![]() The song could easily be McCartney’s “Imagine,” for it makes a similar leap of hope: “In years to come they may discover/What the air we breathe and the life we lead/Are all about/But it won’t be soon enough … for me.” And like “Imagine,” the song also acknowledges the worst side of humanity: “But with one thing and another/We were trying to outdo each other/In a tug of war. In the sweepingly majestic title song, McCartney observes that man’s nobler aspirations and warlike impulses originate from the same human urge for more, and he underscores that statement with marching drums and lofty symphonic orchestration. ![]() These companion pieces are simply the most obvious of many such juxtapositions. The ebony counterpart, “What’s That You’re Doing,” is a red-hot pop-funk feast that’s served up on Stevie Wonder’s roiling and squiggling synthesizer. McCartney’s little tune is the ivory half of a matched pair. It also features guest appearances by Carl. Produced by George Martin, it includes the title track, which was a Top 10 hit, plus the 1 global smash, 'Ebony and Ivory,' with Stevie Wonder. Released in 1982, it was his first album released after the dissolution of Wings the previous year. The tune’s phonetic simplicity and its image of black and white piano keys as a metaphor for race relations combine to make a global children’s song as ingenuous as “Happy Birthday,” Wonder’s tribute to Martin Luther King. Tug of War is the third studio album by Paul McCartney. Though it wasn’t obvious until now, both musicians share a love of childlike melodies and playful asides, and McCartney’s “Ebony and Ivory” is the ultimate display of this kinship. Harmonious, peaceful coexistence is both the ethic and the aesthetic of the album.Ĭonceptually, Tug of War is organized around two Paul McCartney-Stevie Wonder duets. But McCartney doesn’t just present these oppositions, he unites them. Every cut offers a stylistic montage of one sort or another, creating an actual tug of war between different pop notions - between British pop parochialism and Afro-American progressiveness, escapist fantasy and sage observation, world-weariness and utopian sentiments. Together, McCartney and Martin have compiled a veritable encyclopedia of contemporary studio pop in the deluxe, high-tech tradition of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall and Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road. Instead of another homemade effort, McCartney has teamed up with producer George Martin to create a record with a sumptuous aural scope that recalls Sgt. In style and format, the album isn’t all that different from his earlier work, but the songs are far more substantial than the eccentric doodlings of recent albums. Tug of War is the masterpiece everyone has always known Paul McCartney could make.
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