My Love

My Love was a single taken from the Red Rose Speedway album. It was released in March of 1973. This song was recorded live in Abbey Road studio. Paul had the orchestra, the band and all the recording people in place. He had worked out all the details of the song and the band and the orchestra were waiting for the count in....when lead guitarist, Henry McCullough, leaned over to Paul and said quietly "do you mind if I change the solo?" Paul thought for a second, swallowed nervously, and then said "you go ahead". As Paul himself would say later, it was the best solo McCullough ever played for Wings. Henry's solo made an already great song even better.

My Love would go on to become a huge hit. Over 2 million copies of the single were sold. The song became the first Wings "Standard". They would play it during every show, including Paul's Television special James Paul McCartney.

The B-Side was a song called The Mess. It was recorded live at a concert in the Hague, Netherlands in August of 1972. It's a pretty strong rock number.

The Single Went to number 1 in the United States, Number 2 in Canada, and 9 in the UK.

Red Rose Speedway

This was Paul McCartney's second album with his group Wings. The first album, Wings Wild Life, sold a bit modestly for an ex-Beatle and some attributed this to the the album being credited to the relatively unknown band....Wings. So, for this second album, Paul decided to credit the album to "Paul McCartney & Wings". The Wings Line-up at this time featured: Paul McCartney-Vocals, Bass, Guitars, Piano/Linda McCartney-Backing Vocals, Piano, percussion/Denny Laine-backing Vocals, Guitar, Bass/Henry McCullough-Guitar/Denny Seiwell-Drums.

Red Rose Speedway was released in May of 1973. It had been recorded from March to June, 1972 in Los Angeles and from the begininng of September to the end of October of 1972 in London. The title of the album is said to be inspired by McCartney housekeeper, Rose.

It was oringinally slated to be a double album, but on the advice of his business consultant, Paul decided to scale it back to a single album. The Harley Davidson motorcycle on the front cover was ordered especially for the photo shoot. Linda McCartney, Wings member and photographer, took the cover shot of Paul. Inside the gatefold sleeve was a 12 page booklet, showing pictures from Wings tour of Europe.

On the back cover there is a message, in braille, for Stevie Wonder thate reads "We Love You".

The first two lines, on the first song, were first heard on Paul's solo album Ram at the end of the reprise of Ram On.

There were 12 tracks on the original album release which lasted 42 minutes and 13 seconds.

The track list included: Big Barn Bed, My Love, Get on the Right Thing, Only One More Kiss, Little Lamb Dragonfly, Single Pigeon, When the Night, Loop (The first Indian on the Moon), Hold Me Tight, Lazy Dynamite, Hands of Love, Power Cut.

The last four songs on the album comprised an 11 minute, 16 second medley.

The CD release included bonus tracks which at various times included: I Lie Around, Country Dreamer, The Mess (live), C Moon, Hi Hi Hi.

The album, Red Rose Speedway, was received much better than Wings' initial album, Wild Life.

The album itself garnered mixed reviews, but after this album people began giving Wings the respect they deserved.

Hi, Hi, Hi

This was a single released by Wings in December of 1972. As soon as the song appeared it was banned by the BBC. A publicity man for the BBC said at the time: "the ban has nothing to do with drugs. We thought the record unfit because of the lyrics." (Like a rabbit I'm going to grab it and do it till the night is done.............indeed)

Paul has commented that "we wrote Hi, Hi, Hi in Spain, because we had a tour of Europe coming up. It was written purposely as a nice easy rocker. It's basically a rock and roll thing written on three rock and roll chords." It was to give them a good rock and roll number to play with their other material.

In 1972 Paul and Wings released three singles, two were banned. Give Ireland back to the Irish, for being to political and Hi, Hi, Hi was banned for racy lyrics. The single in between the two banned songs was Mary Had a Little Lamb, Paul's version of the nursery ryhme.

Hi, Hi, Hi was backed with the song C Moon. The single reached the number 5 position on the charts in the UK, the number 10 spot in the US, 5 in Canada, 16 in Germany, 20 in New Zealand and 29 in Australia.

Mary Had A Little Lamb

This was a Single released by Wings in May of 1972. It's the nursery rhyme put to music. Paul claims he did the song because his baby daughter Mary enjoyed hearing her name being sung.

The Beatles had reached such lofty heights that people would often kid with them, saying they could release anything on record: nursery rhymes, chants, etc.....and it would sell. I wonder if Paul was putting that to the test with this one. Paul and Linda when asked about the song after it's release said"it's a song for spring to make people happy." In another interview Paul said: " it was written for one of our kids, whose name is Mary, and I just realised if I'd sang that, she'd understand. That's it with us, that's what you might expect from us-just anything."

The flip side of Mary Had a Little Lamb was a decidedly adult song called Little Woman Love.

Little Woman Love is a great little piano rocker and it's definitely a lesser known gem in the McCartney catalogue.

The single made it to the number 9 spot on the British charts, Number 28 in the US, 41 in Canada, number 13 in New Zealand and 17 in Australia. Respectable for a nursery rhyme set to music.

Give Ireland Back to The Irish

Give Ireland back to the Irish was Paul McCartney's 5th single as an ex-Beatle. It was his first single with his new group Wings. The single was released February 25, 1972. This Single was written by the McCartney's and performed by Wings, which had increased by one. Lead Guitarist Henry McCullough (far right) was added to the group, which was now a five piece band.

The song was written as a reaction to the "Bloody Sunday" massacre in Northern Ireland on January 30th, 1972. The BBC banned the song almost immediately, which actually helped sales of the single (people were curious). BBC press officer Rodney Collins said the "song was banned because it made a political point rather than telling listeners that there was suffering and sadness resulting from the political situation. "

Henry McCullough was Irish. His brother, who lived in Ireland at the time, was actually beaten up because of the song.

Denny Laine, in an interview in the late 80's, said that he thought that "Paul was a bit naive" about the whole thing. Laine said none of them knew enough about the situation to comment publicly or to take a political stand.

Give Ireland back to the Irish reached number 16 on the British Charts, number 21 was the high point on the charts in the U.S., It made it to number 1 in both Ireland and Spain.

The B-side was an instrumental version of the A-side. (John Lennon also wrote a song about the massacre called Sunday Bloody Sunday.

Wild Life

Wild Life is the first album issued by Paul's newly formed group Wings. The album was issued in December of 1971. It rose to a high point of 11 on the British charts and number 10 on the US charts. The album sold well enough to receive a gold record award.

When the album was released it contained 10 tracks: Mumbo, Bip Bop, Love is Strange, Wild Life, Some People Never Know, I Am Your Singer, Bip Bop Link, Tomorrow, Dear Friend and Mumbo Link.

The CD release contained the bonus tracks: Oh Woman, Oh Why?, Mary Had A Little Lamb and Little Woman Love. Later CD issues would contain different bonus tracks)

Paul and Linda McCartney wrote the songs for this album and then decided it would be good to have a group to record and tour with. Paul asked Denny Seiwell, who had drummed on McCartney's Ram album, to be the drummer. Then he called Denny Laine, an original member of the Moody Blues. Laine had sung the Moodies big early sixties hit Go Now. Both Denny's accepted and Wings was born.

WINGS Left to Right:

Paul, Linda, Denny Seiwell and Denny Laine.

Paul: Bass, Guitar, Piano, Vocals

Linda: Keyboards, Percussion, backing vocals

Denny Laine: Guitars, Bass, backing vocals

Denny Seiwell: Drums and percussion.

The new group met at Paul's house in Scotland and began rehearsals and played a few live gigs at different Universities around England. They would show up unannounced at the universities and ask if they would like Paul McCartney to play a show. Most were skeptical until they went out to the van to see Paul and then gladly accepted.

After Playing together for a short time they headed for the studio to record their first album, Wild Life. McCartney had read that Bob Dylan had recorded an album in three days and thought that was a great idea. The album would be full of spontaneity and excitement if they didn't over think things.

It was a disaster. When the critics got a hold of this album they let Paul have it. It was the worst criticism he had ever received. Wings recorded the album in three days and then did overdubs and mixing. It took a total of three weeks.

Nicholas Schaffner a rock writer and critic, and Beatles expert said about Wildlife:

"Unfortunately, what might pass for "rough-hewn" with Dylan translated into "half-assed" in the case of Wild Life, released in the last weeks of 1971, and from which McCartney's customary musical craftsmanship was totally missing. The entire record was sloppily performed, musically listless, and lyrically excruciating. The opening track, "Mumbo," was made up on the spot while the tapes rolled -- and sounded like it. Another song consisted mainly of the lyric "bip bop bip bom bop bip bop bip bom bam" repeated endlessly to a lobotomized three-note melody. This was the one George said he found hard "to relate to." C'mon Paul, we know ya can do better than that! Even the one or two half-decent tunes, like "Tomorrow," were suffocated by Linda's gloppy oohs and aahs unaccountably mixed as high as the lead vocal.

And the liner notes were just as cutesy-pie as the music: "Inside this wrapper is the music they made. Can you dig it?"

The rock critics not only couldn't "dig" Wild Life, they gored it with a vengeance. Most of them were already inclined to take Lennon's side in the Beatles' civil war; Paul was viewed as a traitor to the counterculture, who had split up the Beatles and sold his soul to bubblegum. In its end-of-1971 awards, Crawdaddy wished Wings a "crash landing." Bootleg Beatle albums appeared with covers caricaturing Paul as a bloated pig, while A. J. Weberman staged demonstrations outside the Eastmans' Park Avenue pad. The anti-McCartney hysteria got pretty silly, but Wild Life certainly didn't help Paul's case any."

There are a few bright moments on the album, but they are not enough to save this album. Fortunately Paul took the next album more seriously, but not before stubbing his toe on the next two singles.

(Dear Friend was an open letter to John Lennon trying to move past the arguing and bitterness)

Eat At Home

This was another single taken from Paul's second solo album Ram. It had a limited release. It was not issued as a single in the UK or the US. It was released in August of 1971 in Germany, New Zealand and Australia. In New Zealand the single climbed to the number 7 spot, while in Autralia it only made it as high as 21 on the charts.

The B-side of this single was Smile Away another song taken from the Ram album. Later when Paul formed his group Wings they would often play the song Eat at Home during their shows.

When a reporter asked him about the song in 1975 Paul said "it was a plea for homecooking-it's obscene."