Paul McCartney/Wings-song by song thread

None other than:


with Mark Vigars, Pete Henderson, and Steve Churchyard assisting.

 

I've Had Enough 3/5 ~ A solid album track for me. Never understood why it was released as a single. Nice ... not more.

 

So it wasn’t universally a double a-side single with Deliver Your Children?
I think DYC has a lot more hit potential and the Dutch radio stations must have thought the same.

 

By the time this single came out, the album was pretty much over with in the US. I didn't even know it was a single at the time. It didn't matter. It never got picked up, really. Maybe regionally?

London Town the LP did not get a lot of airplay on FM AOR as it just was too soft. I don't think I ever heard more than With A Little Luck and maybe a bit of the title track on FM radio. And that was mostly adult contemporary or hit FM radio.

WOA was probably the last hurrah of Paul "new" music being in heavy FM rock station rotations. After LT, I believe only Daytime Nighttime, Getting Closer, the Rockestra tunes, along with live Coming Up received much in the way of FM rock airplay. And where I lived, even those tunes were barely in medium rotation, save for the smash Coming Up (live).

It was a new world of rock evolving and Paul was to experience some relevancy issues, alongside George and Ringo.

Anyhow - Billy Joel was the new Macca. I wonder if that irked Paul or not. Either way, Billy was producing the kind of top shelf pop-rock that sounded like it could've come from Paul in an alternate universe.

 

I like I've Had Enough but don't love it. A lot of rock 'n' roll has a built-in snarl to it, and this song tries to, but Paul just can't quite pull it off. At this point in his life he was just too happy-go-lucky a guy to come off as convincingly angry. I don't think he really succeeded at that till his cover of Honey Hush a couple decades later.

 

Another one

With a little luck

Oh- take me back to 78 and all the great times and great music-among them this pop-masterpiece. This song might seem lightweight with somewhat corny lyrics. But it s far from-a positive message and multilayered music this is a complex piece of music and a great composition. It shows Pauls knack of making pop-music in an artful way. Or perhaps art in a pop-way. The synths are sounds vintage and great, the melody and chorus are as good as anything Paul wrote and the vocals soul-full

I love this one.“With a Little Luck” is a single by the band Wings from their 1978 album London Town.

Written in Scotland, “With a Little Luck” would become Wings’ follow-up single to the then best-selling UK Single of all time, “Mull of Kintyre” and was one of the first synthpop records to appear on radio and in the charts and the beginning of McCartney’s period of involvement and experimentation with synthesisers.[original research?]

Recorded in 1977 aboard the boat Fair Carol in the Virgin Islands for the proposed album, working title Water Wings,[citation needed] which was released as the band’s seventh album London Town. During these recordings, Wings’ lead guitarist Jimmy McCulloch and drummer Joe English had left, returning the band to the three piece line up which had recorded Band on the Run in 1973. McCartney played electric piano, bass and synthesizer in the song: probably English was on drums, while Laine and Linda McCartney helped with some keyboards.

Released in March 1978, the first single from the album, “With a Little Luck” hit No.1 in the United States and No.5 in the UK. While it was at the top of the charts in the USA, McCartney announced the new Wings line up featuring lead guitarist Laurence Juber and drummer Steve Holly.

The single features an edit of the much longer version on its parent album and its b-side consists of the segue of two short tracks, “Backward Traveller”/”Cuff Link”, also on the album, the first of which is a song and the second an instrumental that features a heavily synthesized guitar theme.

Author Chris Ingham praised the song as one of the best on the album, stating it was “full of the most sensitive pop synthesizer touches.”

The song’s music video, directed by Michael Lindsay Hogg, aired in the UK on 9 May 1978, as part of Granada Television’s Paul TV show.

“With a Little Luck” was also released on Wings Greatest (1978), All the Best! (1987), and the two-disc compilation, Wingspan (2001). There were two versions of the song: the full version on London Town which runs 5:45, and a single version which only runs 3:13 (as it cuts out the entire instrumental interlude). The album version was included on the first two compilations, while the single version appears on Wingspan and in the American version of All the Best!.

It was featured in the closing credits of the 1979 film Sunburn starring Farrah Fawcett, Charles Grodin and Art Carney.

Last updated on February 22, 2014

Lyrics

With a little luck we can help it out
We can make this whole damn thing work out
With a little love we can lay it down
Can't you feel the town exploding?

Chorus

There is no end to what we can do together
There is no end
The willow turns his back on inclement weather
And if he can do it, we can do it, just me and you

And a little luck, we can clear it up
We can bring it in for a landing
With a little luck we can turn it on
There can be no misunderstanding

Chorus

With a little push, we could set it off
We can send it rocketing skywards
With a little love we could shake it up
Don't you feel the comet exploding?

With a little luck, with a little luck, with a little luck, etc

Repeat verse one

With a little love, we can set it off
We can send it rocketing skywards
With a little luck, we could shake it up
Oh yeah

Repeat verse one

Repeat verse three

 

With A Little Luck 5/5

The only way to listen to it is the full album version with headphones. A masterpiece from a synth heaven. The last 1:45 minutes has more musical ideas than complete albums by other artists. His shredding voice in the last verse - conveying hopeful desperation - is maybe my favourite Macca vocal performance. The combination of multilayered synths and the driving bass is very unique McCartney sound. Denny's background vocals are also great. What a positive song!

 

Oh boy, a lot of catching up to do.

Mull of Kintyre - An utterly remarkable masterpiece. It makes me feel nostalgic for Scotland, and I’m an American who’s never been there. The “sweep through the heather...” part gives me literal chills.

Girls’ School - One of Paul’s raunchiest songs, and one of his best rockers. It’s because of songs like this that I found the pearl-clutching reaction to Fuh You’s lyrics (not necessarily on this forum) so funny. Honestly this might be the most underrated song in his catalog.

London Town - A sort of sequel to Penny Lane as I see it. This song has a sort of half synth/half folk style to it, which would continue on with the rest of the album.

Cafe On The Left Bank - I believe this is about Paul and John’s trip to Paris in 1963. A great rocker with some of Paul’s best lyrics.

I’m Carrying - It’s good but I don’t get why people love it so much.

Backwards Traveller - I like the lyrics (“rhyming slang/auld lane syne, my dear, through the years), and the demo feel.

Cuff Link - Not much to say. A cool instrumental that points toward McCartney II.

Children Children - My favorite of the two Denny songs on the album, but still pretty unremarkable.

Girlfriend - Somehow one of the first McCartney songs I knew. Absolutely love this song and absolutely love Paul singing falsetto.

I’ve Had Enough - There’s a great song hiding in here, but the production makes it sound limp.

With A Little Luck - Another masterpiece. Pop songwriting at its very best. And I concur with the opinion that the album version is best.

 

With A Little Luck:
One of the earliest synth-driven hits, yet it sounds very 70’s. Especially the full-length version is a masterpiece. How on earth can someone listen to it without the instrumental interlude? It’s also a vocal tour-de-force. I also love how all the different sections work so well together (for instance, how the chorus drifts into the ‘there is no end...’ section).
This is first-rate musicianship by anyone’s standards!

 

With a Little Luck

A highlight. A masterpiece. This is a techno - pop song with a terrific performance, great optimistic lyrics and harmonies, and a beautiful instrumental interlude. Bravo!!!

Lyrics:

With a little luck we can help it out
We can make this whole damn thing work out
With a little love we can lay it down
Can't you feel the town exploding?

Chorus

There is no end to what we can do together
There is no end
The willow turns his back on inclement weather
And if he can do it, we can do it, just me and you

And a little luck, we can clear it up
We can bring it in for a landing
With a little luck we can turn it on
There can be no misunderstanding

Chorus

With a little push, we could set it off
We can send it rocketing skywards
With a little love we could shake it up
Don't you feel the comet exploding?

With a little luck, with a little luck, with a little luck, etc

Repeat verse one

With a little love, we can set it off
We can send it rocketing skywards
With a little luck, we could shake it up
Oh yeah

Repeat verse one

Repeat verse three


Credits:

Produced by Paul McCartney
Written by Paul McCartney
Backing Vocals, Bass, Drums (?), Electric Piano, Synthesizer, Vocals by Paul McCartney
Backing Vocals, Keyboards (?) by Linda McCartney
Backing Vocals, Synthesizer (?) by Denny Laine
Drums (?) by Joe English
Label: MPL
Release Date: March 31, 1978
Recorded at Record Plant Mobile Studio, Fair Carol Yacht, US Virgin Islands / EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Length: 5:46 minutes

Paul's own words:

BBC Interview 1978

 

More about With a Little Luck...

The promo film was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg:

 

More about With a Little Luck...

The DJ Edit:

 

"I've Had Enough" is unremarkable. Probably included because the album is so heavy on ballads and folk-sounding stuff.

"With a Little Luck" is the last of the classic Wings' trademark pop singles -- a pop song based on a nice, catchy melody that gradually builds up thanks to McCartney's arranging talents.

The edited version doesn't work. The great intrumental break is crucial to the song.

 

I felt free to enhance your post!

 

More about With a Little Luck...

Demo? or early take:

 

I remember Elvis Costello once talked about touring USA in the late seventies. He found most stuff on the radio horrible(he was an angry young man at the time) but when he heard the occasional Wings single like With a little luck it was like a breath of fresh air.

 

More about With a Little Luck...

1980 Tour Rehearsal:

 

More about With a Little Luck...

There is a US Promo 7" with the edited version in mono. Probably a fold - down:

 

More about With a Little Luck...

Mary Tyler Moore performing the song in 1978:

 

More about With a Little Luck...

A promo film for the promotion of the Midnight McCartney album by John Pizzarelli:

 

Wow! Gotta love poorly done variety show numbers. That’s terrible. Looks like an outtake from James Paul McCartney TV special....

 

It's not so bad .... if your only focus is on young Michael Keaton and Dave Letterman cracking up back there at how awful it is.

 

This is cheesy to be sure but I always had a thing for her. You know , a thing.

 

With A Little Luck is a pop gem.

It is divisive. I play in a classic rock band and we do Juniors Farm and Maybe I’m Amazed and the guys are Wings fans. But they hate With A Little Luck!

As a high school junior who had just moved to Detroit Rock City in winter 1978, this song was made fun of and kind of damaged the rock cred Paul had established with WOA.

 

I also remember With a little luck got some bashing back in the days. I never really understood why. Ok it s soft pop-music but no more than lot s of stuff from the Beatles or Beach Boys. For anyone with musical ears it s also clear it s a complicated, intricate and sophisticated arrangement of a very well-structured song-far away from the usual AOR pop-stuff.
At least the at the time angry young man Elvis Costello felt different about this song