bear," part of a much broader work aborted by Paul, recoverable only on Bootleg. What can I say, listened to today, it clearly appears as the lesser work of his catalog, and to think that Paul should have released the long-awaited "Cold Cuts" instead, a much more interesting collection of unreleased tracks still awaiting release today.