Is Denny Laine really on Wings Wild Life album ?

I can.t hear him on any songs ? And why no song with him on vocals for the first lp of a new group ? A mystery

 

Forum member Backseat -he of the McCartney Recording Sessions book- would know, but as far as I can tell Laine provides some electric rhythm guitar (think of his rhythm guitar on "Let Me Roll It", very similar playing on "Wild Life" for example) and acoustic, but all the lead guitar on the Wild Life LP is Paul's. I believe Laine is also credited for bass on "Tomorrow" and "Dear Friend". Plus backing vocals, of course, the quintessential "Wings" sound

 

I can clearly hear him on backing vocals on the first two verses of "Love Is Strange", blended just beneath Paul's and Linda's voices.

 

Also remember that "Dear Friend" and maybe "Some People Never Know" were recorded during the "Ram" sessions in America late 1970/early 1971 so Denny wouldn't be on those two songs at all unless Paul had him overdub or replace something during the Wildlife sessions . I also have my suspicions that "Bip Bop" and even "I Am Your Singer" could also be "Ram" outtakes. If all this is true there's not many songs left for Denny to be on. Can't wait for the remaster to be released and then hopefully all will be revealed.

 

Denny Laine's electric rhythm and lead guitar playing is very evident throughout WILD LIFE.

 

As far as I know and according to Back-seats book of Pauls recording -sessions Dear friend is the one track from the Ram-sessions
Denny Laines is on Wild Life for sure-promising both instrumental parts and harmony-vocals. Imo there is no doubt about that

 

The major mystery surrounding "Wild Life" is... why didn't Paul use more of the "Ram" outtakes he had ("Get On The Right Thing" and "A Love For You" are the two that jump to my mind) to make it a much more consistent and stronger LP.

 

Ram outtakes can easily form one side of the album

 

Paul plays most of the lead guitar, according to a 1971 Melody Maker interview:

"...Paul plays most of the lead guitar - 'I'd always fancied myself as a lead guitar' - while Denny (Laine) plays harmony lead, chords and some bass. Paul too plays bass and mainly the basslines on the album have been overdubbed. Linda plays most of the piano and organ lines."

 

Yes, I was aware of that and had probably read that same quote you supplied and I can tell when it's Paul on lead guitar on WILD LIFE, which is at least a lot. I guess what I meant to convey was that over the years I've grown to appreciate Denny Laine's awesome contributions and talent during his Wings period. Therefore, after a lot of years I was able — I think, anyway — to discern the differences between Denny Laine's guitar playing, subtle as it was for that album, from Paul's. Especially on the couple of RAM-sessions-generated basic tracks they overdubbed onto to complete. Denny Laine may have even been hesitant in his playing on WILD LIFE, given Paul's rush to record it. Anyway, I love WILD LIFE. I have always loved it from the moment I heard "Mumbo" on New York AM radio late one night in mid-November 1971 to the day it was released and I bought it at Rusch TV & Record Shop (it might've been "Shoppe," not certain though). Before I even got home I'd checked it out at the Greenwich (CT) Library on one of their half-dozen or so public turntables while sitting in their comfy-chairs with the accompanying headphones for each station. Oh man, I loved WILD LIFE's weirdly colored custom record label photographs of Paul and Linda, respectively. Graphics played such a big part in the the owning and playing of an LP in those days, even to me as a kid. I played WILD LIFE all through that winter and it's left a weird, unique Pavlov-like sound-recall effect on my brain. Not a bad thing, it's just that I don't have much of that going on, so I've grown to notice it. Flashback's maybe the word but there were no drugs. It's weird, but at that age I had no real criticism of anything the ex-Beatles or other artists I liked then did musically. So I'm kinda like Switzerland when it comes to some albums from that time that don't have good reputations, such as WILD LIFE, Cereedence Clearwater Revival's MARDI-GRAS, The Stones' EXILE (it was not considered to be a very good Stones album upon its release in May 1972. Really. Look up the reviews from back in the day for proof.), John Lennon/Yoko Ono's SOMETIME IN NEW YORK CITY, Dylan's "George Jackson" single, etc.

Whatev. I like WILD LIFE.

 

Maybe Paul wanted this to be a band album, and if he used those songs, he'd have to re-record them with the band. So, he had to come up with new stuff. And that's why Wildlife's song quality is uneven (in my opinion).

Dear Friend was used on Wildlife because it's his answer to How Do You Sleep, even though it was recorded (I think) before HDYS was written.

Just a guess.

 

Didn't Denny Laine join Wings in the middle of the recording sessions for Wild Life? Or was he in the band prior to the recordings?

 

When did he join exactly? I have it on good authority that recording for the album began on July 24th, 1971.

 

I was recently reading the Wings Tour program from the 1972 European tour. I don't have it with me at the moment though. There was an interview with the members of Wings in it. and I seem to recall that someone said that Laine joined the band after the Wild Life sessions had begun. I will need to double check that. In any case, the tour program did NOT list any exact dates.

 

Thanks Arnie. That might possibly explain why 'Bip Bop' (the first song recorded) has never sounded like a 'Wings' recording to me. I had thought that it might have been just a Paul & Linda recording used on the album, but it could also be a Paul/Linda/Denny Seiwell recording. In any case, the bass AND solitary guitar both sound like Paul to me, which wouldn't give Denny Laine much to do on the track. So maybe he hadn't yet joined at that stage...

 

Neither was the setlist correct, as it mentioned that "Junk" was being played during the tour.

 

I presume the tour program was printed up BEFORE the start of the actual tour. But maybe the song was considered for inclusion, and maybe even rehearsed. That would have been a nice bonus track on the McCartney Archive set: a live rehearsal version of "Junk" from 1972.

 

sure he is. he can be heard clearly singing the secret original lyrics to 'venus and mars' underneath the main melody to 'mumbo.'

 

With a blistering guitar solo by Henry McCullough, aaargh!

But a tape with 1972 tour rehearsal would be a treat!
Now MPL, please bring on that famous "Wings Spanish Rehearsal"!

 

No, he and New York-based guitarist Hugh McCracken — who'd played on RAM and was invited to join Wings — both spent a few weeks at the McCartneys' farm in Scotland before McCracken bailed out and didn't end up joining the band. That's why there was the brief gap between the recording of WILD LIFE in the autumn of 1971 and the release of the "Give Ireland Back To The Irish" single in early 1972 where Denny Laine was the only guitarist in Wings before he suggested Henry McCullough become their second guitarist. By the way, does anyone know how Henry McCullough is doing after having survived a heart attack a couple of years ago?

 

I thought that was Denny SEIWELL (the drummer), and NOT Laine.

 

H.M., the worst of all Wings' guitarists.

 

Most sources that I have found say Denny LAINE joined Wings in late July 1971. Paul rang him up by phone, asking him to join. Some sources say this was August, but that probably is NOT the case because Wings (with Laine and Seiwell) was announced to the press on August 3rd. I'll check more later.

 

Good point my biggest criticism of WILD LIFE is the low number of songs (eight) of which one completely sucks (Bip Bop). Give me an 11 or 12 song album and I can forgive one piece of crap, but when it is one of 8 songs {and there is already one other nonsense song-"Mumbo" (which I like) } then it really detracts from the album.

 

Bip Bop is a great track. Shame you don't like it.