Between the out-there, ahead-of-the-times sound on Ram and the establishment of Wings, Paul McCartney managed to stay relevant but also step away from the expectations of a solo artist. Hindsight is everything when considering the triumph that is Ram. While Wings had some all-time great efforts in the form of Band on the Run and the sorely overlooked Back to the Egg, it was not until the end of the group that McCartney, for the first time since the break-up of The Beatles, found himself as a solo artist. McCartney II was a neat follow-up to the experimentation of his debut solo work, but it was not until Tug of War that McCartney suggested he was seeking chart approval as a solo artist. Considering the death of John Lennon and its impact on McCartney, Tug of War does remarkably well to keep up pop-rock appearances, for better or worse.
Opener Tug of War certainly feels like the closest McCartney gets to referencing Lennon. The back-and-forth of their solo period, the slaps of Too Many People and bites of How Do You Sleep? is tied up here. An acceptance from McCartney of the fallout but continued love for his former writing partner. Tug of War introduces a soft rock style McCartney had already toyed with on Wings, but had wisely restrained from being too soppy by layering in session musicians who would later become members of the group. With Tug of War, he is both alone yet backed by some of the all-time greats. From Stevie Wonder to Carl Perkins, George Martin in production and longtime collaborator Denny Laine were also there. It is as collaborative as it gets for McCartney. Where some of his most earnest works would come from the everyman thrills of McCartney and McCartney II, there is much to love about where his sound heads on Tug of War.
Where some parts of Tug of War, the flippant radio rock of Take it Away for instance, may feel weightless, it is this fun and freedom which provides a necessary, light counter to real-world pains. Lennon’s death and the drugs bust in Japan are afterthoughts on Tug of War, whereas they dominated headlines across the globe outside the studio. Tug of War is escapism put to tape, the overblown production and star-studded session musicians list a symptom of McCartney’s qualities, the desire of everyone to work with him. The lightness of his experimental works on McCartney and McCartney II is still present, as heard on the funky likes of What’s That You’re Doing?, a tame-sounding love song with plenty of heart to it. Heart is what McCartney so constantly brings to these works.
The trouble with Tug of War even now is the reliance on the tech of the times, now dated synth works and electrified pop sounds, which would pull many artists in and chew them up and spit them out. McCartney recedes into the pop noise of the times. Apart from a beautiful double bill of tributes to Lennon and a rekindling of the Martin producer partnership, Tug of War is keen to drift on with a relative lightness. Moments of impassioned reflection, the Yesterday style of music which comes through on Here Today, is nothing short of stunning. It is a shame about the dreck surrounding it. Those Lennon tributes are reliant on the heart-tugging effectiveness McCartney had, at this point, mastered. There is a genuine nature to it, but he sandwiches those tender moments in between some light, likeable adult contemporary pieces. Ballroom Dancing may test your patience, but at least Get It is in there, and Ebony and Ivory is, at this point, a likeable example of McCartney’s pop appeal. Nothing wrong with that, nor is there much wrong with Tug of War. Not much right with it, either, unfortunately.
