Paul McCartney/Wings-song by song thread

I'm sure audiences at Wings' 1976 shows were waiting for the knockout punch - Paul and the band already played a few Beatles songs in the set, perhaps they'd pull out one for the encore? Or, if not a Beatles number, maybe an old rock and roll standard like Wings did in 1972? But..."Soily"? Total head scratcher.

 

"Soily" is a power-house of a closer. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

 

More about Seaside Woman...

On July 18, 1980 the song was reissued now credited to Linda McCartney. The sleeve is using some illustrations from the promo film.

7" Sleeve:



12" Sleeve

 

'' Hi Hi Hi ' would be a perfect concert closer. Fast , sweaty and rockin'out. And everybody would be 'hi' indeed.

 

I like that left turn and the first time I saw the tracklist, I did a double take cause I had never heard of the song. I figured it was probably a jam which is kind of true, and jams end concerts but then he could have taken a big hit and jammed on it. I guess if I was there, I would probably want another big song like "Junior's Farm" instead but I still appreciate the unpredictable nature of the choice.

 

More about Seaside Woman...

There is German 7" single with a cold ending.

 

I know some view Wings Over America as the most representative of what Wings were as a band, and I always remember learning about them with 1976 live footage and loving it. They looked great to me on stage and I think a good live album has live versions like these- ones that threaten the studio version enough to almost be definitive. That opening trio of "Venus And Mars", "Rock Show" and "Jet" is probably my favorite moment of any of his live albums.

I like the extended "Maybe I'm Amazed" and always thought he'd go in studio and re-record that with the extra coda but he didn't. I miss the fragmented nature with the acoustic "Picasso's Last Words" but I liked "Bluebird" acoustic. The low point to me is Laine's overly showy and apathetic take on "Richard Cory" which seems so out of place to me I can see why it wasn't on any Wings studio album. A song way too dark for Wings in that setlist despite sitting next to 'Picasso'. Laine doesn't take it seriously. I really enjoy "Soily" and "Go Now" from The Moody Blues Denny connection -it's great to have and got big reaction.

Such a fun and fantastic live album and the box set of it is just unreal it's so loaded with materials. One of my most prized music possessions is the WOA box.

 

Well, Hi Hi Hi was the first encore. And it did indeed rock.

I bet Paul considered making the final encore a Beatles song. I think he mentioned in interviews sometime around WOA - or a few years after, that they tried out Hey Jude but for one reason or another, it just was not happening.

Remember that Soily, as the concert closer, was a huge production number with lasers and all.

The last Beatles song of the WOA concerts was Yesterday, which was exactly the midway point of the concert. Everything thereafter was Wings, excepting Go Now.

I know it might seem strange, but at the time we weren't expecting anymore Beatles. It kind of felt like Yesterday closed the door on that aspect of the show (and at the time Yesterday was clearly Paul's 'biggest' song in the public eye. It would take a few years for Hey Jude to supplant it, if it actually ever has).

So - Soily made sense. I thought it was kind of a bold move. Something Neil Young might do...

 

More about Seaside Woman...

On July 7, 1986 new mixes of the song were issued on EMI and produced by Superweed and Remixed by Alvin Clark.

UK 7" Single:



Duration: 3:40

UK 12" Single:



Duration: 5:20

 

More about Seaside Woman...

A nice video with Linda and Paul:

 

More about Seaside Woman...

A new mix for Wide Prairie album:

 

More about Seaside Woman...

Finally the Red Rose Speedway mix:

 

Yeah, you get what I meant about the consecutive notes. The only other song I can think of that we covered where he sings that way is on "Love In Song" but there the atmosphere is odder so that great line @Bemagnus mentioned - "my-eye-cries-out-a-tear-still born, misuunnderstanding," the monotone nature of his singing emphasizes a close conversation, face-to-face, or at least that's the impression I get from that. "Warm And Beautiful" is warmer and less intense.

 

Seaside Woman (6/10) [Suzy & The Red Stripes]
A fun reggae song with some help from Paul, Linda sounds so happy on this that it’s enjoyable to be. It’s an okay song but the presentation is a welcome change. I like the part where Paul says “alright snap it on Denny” and we hear like a tick-tock rhythm that gets faster.

Zoo Gang (6/10)
Forgot to rate this one I think - a moody instrumental that experiments with textures in an enjoyable way.
​

@Who Cares - I really dig the vibe of "Oriental Nightfish" - it's got a nice mix of a 'Band On The Run' sound and a 'Venus And Mars' sound -I love the combo of Mellotron and Moog on the same song too - my favorite Linda song of the 70's.

 

[QUOTE="Paul Gase, post: 22674684, member: 82016"

So - Soily made sense. I thought it was kind of a bold move. Something Neil Young might do...[/QUOTE]
My favourite Neil Young story is when he played a show somewhere around the time of the 'Tonight' The Night ' album and opened with that song which the audience wasn' t familiar with. He then proceeded to play the entire show with just new songs. Then at the end he said : " Now we'll play one you ' ve heard before " and played ' Tonight's' s The Night ' again.

 

My favourite Neil Young story is when he played a show somewhere around the time of the 'Tonight' The Night ' album and opened with that song which the audience wasn' t familiar with. He then proceeded to play the entire show with just new songs. Then at the end he said : " Now we'll play one you ' ve heard before " and played ' Tonight's' s The Night ' again.[/QUOTE]
Yes, the 1973 tour with the Santa Monica Flyers band. He sometimes played it three times!! He was pushing things to the limit on that tour.

 

Some years ago I read an interview with Paul in which he was asked about the lyrics to Soily and said, roughly, "That must've been drug-induced." I first heard it on the San Diego stop of the Wings Over America tour and then it struck me as loud and noisy and not much more, but I've come to like it over the years. But yeah, those lyrics represent one of the prime examples of Paul in stream-of-consciousness-gibberish mode.

 

Did you ever work for Hallmark?

 

I love the WOA version of Hi Hi Hi -- much more than the original single. And yes, it was great live as an encore. I don't remember much about the reaction to Soily, but the audience was pretty much in the palm of Paul's hand. He could have read the phone book and they'd have cheered.

 

Soily is great. The very beginning reminds me of the very beginning of Queen’s Tie Your Mother Down.

 

Next one

A big and somehow dividing song

Mull of Kintyre

At the time the biggest selling single ever in the UK this folky masterpiece is dividing fans. Many seems to hate it other seems to love it. No neutral ground

I find this to be one of the loveliest songs Paul wrote-ever. Denny Laine also left his ,ark on this song-without a doubt the most successful co-write between Paul and Denny. The lyrics are poetic and very nice.

Mull of Kityre is an absolutely timelsee song-could have been written 200 years ago as well as now. The melody is simple but still gorgeous and the chorus is stunning. The vocals-lead and harmony shimmers and the bag-pipes is not a stunt-they really fits in here

Not rock-music but an timeless song that will be sang when much of todays music is forgotten. Iv heard it sung and played plenty of time on different occasions so this one lives on for sure

I think most song-writers would kill for having the ability to write a song like this

Song facts

“Mull of Kintyre” is a song by the British-American rock band Wings written by Paul McCartney and Denny Laine. The song was written in tribute to the picturesque Kintyre peninsula in Scotland and its headland, the Mull of Kintyre, where McCartney has owned High Park Farm since 1966. The song was Wings’ biggest hit in Britain where it became the 1977 Christmas number one, and was the first single to sell over two million copies nationwide.

History
The lyrics of the first verse, also used as the repeating chorus, are an ode to the area’s natural beauty and sense of home:

Mull of Kintyre
Oh mist rolling in from the sea,
My desire
Is always to be here
Oh Mull of Kintyre

McCartney explained how the song came into being:

I certainly loved Scotland enough, so I came up with a song about where we were living: an area called Mull of Kintyre. It was a love song really, about how I enjoyed being there and imagining I was travelling away and wanting to get back there.

“Mull of Kintyre” was recorded on 9 August 1977 at Spirit of Ranachan Studio at High Park Farm in Scotland, during a break in recording the London Town album caused by Linda McCartney’s advanced pregnancy. The song featured bagpipes played by the Campbeltown Pipe Band from nearby Campbeltown. Paul’s vocals and acoustic guitar were recorded outdoors. “Mull of Kintyre” and “Girls’ School” (a rocker that had been previously recorded for London Town) were released as a double A-sided single on 11 November 1977, independently of the album. It was included on the Wings compilation Wings Greatest in 1978, the UK/Canada version of McCartney’s 1987 compilation album All the Best!, the 2001 compilation Wingspan: Hits and History and the 2016 compilation Pure McCartney.

Reception

The song’s broad appeal was maximised by its pre-Christmas release and it became a Christmas number one single in the UK, spending nine weeks at the top of the charts. It also became an international hit, charting high in Australia and many other countries over the holiday period. It went on to become the first single to sell over two million copies in the UK and became the UK’s best-selling single of all-time (eclipsing The Beatles’ own “She Loves You“) until overtaken by Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” in 1984 (which also featured McCartney on the B-side). The song remains the UK’s best-selling completely non-charity single, having sold 2.08 million copies. (Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” has sold more in its two releases, but the profits of the 1991 release went to charity.)
The millionth copy of the disc sold in the UK included a special certificate. It was sold to David Ackroyd, who was presented with a gold disc of the single by Laine.

Despite its international appeal, the song was not a major hit in North America, where the flipside “Girls’ School” received more airplay and reached #33 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #34 on the Canadian RPM charts. “Mull of Kintyre” was not a pop hit at all in the US, but did manage to reach #45 on the Easy Listening chart.
Meanwhile, in Canada, “Girls’ School“/”Mull of Kintyre” was initially tracked as a double A-side, and reached #44 on the pop charts before “Mull of Kintyre” was dropped from the chart listings as of 21 January 1978. “Girls’ School” continued its chart climb for a few more weeks, reaching #34 in Canada. After the single fell out of the top 40, it was once again tracked as a double A-side (with “Mull of Kintyre” getting first billing) for one week in April, but it did not better its previous #44 chart peak. “Mull of Kintyre” alone (without “Girls’ School“) did reach #30 on Canada’s Adult Contemporary chart.

Live performances
McCartney has played “Mull of Kintyre” only occasionally in concert since Wings’ 1979 British tour. Performances include 23 June 1990 in Glasgow, Scotland. He played it in Australia and New Zealand and also Canada in 1993, 2002, 2005, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2015. He began playing the song again in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. On 11 July 2009, at a concert at the Halifax Common, he played the song accompanied by the 78th Highlanders (Halifax Citadel) Pipe Band. He played the song at the O2 Arena in London on 22 December 2009, accompanied by the 18-piece Balmoral Highlanders Pipe Band.

The following year, on 20 June 2010 McCartney performed “Mull of Kintyre” at Hampden Park in Glasgow accompanied by the Pipes and Drums of Loretto School. He played the song at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, on the 8 and 9 August 2010 with the Paris Port Dover Pipe Band. On 20 December 2011, Loretto School played with him again in the final concert of his On The Run tour at the Echo Arena in Liverpool. On 25 November 2012 performed “Mull of Kintyre” at the On The Run Tour in Vancouver, British Columbia with the Delta Police Pipe Band, and in Edmonton, Alberta with the Edmonton Police Service Pipes and Drums on 28–29 November. On 7 July 2013, McCartney performed “Mull of Kintyre” on his “Out There” tour to a sell-out crowd at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, Canada accompanied by the Ottawa Police Service Pipe Band. On 19 and 20 April 2016, performed “Mull of Kintyre” during the One on One tour in the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, again, with the Delta Police Pipe Band. […]




He had an idea for a song. I went around to have breakfast with them up in Scotland. … I heard the chorus and I said that’s a potentially hit song. So the next day we went and finished it off. We sat down and wrote the lyrics and put it together. Then we brought in the Campbeltown Pipe Band and they were all excited. It was the first time they’d ever been in a studio and it was fun. We recorded the pipes and drums outside so we got the echoes off the mountains. It came out at Christmas and it was a big hit (in England). It was a B-side over here.

Denny Laine, Interview with Tallahassee Democrat, 2017

From Denny Laine, CultureSonar interview, December 24, 2018:

“Mull of Kintyre” came about [when] we were in Scotland. I went round to Paul’s one day and he had the chorus. That’s the song, I think. The chorus. We were inspired by Scotland, so I helped with the lyrics. The Campbeltown Pipe Band made it the song it is. Billy Connolly liked it, a nice endorsement, otherwise he would have slagged us off onstage. [Laughs] We would never have wanted a Scottish song that they didn’t like. And a lot of that is from the pipe band [which] transposed keys [and] added to the arrangement… The pipe band was recorded outdoors with the echo. Magical. Where we were, you could see where Scotland ends and Ireland begins.

Denny Laine

Linda and I spent quite a bit of time [in Scotland] when the kids were young. The Beatles had just broken up, over business problems, and that had been pretty upsetting. I was at a bit of a loose end. We lived in a farmer’s croft on the Mull of Kintyre that I had bought before I met Linda, but it was quite run down and I had never visited it much. We were retreating from the world; it was really comforting to be there. We just headed north and escaped. It was glorious. In the evenings, you could walk outside and there would be this endless sky. In some ways, it was at the end of the world. It wasn’t that easy to get to us, which we liked, as we had been so accessible before that. I fell in love with Scotland again and wrote a song based on my love of the area, with the local pipe band. The song was so successful it got on some people’s nerves. But I loved it.

Paul McCartney, from a 2019 FT.com article

Last updated on September 22, 2019

Lyrics

Mull of Kintyre?
Oh mist rolling in from the sea?
My desire is always to be here?
Oh Mull of Kintyre?

Far have I travelled and much have I seen?
Dark distant mountains with valleys of green
Past painted deserts the sunset's on fire?
As he carries me home to the Mull of Kintyre

REPEAT CHORUS

Sweep through the heather like deer in the glen?
Carry me back to the days I knew then
Nights when we sang like a heavenly choir?
Of the life and the times of the Mull of Kintyre??

REPEAT CHORUS

Smiles in the sunshine?and tears in the rain?
Still take me back where my memories remain?
Flickering embers grow higher and higher?
As they carry me back to the Mull of Kintyre??

REPEAT CHORUS TWICE

 

I hate this song. The b side Girl’s School rocks.

 

B-Side To Seaside?

 

One half of the greatest single ever.

An earlier thought of mine on this:

 

As I said you either hate it or love it