UK release date:
Oct 31, 1983
US release date:
Oct 31, 1983

Master release


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Track list

Disc 1


1.

Pipes Of Peace

Written by Paul McCartney

3:56 • Studio versionA

Paul McCartney :
Arrangement, Backing vocals, Bass, Drums (?), Piano, Shaker (?), Synthesizer (?), Tambourine (?), Vocals
Linda McCartney :
Backing vocals
Eric Stewart :
Backing vocals
George Martin :
Arrangement, Producer
Geoff Emerick :
Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
Jon Jacobs :
Mixing engineer assistant, Recording engineer assistant
Adrian Brett :
Pan flute
James Kippen :
Tabla
Pestalozzi's Children Choir :
Choir
Unknown musician(s) :
Horns, Strings

Session Recording:
Sep 10, 1982
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Overdubs :
October 1982
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Session Mixing:
Jun 30, 1983
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Credits & recording details courtesy of Luca Perasi • Buy Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989 on Amazon


2.

Say Say Say

Written by Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson

3:56 • Studio versionA

Paul McCartney :
Arrangement, Backing vocals, Electric guitar (?), Electric piano (?), Percussion (?), Synthesizers (?), Vocals
Linda McCartney :
Backing vocals
Michael Jackson :
Backing vocals, Vocals
Eric Stewart :
Backing vocals
George Martin :
Arrangement, Producer
Geoff Emerick :
Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
Jon Jacobs :
Mixing engineer assistant, Recording engineer assistant
Jerry Hey :
Horns
Nathan Watts :
Bass
Bill Wolfer :
Keyboards, Synthesizers
David Williams :
Electric guitar
Chris Smith :
Harmonica
Ricky Lawson :
Drums
Ernie Watts :
Horns
Gary E. Grant :
Horns
Gary Herbig :
Horns

Session Recording:
May 1981
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK ; Odyssey Studios, London, UK

Session Recording:
April 1982
Studio :
Cherokee Studios, Los Angeles, USA ; Sigma Sound Studios, New York City, USA

Session Mixing:
Feb 15, 1983
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Credits & recording details courtesy of Luca Perasi • Buy Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989 on Amazon


3.

The Other Me

Written by Paul McCartney

3:59 • Studio versionA

Paul McCartney :
Acoustic guitar, Arrangement, Backing vocals, Bass (?), Electric guitar (?), Keyboards (?), Piano (?), Tambourine (?), Vocals
George Martin :
Arrangement, Producer
Geoff Emerick :
Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
Jon Jacobs :
Mixing engineer assistant, Recording engineer assistant

Session Recording:
Jan 11, 1983
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Session Mixing:
Jul 06, 1983
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Credits & recording details courtesy of Luca Perasi • Buy Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989 on Amazon


4.

Keep Under Cover

Written by Paul McCartney

3:06 • Studio versionA

Paul McCartney :
Acoustic guitar, Arrangement, Backing vocals, Drums (?), Electric guitar, Piano, Vocals
Linda McCartney :
Backing vocals, Tambourine (?)
Denny Laine :
Acoustic guitar (?), Electric guitar (?)
Stanley Clarke :
Bass
Eric Stewart :
Backing vocals
George Martin :
Arrangement, Producer
Geoff Emerick :
Mixing engineer, Recording engineer, Recording engineer
Jon Jacobs :
Mixing engineer assistant, Recording engineer assistant
Unknown musician(s) :
Strings

Session Recording:
Nov 30, Dec 7, Dec 8, 1980
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Session Overdubs:
Feb 11, 1981
Studio :
AIR Studios, Montserrat

Session Overdubs:
Mar 23, 1981
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Session Mixing:
Jan 25, 1983
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Credits & recording details courtesy of Luca Perasi • Buy Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989 on Amazon


5.

So Bad

Written by Paul McCartney

3:21 • Studio versionA

Paul McCartney :
Arrangement, Backing vocals, Bass, Electric piano (?), Piano (?), Vocals
Linda McCartney :
Backing vocals, Keyboards (?)
Ringo Starr :
Drums
Eric Stewart :
Backing vocals, Electric guitar
George Martin :
Arrangement, Producer
Geoff Emerick :
Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
Jon Jacobs :
Mixing engineer assistant, Recording engineer assistant
Unknown musician(s) :
Strings

Session Recording:
Sep 16, 1982
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Mixing :
Unknown
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Credits & recording details courtesy of Luca Perasi • Buy Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989 on Amazon


6.

The Man

Written by Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson

3:56 • Studio versionA

Paul McCartney :
Acoustic guitar (?), Arrangement, Backing vocals, Bass (?), Drums (?), Electric guitar (?), Vocals
Linda McCartney :
Backing vocals, Vocals
Michael Jackson :
Backing vocals, Vocals
Eric Stewart :
Backing vocals
George Martin :
Arrangement, Producer
Geoff Emerick :
Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
Jon Jacobs :
Mixing engineer assistant, Recording engineer assistant
Unknown musician(s) :
Flutes, Strings

Session Recording:
May 1981
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Overdubs ? :
April 1982 ?
Studio :
Cherokee Studios, Los Angeles, USA

Session Recording:
Aug 25, 1983
Studio :
Sigma Sound Studios, New York City, USA

Session Mixing:
Jun 08, 1983
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Credits & recording details courtesy of Luca Perasi • Buy Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989 on Amazon


7.

Sweetest Little Show

Written by Paul McCartney

2:54 • Studio versionA

Paul McCartney :
Acoustic guitar, Arrangement, Backing vocals, Bass, Castanets (?), Drums (?), Electric guitar, Piano (?), Shaker (?), Synthesizers (?), Vocals, Vocoder
George Martin :
Arrangement, Producer
Geoff Emerick :
Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
Jon Jacobs :
Mixing engineer assistant, Recording engineer assistant

Session Recording:
Jan 02, 1981
Studio :
Parkgate Studio, Sussex, UK

Session Recording:
Jul 11, 1983
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Session Mixing:
Jan 25, 1983
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Credits & recording details courtesy of Luca Perasi • Buy Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989 on Amazon


8.

Average Person

Written by Paul McCartney

4:33 • Studio versionA

Paul McCartney :
Acoustic guitar (?), Arrangement, Backing vocals, Bass, Electric guitar (?), Piano, Vocals
Linda McCartney :
Backing vocals
Denny Laine :
Acoustic guitar (?), Electric guitar (?)
Ringo Starr :
Drums
Eric Stewart :
Backing vocals
George Martin :
Arrangement, Producer
Geoff Emerick :
Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
Jon Jacobs :
Mixing engineer assistant, Recording engineer assistant
Mike Stavrou :
Recording engineer assistant
Unknown musician(s) :
Horns

Session Recording:
February 16-18th, 1981
Studio :
AIR Studios, Montserrat

Session Recording:
July 1981
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Session Mixing:
Sep 01, 1981
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Credits & recording details courtesy of Luca Perasi • Buy Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989 on Amazon


9.

Hey Hey

Written by Paul McCartney, Stanley Clarke

2:55 • Studio versionA

Paul McCartney :
Arrangement, Backing vocals, Electric guitar, Keyboards (?), Synthesizer (?)
Denny Laine :
Electric guitar (?)
Stanley Clarke :
Bass
George Martin :
Arrangement, Producer
Geoff Emerick :
Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
Steve Gadd :
Drums
Jon Jacobs :
Mixing engineer assistant
Mike Stavrou :
Recording engineer assistant

Session Recording:
Feb 10, 1981
Studio :
AIR Studios, Montserrat

Session Mixing:
Feb 01, 1983
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Credits & recording details courtesy of Luca Perasi • Buy Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989 on Amazon


10.

Tug Of Peace

Written by Paul McCartney

2:55 • Studio versionA

Paul McCartney :
Acoustic guitar (?), Arrangement, Backing vocals, Bass (?), Drums (?), Electric guitar (?), Garden canes, Keyboards (?), Shaker (?), Tambourine (?), Vocals
George Martin :
Arrangement, Garden canes, Producer
Geoff Emerick :
Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
Jon Jacobs :
Mixing engineer assistant, Recording engineer assistant

Session Recording:
Jan 29, 1982
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Session Mixing:
Jul 06, 1983
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Credits & recording details courtesy of Luca Perasi • Buy Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989 on Amazon


11.

Through Our Love

Written by Paul McCartney

3:39 • Studio versionA

Paul McCartney :
Acoustic guitar (?), Arrangement, Backing vocals, Bass, Shaker (?), Vocals
Linda McCartney :
Backing vocals
Eric Stewart :
Backing vocals
George Martin :
Arrangement, Bicycle wheel, Piano, Producer
Geoff Emerick :
Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
Dave Mattacks :
Drums
Jon Jacobs :
Mixing engineer assistant, Recording engineer assistant
Geoff Whitehorn :
Acoustic guitar
Unknown musician(s) :
Horns, Strings

Session Recording:
Sep 14, 1982
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Session Mixing:
Jul 04, 1983
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Credits & recording details courtesy of Luca Perasi • Buy Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989 on Amazon

About

“Tug Of War” is supposed to be about opposites, I forget what you call it, dichotomy or something. The duality. Yes and No, Up and Down, Man and Woman. Always some kind of conflict, even if you’re married and in love, she’s still a girl, you’re still a boy… Blacks and whites. Dualities. It’s not easy to bring together two sides of a coin. So that was like the question if there was a theme on “Tug Of War”, that was the sort of theme we played with.

So, on ‘Pipes Of Peace,’ I wanted to answer that, I didn’t want to just leave the question posing ‘How do you ever get the dualities together?’ And on ‘Pipes Of Peace,’ there’s a little quote from Rabindranath Tagore would you believe, Indian lovers? He was an Indian poet, and he just has a thing about ‘In love, life’s contradictions dissolve and disappear.’

It seems to me that that’s the kind of thing. There is this big paradox, and duality. But in love, somehow, it mystically goes away. Somehow there aren’t problems with black and white if they sort of love each other. So in trying to find an answer, this one is a bit more towards ‘The answer is love.’ And it’s very corny, and it’s been said a million times before. But if you can’t find another answer, what are you going to do? I would like to have been able to say the answer is Ralph! And I’ve got it, and it’s very original…

But the only one I could find was love. I ask myself, what is the answer to that duality? So that’s what this one became about, ‘Pipes Of Peace’, love! ‘The Other Me,’ ‘So Bad,’ ‘Keep Under Cover’ stuff. It’s all about trying to answer the dilemma of ‘Tug Of War,’ and that’s enough serious talk — for months!

Paul McCartney, from Club Sandwich N° 31, 1983

Way back, when we started ‘Tug of War,’ my thoughts to Paul were ‘Let’s make a slightly harder, a more funky album than perhaps you have done in the past’… In fact, the ‘Pipes Of Peace’ album became more what we were looking for in ‘Tug Of War,’ and certainly Michael Jackson’s tracks turned out that way. Although they were Paul and Michael’s songs, they seemed to get more of that dynamism on those tracks.

George Martin, from Club Sandwich N° 31, 1983

From Wikipedia:

Pipes of Peace is the fourth studio album by English singer-songwriter Paul McCartney, released in 1983. As the follow-up to the popular Tug of War, the album came close to matching the commercial success of its predecessor in Britain but peaked only at number 15 on America’s Billboard 200 albums chart. While Pipes of Peace was the source of international hit singles such as “Say Say Say” (recorded with Michael Jackson) and the title track, the critical response to the album was less favourable than that afforded to Tug of War.

Background and structure

Upon its release, many were quick to notice that Pipes of Peace mirrored its predecessor in many ways. It was produced by George Martin, it featured two collaborations with the same artist (this time with Michael Jackson; the Tug of War collaborations being with Stevie Wonder), and continued McCartney’s alliance in the studio with Ringo Starr, former 10cc guitarist Eric Stewart and his last session work with Wings guitarist Denny Laine. The reason for all of this is that many of the songs released on Pipes of Peace were recorded during the 1981 sessions for Tug of War, with “Pipes of Peace“, “The Other Me”, “So Bad”, “Tug of Peace” and “Through Our Love” being recorded afterwards, in September–October 1982. By November, McCartney would start shooting his self-written motion picture Give My Regards to Broad Street, co-starring wife Linda, Ringo Starr and Tracey Ullman, which would take up most of his time throughout 1983. Due to the filming commitments (and to allow a reasonable lapse of time between his new album and Tug of War), Pipes of Peace was delayed until October for release.

With momentum building for his film project – and the accompanying soundtrack album – McCartney would spend much of his energies finishing and preparing Give My Regards to Broad Street for its release in the autumn of 1984.

In 1983 Pipes of Peace made its debut on CD on Columbia Records. In 1993, the album was remastered and reissued on CD as part of “The Paul McCartney Collection” series, with the previously unreleased “Twice in a Lifetime” (the title song for a 1985 film); his 1984 hit from the Rupert Bear project, “We All Stand Together“; and “Simple as That“, released in 1986 on the charity album The Anti-Heroin Project – It’s A Live-In World – all as bonus tracks. “Ode to a Koala Bear” (the B-side to “Say Say Say”) was overlooked for inclusion. The album was reissued in remastered form in 2015 as part of the ongoing ‘Paul McCartney Archive Collection’ series of releases. The version with “enhanced packaging” contains three discs: the remastered album itself, a bonus audio disc containing mostly demo versions of the songs found on the first disc, and a disc with a film.

Critical reception

Critical reaction was less than that which had greeted Tug of War, many feeling that Pipes of Peace was a weaker execution of its predecessor’s formula. In addition, author Howard Sounes writes, the album’s commercial reception was “slightly disappointing, considering the quality of the work“. Sounes views Pipes of Peace and its predecessor as “abounding with well-crafted tunes” that almost match the standard of McCartney’s work with the Beatles; yet, he adds, the two albums “must be marked down for a surfeit of love ballads with lamentable lyrics“.

Reviewing the album for the NME, Penny Reel described Pipes of Peace as “A dull, tired and empty collection of quasi-funk and gooey rock arrangements … with McCartney cooing platitudinous sentiments on a set of lyrics seemingly made up on the spur of the moment.” Reel opined that the “one decent moment” was the title track, which he found to be “a Beatlish soiree surely destined as a Christmas single“, before concluding: “Even here, however, a note of insincerity in the vocal finally defeats the lyric’s objective.

The album featured the duet between McCartney and Jackson, “Say Say Say“, which reached number 2 in the UK and number 1 in the US, where it remained for six weeks through to early in 1984.

Following “Say Say Say“, the album’s title track became a UK number 1, while in the US, “So Bad” was a top 30 hit. Pipes of Peace peaked at number 4 in the UK and number 15 in the US. […]

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Last updated on December 19, 2022

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Stav 4 years ago

isn't it the 5th album?
Mc I
Ram
Mc II
Tag
Pipes
Wiki is wrong


The PaulMcCartney Project 4 years ago

Hi Stav, there are so many ways to count his solo albums ... I guess Wikipedia said 4th one, because Ram is credited to Paul & Linda McCartney (they consider McCartney II to be his 2nd solo album)


George 4 years ago

This background and recording detail is fantastic - thank you. I love listening to this album on streaming, so it's also fascinating to look at the full album art and packaging. All this gives a much better sense of the whole project, its intention and context.


The PaulMcCartney Project 4 years ago

Thanks for your message @george !


Jacob 2 years ago

are there stand alone releases of the demos of Tug of War and Pipes of Peace? i know some are bundled on the more recent remaster/reissues but interested in a stand alone albums of those, thanks!


The PaulMcCartney Project 2 years ago

Hi Jacob, I don't think there is such standalone releases. At best, you should be able to find a 2-CD bundle with the first CD being the remastered album and the 2nd CD being the demos.


Jacob 2 years ago

ok thanks, I love the demos for these albums, I like the proper albums too but personally feel the spirit of the songs shine through a bit more in the demos as the production styling on the albums (especially Pipes of Peace) feels dated to me, cheers!


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