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Linda McCartney

THE BEATLES: GET BACK

(DISNEY PICTURES/APPLE CORPS LTD/WINGNUT FILMS (468 minutes; Rated PG-13); 2021)

You can’t really argue that GET BACK, the new three-part documentary directed by Peter Jackson about a pivotal month in the life of the Beatles during their last year together, isn’t THE cultural media event of Fall 2021. It’s been talked about for months, Paul McCartney himself did an NPR interview in which he discussed it, and it aroused the emotions of Beatle fans everywhere when the pandemic caused the project to morph from an intended theatrical film to a much longer documentary to be streamed exclusively on Disney+, the company’s streaming service, for three nights over the Thanksgiving holiday. Speculation in advance was intense, as one contingent of fans feared it would “whitewash” the long-discussed tensions of the Fab Four in their final days (which the previous LET IT BE documentary certainly left one with knowledge of), and another contingent waited for validation of long held beliefs: that Yoko broke up the Beatles, that Paul was a dictatorial tyrant in those last days, that George Harrison had simply had enough and stormed out in anger, and that the lads were simply incapable of working together creatively anymore after the many pressures of being the most successful and influential rock band in history.

THE BEATLES: GET BACK (John Lennon, Peter Jackson) (publicity still)

Well, then. New Zealand’s legendary director Jackson, never having been shy about tackling enormous, “impossible” projects (remember that LORD OF THE RINGS thing?) has a mega documentary for YOU! And guess what? You can put everything you thought you knew about the Beatles’ final days aside, and marvel at the intimate scope and cumulative effect of this roughly eight-hour saga and the many revelations it contains. First, some clarity: This is not really a film about the “final days” of the Fabs. What we have here is a cinema diary of just over three weeks from January 1969, when the band was working on a planned project that became LET IT BE, intended to be a film, album and concert that would capture their intention to “get back” to a more youthful, spontaneous atmosphere that’d harken back to… well, when they were more youthful and spontaneous. A look at the ACTUAL last days of the Beatles would focus on the ABBEY ROAD recording, the massive tensions created by Allen Klein being hired to manage their financial affairs (a pivotal decision supported by all but McCartney, who fought it tooth and nail and had to sue the other three to put an end to Klein’s shady practices), and John Lennon’s increasing desire to be with Yoko and do his own thing instead of being wrapped up in the monstrous machine that was THE BEATLES. You see all the seeds of this stuff in Jackson’s doc: Klein is introduced in the latter half of it, Yoko is seen at John’s side throughout most of the footage, and songs that later appeared on ABBEY ROAD are indeed rehearsed and talked about in many segments. But no, this is NOT an investigation of what broke up the Beatles. Jackson was given access to 60+ hours of unseen video and roughly 150 hours of unheard audio, and from this massive trove, he culled together a day-by-day record of what John, Paul, George and Ringo were doing during those fabled days first at Twickenham Studio (where they were under pressure to get stuff done before the movie THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN was to take over the place, starring Ringo and Peter Sellers), and later at #3 Saville Row, home to the Beatles’ own Apple Records label. The band had a reasonably interesting project in mind; you can’t fault their intentions, and all seemed eager to dive in and work after a fairly long break following the White Album. But things did NOT go smoothly, and we see quite clearly that they were in over their heads, unable to figure out WHERE to stage a live performance, WHICH songs to record and HOW to carry on efficiently without a “daddy figure” (as McCartney refers to Brian Epstein, who’d previously sheltered the boys to some extent from the worst tensions brought on by fame and industry pressures). Jackson had an absolutely daunting task here: All this footage has been buried in a vault for half a century, and the Beatles clearly had NO taste for delving into a pile o’ stuff that would, rumor had it, show them in their worst moments, unable to cooperate with each other long enough to simply record a new album and go on about the business of being the world’s biggest band.

THE BEATLES: GET BACK (Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, George Harrison) (publicity still)

Except, that is not what happened. The story was WAY more complex than that, and not nearly so bleak. This amazing documentary allows us to travel back in time and be “flies on the wall” at the daily recording sessions, where the four lads discuss various songs and impulses, jam spontaneously, and gradually shape the compositions that would eventually become the songs most of us know like the back of our hands by now. Repeated segments showing the evolution of songs such as “Get Back,” “Don’t Let Me Down” and “Two of Us” are fascinating, and from a songwriting point of view, the insight into the process is invaluable. You may get sick of some of the repetition, but I’m pretty sure most committed Beatles fans won’t mind at all. To see how “Get Back” evolved from being a “protest song” about immigrants to a more aesthetically vague pop/rock tune that the boys agreed should be the next single, is captivating. And “Two of Us” has layers of resonance about the close relationship between Paul and John, both in the actual lyrics of the song (“You and I have memories/Longer than the road that stretches/Out ahead… “) and in the discussions we are privy to about the arrangement, in terms of whether it should be a simple acoustic song or something more sonically dense, with many scenes showing the two most famous songwriters working closely together to try to get it right. They ALL want to do that, and these things take TIME. Plain and simple. We see them getting impatient, making fun of themselves, and trying various things over and over. It could and does get tedious at times. The infamous exchange between Paul and George where the latter mutters that he’ll “play anything you want, or I won’t play at all if it will please you… ” that was a focal point in LET IT BE, occurs here with much greater context, that primarily being that Paul was trying to be the taskmaster and keep the group focused, not only on specific arrangements but on getting things DONE in a timely manner. With the full backdrop of the proceedings on display here, it’s pretty reasonable, and George’s impatience is understandable, not because McCartney was a jerk, but because “it’s all too much” at times. Plain and simple.

THE BEATLES: GET BACK (Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, John Lennon) (publicity still)

George, of course, does walk out for a while; every essay about this documentary has talked about that. In 1969, Harrison was truly coming into his own as a songwriter, and there are two pivotal scenes that deal with this. A remarkable private conversation between Paul and John is captured on audio. John declares, “It’s like George said, he didn’t get enough satisfaction anymore because of the compromise he had to make to be together… it’s a festering wound that we’ve allowed to… and yesterday we allowed it to go even deeper, and we didn’t give him any bandages.” Paul is listening, clearly, and responds: “Yeah, we treat him a bit like that. See, because he knows what we’re on about. But I do think that he’s right. That’s why I think we’ve got the problem now, the four of us. You go one way, George one way, and me another… “

THE BEATLES: GET BACK (George Harrison, Ringo Starr, John Lennon) (photo credit LINDA MCCARTNEY/APPLE CORPS LTD)

The revelatory conversation continues with John openly stating he’s intimidated at times by Paul’s insistence on certain arrangements, and how he’s sometimes given up speaking out in favor of his own thing. He admits that “sometimes you’re right” to Paul, but that other times he has disagreed with the final results. In the context of all we know about the Beatles, this is just groundbreaking, to have this inside look at a tension-packed time. Meanwhile, we’re all aware of what was coming next for George Harrison. He was writing tons of new songs, including numbers like “All Things Must Pass,” “Isn’t It a Pity” and a little tune called “Something.” A much talked-about scene shows George struggling with the line to follow “Something in the way she moves/Attracts me like… ” Lennon comically suggests singing anything at all until a good fit is found. “Attracts me like a cauliflower,” he suggests, and a different scene shows George singing “attracts me like a pomegranate.” This is all pretty amusing, but when you step back for a moment and realize you’re seeing one of the greatest songs ever written in its infancy, a song that was obviously one of the highlights of the Beatles’ soon-to-be final studio album, ABBEY ROAD, you can’t help but be totally caught up in George’s place in music history right here. There’s a separate conversation between John and George where the latter tells John he’s written about “20 new songs” and that it would take ten more Beatle albums to get them all out there at the current rate of “two George songs per album.” George suggests he may just have to do a solo album, something which at first surprises John, and then seems to turn a light bulb on in his head. We all know what actually happened, and it’s simply another revelatory moment. So is seeing George being the pragmatic one through most of this documentary. While the others are brainstorming ludicrous ideas like doing a performance at an ancient historical site in Libya, or taking a selected group of fans on a large ship across the ocean to be the audience for whatever they’re gonna do, George wryly declares “We can’t even get Fender to send us a free amp.” This documentary will almost certainly increase your respect for George Harrison and his importance to the Beatles…

THE BEATLES: GET BACK (Billy Preston, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, George Harrison, Yoko Ono) (photo courtesy: THE BEATLES)

Does the film show Paul McCartney as a raging egomaniac? No, because they ALL clearly were. Remember, they were already the most famous group in the world with endless expectations heaped upon them everywhere. We get to see various members reading their own press at the time, richly entertaining, including George reading a bit about him and John coming to physical blows, an event that did NOT actually happen. Paul is definitely shown paying the most attention to specific song arrangements, and the reality of trying to meet their deadlines, but he is about collaboration all the way. It’s amazing to see him and John working together closely; you really WANT them to figure everything out and keep making remarkable music. Songs that never became official Beatle songs are given bits of time, such as McCartney’s “Teddy Boy” and “Another Day” and Lennon’s “Gimme Some Truth” and “Child of Nature,” which would in a couple of years morph into “Jealous Guy.” And wow, is there some fun seeing early versions of ABBEY ROAD tracks like “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” (showing Beatles road manager Mal Evans banging a device gleefully), “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window,” and “Polythene Pam” enter the picture. Everything is a question mark in this film: WHAT songs will they record? WHAT songs will they play for whatever live concert they are going to do? How can they possibly deliver when they feel they only have maybe half a dozen songs with fully developed arrangements?

THE BEATLES: GET BACK (Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison) (photo courtesy DISNEY PICTURES)

But what is NOT yet truly a question: Are the Beatles going to break up? NO, that is not yet obvious. There are no “fights” in the conventional sense here; the lads are having a good time, they clown around, they crack jokes. It’s surprising in particular to see how good-humored Lennon is most of the time. He’s happy to have Yoko around (SHE, by the way, is almost continually a gentle presence, never intrusive, and even defended by Paul in a couple of scenes (“they just wanna be together, you know… “). With remarkable foresight, Paul declares in one scene, “Wouldn’t it be funny if in 50 years people say, ‘Oh, Yoko broke up the Beatles because she sat on an amplifier?'” So there’s plenty of myth smashing in GET BACK. When this footage was being shot by original LET IT BE director Michael Lindsay-Hogg (looking more youthful than you’d think and probably a bit in over his head), there were still several possible futures for the Beatles. That is crucial, because this film is NOT a breakup film. It’s about ambition, mega fame, the ups and downs of collaboration, artistic egos stretched to the limit, and problem solving on a grand scale. Watch the happy look on John Lennon’s face when keyboardist Billy Preston enters the scene and shows effortlessly that he can spruce up the arrangements on some of these new songs. “You’re IN the band!” Lennon tells him. Watch a fetching Linda Eastman and her energetic young daughter Heather, respectively, holding hands with Paul and taking photos (Linda and Paul were two months away from their fabled wedding at the time of this footage) and dancing around the studio gleefully, exuberant as a young girl could be. And watch, for the first time, the legendary “rooftop concert” in its entirety, the Beatles’ final live appearance, which of course was filmed on top of Savile Row, to the delight of some on the street below and the consternation of many others, including the British bobbies, who amusingly try to shut things down because of complaints. People on the street are interviewed and shown in effective cross cuts as the Beatles play, reflecting a reasonable cross section of opinions. This is music history, folks. But it’s told in a fresh, fascinating manner that changes what we thought we knew about the Beatles. And Peter Jackson wisely avoids any present-day interviews… he stated his desire to avoid that sort of thing. Nope, this is time capsule stuff, our unique opportunity to experience what the Beatles were going through in January of 1969.

THE BEATLES: GET BACK (Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison) (photo courtesy: APPLE CORPS LIMITED)

It’s amazing, honestly. What was to follow was the group throwing up their hands in despair at their inability to complete the planned album (in a still controversial move, the whole thing was handed over to Phil Spector, resulting in an album that almost no one would be completely happy with), a stunning decision to record a brand-new studio album that would give George Martin one more chance to fully produce the band, George Harrison a chance to show he’d finally equalled the others in songwriting prowess, and give McCartney a chance to spearhead perhaps the greatest medley ever featured on a rock album; a furious legal battle over Allen Klein and the failure of the other three Beatles to stop McCartney from releasing his debut solo album BEFORE the release of LET IT BE (the accompanying press at the time appeared to show McCartney “officially” announcing the end of the Beatles, even though that isn’t quite accurate), a disbelieving fan kingdom unwilling to believe it was “the end,” and of course, lots and lots of nasty comments and bad feelings. But that was what would FOLLOW the events in GET BACK. It is NOT what we see on screen, which is in fact an energetic, lively, mostly upbeat look at an intense collaborative period by four of the most famous musicians in history and their handlers, all trying to respond to the immense pressure of gargantuan fame. GET BACK really is a treat, if sometimes a patience-testing experience, that will be richly rewarding for dedicated Beatles fans. You won’t forget it if you watch it with focus and attention. There are scenes that are simply stunning in what they tell us, all these years later. And it’s invaluable as a detailed look at the creative process itself. Sure, it’s a pain to have to find a way to get Disney+ in order to watch this thing. But do it. Really. There has never been a documentary as insightful and surprising, in musical terms, as THE BEATLES: GET BACK. We owe Peter Jackson a debt of gratitude for pulling this off, and let’s be happy for Paul, Ringo and the wives of John and George, for seeing a critical record set straight at last.

UPDATE: Since this review was written, a DVD of the film was scheduled for release in February 2022. Apparently, a few copies managed to make it into the hands of some lucky fans, though once Amazon’s stock was depleted, the Disney Company pulled the package from its schedule and in April announced that the title has been delayed indefinitely due to “authoring challenges.” It now appears that the DVD and Blu-Ray editions will be released, at least in the UK, on July 26. The three-part docuseries is still streaming at Disney+.

PAUL MCCARTNEY ARCHIVE COLLECTION

(HEAR MUSIC/CONCORD MUSIC GROUP; 2014)

Wings Venus and Mars coverWings At the Speed of Sound cover

The PAUL MCCARTNEY ARCHIVE COLLECTION continues with the release of two mid-’70s offerings from Wings, which by this time had gelled into more than a group of sidemen for Paul and Linda: VENUS AND MARS, a record that I dismissed out of hand upon its release for whatever sophomoric reason that was rattling around in my then 16 year old cranial cavity, and WINGS AT THE SPEED OF SOUND, which is probably my favorite post-Beatles album from the McCartney camp. The WINGS OVER THE WORLD tour and the WINGS OVER AMERICA record were in support of the VENUS AND MARS release and, upon further examination of that spectacular live set, I’ve been forced to reevaluate VENUS AND MARS. Luckily, the Hear Music label (by way of the Concord Music Group) has given me that opportunity. As with every release in the series, these albums are released in a few different configurations (CD, vinyl, two CD/DVD and a special CD/DVD version housed in a book with a ton of extras). Everything being equal, we’ll examine the double CD and DVD versions of both albums here.

I listen to a lot of music. A lot of music. That includes quite a few digital CD remasters of analog vinyl originals. For the most part, I can’t really tell the difference or, if I do notice a difference, I find that I prefer the original, warmer analog sound. However, the two latest additions to the PAUL MCCARTNEY ARCHIVE COLLECTION are nothing less than an aural revelation. I understand that speaking in terms of dimensions, it’s a spatial thing but, the only thing that came to mind as I listened was, “Great googley-moogley! Sir Paul has somehow discovered a process to make his music three-dimensional!” No kidding… the vocals, the instruments, everything is so vibrant and crisp and nuanced. The horns and guitars literally jump out at you, as do the backing vocals… you can practically count the layers and name each voice in the mix. This is the sound that all other remasters should aspire to (uh… you know what I mean). Individually, this is what you can expect:

WINGS: VENUS AND MARS

(original release: CAPITOL RECORDS; 1975)

VENUS AND MARS Deluxe Edition
VENUS AND MARS Deluxe Edition

On VENUS AMD MARS, Paul McCartney was determined to show that Wings really was a band: Multi-instrumentalist Jimmy McCulloch was added to front-line performers McCartney and long-time collaborator, Denny Laine; drummer Joe English was brought in to give the rhythm section – Paul and Linda – a more cohesive sound. This is still very much Paul McCartney’s show, but the contributions from the others add dimensions to the sound that had been missing. The record kicks off with the title track, which works as a nice acoustic intro to “Rock Show,” one of McCartney’s rockingest tracks ever. The slide work of Jimmy McCulloch and piano of special guest Allen Toussaint add just the right touch. “Love In Song” has a kinda spooky vibe and some great orchestration; it’s one of three tracks with Geoff Britton on drums (nasty drunk McCulloch basically said, “It’s me or him,” and the die was cast). With Paul doing a pretty good Rudy Vallee imitation, “You Gave Me the Answer” is a fun approximation of 1920s speak-easy music. “Magneto and Titanium Man” has the band showing their geek side with a couple of lesser known Marvel Comics villains (in the form of Titanium Man and the Crimson Dynamo); the tune is a lilting kind of pop thing with a very nice guitar part from Denny Laine. “Letting Go” is an atmospheric, horn-driven rocker with a funky groove. The track features Britton on drums and a killer guitar solo through to the fade. “Venus and Mars” is back in a fuller version that has added some cool sound effects (either keyboards or guitar – or both). “Spirits of Ancient Egypt” is a pumping rocker with a great bass line (go figure, huh?), some creepy backing vocals and a sweet backward guitar. Maintaining the same groove and feel of the previous track, McCulloch’s “Medicine Jar” has Jimmy rocking out on a tune that was probably Geoff Britton’s last gasp as a member of Wings. Denny Laine’s sweet, bluesy guitar informs “Call Me Back Again,” which has a slow, funky Stax thing happening. “Listen To What the Man Said” was the big hit single from VENUS AND MARS, with guest spots from guitarist Dave Mason and Tom Scott on sax. It’s one of McCartney’s sappiest tunes, but exceptional playing all the way around (including the woefully underrated Linda McCartney) saves it from the dregs. The couplet of “Treat Her Gently” and “Lonely Old People” is a one-two punch of sap but, again, there’s just something about the playing that saves it (Paul’s piano, in particular). It’s kind of a “When I’m Sixty-Four” song about the McCartneys’ everlasting love. Even today, though Linda’s been gone for more than 16 years, it’s obvious that Paul’s love for her was – and is – everlasting. A short instrumental track, a cover of the CROSSROADS soap opera theme by Tony Hatch, fills out the groove of side two.

VENUS AND MARS (Paul McCartney) (photo credit: LINDA MCCARTNEY/photo copyrighted: PAUL MCCARTNEY)
VENUS AND MARS (Paul McCartney) (photo credit: LINDA MCCARTNEY/photo copyrighted: PAUL MCCARTNEY)

The second disc is where things get really fun and interesting. With everything working to perfection, “Junior’s Farm” is one of McCartney’s best non-album singles. The track has great pumping bass, a cool fuzzed-out rhythm guitar and a spectacular McCulloch solo. “Sally G,” the B-side of the single, is a nifty, lilting tune with pedal steel guitar and a fiddle… kinda like a barn dance hoedown. Sounding like the instrumental sister of “Sally G,” “Walking In the Park With Eloise” adds horns, banjo and washboard to the mix (and… is that an old soft shoe in there, as well?); the tune was another non-album single. Its B-side, “Bridge On the River Suite” is another grooving instrumental that coulda been the theme song from one of those rock and roll exploitation films of the early-to-mid-sixties. The B-side to 1985’s “Spies Like Us” single, “My Carnival” is an old time rock ‘n’ roll stroll (think Fats Domino’s “Blueberry Hill”) with a buoyant acoustic bass (played by Denny Laine, at least if the accompanying video isn’t lying), some purposely sloppy backing vocals and a lot of hand claps, whoops, hollers and whistles throughout. The previously unreleased “Going To New Orleans (My Carnival)” is a continuation (or a re-imagining) of the last tune with the added highlight of a “walking piano,” heightening the similarities to Fats Domino and other New Orleans music greats. “Hey Diddle” is a fun, pumping, previously unreleased reel, complete with penny whistles, saws and fiddles. “Let’s Love” is a minor key piano piece. I totally understand why it has remained unreleased up to this point. The next two tracks come from the 1974 documentary, ONE HAND CLAPPING, which didn’t see an official release until 2010. There’s a harder edged version of “Soily,” an unreleased track that the band used as an encore during the WINGS OVER THE WORLD tour; the other tune is the old chestnut “Baby Face,” which retains the playfulness of the 1926 intent. “Lunch Box/Odd Sox” was the B-side to 1980’s “Coming Up” single. It’s an instrumental with a very urgent sound that takes on a weird vibe with the eventual domination of the synthesizer. As the name implies, “Fourth of July” evokes a warm summer night, watching fireworks on a blanket with your baby. Yeah, the previously unreleased song is sappy and a little goofy and probably goes on a bit too long but, it’s still a nice acoustic departure. Parenthetically noted as an “old version,” a different (demo?) take of “Rock Show” has a ballsier sound with the bass standing out more than the final album cut. McCartney’s solo vocal actually works better than the album version, too. The single edit of “Letting Go” closes out the bonus audio. It’s about a minute shorter than the album take and features a different mix.

VENUS AND MARS (Wings: Jimmy McCulloch, Joe English, Denny Laine, Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney) (photo credit: LINDA MCCARTNEY/Photo cpoyrighted: PAUL MCCARTNEY)
VENUS AND MARS (Wings: Jimmy McCulloch, Joe English, Denny Laine, Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney) (photo credit: LINDA MCCARTNEY/Photo cpoyrighted: PAUL MCCARTNEY)

There’s some fun video stuff on the bonus DVD. First, there’s a behind the scenes look at the recording of the gang vocals for “My Carnival.” The piece shows Denny Laine slapping away at an acoustic bass. “Bon Voyageur” shows the band dancing and mugging in New Orleans, being interviewed on a riverboat, partaking in the fun and games at Mardi Gras and on the riverboat, where they perform with the “house band,” the Meters. A black and white documentary of the rehearsals for the WINGS OVER THE WORLD tour, “Wings At Elstree” features rather spotty sound but, the thing is nearly 40 years old. Also on display are the improbably large bell-bottomed pants sported by Denny Laine. The final, loopy kinda nostalgia is a TV commercial for the VENUS AND MARS album, which shows the band goofing around in a backroom of a bar somewhere… at least that’s what it looks like to me. None of this stuff is really necessary; however, it is fairly entertaining as little windows of the 1975 version of Wings.

WINGS: WINGS AT THE SPEED OF SOUND

(original release: CAPITOL RECORDS; 1976)

WINGS AT THE SPEED OF SOUND Deluxe Edition
WINGS AT THE SPEED OF SOUND Deluxe Edition

On WINGS AT THE SPEED OF SOUND, the McCartneys, Laine, McCulloch and English were more determined than ever to recast Wings as a democratic group, not just Paul McCartney’s backing band. Each non-Beatle member had one lead vocal (Denny had two), with McCulloch and Laine both contributing one song. It may not seem like all that big of a deal, but even that slight bit of variety managed to move the record to the top of my post-Beatles Paul McCartney list (it has since been supplanted, but that’s a story for another review). Oddly enough, regardless of the lyrics and vocal delivery (both kinda syrupy sweet), “Let ’em In” probably has more in common with something from THE BEATLES (the record with the white cover) than any other tune from McCartney’s solo career to that point. The arrangement is exceptionally tight, right down to the ramshackle sound of the drum fills. “The Note You Never Wrote,” which features a Laine vocal, has a very progressive, post-Denny Laine Moody Blues sound that turns into a slow, languid bluesy kind of a torch song; the tune definitely suffers from an identity crisis… it just doesn’t know what sort of a number it wants to be. “She’s My Baby” sounds like Paul’s homage to the Bee Gees; an instance where everything just comes together, producing the perfect pop tune. A lot of people thought that the passion and urgency of McCartney’s vocals left at around the same time he left his old band but, with “Beware My Love,” it appears that he has found that old fire once again. The guitars are great and Linda’s backing vocals add just the right touch. This is one of Paul’s best solo tracks. Jimmy McCulloch was always seen as the hot-shot young rocker but, guitar solo aside, “Wino Junko” is a fairly ponderous, gauzy thing that belies the song title. “Silly Love Songs” is one of McCartney’s most derided tunes, with its sappy sentimentality and disco production qualities ans prchestration; honestly, though, it’s not a horrible track. It’s one of those songs that gets stuck in your brain-pan and won’t go away for days. Simply stated, “Silly Love Songs” is a declaration of devotion to Linda, as well as a snide aside to John Lennon and the press. “Cook of the House” is a chugging boogie tune with Linda on lead vocals. Too many people spent too much time on Linda’s supposed lack of talent; this song shoulda shut ’em all up. It’s a fun little number and she sounds great on it; it’s actually one of my favorite numbers on the record. Denny is back on lead vocals with “Time To Hide,” which he also wrote. The song is more of a throbbing rocker than “The Note You Never Wrote” and Laine sounds far more comfortable with this type of tune. The number features a nice, somewhat adventurous horn chart and McCartney’s bass work shows why he is one of the top four or five players ever. “Must Do Something About It” is a gently rocking track featuring Joe English’s vocals. Joe displays that smooth delivery that served him so well when he left Wings for a solo career in Christian Rock. Paul returns with “San Ferry Anne,” which is permeated with a weird, rather hypnotic vibe. The song also features a jazzy horn section that seems almost counter-intuitive to the overall feel of the track, which makes it all the more appealing. “Warm and Beautiful” closes out the original record, a piano ballad that eventually adds some very nice accompaniment in the forms of a string quartet and McCulloch’s Hawaiian-influenced slide.

WINGS AT THE SPEED OF SOUND (Paul McCartney) (photo credit: LINDA MCCARNEY/photo copyrighted: PAUL MCCARTNEY)
WINGS AT THE SPEED OF SOUND (Paul McCartney) (photo credit: LINDA MCCARNEY/photo copyrighted: PAUL MCCARTNEY)

The bonus audio tracks aren’t as numerous or essential as those offered on VENUS AND MARS. They’re mostly throw away demos with a couple of really awesome jewels tossed in. The first demo is Paul sitting at a piano, working on the lyrics to “Silly Love Songs.” It also features Linda on backing vocals. The demo of “She’s My Baby” is very much more of the same, with very tentative (almost mumbled) scratch vocals. “Message To Joe” is a 20 second memo to Joe English, run through a vocoder and is totally useless. “Beware My Love” is another demo, this time a little more fleshed out. The former drummer for Band of Joy stops by to rev up an already great number. By the way, in case you were wondering, Band of Joy’s drum stool was filled by a guy named John Bonham, who went on to have some success with the New Yardbirds… oh, what could have been! “Must Do Something About It” is Paul’s demo version of the song. This take features a nicer groove and a better mix than the album version. Had they used the backing tracks from this version with Joe’s vocals, the result would have been impressive. A piano demo of “Let ’em In” features Paul’s kinda scatting sratch vocals… very much a work in progress. The final demo is a short, instrumental snippet of “Warm and Beautiful.”

WINGS AT THE SPEED OF SOUND (Denny Laine, Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, Jimmy McCulloch, Joe English) (photo credit: CLIVE ARROWSMITH/MPL COMMUNICATIONS)
WINGS AT THE SPEED OF SOUND (Denny Laine, Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, Jimmy McCulloch, Joe English) (photo credit: CLIVE ARROWSMITH/MPL COMMUNICATIONS)

The video material is a little weak, as well. Actually, it isn’t much different than the stuff from the VENUS AND MARS bonus DVD, there’s just… less. First up is the official promotional video for “Silly Love Songs.” It’s your standard issue video from those early days of the medium: The band doing goofy stuff and mugging for the camera, the band backstage and, of course, the obligatory performance shots. “Wings Over Wimbley” is raw footage, shot documentary style of the band’s final WINGS OVER THE WORLD shows, a three-night run at Wembley in London. There’s a lot of backstage stuff, parts of a press conference and a meet and greet (and, is that John Peel in line there?) interspersed with bits of film and music from the band’s soundchecks. For what amounts to a music video for “Warm and Beautiful,” “Wings In Venice” features the band, the crew and the city preparing for a huge outdoor show. One thing that I noticed in watching all of these little vignettes of Wings from both DVDs is that Linda McCartney was always shaking a mock fist at the camera and getting all motherly with stuff like, “I have a bone to pick with you, mister” or “This is the second time I’ve had to warn you, little mister.” I mention this only because from everything I’ve ever read or heard about Linda is that she was the most loving, forgiving person you’d ever want to meet; just look at the footage… she can’t keep a stern look on her face to save her life. I think I understand how Paul could have loved her so completely.

PAUL MCCARTNEY

(October 15, 2014; THE PHILIPS ARENA, Atlanta GA)

Paul McCartney OUT THERE TOUR

Simply put, Paul McCartney’s OUT THERE TOUR is one of the great nights of musical entertainment. Here’s a guy who’s 72 years old, with all the money and fame in the world and he still puts on a close to three hour show, with hits from five decades of music, with his very capable band of Paul Wickens, who plays keyboards, guitarists Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray and drummer Abe Laboriel, Junior giving him all the support and room he needs to do his own thing.

Paul McCartney and the boys in the band (Rusty Anderson, Brian Ray, Abe Laboriel, Junior and Paul Wickens (photo credit: MJ KIM)
Paul McCartney and the boys in the band (Rusty Anderson, Brian Ray, Abe Laboriel, Junior and Paul Wickens (photo credit: MJ KIM)

McCartney, buoyant and full of life and energy, has the crowd in the palm of his hand as soon as he takes the stage. He starts off with the Beatles classic, “Eight Days a Week,” and never looks back. The newer songs, “Save Us,” “New” and “Queenie Eye,” off his recent studio album, NEW, fit comfortably among the classics everyone wants to hear. Paul’s tributes to John Lennon, with “Here Today,” and George Harrison, with a wonderful version of “Something” are stirring.

Paul McCartney's tribute to George Harrison, OUT THERE TOUR 2013 (photo credit/copyrighted by MJ KIM)
Paul McCartney’s tribute to George Harrison, OUT THERE TOUR 2013 (photo credit/copyrighted by MJ KIM)

Likewise, McCartney’s tribute to his late wife, Linda, with one of his very best solo songs, “Maybe I’m Amazed,” is one of the highlights of the show. Actually, there were too many great moments to talk about; he covered early, mid and late Beatles – “All My Loving,” “And I Love Her,” “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” songs from “SERGEANT PEPPER’S… ” and on and on. Tears were falling from audience faces when he played “Eleanor Rigby,” “Yesterday” and “Blackbird.”

Paul McCartney with Abe Laboriel, Junior, PHILIPS ARENA, October 15, 2014 (photo credit: PERRY JULIEN)
Paul McCartney with Abe Laboriel, Junior, PHILIPS ARENA, October 15, 2014 (photo credit: PERRY JULIEN)

Paul told stories of knowing Jimi Hendrix and being the first rock star to play Red Square in Moscow a few years back. The massive audience singalongs of “Let It Be” and “Hey, Jude,” the explosions during “Live and Let Die,” or how about an encore of a crunching “Day Tripper,” the Wings hit, “Hi, Hi, Hi” and “Get Back,” finishing the night off with “Yesterday,” “Helter Skelter” and the ABBEY ROAD medley (“Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight,” “The End”). It was all almost too much at times but, to me, as a long time fan, just seeing McCartney up on stage and playing, entertaining the crowd… just being there for an evening was enough. For most fans, that was plenty.

Paul McCartney at the piano, OUT THERE TOUR 2013 (photo credit/copyrighted by MJ KIM)
Paul McCartney at the piano, OUT THERE TOUR 2013 (photo credit/copyrighted by MJ KIM)

After 50 years of making music that has become a part of so many people’s lives, you would think Macca would have had enough of it and would just want to take it easy. That’s just not the case. It was a magical night in Atlanta with Sir Paul; as the guy behind me kept saying, just one right after the other, “It’s just wonderful!” I think that pretty much summed up the evening.

GREAT LIVE ALBUMS (20)

Live recordings have been a part of the music industry since day one of the crude technology of the earliest devices. In fact, since there were really no studios available for recording purposes, all of those early “records” were “live recordings” in the strictest sense. However, the live album, as we now know it, is a completely different animal. That animal came into its own in the rock era and exploded with the release of ALIVE, a 1975 album by KISS, (a career making release with an overabundance of what has come to be known as “studio sweetening”), and FRAMPTON COMES ALIVE in 1976 (also hurtling “the face” and former Humble Pie guitarist to superstardom). With the unprecedented success of Peter Frampton’s fifth solo release, everybody and their brothers were releasing these documents of their latest tours (sometimes used as stop gaps between studio albums; sometimes used as a means to gain an artist’s release from a record label contract, commonly referred to as the “contractual obligation” record).

A lot of people don’t like live albums. I’m not one of those. Some of my favorite records were recorded on the road. Here’s a list of 20 live albums that I think are the best. These records are all official releases, not bootlegs… that’s a whole other list (and one you may see somewhere down the line, as well). I had a hard time keeping this list to 20 (it started out as a “Top10”) and, I’m sure that your list would look very different from this one. But, that’s what makes these things so much fun, right? So, starting with number 20, here’s the first in a series of reviews presenting 20 live albums that you should check out:

(20) WINGS: WINGS OVER AMERICA

(CAPITOL RECORDS; 1976)

wings over america

To say that the original release of WINGS OVER AMERICA was a behemoth may be overstating things… but, just barely! It was a beautiful thing to look at and – in a time before gargantuan box sets were an industry norm – the three record set (enclosed in a true masterpiece of design by Hipgnosis) was one of the biggest (and, at nearly two hours, one of the longest) releases ever.

WINGS OVER AMERICA inner gatefold painting by JEFF CUMMINS
WINGS OVER AMERICA inner gatefold painting by JEFF CUMMINS

The band (drummer Joe English, guitarists/bassists Jimmy McCulloch and Denny Laine, keyboardist Linda McCartney and her husband… I think his name might have been Lester, but I’m not sure… wonder whatever happened to him?) comes out of the box rocking hard with a medley of “Venus and Mars,” “Rock Show” and “Jet.” Despite the many comments regarding Linda’s musical and vocal abilities, she was – in my humble estimation – just as integral a part of the group as Laine, McCulloch or English… heck, I even like the songs she sang lead on! Anyway, with the aid of a four man horn section, Wings proved from the get-go that they were there to play. Following a great take on “Jet” is another track from BAND ON THE RUN, the bluesy “Let Me Roll It.” Then it’s back to the VENUS AND MARS material with “Spirit of Ancient Egypt” and McCulloch’s “Medicine Jar,” a pair of tunes that had me reevaluating the merits of said album. Side two opens with a stunningly effective version of McCartney’s solo song, “Maybe I’m Amazed,” featuring some awesome, tasty guitar from McCulloch. Another slow blues – and another tune from VENUS AND MARS – follows. “Call Me Back Again” features more solid guitar work and a nice horn chart. When Paul announced this jaunt (as part of the Wings Over the World tour and his first live dates in the States since 1966), the burning question was, “Will he play any of those old songs?” The rabid fans got their answer very early in the set, as a pair of lesser (by comparison) Beatles tunes – “Lady Madonna” and the dreamy “Long and Winding Road” – were given the Wings treatment. The hyper-kinetic theme to 1973’s James Bond flick, LIVE AND LET DIE closes out the second side of the set, with McCartney pulling every cliché from every musical genre he could access at the time he wrote the song.

Wings: Linda and Paul McCartney (photo credit: BOB ELLIS)
Wings: Linda and Paul McCartney (photo credit: BOB ELLIS)

The second album (side three, by the way things were figured way back then) starts off slow, melody wise, with one of the gentler tunes from BAND ON THE RUN, the French dancehall vibe of “Picasso’s Last Words (Drink To Me),” coupled here with a nice, lilting cover of Paul Simon’s “Richard Cory,” itself an adaptation of a late nineteenth century poem about a suicide. Vocalist Denny Laine changes the last line of the first chorus to “I wish I could be… John Denver.” The acoustic set continues with another song from BAND… , “Bluebird” before dipping into Paul’s back catalog once more, with a trio of classics: the country-tinged “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” a rather funky “Blackbird,” and what may just be the perfect ballad, “Yesterday.” A record flip (yes, kiddies, to get from side three to side four, you actually had to physically turn the thing over!) and it’s back to the electric stuff and another dose of VENUS AND MARS music, with the ragtimey “You Gave Me the Answer,” which is followed by McCartney’s paean to a few of Marvel Comics’ oddest villains in “Magneto and Titanium Man.” Denny is back on lead vocals reprising his hit with the Moody Blues, “Go Now.” It’s a nice, bluesy number enhanced by the horn section. It’s rather unfortunate that the best song on the RED ROSE SPEEDWAY album was “My Love.” It’s even more unfortunate that McCartney deemed the slow schmaltz worthy enough to perform live. Side four closes out with the rollicking “Listen To What the Man Said,” highlighted by Thadeus Richard’s clarinet.

Wings: Jimmy McCulloch and Paul McCartney (uncredited photo)
Wings: Jimmy McCulloch and Paul McCartney (uncredited photo)

Side five introduces the new album, WINGS AT THE SPEED OF SOUND, starting with the goofy pop of “Let ’em In,” one of two big hits from the record. Laine’s sinuous “Time To Hide” kicks up the rock ‘n’ roll again before the other big hit, “Silly Love Songs,” gets an early airing. I know that a lot of people cite this song, in particular, as proof that McCartney’s post-Beatles work was schmaltzy pop crap, but I’ve always liked it. So sue me, ’cause I think this version is pretty darn fun! Rocker Paul returns on “Beware My Love,” one of his more muscular forays into the realm of hard rock. Throughout WINGS OVER AMERICA, Paul, Jimmy and Denny had been switching back and forth between guitar and bass (and, occasionally, piano) but, the imaginative bass work (and the tone) on this side is all Paul and, for that reason alone, is the highlight of the set. Paul continues on bass on the final side with “Letting Go” another VENUS AND MARS rocker. “Letting Go” is followed by what is probably McCartney’s most well-known post-Beatles tune, “Band On the Run.” The bass (McCartney again) is quite prominent and the guitars, drums and Linda’s synthesizer cut through at times, but the song sounds thin somehow. It’s still a great rocker. The encores, “Hi, Hi, Hi” and “Soily,” sound better. The guitar interaction between McCulloch and Laine is possibly the strongest of the entire album, with McCulloch on slide and Laine playing a double neck. Paul McCartney wanted to prove that this wasn’t just his Wings, but a cohesive unit of five very talented musicians. I’d have to say that they definitely proved his point with the Wings Over the World tour and the WINGS OVER AMERICA album, which is why it’s one of the 20 best live albums ever.

The most recent release of WINGS OVER AMERICA came in 2013, with standard two CD and three LP versions, a Best Buy version with an extra CD of eight songs recorded at San Francisco’s famed Cow Palace and a sprawling box set featuring all three CDs, as well as a DVD of a television special called WINGS OVER THE WORLD and four books.