This CD is easily one of Paul McCartney's most commercial releases in the 1970s as a whole. Yet, it only spawned one top ten hit, compared to a much less mainstream effort like Band On The Run which had two top ten hits.
I would say that at the time, McCartney may have loved this album best, as the evidence shows on his 1976 live album, Wings Across America. This live compilation has more songs from 1975's Venus and Mars than any other previous album.
From the opening guitar strumming of the song Venus And Mars, you know that you have the ambiance of sound that can only be achieved with DTS (Digital Theater Surround) sound format. During this song, it seems McCartney's lead vocal is way too loud. You can't reduce the volume of your center speaker to fix it, because Paul is hanging out in the rear surround speakers. Don't worry, because almost like a mistake that was corrected, Paul moves to the front center, and fits in nice volume-wise. This is a nice acoustic song that only lasts slightly over a minute. It serves more of an intro to the heavy rocker that comes next named Rock Show.
Rock Show has a nice balance and although it envelopes the listener with music, and it's a vast improvement over the stereo, it's nothing special. The separation of instruments is evident, and appreciated by the ears, but it seems to me that no real care was taken in the mixing room.
For example, the next song is the amazing Letting Go, and although this is my favorite on the album, engineers Geoff Emerick and Alan O'Duffy decided to ignore the fact that on the original release, the next song is Love In Song. Now, I wouldn't complain about something so petty as song order, but the fact that Rock Show segued into Love In Song does bother me. How can you break up a segue to rearrange songs?
Having said that, Love In Song does sound nice here; the percussion is a highlight in the rear surround speakers. This soft ballad got a beautiful facelift on this release.
Venus And Mars - Reprise has too much reverb on Paul's vocals and it sort of ruins the song for me. The sound effects are nice in this slightly extended version of the first song. This used to kick off side two, and in the same fashion as the first song had done on side one, an intro to the next song. Spirits Of Ancient Egypt written by Paul, but sung by guitarist Denny Laine. Denny Laine does a great job, and this is one of the best songs on the CD. It's a rock song with a bit of a shuffle.
We have another song order change next. It used to be that lead guitarist Jimmy McCulloch's Medicine Jar was next, but is now moved down two places, and Call Me Back Again is next in line. Call Me Back Again is very much in the same vein as Paul's Oh! Darling from The Beatles Abbey Road. This song has a great horns section throughout the song, unlike Oh! Darling. It's a bluesy number with those McCartney bluesy vocals. Paul said in an interview once, that when he writes and sings songs like Oh! Darling or Call Me Back Again that he thinks in his head for example, "How would Ray Charles sing this" or "How would Little Richard sing this song", and he tries to emulate one of his childhood heroes. Although his singing voice doesn't really sound like these greats, his voice does emit a style, although his own, one that can easily sit beside the voices of those types mentioned above.
Crossroads is a short instrumental that used to flow nicely as the album's outro. Here, it feels out of place as it leads into Medicine Jar. Lead guitarist Jimmy McCulloch wrote this with Colin Allen. It's a heavy rock song, that I'm sure got the groove from Paul's input, because the bass is awesome on this song. This is the one song that Jimmy's lead guitar work got to shine.
Listen To What The Man Said is the album's one hit. The song rose to #1 on the US pop charts, and only made it to a dumpy #6 in the UK. Tom Scott on saxophone creates a nice mood, and is just a great touch that makes the song that much better. The song segues here into the overlooked Treat Her Gently - Lonely Old People and in my opinion, rightfully so. I like the song, but the sing-a-long feeling the song tries to desperately create gets lost on me.
The extra tracks that are usually associated with Venus And Mars were mediocre anyway, and are not really missed here. Although, the simplicity of My Carnival was fun to listen to.
I love this album, and I love DTS and the like. Yet the two here when mixed, does not produce a nice result. I give Paul McCartney and Wings applause for creating another amazing record, yet I give Geoff Emerick and Alan O’Duffy (as Homer Simpson might say) nine thumbs down. I don't see the logic of switching the song order around, and by doing so interrupting segues. This is the same team that butchered the Band On The Run High Definition Surround release, when they cut off the opening 10 seconds or so of the title track.
1. Venus and Mars
2. Rock Show
3. Letting Go
4. Love In Song
5. Venus and Mars (reprise)
6. Spirits of Ancient Egypt
7. Medicine Jar
8. Call Me Back Again
9. Crossroads
10. Listen To What the Man Said
11. Treat Her Gently - Lonely Old People
12. My Carnival
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦More Beatles-related Epinions from Scapp70♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
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