Red Rose Speedway is MILES better than Band On The Run - Anyone else agree?

Yesterday, I created a thread about how I thought Wild Life is, actually, a very good album (If you're interested, check it out here: Wings - Wild Life: It's actually GOOD! )
Well, at this thread, someone stated that Red Rose Speedway is also much better than Band on The Run, and I totally agree! Songs like "Little Lamb Dragonfly", "My Love", and the final medley are some of my favorites... And yes, Band on The Run has great songs, I mean, masterpieces, on it, but, if I consider both albums as a whole, i much rather listen to RRS. I think that "Picasso's Last Words" is the song that made me take that decision. I hate it so much that I keep skipping it when playing this album, while Speedway doesn't have a single song that I don't like. Anyone else think Red Rose Speedway it is the best Wings album?

 

Your Wildlife thread was closed. This one may have legs, though.

Band on the Run is light years better than Speedway. There’s a lot of love around these parts for Speedway, but, to me, it isn’t in the same league.

 

I like RRS a whole lot and I’ll take the medley on side two over the highly overrated Picasso’s Last Words any day or night of the week. And for personal reasons (I love that it reminds me of the Summer of ‘73), I prefer it to BOTR. But objectively and for side one alone, I have to say BOTR is the more consistently stronger album.

 

Man, I can't express my hate for Picasso's Last Words enough. I don't know how people like this song...
My turntable: "Drink to me, drink to my health, you know i can't drink anymore"
Me: Nah, shut up!

 

No, I don't agree.

"BOTR" may now be the victim of its perpetual success and viewed as "overrated" because people have heard it so much over the last 48 years.

Nonetheless, it's miles ahead of the inconsistent and often blah "RRS".

"RRS" has a few songs I really like "Get On the Right Thing", "BBB" - but much of it is flaccid.

The medley is a contrived attempt to redo the end of "Abbey Road" but the component parts are mostly weak and dull.

Of Macca's 70s albums, "RRS" is the 2nd worst, better only than the misbegotten "Wild Life"...

 

no.

 

Big fan of RRS.
Especially Big Barn Bed, Little Lamb Dragonfly, Single Pigeon, and the medley.

Ear worm was the opening sequence of Big Barn Bed.

Favorite from BOTR, beside title track and Jet, is 1985. Good stuff

Not sure one album is better than the other

 

Really love RRS also, but you can't deny Band on the Run.

 

Red Rose speedway very good but don't think its better than Band on the run but when you get to venus and mars or back to the egg that's a different story.

 

RRS way too lyrically challenged and just doesn't have the same mojo that Band does.

I do like RRS better than the 2 albums that followed BOTR

 

That's funny I always thought Picasso and Bluebird were the gems of Band On the run

 

Band On The Run is slightly better than the "regular" version of Red Rose Speedway.

However, the "reconstructed" double album version of Red Rose Speedway is much better than Band On The Run.

For me, anyway.

In my opinion, the RRS double album version is Paul's very own White Album.

 

RRS has it’s moments.
But it’s inconsistent and bland compared to Band On The Run.
I guess at sometime, all past albums released by major artists, which were previously regarded as ‘crap’, will always reach a point where they will be re-evaluated and held up against the true masterpieces, which is then called ‘overrated’.
Boring hipster-mentality, if you ask me.
The same thing applies to The Beatles during these years. Now it’s suddenly George Harrison who is the true genius. Hipster-crap.

 

I love "Little Lamb Dragonfly", but the rest of RRS is largely forgettable in my opinion. BOTR may be overexposed, but it's excellent.

 

I actually think I like Wild Life better...but that's not saying much. Besides My Love....I like Country Dreamer (didn't make the LP) and am ok with Big Barn Bed. I never played the lp much after buying it.

Bern

 

I agree. Red Rose Speedway is a better McCartney album than Band on the Run. Neither are great albums, in my opinion, but RRS really captures a sense of effortlessness that I find attractive in a McCartney record. And I think Loup is one of his coolest album tracks. Band on the Run has some great songs on it, sure, but the sound quality is shockingly poor for an early 70s album by a mainstream artist, and I think he often sounds strained. It sounds like he’s trying. I actually prefer the rather under-achieving RRS because he sounds like it hasn’t occurred to him to try. He’s just in the groove.

 

I hadn't thought about it, but it's true! It sounds noticeably worse than it's previous albums... Sound quality wise, Wild Life is one of the best. My vinyl copy sounds amazing! (Brazilian 1st pressing, one of the few of that period that sounds good.)

 

I disagree about BOTR vs RRS.
The entire first side of BOTR is miles above RRS. AndI dont get the Picasso hate. Sure one might think it goes on too long, but it's the audio equivalent of a Picasso art piece, where you see all the angles at once. The song does the same thing, layering the album's motifs together. Wonderful. And the icing on the cake, for me, is the escapist theme of the entire album. For me, BOTR is the one McCartney album where every song, every graphic image, serves each other and takes us on a journey.

RRS, the way it was released, for me, was too slick.
There were melodies everywhere, but too many of the songs seemed slight to me.
Far better was the double vinyl album. If that was released in 73, I think it would have been a different game for McCartney in the 1970s. Thinking of my friends, and what we listened to, RRS double vinyl would have wowed many of us in that age group.

I agree with the above poster that overfamiliarity with BOTR has made many of us take it for granted, and thus dulled its impact in nearly 50 years.

It's not my favorite solo Macca either, but I can't deny the album's brilliance.

Just my take on it.

Added: Just read people quibbling with SQ on BOTR. What? Sounds pretty sweet to me.

 

I somewhat agree, its all of the sudden like everyone likes Wild life, Dylan's self portrait etc. 35 years ago you'd be mocked if you admitted it. And I was.

 

I had the same issue: I always liked Wild Life and RRS, i just didn't had the courage to admit it!

 

The best songs on RRS are RAM leftovers: Little Lamb Dragonfly and Get On the Right Thing.

BOTR smokes RRS. I like RRS but it’s not even close.

 

"My Love" alone may be better than anything on Band on the Run. But aside from "Get on the Right Thing," I find the rest of Red Rose Speedway eminently forgettable.

Yeah, "Picasso's Last Words" is cringe-worthy. I don't ever feel the need to listen to "Mamunia." But, especially with "Helen Wheels" tacked on, the rest pretty much destroys Red Rose Speedway (as released).

 

I might agree if Red Rose Speedway had been released as the originally planned double album.

 

Yup! I'd get through mumbo and bip bop at the record store i worked at and the customers would say take that off! What is that rubbish?

 

Some people express how clever it is when he brings back the ho hey ho and Jet into the song… as if it can begin to compare to the brilliance of side two of Abbey Road or something…not even remotely close. And the main part of the song is just kinda there.