Spins: Wings • Wings 3xLP Limited Edition
Wings
Wings 3xLP Limited Edition
(Capitol/MPL/UMe)
At the time of writing this, Paul McCartney has just packed up and left Chicago following the two-night stand at United Center that concluded his Got Back tour of North America. There were certainly people at the final show who were pining for more than just the Beatles classics. Those fans erupted at the opening notes of escapist pop medley “Band On the Run,” the warm and inviting “Let ‘Em In,” riff-rocker “Let Me Roll It,” the euphoric “Jet,” bombastic James Bond theme “Live and Let Die,” the bluesy and brass-fueled “Letting Go” with its Stonesy guitar riff, and piano pounder “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five.” Those seven songs from McCartney’s post-Beatles band Wings appear among 25 more on this new retrospective box set. Wings is a bit more concise and focused than 2001 best-seller Wingspan: Hits and History, which included 18 songs from McCartney’s solo catalog among its 40 selections.
In other words, you won’t find “Admiral Halsey/Uncle Albert” or “Coming Up” on Wings since those are credited under the McCartney name. What you will find is just about any Wings material that was ever played on the radio, and then some. The exception would be the soaring Wings Over America Top 10 hit version of McCartney’s “Maybe I’m Amazed,” which is too bad. Despite skirting the significance of Wings’ chart-topping triple live album, this is an excellent introduction to Wings for people who don’t already own the band’s catalog.
Only five of the 23 Wings tracks present on Wingspan are absent from Wings. These omissions are generally deeper cuts, including “Goodnight Tonight” B-side “Daytime Nighttime Suffering,” Back to the Egg free-for-all “Rockestra Theme,” London Town‘s “Girlfriend” (later a single on Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall album), and Wild Life tracks “Bip Bop” and the “Yesterday”-referencing ballad “Tomorrow.”
So, today’s math lesson reveals that 18 songs from Wingspan are repeated on Wings, plus 14 additions. There are a couple of misfires. You’ll find the trifle “Mamunia” added, although many armchair quarterbacks (like me) would have chosen the more rousing “Mrs. Vanderbilt” as a sixth song to pull from the chart-topping 1973 album Band on the Run. “Tomorrow” would better represent the stronger elements of Wild Life than the band’s cover of Mickey & Sylvia’s “Love is Strange.”
Good choices abound, however. Gliding atop burbling electric piano and clavinet, the soulful “Arrow Through Me” from the frequently overlooked final album Back to the Egg is a worthy new inclusion for reassessment. It charted at #29 in the US but disappeared from McCartney’s set lists after Wings’ final tour in 1979. Swinging stomper “I’ve Had Enough” from 1978’s London Town features Jimmy McCulloch’s bristling, double-tracked guitar solo reminiscent of Queen’s Brian May. The song reached #25 on the pop chart but suffered the same fate as “Arrow Through Me” in concerts following Wings’ breakup. Probably the most welcome addition to the track list is the rowdy but nonsensical “Soily” from the recently unearthed One Hand Clapping.
Wings’ five US #1 studio-recorded singles are here, including the aforementioned “Band on the Run,” the swooning “My Love,” the optimistic “Listen to What the Man Said,” lighthearted “Silly Love Songs,” and hopeful “With a Little Luck.” “Mull of Kintyre” was a love letter to McCartney’s home in Scotland and is distinguished as the UK’s best-selling single of all time. Other essentials include 1974 non-LP rocker “Junior’s Farm.” The program wraps with the body-moving disco-funk of 1979 Top 10 single “Goodnight Tonight.”
All of the tracks on Wings have been remastered for reissues at some point during the past 15 years. The Band on the Run-era tracks, except for the UK non-album single “Helen Wheels,” have been remastered in 2010. Songs from Venus and Mars and London Town were touched up in 2022. The songs are well-balanced for playback across the three vinyl platters.
The set is housed in a heavy, die-cut slipcase. Extras include a sheet of stickers and wall art. Particularly nice is the poster with Humphrey Ocean’s impressionistic paintings of the Wings logo and each of the ten musicians who passed through Wings’ lineup. A 32-page book includes a chronological walk-through of the facts behind each Wings album. The book begins with a fresh introduction from McCartney, who writes about the need to reinvent himself after the Beatles broke up. He describes Wings’ formation in 1971 and his dreams of growing it into a “proper band” with international reach. He concludes by quoting Dora the Explorer, exclaiming, “We did it!”
– Jeff Elbel
7 of 10
