And so with this, Paul McCartney’s third post-Beatles album, the group Wings was formed – but, alas, they were never much of a band. No, I am not in fact doing the fashionable thing and slamming “Wings’” musical output because “they” released some truly fantastic music – some of which can be found on this very album. My problem is that Wings was very simply NOT a group. For one thing, aside for the core group of Paul and Linda McCartney and Denny Laine, there was never a stable lineup for the band – members came and went with just about every new album. Perhaps even more important though is that even within the core group only Paul really mattered. Yes, Denny Laine stuck around throughout and yes, he even wrote and sang some songs but in the long run he was only there to provide backup for Paul. As for Linda, well, she was there simply because Paul wanted his wife constantly by his side, even if she did contribute some nice backing vocals and keyboard parts. In short, Wings was Paul McCartney, nothing more, nothing less. With that in mind lets move onto Wild Life, Paul’s third solo album.
After the devastatingly brilliant Ram, Wild Life comes across as a very definite step down. It is, however, not even close to being the disaster that many people make it out to be. Paul was still very much Paul so the album has its share of incredible melodies but I can’t help but get the feeling that this album was rushed out because great as these melodies may be, there aren’t really enough of them to justify an entire album. For one thing, the album is only ten tracks long, two of which are reprises of other songs on the album that act as “links” and another one is a cover of an old Buddy Holly song. Worse, most of the other songs are stretched out to unbearable lengths to pad up the album to a respectable length. On the plus side though, the new CD version has four bonus tracks, three of which that are really good, which really add to the overall listening experience. Still, like I said this album still has its fair share of great melodies so while this album may not be a necessity to anyone, I can very easily recommend it to any Paul McCartney fan. It’s also worth mentioning then that Wild Life has the same sort of laid back, down to earth feel of Paul’s first two albums so it is a perfect album to relax too. Frankly, for all my reservations, I really can’t help but enjoy this album and if you go in with the right kind of expectations, I see no reason why you shouldn’t too.
Anyway, people have bashed the songs on this material enough so I’m going to – very quickly - deal with the album’s weaker moments before moving onto the gems. Mumbo is an interesting experiment but as a song it’s really quite awful, offering little real musical worth. It’s actually quite a rocking number but that hardly immediately qualifies it as a good song because Paul has come up with plenty of great rockers but this just isn’t one of them. The link songs are wastes of space, simple as that. Funnily enough, that’s it. Sure, not every remaining song on here is a masterpiece but every one of them are at least listenable and always offer at least something worthwhile to the listener.
Take I Am Your Singer, for example. Now here is a song that does come across as being overly sentimental but the melody is real pretty and there’s the very real sense that Paul and Linda really mean what they sing so it becomes rather difficult to do anything but like this song. Then there is Bip Bop a song that doesn’t amount to much more than Paul goofing around for four-minutes and it is severely over-long and under-developed but, you know what, it has a very enjoyable melody that just might find stuck in your head without even realizing it. This is followed by one of the album’s most universally despised tracks, Love Is Strange, the before mentioned Buddy Holly cover. And by “universal”, I mean everyone but me. What can I say, it may bare very little resemblance to the original but Paul’s highly infectious reggae-ish take has a charm all of its own. The extended instrumental beginning may be repetitive but it sets the very relaxed atmosphere for the rest of the song perfectly. As for the rest of the song, Paul’s mellowed, drawn-out vocals and soothing instrumentation turn this fairly straight forward fifties rocker, into the sort of song that is very easy to get lost in. Also, unlike most of the album, this song uses its length to its advantage as it continuously evolves subtly changing the melody and arrangements and thus never becomes boring. Following this comes Wild Life, a song that manages to work quite brilliantly despite the fact that it has little-to-no melody to speak of. What it is then, is a showcase for Paul’s considerable vocal talents as he alternates between soft, soothing vocals and loud, raucous roaring with seemingly no difficulty whatsoever. Skipping ahead, Tommorrow is a pretty ballad of sorts that nicely sets the stage for the next album. It has a fascinating lead vocal performance from Paul, haunting backing vocals from Linda and the rest of his backing band and some perfectly arranged instrumentation. Oh yeah, and the melody is freaking brilliant but you knew that already, right?
That leaves us with the original album’s two best tracks. Dear Friend was apparently written as a response to John Lennon’s bitter anti-Paul song, How Do You Sleep? It’s a beautifully, subdued response that answers the venomous question with an almost pleading and clearly regretful thought at the tragic destruction of their once great friendship. This simple piano based song with subtle instrumentation that keeps the song interesting right through until the very end has a ceaselessly beautiful melody sung with the utmost sincerity by Paul. Even better though, is Some People Never Knows, one of Paul McCartney’s finest moments. It is slightly too long but the melody is beyond gorgeous with a vocal and instrumentation delivery that does this unmatchable melody absolute justice. Here is a song that should have set the charts alive, headlined every Paul McCartney “best of” compilation and should forever be remembered as a pop classic but instead has become a virtually unknown obscurity, known to none but the most diehard of McCartney fans. This song deserves better and I hope this little review brings at least some awareness for a true pop classic - even just for the dozen or so people who happen to read it.
As for the bonus tracks, like I said they’re pretty great. The first and most recognizable of these is the political “anthem” Give Ireland Back to the Irish. Lyrically, it is admittedly as trite as is humanly possible but what do you expect from a political Paul McCartney song? The man really ought to leave this sort of thing to his former songwriting partner. Still, you have to give him props for trying to write about as serious subject as this but be that as it may, what it really comes down to is that this song is an absolute blast musically. Sure the bouncy and ridiculously catchy poppy melody doesn’t fit the message at all but when you isolate it from the lyrics, it really does rank among Paul’s best pop-rockers. Still, this song was banned by the BBC for being to anti-British and in revolt Paul responded by releasing his own version of the nursery Rhyme Mary Had a Little Lamb. It’s rubbish of course but you have to love the fact that he responded to the censors with such wit, basically saying “if you don’t like me releasing real songs then here’s something that should be more to your liking”. Little Woman Love, on the other hand, isn’t garbage at all – in fact, it’s a really enjoyable little piano-based pop-rocker that is about as catchy as you might expect from a Paul McCartney pop-rocker. Even better though, is the BEAUTIFUL Mamma’s Little Girl, a lullaby-type effort that ends the album off on a high note.
In Summary:
Best Song: Some People Never Know
Worst Song: Mumbo
Most Overrated Song: Not a one.
Most Underrated Song: Some People Never Know!!!!!
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