Album Of The Day #107: WINGS OVER AMERICA - Wings

Title: Wings Over America
Artist: Wings
Label: Parlophone/EMI/MPL
Released: 1976
Songs: Venus And Mars/Rockshow/Jet/Let Me Roll It/Spirits Of Ancient Egypt/Medicine Jar*/Maybe I’m Amazed/Call Me Back Again/Lady Madonna**/The Long And Winding Road**/Live And Let Die/Picasso’s Last Words (Drink To Me)/Richard Cory#/Bluebird/I’ve Just Seen A Face**/Blackbird**/Yesterday**/You Gave Me The Answer/Magneto And Titanium Man/Go Now^/My Love/Listen To What The Man Said/Let ‘Em In/Time To Hide##/Silly Love Songs/Beware My Love/Letting Go/Band On The Run/Hi Hi Hi/Soily
Written by: Paul McCartney, except *by Jimmy McColloch & Collin Allen, #by Paul Simon, **by Paul McCartney & John Lennon, ^by Larry Banks & Milton Bennett and ##by Denny Laine
Produced by: Paul McCartney
Thoughts: This certainly isn’t one of the greatest live albums of all time, but it’s pretty up there, considering it is practically an entire show (which for some odd reason is very rare for live albums, but I guess we can’t all afford to release triple albums…and consumers can’t all afford to buy them). There is an ungodly amount of tracks on this and the vinyl issue was spread over six sides of plastic that actually separated the sets. Side three, for example, was Paul’s entire solo acoustic set and side five focused on the new songs from Wings At The Speed Of Sound.
The highlight of the set is, of course, “Soily”, a song Paul had been toying with (and performing) since the Red Rose Speedway/College Tour days of 1973. A studio version was recorded, but never released, making this the only place to (legally) hear it. It’s a cool song, filled with all the oddball lyrics that appeared to be standard fare for McCartney songs in the 1972-1973 period. Other highlights include the rousing version of “Maybe I’m Amazed” (which is not better than the McCartney version, I might add) and “I’ve Just Seen A Face”, one of my favorite Beatle tracks, which Paul has never performed live since. Most of the other tracks just feel too close to the studio versions, though, especially the Venus And Mars material. Another disappointment is “Richard Cory”, which proves to be a pedestrian version. Denny Laine adds nothing new to the song. On top of that, Denny runs through “Go Now”, the only song that made him a legitimate rock star before joining Wings. I never thought “Go Now” was a special song, and the version here is nothing to go nuts about. Denny trots this song out to this day when he performs and he always records versions for whatever cash-in compilation he puts out.
Overall, it’s a nice live set that anyone who is a fan of McCartney needs, but I think non-fans will have more fun listening to the studio versions.

Album Of The Day #78: BAND ON THE RUN: 25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION - Paul McCartney & Wings

Title: Band On The Run: 25th Anniversary Edition

Artist: Paul McCartney & Wings

Label: MPL/Capitol/EMI

Year: 1999

Recorded and Originally Released: 1973

Songs:

Disc One: Band On The Run/Jet/Bluebird/Mrs. Vandebilt/Let Me Roll It/Mamunia/No Words/Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me)/Ninteen Hundred And Eighty-Five

Disc Two: Paul McCartney (Dialogue Intro) /Band On The Run (Nicely Toasted Mix)/ Band On The Run (Original)/Paul McCartney (Dialogue link 1)/Band On The Run (Barn Rehearsal - 21 July 1989)/Paul McCartney (Dialogue link 2) /Mamunia (Original)/Denny Laine (Dialogue)/Mamunia (Original)/Linda McCartney (Dialogue)/Paul McCartney (Dialogue link 3)/Bluebird (Live version - Australia 1975)/Bluebird (Original)/Paul McCartney (Dialogue link 4)/Paul McCartney (Dialogue link 5) /No Words (Original)/Geoff Emmerick (Dialogue)/No Words (Original)/Paul McCartney (Dialogue link 6) /Tony Visconti (Dialogue)/Band On The Run (original)/Tony Visconti (Dialogue)/Jet (Original from Picasso's Last Words) / Paul McCartney (Dialogue Link 7) /Jet (Original from Picasso's Last Words) /Al Coury (Dialogue)/Jet (Berlin Soundcheck - 3 September 1993)/Paul McCartney (Dialogue link 8) /Clive Arrowsmith (Dialogue)/Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five (Original)/ Paul McCartney (Dialogue link 9) /James Coburn (Dialogue)/ Paul McCartney (Dialogue link 10) /John Conteh (Dialogue)/Mrs. Vandebilt (original)/Paul McCartney (Dialogue link 11)/Kenny Lynch (Dialogue)/Let Me Roll It (Cardington Rehearsal - 5 February 1993)/Paul McCartney (Dialogue link 12)/Paul McCartney (Dialogue link 13)/Mrs. Vandebilt (Background)/Michael Parkinson (Dialogue)/Linda McCartney (Band On The Run Photo Shoot) (Dialogue)/Michael Parkinson (Dialogue)/Helen Wheels (Crazed)/ Paul McCartney (Dialogue link 14)/Christopher Lee (Dialogue)/Band On The Run (Strum Bit)/ Paul McCartney (Dialogue link 15)/Clement Freud (Dialogue)/Picasso's Last Words (Original)/ Paul McCartney (Dialogue link 16) /Dustin Hoffman (Dialogue)/Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me) (Acoustic version)/ Band On The Run (Nicely Toasted Mix) /Paul McCartney (Dialogue Link 17)/Band On The Run (Northern Comic Version)

Written by: Paul & Linda McCartney, except "No Words", by Paul McCartney & Denny Laine

Original LP Produced by: Paul McCartney

Disc Two Produced by: Paul McCartney & Eddy Pumer

Thoughts: Before the inclusion of DVDs in every anniversary edition possible, Paul came up with the brilliant idea of an audio-documentary as a bonus disc for this 25th Anniversary Edition of his most popular album, Band On The Run. The disc is filled with interesting bits from Paul and Denny, plus archival recordings from Linda (to whom the set is rightfully dedicated to) and additional interviews with others involved in the preceedings. There's a lot here and it's certainly worth getting if you still don't have it. Paul also shuffled in soundcheck recordings from the 1975-76 Wings tours and his 1989 World Tour. He also gave us a couple of interesting demos, although we could obviously use more of that type of stuff.

One of the things that has always puzzled me about this release is Paul's decision to use the US line-up rather than the UK line-up. Of course, the only major difference is "Helen Wheels" being part of the album and the UK line-up was used for all previous CD issues. Another thing that puzzled me is why Paul would have not wanted it on the LP anyway. He even mentions "Sailor Sam", connecting it easily to the title track. To me, the LP is better for its' inclusion, considering how awesome the song is anyway. It also would have been nice for Paul to include "Country Dreamer" and "Zoo Gang", but we only get what we can get.

Rating: 10/10

Album of the Day #43: WINGS AT THE SPEED OF SOUND - Wings

Title: Wings At The Speed Of Sound

Artist: Wings

Label: MPL/Capitol/EMI

Year: 1976

Songs: Let 'Em In/The Note You Never Wrote/She's My Baby/Beware My Love/Wino Junko*/Silly Love Songs/Cook Of The House/Time To Hide**/Must Do Something About It/San Ferry Anne/Warm And Beautiful

Written by: Paul McCartney, excpect *Collin Allen & Jimmy McColluch and **Danny Laine

Produced by: Paul McCartney

Thoughts: I'm not really sure how someone calls an album with two #1 singles, those being "Silly Love Songs" and "Let 'Em In", bad, but this album gets slammed constantly. I love a lot of these songs, like "Warm And Beautiful", "Beware My Love" and "Must Do Something About It", featuring drummer Joe English on vocals. I think that's why a lot of people complain about the album because of the lack of Paul's vocals, but I think this album was Paul's last effort to prove that Wings was a band. Still it's a fun album...not exactly a masterpiece (it's no Venus And Mars and certainly not Band On The Run), but it's the one thing practically all of Paul's albums are: enjoyable.

Rating: 7/10