I’ll start off by saying that I am a Sir Paul McCartney fanatic. I’ve seen him live five times, three times in one year, and I will see him again this year. (I’m also a Beatles maniac, but those are different posts).
Wings. Or Paul McCartney & Wings. Holy crap, I was only two when “One Hand Clapping” was attempted to be made, in 1974. I haven’t seen the film yet, but this is the soundtrack. Recorded not long after “Band on the Run” was released, it took Paul into Abbey Road Studios to film a documentary which he hoped, at the time, would be even better than The Beatles’ “Let It Be.” Described as one of the most bootlegged live albums in musical history has received a proper release.
This is, more or less, a fun jam session among Paul, Linda, Denny Laine, guitarist Jimmy McCullough, and drummer Geoff Britton. This is Wings at the time, before they made “Venus and Mars” and then went live with “Wings Over America.” Saxophonist Howie Casey pops up from time to time, having joined the band when they started touring.
I’ll be brief and won’t go through this track by track, but as a whole, it’s one heck of a fun listen.
All of the pre-“Band On The Run” hits are here, including Live and Let Die, and what was to come, such as the live favorite, Soily, Junior’s Farm (and God, does it rock), and Sally G, with the fantastic lyrics: “Well, now. I’m on my own again. I wonder if she ever really understood.
I never thought to ask her what the letter “G” stood for…. But I know for sure it wasn’t good.”
“This evening, we’d like to do a little request” (with an organ synthesizer in the background), “this request comes from Ms G. McBride of Kilbrock Avenue of Edinbrugh, and we’d like to do a little request today to her little daughter who is five. She’s requested Power Cut.” (And then breaking into the fairly obscure Power Cut).
It’s stuff like that which make me love this album so much. Little things like when Paul says at the beginning of the starter of Blue Moon of Kentucky, “You’re giving me funny looks Geoff”!
Sure, there are a few Beatles tracks, but really… throwaways for fun.
This is a Wings (or Paul McCartney & Wings?) album. It is a shame the movie never got made.
Love it, no matter what.
9.5/10
Chris Garrod, June 18th, 2024.