McCartney & Wings Wild Life bonus track discussion*

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by johnny moondog 909, Feb 24, 2018.

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  1. MitchLT

    MitchLT Two for the show

    Just listening to Wild Life on my Sonos now- pretty fine Sunday morning album.

    Interesting that Macca wrote "Give Ireland.." after reconciling with Lennon:

    'On 29 January, McCartney returned to New York,[10] where, during another meeting with Lennon, they agreed to end their public feud.[11]The following day, McCartney wrote the song "Give Ireland Back to the Irish"'

    Funny how they both influenced each other's writing so much in th early post-split years
     
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  2. abzach

    abzach Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sweden
    Venus And Mars is too US market flirting sounding, hence the least good Wings album. Yeah, it would be fun although I'm not a big fan of those because of them being a bit compressed, I'd rather have the original CD's or vinyls.
     
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  3. johnny moondog 909

    johnny moondog 909 Beatles-Lennon & Classic rock fan Thread Starter

    I hate to rebut other fans opinions. But you do understand the idea that, Venus & Mars is the weakest Wings album, while Wild Life is some sort of great work. That opinion is popular here on the forum & almost nowhere else on planet Earth.

    Venus & Mars was hailed as a worthy follow up to Band On The Run, sold millions & was full of hit singles, including a #1 hit, another top 15 hit & a 3rd top 40 hit. As opposed to Wild Life which was generally dismissed as a rather dismal misstep of hastily recorded & unfinished songs. As McCartney said himself about Bip Bop & the album in general. It was a commercial failure with no hits & poorly regarded by 90% of the people who heard it.

    Now I'm a big McCartney, Beatles, Lennon, Harrison, Starr FAN. I see some value & joy & good music in Wild Life, I'm predisposed, to root for everything they ever did.

    Venus & Mars is a highly polished, heavily produced attempt at a Wings version of an Abbey Road or a worthy follow up to Band In The Run, it sold, it was a hit, took 18 months from soup to nuts & Wildlife took 2 weeks.

    You're opinions are cool, but you speak for perhaps 1-2% of the fans, critics or public. If one didn't know better, someone could mistakenly believe Wild Life being superior to Venus & Mars was the prevailing opinion.

    Lennon was really good at raw emotional albums & writing lyrics at will. McCartney & Harrison less so Imo. If McCartney had done more stuff like Wild Life & less like Venus & Mars it would have ruined or lessened his career.
     
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  4. oxegen

    oxegen Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dublin, Ireland
    I think we have to forgive the subsequent comments from our American friend to your post but I am inclined to agree with you.

    I, too, do not want to go down the political route on this one so further comment on this particular song is probably best avoided. Just my opinion.
     
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  5. adm62

    adm62 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    It's a terrible, misguided song that displays little clue about the political situation at the time. Not sure that including it would cause more problems especially as no radio stations will bother to ban it.
     
  6. HarrisonRichards

    HarrisonRichards Active Member

    Location:
    ohio
    In the words of Joey Lawrence"wooooo"! I havent heard this one.If either of them had any tapes associated with BOTR that totally changes the legend of Paul being robbed of his tapes and having to re-do them from memory. If Denny S. and Henry had tapes surely Denny Laine must have had a copy somwhere that could have been retrieved. Paul could not possibly make the rookie mistake of not having a safety copy somewhere.To get back on track with your subject ,,the only true bonus tracks that I would feel to be helpful to "Wild Life" would be the singles "Give Ireland", "May had a little Lamb" and "Hi Hi Hi". Those just feel right. Some life tracks from the period would be a nice. I always thought the early live version of "Soily" had more power to it than the "WOA" version.
     
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  7. dudley07726

    dudley07726 Forum Resident

    Location:
    FLA
    A bit Compressed? Thats an understatement. I’ve never found a version that sounded great. Even the DCC. The early take bonus cut download of Rockshow shows you how good it could have sounded.
     
  8. daveidmarx

    daveidmarx Forem Residunt

    Location:
    Astoria, NY USA
    This works for me:

    [​IMG]

    ;)
     
  9. Has Wild Life been confirmed as the next archive release, or is this just total conjecture?
     
  10. Conjecture.
     
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  11. daveidmarx

    daveidmarx Forem Residunt

    Location:
    Astoria, NY USA
    "Full of hit singles"? You must inhabit a different universe than the rest of us. It had one big hit (Listen To What The Man Said), one song which stalled outside the top ten, which wasn't where most McCartney singles landed at this point (going into 1975, Paul had amassed seven consecutive top 10 singles), and one single that was until this point Paul's lowest charting single as a solo artist by a fairly wide margin. I would NOT describe Venus And Mars as being full of hit singles. Not by a long shot!
     
  12. Jump Cut

    Jump Cut Forum Resident

    Location:
    Fresno, CA
    That's right, can forget about Seaside Woman and the B-Side.
     
  13. daveidmarx

    daveidmarx Forem Residunt

    Location:
    Astoria, NY USA
    Seaside Woman was originally supposed to be on Red Rose Speedway, so it belongs there. Meanwhile, B-side To Seaside was recorded in 1976, so it would belong on Wings At The Speed Of Sound.
     
  14. johnny moondog 909

    johnny moondog 909 Beatles-Lennon & Classic rock fan Thread Starter

    Right. Because you don't view 3 top 40 hits, including a # 1 a # 12 & # 39 as being very successful. As if it's not much of an achievement. It's also worth mentioning # 3 Juniors Farm could easily be considered a non LP single from V&M lp, & that Listen to What the Man Said, was such a huge hit, it was likely to downgrade the follow up singles, because LTWTMS had so much airplay & time on the charts, the album was already out awhile by the time they could release a 2nd & 3rd single.

    Compared to Wild life it's like the Sistine Chapel compared to Morty's Motel 6. Which was the point, Venus & Mars was loved by millions, Wild Life is loved by 5-10,000 hardcore fans, hipsters, & contrarians.

    Wild Life would benefit more from the addition of a few good bonus tracks, perhaps more than any other McCartney album imho.
     
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  15. ZippyPippy

    ZippyPippy Forum Resident

    Ou Es Le Bip Bop (Club Mix)
     
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  16. Bemagnus

    Bemagnus Music is fun

    Don t think Wild Life is an album Paul is particulary proud of. The same with RRS. So I guess a true archiwerelease of those are not his top-priority. With that said I like both of these albums for what they are. Also since I saw Wings live in 1972 I know that the WL stuff really kicked a...s in a livesetting
     
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  17. Flaming Torch

    Flaming Torch Forum Resident

    johnny moondog 909 I tend to agree with you. However I am surprised that Letting Go only made 41 in the UK singles chart. Wings at the Speed of Sound had 2 big hits but I think is a weaker album than Venus and Mars but yes Wild Life is a bit of a fans type of album.
     
  18. Arnold Grove

    Arnold Grove Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    I hope that CLINT HARRIGAN was paid properly for the use of his wonderful liner notes! ;)
     
  19. MGSeveral

    MGSeveral Augm

    But where would I find such a wonderful undertaking?
     
  20. johnny moondog 909

    johnny moondog 909 Beatles-Lennon & Classic rock fan Thread Starter

    I agree with you McCartney's made it pretty clear over the years he (as well as critics + public ) don't view either album as his top or even middle shelf work.

    I'd like to point out however, what I see ( or hear ) as a huge distinction between the 2 very different works. Wild Life is a very quickly & roughly done album of barely finished (if even that) songs & ideas. From a brand new band that had barely played together.

    Red Rose Speedway on the other hand, is a highly polished & professionally produced project, pulling out all stops. Starting with legendary Glyn John's, who walked out, because much of the writing, arranging, jelling, rehearsing, didin't get done before hitting the studio. In a time of huge cannabis intake, McCartney finished writing, did the rehearsal & everything right in the tracking room for days & weeks on end. Boring the crap out of Glyn John's. It's not like they were the original WHO or Jimi Hendrix lighting up the electricity with Sparks in the room, because they were a great jamming live band.

    But in the end Red Rose Speedway was slickly produced, pulling in the legendary George Martin for the great James Bond non LP single, full orchestration on several tunes. McCartney came up with a 2nd classic in addition to Live & Let Die, the iconic incredibly huge smash "My Love". Mccartney also had the slickly done ( if innocuous) Big Barn Bed & Get On The Right Thing...giving him 2 upbeat commercial album tracks of good quality..McCartney also pulled out the nifty "Single Pigeon" in his 1930's vaudville mode. Not unlike Honey Pie or When I'm 64, years before as a Beatle. In addition McCartney wrote the long time Macca nerd favorite " Little Lamb Dragonfly" a gorgeous 6.30 ballad with lush 12 string & Wings harmonies, you can feel the wreak of cannabis, inspiring a lot of this writing. Another thing McCartney did, that's rarely discussed, all through RAM, & Red Rose Speedway, you can hear McCartneys pot filled brain putting in little Brian Wilsonesque, Pet Sounds-Smiley Smile clues & hints on First Indian On The Moon & LL Dragonfly...

    So ok, dragging on for a year recording t least 20-25 new tunes, & ressurecting a couple of Ram tracks Dragonfly & Get On Right Thing... McCartneys stoned & Glyn John's walked out on him, he's got the obligation to the Bond movie, & he's got the big TV special for Lew Grade, he's split 5-6 different ways... He releases 6 new 72 songs for 3 non LP singles & B sides ( reducing what's in the can ) for the upcoming Red Rose Speedway. But he's Whipped Wings into a respectable band, & smartly recruited Henry McCollough to handle the lead guitar chores. Just listen to Henry's solo on My Love for vindication of that decision. We've also got McCartney's 4 song medley Power Cut-Hands Of Love...he did it successfully on Ram with George Martin's help on Uncle Albert... What I'll call "The Abbey Road medley trick". But the RRS medley is 4 pleasant but innocuous songs stitched together, pleasant-nice, but kind of bland, no Great dynamics & changes in direction like Abbey Road medley or Uncle Albert/Adm. Halsey, not by a long shot. Finally we have McCartney's "One More Kiss" one of the albums best tunes imo, a bit of country & a few Beatley chords & licks, I can almost Imagine it with Ringo singing, or on a Beatles album folky like Rubber Soul or Two Of Us on LIB.

    So this ain't no Wildlife, there's as much or more work as went into Band On The Run, or Venus & Mars, Wildlife is a rough snapshot of an album, RRS is a full on huge longterm, heavy lifting production. I don't know who did the albums orchestrations, if it's Richard Hewson, whoever it is, he's great !!!

    McCartney did a lot of things right, but whether it's the daily Cannabis smoking, or just the huge number of McCartney's commitments, touring, non LP singles, the album, the tv special, new band, Glyn John's quitting, the Bond movie, having more babies, Apple lawsuits, or just weed, RRS was a massive, pull out all the stops, masterpiece in the making, rivaling or equaling BOTR-RAM or any 70s-80s work he did. He just made a couple mistakes that cost the album quality.

    McCartney had 10 very good-to great songs in the can, but the actual album has 3-4 average to weak songs he used instead. He wrote great tunes, made fine polished recordings, even called in the big guns with Geo Martin for Live & Let Die.

    Whether it was a contractual restriction with Harry Saltzman from Bond Films, or the marijuana haze, or the false belief he had 10 great cuts on RRS, or worse, that he had MY LOVE & that's enough... It was enough for LP & single to hit #1. But for RRS to be in par with a Beatles studio album or BOTR. All 10 songs needed to be very good to great... If he had done this for example

    1-Live & Let Die
    2-Get On Right Thing
    3-One More Kiss
    4-Single Pigeon
    5-Hi Hi Hi
    6-Big Barn Bed
    7-Little Lamb Dragonfly
    8-Cmoon
    9-I Lie Around
    10-My Love

    Just a hypothetical something more along those lines, using a few better songs makes a classic all time album imho. 10 great songs or close to it.

    Wild life was never going to be anything close to that, or an all-time McCartney great album. It's just a rough spun & quirky mishmash. With barely written lyrics, bridges, arrangements. I like everything he does hopefully. RRS is a giant that came close, still can with track revisions. Wild Life really benefits with 2-6 high quality bonus tracks, especially interspersed into the running order like an actual album, instead of tacked on the end.
     
    Last edited: Feb 26, 2018
  21. daveidmarx

    daveidmarx Forem Residunt

    Location:
    Astoria, NY USA
    It's from the Ultimate Archive Collection. That's all I can say. :ignore:
     
  22. dudley07726

    dudley07726 Forum Resident

    Location:
    FLA
    He apparently wasn’t that keen on the medley on RRS. When promoting MAF and discussing the medley on that album, he mentioned it was the first medley he had done since Abbey Rd.
     
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  23. crp207

    crp207 Forum Resident

    Carnival of Bip-Bop
     
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  24. Siegmund

    Siegmund Vinyl Sceptic

    Location:
    Britain, Europe
    GIBTTI is just not a very good song....regardless of the politics. Every bit as bad as Lennon's Luck Of The Irish, but it in a different way.

    Lennon and McCartney should have given Ireland as a song topic a wide berth - it was bad for their songwriting karma!
     
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  25. johnny moondog 909

    johnny moondog 909 Beatles-Lennon & Classic rock fan Thread Starter

    Well he had done Uncle Albert-Adm. Halsey which can be seen as 3-4 little songs stitched together..but yeah the MAF one is somewhat better, nothing wrong with it, it the RRS medley, but it just doesn't do anything unexpected no radical departures or changes like Abb.road or Uncle Al.

    I disagree, Lennon's Irish is great when you snip out Yoko's verses, it hurts me emotionally to do that to J&Y's intention, but her voice doesn't bring Ireland to mind, or blend well with Lennon..& McCartney's tune is pleasant & rocking, it was a hit, Henry's first Wings song. The lyrics don't even say anything very controversial. Great Britain You Are Tremendous he says. Wooo!
     
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