It's a bonanza for Beatle/McCartney fans of late, with these
reissues following November's tremendous box set for the White Album.
I'm not suggesting that these two albums rank alongside that beloved
Beatle set, but we do get more bonuses and newly-remastered music. These
are part of the ongoing McCartney Archive Collection, with two-CD
versions, vinyl and big box set options. I'll stick to the
more-affordable two-disc copies, as these aren't thought of as the gems
in his catalog, so to speak.
Wild Life, the
debut Wings album from 1971, is in fact largely discredited and ignored,
with no hit singles or well-known tracks, and you rarely if ever see
anything by it on compilations or McCartney setlists. Red Rose Speedway,
even though it was a #1 album in 1973, doesn't have much better a
reputation, with My Love being its main attraction. Although it's hard
to believe now, during these two years McCartney was the underachiever
in the solo Beatles stakes, with Lennon, Harrison and even Ringo scoring
more hits and better PR.
Big reissues can
sometimes improve our opinions on forgotten or misunderstood albums.
Dylan's successful remodeling of his maligned Self-Portrait set during
the Bootleg Series is a great example of how showing the bare bones and
alternates can help change minds. Here we have one such success. I'm
very surprised how well Red Rose Speedway sounds now, after hearing it
for the first time in many years. With a great second disc of B-sides,
period singles, live tracks and unreleased cuts, it's greatly beefed up.
But also, it seems the record hasn't been given its due over the years,
perhaps due to the backlash over the failed Wild Life set. There are
some very good, melodic McCartney numbers, examples of his thoughtful
pop stuff from the Abbey Road-McCartney-Ram period. Get On The Right
Thing, Little Lamb Dragonfly and Single Pigeon are all really pleasing.
It turns out some of these songs pre-dated the Wild Life sessions, and
were Ram leftovers, which happens to be my choice for the best-ever
McCartney album, so that accounts for it.
Over
on disc two, you have lots of singles and b-sides that weren't on
albums, most of them pretty good to great. There's also his version of
Mary Had A Little Lamb, it had to go somewhere. But we do get Live And
Let Die and its underrated flip, I Lie Around, the Hi Hi Hi/C Moon
coupling, the rather fun Suzy and the Red Stripes single Seaside Woman
(Linda's solo turn), and Country Dreamer, the b-side of Helen Wheels.
These are joined by three live cuts from the Wings Over Europe tour,
delightfully three unreleased songs, darn good ones too. Red Rose
Speedway was originally planned as a double album, and these ones ended
up dropped for the single album release. Some of the other studio
numbers dropped appear here as well for the first time, and it does
prove to have been a fertile period.
The Wild
Life collection doesn't fare as well. For some reason McCartney was
playing it simple when he put together his first band, and the songs
reflect that. There's no great thought in numbers such as Bip Bop and
Mumbo, the lyrics reflecting the gravitas of the titles. A cover of
Mickey and Sylvia's Love Is Strange is both uninspired and too long, and
it really does feel like he was padding out the record with studio
jams. The bonus disc hasn't much more to offer. There's some home
recordings of silliness such as Bip Bop and Hey Diddle, with the kids
running around and Linda singing harmonies, some minor demos, and the
"controversial" single Give Ireland Back To The Irish, a cut McCartney
has chosen to bury over the years.
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