Wings
Wings are one of the most successful acts the UK has ever produced, achieving no less than 14 US Top 10 hits and 12 Top 10 hits in the UK.
Before recording for ‘Venus and Mars’ started, Paul worked on his brother Michael’s album ‘McGear’ in April 1974. They had originally planned to record one single - ‘Leave It’ - but the project grew into a whole album.
Le Richelieu Hotel on Chartres Street was the band’s home in New Orleans during the recording of ‘Venus and Mars’. The hotel now has ‘The Paul McCartney Suite’ which was Paul and Linda’s room during their stay.
Paul had visited New Orleans before when The Beatles played live in the city. During their visit Paul got to meet local musician Fats Domino.
Paul felt so at home in the New Orleans recording studio that he would sometimes arrive at sessions still wearing his bedroom slippers!
Paul had been reading quite a bit of science fiction around the recording of ‘Venus and Mars’ including Isaac Asimov’s ‘Foundation’. This contributed to the album’s space theme.
The song ‘Magneto and Titanium Man’ came from Paul rediscovering an interest in American comics, something he had loved reading growing up.
The song ‘Spirits of Ancient Egypt’ also came from a literary influence after Chet Atkins recommended he read ‘The Secrets of the Great Pyramid’ by Peter Tompkins.
The song ‘San Ferry Anne’ was a play on the French phrase “Ca ne fait rien” (“Never mind”). Paul is a self-confessed lover of words and language and enjoyed taking a phrase and turning it into a character.
Silly Love Songs’ was based on how it was ‘un-cool’ to like love songs, but nevertheless millions of people did. The song is also name checked by Questlove as being one of his favourite songs from that period.
Paul wrote ‘Silly Love Songs’ in Honolulu whilst on holiday with Linda and the kids. During that trip he “got the album together in my head”.
The song ‘She’s My Baby’ was written by Paul about Linda. He refers to it as “my ode to Linda”.
Paul considers the album track ‘Warm and Beautiful’ to be one of his “very good songs” and amongst his “favourite melodies”.
Paul wanted ‘At The Speed Of Sound’ to be viewed more as a band album resulting in five of the 11 tracks sung by the other members of the band.
Paul conducted the strings on several of the orchestral overdubs recorded at Abbey Road Studios.
Paul’s own harmonium features on ‘At The Speed Of Sound’. Instead of bringing the instrument into the studio, they took a mobile studio up to Paul’s home around the corner from Abbey Road Studios.
During the writing period for ‘Venus and Mars’ Linda coined the band name Suzy and the Red Stripes as some of the locals referred to her by the name ‘Suzy’. The ‘Red Stripe’ part comes from the famous Jamaica beer.
Suzy and the Red Stripes released Linda’s song ‘Seaside Woman’ single in 1977. The song was originally written during a different family holiday in Jamaica in 1971 and recorded in 1972 during plans for a proposed Linda solo album.
Linda wrote ‘Cook of the House’ for ‘At The Speed Of Sound’ while in Australia. The song is, in-part, based around a plaque she and Paul bought whilst in Niagara Falls which hung in their kitchen and read, “No matter where I serve my guests. They seem to like the kitchen best."
‘Cook of the House’ was recorded with an intentional rockabiliy feel. Paul is quoted in the Deluxe Edition saying the fifties “was when her music taste buds awoke” and the track is an homage to that period.
Linda’s ‘Cook of the House’ also features the strangest instrument to appear on the album; a frying pan!
You can hear Linda frying a pan of oil during the intro to ‘Cook of the House’. At the end of the song you can hear chips (fries) being dropped into the hot fat.
Around the time of ‘Venus and Mars’ there was a big interest in astrology. When people would ask Linda her sign she would reply ‘No Parking’.
For the album’s wrap party on the Queen Mary cruise liner Linda personally selected the food choosing to go with creole cuisine, a tip of the hat to their time in New Orleans.
Linda played piano, Moog, hand bells, clarinet, organ, string machine, Mellotron flutes and sings backing vocals on ‘Venus and Mars’.
Before joining Wings Linda had sung harmony in her school glee club.
For the cover photo Linda was standing on a cherry picker in Leicester Square directing two people on ladders who were arranging the letters on the Odeon cinema.
Denny was a founding member of The Moody Blues who supported The Beatles on their second UK tour.
Paul was a big fan of the song ‘Go Now’ which was covered by Denny during his time with The Moody Blues, even encouraging radio producers to check it out.
Wings often performed The Moody Blues tune ‘Go Now’ on tour and is featured on the album ‘Wings over America’.
Denny had a gun pulled on him whilst the band were in New Orleans when he got tired of waiting to be served in a shop and started to leave!
Although Paul wrote ‘Spirits of Ancient Egypt’ Denny ended up taking the lead vocals on the song.
Denny played electric and acoustic guitar, Moog, sitar, hand bells, piano, congas and bongos on ‘Venus and Mars’. He also sang lead vocals on ‘Spirits of Ancient Egypt’ and backing vocals on many of the album’s songs.
‘Time To Hide’ came out of Paul encouraging Denny to do more writing and is still a very popular song when he performs live.
Denny enjoyed recording in Abbey Road and has many fond memories of the studios including visiting whilst The Beatles were recording ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’.
The song ‘The Note You Never Wrote’ was written by Paul with Denny in mind to sing lead vocals.
Jimmy formed his first band - Cumbernauld - in 1964 at age 11 with his older brother Jack.
In 1969, at 16, Jimmy became the youngest person in Britain to play on a number one single with Thunderclap Newman’s track ‘Something In The Air’.
Paul had wanted Jimmy to join Wings for some time but didn’t want to poach him from another band. As luck would have it, Jimmy was free at the same time Wings were looking for a new guitarist.
Jimmy wrote the anti-drug tune ‘Medicine Jar’ for ‘Venus and Mars’ with his friend Colin Eric Allen. The two had previously been band mates in the group Stone the Crows.
Jimmy wrote ‘Wino Junko’ for ‘At The Speed Of Sound’, again partnering with Colin Eric Allen who also co-wrote ‘Medicine Jar’.
Paul is quoted in the Deluxe Edition as saying ‘Wino Junko’ and ‘Medicine Jar’ are both “about someone who knows they can’t resist extremes”.
Jimmy played electric, acoustic and 12-string guitar, Moog, drums and hand bells on ‘Venus and Mars’. He also took lead vocal on ‘Medicine Jar’ as well as singing backing vocals on a number of tunes on the album.
Jimmy’s first recording with Wings was on ‘Junior’s Farm’.
Jimmy left Wings in 1977 to join the reformed Small Faces.
Jimmy passed away in September 1979. He was 26.
Joe was spotted playing drums by trombonist Tony Dorsey in the band Tall Dogs in New Orleans when Wings were looking to replace the recently departed Geoff Britton.
Joe is quoted in the ‘Venus and Mars’ Deluxe Edition as saying, “When I was 13, I sat on my couch, my parents went to bed, The Ed Sullivan Show came on and there was The Beatles. I remember it like it was yesterday. I sat on that couch and said, ‘I’d like to be like that one day!’ And my parents bought me a drum set at 13 or 14 years old, and that was it. I was on my way.” Ironically 11 years later he wound up being band-mates with Paul.
Joe’s nickname in Wings was ‘Funky Joe’.
Joe played drums, percussion, hand bells, gong on ‘Venus and Mars’ as well as contributing backing vocals to many of the album’s songs.
Joe stayed with Wings until 1977 when he moved back to the US.
Joe would close his eyes and grit his teeth when playing drums making him look like he was smiling.
Joe sings Paul’s song ‘Must Do Something About It’ on ‘At The Speed Of Sound’.
When interviewed for the ‘At The Speed Of Sound’ Deluxe Edition Joe says he read the lyrics for ‘Must Do Something About It’ recently and remarks on how closely he related to them. At the time of the album sessions he was trying to balance his musical life in London, and his family life back in the US.
Joe recorded four albums with Wings - ‘Venus and Mars’, ‘At The Speed Of Sound’, ‘Wings over America’ and ‘London Town’.
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
Venus & Mars
Following 1973’s Band on the Run the mid ‘ 70s were a commercial heyday for Wings. Venus and Mars, the band’s fourth studio album was released in May 1975 ahead of the legendary ‘Wings Over The World’ tour. Preceded by the US Number One single ‘Listen To What The Man Said’, Venus and Mars hit the Number One spot in the album charts on both sides of the Atlantic and went on to sell over 4 million copies worldwide to date.
At The Speed of Sound
At The Speed Of Sound was recorded in the midst of the same tour and released in March 1976. In the US it enjoyed the same chart success as its predecessor. Including the international smash hit single ‘Silly Love Songs’, the album went on to become Paul’s most successful American chart album spending seven consecutive weeks at Number One. In the UK it charted at Number Two, narrowly missing out on the top spot. Sales to date exceed 3.5 million worldwide.
In May 1974 Londoner Geoff Britton joined the band to be replaced early in 1975 by Joe English.
Paul and the band were in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. To avoid being spotted they made themselves unrecognisable by wearing clown’s make-up. Photos of Paul and Linda in clown make up can be seen in the Deluxe Edition of ‘Venus and Mars’.
Lonely Old People
