Paul McCartney - Pipes of Peace
Written by: Moti Kupfer
Release date - 31.10.1983
There are moments in an artist's life when he changes phase and matures, a process that not every artist pulls off successfully. In the early 80s, Paul McCartney lost his Beatles songwriting partner, John Lennon, who was murdered, and he closed the rock chapter with the members of "Wings".
McCartney, who was getting closer to 40, realized it was time to change musical direction. He began leaning toward soft rock and R&B, and when the first opportunity for an interesting collaboration came along, he performed "Ebony and Ivory" with a musician no less talented than himself, Stevie Wonder.
McCartney didn't stop there, and in the same year he took under his wing a singer who was both new and old, someone everybody already knew from the Jackson 5: Michael Jackson. Jackson, for whom 1982 became his worldwide breakout year, received friendly treatment from McCartney.
"Working with Paul was very exciting, and funny. We'd tell each other jokes, and we simply enjoyed each other's company," Jackson said. By the way, if you ask McCartney, he'll tell you that the work with Jackson wasn't deep, and yet he enjoyed his company and gave him an important tip for life.
One evening, when the McCartneys sat down to eat with Michael Jackson, Paul took out a booklet listing all the songs whose rights he owns and waved it in front of Jackson's astonished eyes, saying: "This is the way to make a lot of money. Every time someone records one of these songs, or the song gets played on the radio, I get paid for it."
After McCartney and Jackson recorded "The Girl Is Mine" together for the album "Thriller", they recorded "Say Say Say" almost in parallel for McCartney's solo album "Pipes of Peace", released on October 31, 1983.
In "Say Say Say", Jackson pleads for the love of a girl who, apparently, doesn't quite return it. The unforgettable video, in which the McCartneys star, with McCartney and Jackson playing a pair of con-artist magicians, was directed by Bob Giraldi, who also directed the video for Michael's "Beat It". The album's sound was engineered by none other than Geoff Emerick, the sound engineer of "The Beatles".
Most of the songs on the album "Pipes of Peace" were written and recorded some time earlier, during the sessions for the previous album, "Tug of War". "I thought of releasing a double album," McCartney said, "but the record company was wary of going in that direction, so some of the songs that didn't make it onto 'Tug of War' found their place on 'Pipes of Peace'." Both albums were produced by George Martin.
The title track, "Pipes of Peace", which seems so naive today, talks about the future of the world for our children, with the grown-ups required to show the kids that all human beings are the same and all are equal. A somewhat naive statement, comparable to the no-less-naive "Imagine" by Lennon. The song's video recreates the Christmas Day truce of 1914, which took place between Allied soldiers and Germans on the Western Front during World War I.
In "The Other Me", McCartney grapples with his fears and with the other self within him, which can be read as his dark side.
The song "So Bad" began as a family improvisation around the piano in the McCartney home, with lyrics that express a sense of security in someone who is loved by their relatives, even when experiencing unrequited love.
Another collaboration between Michael and Paul appears in "The Man", whose obscure lyrics McCartney explained through Jackson's eyes, as Jackson believes that "The Man" is, in fact, God.
One of the songs McCartney most enjoyed writing was "Average Person", about a fictional character in the style of Eleanor Rigby. "I really enjoyed dreaming up some character and then writing that character's story."
The album ends with the love song "Through Our Love", written by Paul for his wife Linda, whom he loved for almost 30 years, until her passing in April 1998.
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music
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