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Solo forums => Paul McCartney => Topic started by: nimrod on December 23, 2010, 10:01:41 PM

Title: Paul & Wings
Post by: nimrod on December 23, 2010, 10:01:41 PM
I always thought he made a mistake, although Im sure he made tons of $$$$, but I think he should never have formed Wings, he shouldve carried on as a singer/sonwriter writing soulful songs like Maybe Im Amazed, playing everything himself (maybe the odd guest musician) and not let Linda anywhere near a microphone....(she didnt want to anyway)

I also think Paul has a big ego so it maybe was important for him to get more No 1's than the others..........he never wrote a song like God, but he should have done..

more seriousness & less twee.
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: Bobber on December 24, 2010, 09:19:53 AM
Well, he almost did play everything himself, didn't he? I don't think it was a mistake and he did what he wanted to do. He wanted to be part of a band, although I guess he found out that it was pretty hard for him to be just that. I'm glad he never wrote a song like God btw.
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: tkitna on December 25, 2010, 01:09:48 AM
I'm glad he never wrote a song like God btw.

Beat me to it Cor.
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: nimrod on December 26, 2010, 03:08:28 AM
Well, he almost did play everything himself, didn't he? I don't think it was a mistake and he did what he wanted to do. He wanted to be part of a band, although I guess he found out that it was pretty hard for him to be just that. I'm glad he never wrote a song like God btw.

Id really have liked him to just explore his talent deeper though............than be a sort of competitor of the Bay City Rollers....

I was using the God track as a serious artistic statement, the whole Working Class Hero album was just that, and I admired Lennon for doing that instead of going the commercial route, that album is anything but commercial

I acknowledge the fact that a lot of people dont like God or that album though

Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: glass onion on December 27, 2010, 07:30:06 PM
pauls reason for forming wings(or a big part of the reason)was to go back out on the road again,was it not?paul was always gonna be a bit twee as well,'god' was just john being john.......-over-honest and hasty.clearing the decks so he could give his all to his over rated under talented possesive wife.
lots of people knock paul and his wings output,sometimes justified and sometimes not.admittedly you have to like paul a lot to like a big portion of some of his wings stuff-and some of his solo stuff,too.lots of chart stuff around at the time of wings was twee,some of the wings music is just that.......not all of it,though.

on the lennon album'plastic ono band'........it's an album you respect.it's a tough album to listen to,not one you can hold close to your heart.
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: maccafan on December 28, 2010, 05:39:36 PM
McCartney wanted to do what the other Beatles didn't really want to do and that's perform in front of an actual audience and with an actual band!

He scratched and clawed, went thru the unrelenting crucifiction and criticism of his music and in spite of it all formed a very very successful record breaking and record setting hard rocking band known the world over as Wings!

Anyone who actually saw them perform knows that the perception of them being like the Bay City Rollers is nothing but a total bunch of bull!  For whatever insane reason, Wings doesn't get the credit they deserve for being the hard rocking outfit that they actually were!

Night after night though they proved this to be totally wrong where it really counted, on stage in front of totally thrilled and screaming crowds! 
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: tkitna on December 28, 2010, 05:50:12 PM
Anyone who actually saw them perform knows that the perception of them being like the Bay City Rollers is nothing but a total bunch of bull!  For whatever insane reason, Wings doesn't get the credit they deserve for being the hard rocking outfit that they actually were! 

Wings did rock, but you had to go and search for it. Pauls and Wings rock tunes were not the majority. Wings were more pop than rock in my opinion, but theres nothing wrong with that.
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: glass onion on December 28, 2010, 07:50:44 PM
whether wings were hard rocking is open to discussion,really.i'm not sure i'd describe wings as a hard rocking band any more than i'd describe the beatles as a hard rocking band.the who were a hard rocking band without being a hard rock band if you get my meaning.led zep were hard rock,deep purple-hard rock.wings were indeed more of a pop-rock act,but sure-i think they rocked,just not hard,that's all!

as todd says there is absolutely nothing wrong with seeing wings for what they generally were and that is a pop act(although there is sometimes a rockier element,just as in later period beatles stuff).they were a very good,tight live act also.however i am going on what i have seen on t.v and video........they had already disbanded when i was at nursery school. :)
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: maccafan on December 29, 2010, 06:11:14 PM
The question of whether Wings rocked is not open to discussion, all you have to do is listen to them, especially live on stage!  Check out songs like...

Rockshow
Jet
Let Me Roll It
Spirit Of Ancient Egypt
Medicine Jar
Magneto And TiTanium Man
Live And Let Die
Beware My Love
The Mess
Best Friend
Juniors Farm
Hi Hi Hi
Soily
Smile Away
Big Barn Bed
3 Legs
Rockestra Theme
So Glad To See You Here
Old Siam Sir
Getting Closer
I've Had Enough
Spin It On

All of these songs absolutely rock, Wings even gave their piano based tunes more of a rocking edge when they performed them live.
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: nimrod on December 29, 2010, 11:24:54 PM
McCartney wanted to do what the other Beatles didn't really want to do and that's perform in front of an actual audience and with an actual band!

He scratched and clawed, went thru the unrelenting crucifiction and criticism of his music and in spite of it all formed a very very successful record breaking and record setting hard rocking band known the world over as Wings!

Anyone who actually saw them perform knows that the perception of them being like the Bay City Rollers is nothing but a total bunch of bull!  For whatever insane reason, Wings doesn't get the credit they deserve for being the hard rocking outfit that they actually were!

Night after night though they proved this to be totally wrong where it really counted, on stage in front of totally thrilled and screaming crowds! 

of little girls   ha2ha
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: nimrod on December 29, 2010, 11:27:18 PM
whether wings were hard rocking is open to discussion,really.i'm not sure i'd describe wings as a hard rocking band any more than i'd describe the beatles as a hard rocking band.the who were a hard rocking band without being a hard rock band if you get my meaning.led zep were hard rock,deep purple-hard rock.wings were indeed more of a pop-rock act,but sure-i think they rocked,just not hard,that's all!


I think The Beatles were definatly a hard rocking band in the cavern though
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: tkitna on December 30, 2010, 02:29:30 AM
The question of whether Wings rocked is not open to discussion, all you have to do is listen to them, especially live on stage!  Check out songs like...

Rockshow
Jet
Let Me Roll It
Spirit Of Ancient Egypt
Medicine Jar
Magneto And TiTanium Man
Live And Let Die
Beware My Love
The Mess
Best Friend
Juniors Farm
Hi Hi Hi
Soily
Smile Away
Big Barn Bed
3 Legs
Rockestra Theme
So Glad To See You Here
Old Siam Sir
Getting Closer
I've Had Enough
Spin It On

All of these songs absolutely rock, Wings even gave their piano based tunes more of a rocking edge when they performed them live.

Those songs do rock, but they are vastly outnumbered by pop,adult contemporary, and ballads on their respected albums. I'm not sure why you cant see that.
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: maccafan on December 30, 2010, 04:11:38 PM
Nimrod, for you to say that Wings performed in front of little girls lets me know that you haven't paid attention, or refuse to pay attention!

Check out any, and I do mean any of Wings videos from their world tours and live performances and honestly tell me that those audiences are filled with little girls!  See it's that kind of misconception and totally inaccurate description of McCartneys post Beatles music and Wings that have been falsely perpetrated for all these years!

Tkitna, I have absolutely no problem recognizing that Wings were not a one dimensional band, they were very versatile.  What I challenge is the totally untrue statement that they didn't rock!

Whenever Wings stepped on stage they made it a point to rock, yes they performed their ballads and piano tunes (even those had great energy), but they always rocked, and they aren't given credit for the hard rocking they did!  That's what I challenge, give credit where credit is due!
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: tkitna on December 31, 2010, 04:38:30 AM
Tkitna, I have absolutely no problem recognizing that Wings were not a one dimensional band, they were very versatile.  What I challenge is the totally untrue statement that they didn't rock!

Whenever Wings stepped on stage they made it a point to rock, yes they performed their ballads and piano tunes (even those had great energy), but they always rocked, and they aren't given credit for the hard rocking they did!  That's what I challenge, give credit where credit is due!

I got ya. Yes, they did rock and they rocked hard when they did it, but thats not the first thing that comes to mind when Wings is mentioned. Your point though was that they were capable of rocking and that is true. No need to defend that.
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: nimrod on December 31, 2010, 05:40:46 AM
Nimrod, for you to say that Wings performed in front of little girls lets me know that you haven't paid attention, or refuse to pay attention!


its was mainly meant in jest maccafan, hence my little smiley, I know they could rock and I know they were good musicians...

But for every hard rocker there is tweedom, C Moon WTF??  Mull Of Kintyre, Mary Had A Little Lamb, The Frog Chorus, We All Stand Together, Let em in, surely the great man is better than this bubblegum ?

Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: Hello Goodbye on December 31, 2010, 04:05:50 AM
Mull Of Kintyre, Mary Had A Little Lamb, The Frog Chorus, We All Stand Together, Let em In....bubblegum?  No!

This is bubblegum...

Ohio Express - Chewy Chewy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvVSQauwnBM#)

 ;D
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: glass onion on January 01, 2011, 01:49:31 PM
I think The Beatles were definatly a hard rocking band in the cavern though
yes,agreed.i think wings did rock also-but there may be some differences in our thinking of a 'rock' band,or a hard rock band.sure i think both the beatles and wings could rock,but they could never rock as hard as,say,the who.listen to live at leeds if you don't believe me.THAT is a rock band.
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: maccafan on January 04, 2011, 05:05:07 PM
Bands rock in different ways, for instance does the Who rock Like AC/DC, no way, do the Rolling Stones rock like Foghat, no way, but they all rock and they all rock pretty hard.  So it would be totally inaccurate to say that any of those bands didn't rock.  When Wings ripped thru Hi Hi Hi, believe me the house was rocking!

McCartney said songs like Mary Had A Little Lamb, We All Stand Together, and The Frog Chorus were made for children, so to compare them to rock songs is totally taking them out of context, they aren't meant to be rockers, but see how Wings gets falsely labled.
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: glass onion on January 04, 2011, 06:39:37 PM
yes,sure.it is all opinion is it not-i don't really see wings as a rock band,although they are one of my favourite bands.they could rock,course they could.macca still does when the winds' behind him.he's always been that way,the 'rocker'-helter skelter,i'm down etc.....and long may he reign.i'm also glad that somebody else sees songs like the frog chorus and mary had a little lamb for what they are-kiddies'songs.the amount of times i have argued the genius of macca only to have these numbers thrown back at me.there's no telling some folk............ >:(
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: nimrod on January 04, 2011, 10:33:13 PM
yes,sure.it is all opinion is it not-i don't really see wings as a rock band,although they are one of my favourite bands.they could rock,course they could.macca still does when the winds' behind him.he's always been that way,the 'rocker'-helter skelter,i'm down etc.....and long may he reign.i'm also glad that somebody else sees songs like the frog chorus and mary had a little lamb for what they are-kiddies'songs.the amount of times i have argued the genius of macca only to have these numbers thrown back at me.there's no telling some folk............ >:(

so why did he feel the need to keep releasing childrens songs ?
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: tkitna on January 05, 2011, 02:26:07 AM
so why did he feel the need to keep releasing childrens songs ?

Because they pay well.
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: glass onion on January 05, 2011, 07:48:12 PM
so why did he feel the need to keep releasing childrens songs ?
well,he didn't actually release THAT many childrens' songs,did he?a couple in his 40 year solo career,plus 'yellow submarine'in the beatle days.the frog chorus was a for rupert the bear production,and mary had a little lamb-i read recently could have been a reaction in direct contrast to all the furore that surrounded give ireland back to the irish,but i don't know about that one.macca has always liked to show he is capable of turning his hand to any style of songwriting,be it pop,rock,country,film scores......even childrens' songs.i certainly enjoyed singing 'we all stand together' when i was in the choir at primary school.
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: cubanheel on January 06, 2011, 12:37:51 PM
Perhaps he felt the need to release children's songs, as a father who had to listen to the usual junk put out for kids, and he thought, do you know what  -  I could do better than that. We've all thought it about kids' stuff, but he went and did it. He gets panned for it because everyone expects him to have a certain output, but why shouldn't he give it a go? It worked out quite well financially as I recall....

I love the bit in Shrek (dunno which one) where the old frog king dies and the frog chorus sings Live and Let Die. Cool.
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: Badgirl66 on March 03, 2011, 12:06:17 PM
(http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/6613/wingswv.jpg) (http://img233.imageshack.us/i/wingswv.jpg/)

Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: JimmyMcCullochFan on March 09, 2011, 04:16:50 PM
([url]http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/6613/wingswv.jpg[/url]) ([url]http://img233.imageshack.us/i/wingswv.jpg/[/url])




Love love LOVE that photo.

Paul released Mary Had A Little Lamb because he just happened to have a daughter named Mary who loved the song.
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: Bobber on March 09, 2011, 06:23:38 PM

Paul released Mary Had A Little Lamb because he just happened to have a daughter named Mary who loved the song.

Are you sure? I always thought that it was a kind of protest. After Give Ireland Back To The Irish was banned by the BBC, Paul released MHALM as the most innocent song he could find.
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: JimmyMcCullochFan on March 09, 2011, 06:37:45 PM
Are you sure? I always thought that it was a kind of protest. After Give Ireland Back To The Irish was banned by the BBC, Paul released MHALM as the most innocent song he could find.

Could be a bit of both I suppose. Makes sense both ways.
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: Hombre_de_ningun_lugar on March 18, 2011, 09:03:20 PM
I never took so seriously Wings as a band, I consider all those albums as solo Paul. Wings was not much more than his backing band. After all, Paul wrote and sang almost everything by Wings. In fact, you can see the label "Paul McCartney & Wings" in most of those albums. I don't think that the solo career of Paul would have been so different without Wings, that was just a different label for the same bottle.

By the way, this reminds me a funny Simpsons moment:

Deprogrammer: "My greatest achievement was getting Paul McCartney out of Wings."
Homer: "You idiot! He was the most talented one!"
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: Gary910 on March 18, 2011, 09:12:02 PM
I never took so seriously Wings as a band...

I couldn't disagree more. Although Paul was the outstanding member, I think the other members made significant contributions.

I think of Jimmy McCulloch, Denny Laine, Laurence Juber, Denny Seiwell. It would not have been the same without them. Even Linda made some significant contributions... remember the middle part of 'Live And Let Die'.
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: Hombre_de_ningun_lugar on March 18, 2011, 09:17:04 PM
Ok, we don't agree. Maybe without Wings it would have not been the same, but that doesn't mean it would have been worse. Paul could have got any other good musicians as a backing band. I still think it was all Paul's show more than a true band show.
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: JimmyMcCullochFan on March 19, 2011, 10:31:32 AM
I never took so seriously Wings as a band, I consider all those albums as solo Paul. Wings was not much more than his backing band. After all, Paul wrote and sang almost everything by Wings. In fact, you can see the label "Paul McCartney & Wings" in most of those albums. I don't think that the solo career of Paul would have been so different without Wings, that was just a different label for the same bottle.

By the way, this reminds me a funny Simpsons moment:

Deprogrammer: "My greatest achievement was getting Paul McCartney out of Wings."
Homer: "You idiot! He was the most talented one!"


"Paul McCartney and Wings" were only on two of the albums that were released by the band. Red Rose Speedway & BOTR. The others (Wild Life, Venus and Mars, Speed of Sound, Wings Over America, London Town, Wings Greatest and Back to the Egg) were all credited as Wings.

Most of the songs were McCartney's yes but that's because he was the main singer/songwriter. Jimmy McCulloch and Denny Laine both wrote songs that were included on albums.

If you want a "backing band" that's what McCartney's current band is. They play Macca's hits. That's it. It's all McCartney's show these days. When Wings toured America it was a true band show. Jimmy was very well respected during this time & was loved by the audiences, much to the dismay of McCartney I'm told.
Title: Re: Paul & Wings
Post by: Hombre_de_ningun_lugar on March 19, 2011, 03:39:33 PM

"Paul McCartney and Wings" were only on two of the albums that were released by the band. Red Rose Speedway & BOTR. The others (Wild Life, Venus and Mars, Speed of Sound, Wings Over America, London Town, Wings Greatest and Back to the Egg) were all credited as Wings.

Most of the songs were McCartney's yes but that's because he was the main singer/songwriter. Jimmy McCulloch and Denny Laine both wrote songs that were included on albums.

If you want a "backing band" that's what McCartney's current band is. They play Macca's hits. That's it. It's all McCartney's show these days. When Wings toured America it was a true band show. Jimmy was very well respected during this time & was loved by the audiences, much to the dismay of McCartney I'm told.

I didn't mean to put the other members of Wings down, but noone can deny that Wings was basically Paul's project. Most of the other members in fact were not present from the birth to the death of the band, that's why I don't consider it a true band, though they did play like a true band in live shows. Wings existed as long as Paul wanted it to exist.