Wings

Conor Bourke

As alternative as it gets. Which of their tunes is your favourite?

Let em in is my favourite. Very edgy for it's time IMO

nlgbbbblth

Right up my street. Here's a selection of my favourites. Plays well as an 18 track CD.

Backwards Traveller
A fascinating opening track with a great vocal. Always going back in time. It’s curiously short which is regrettable in some respects. There’s a nice bubbling synth underneath which segues nicely into...

Cuff Link
...a bit of instrumental fluff on first listen. Try again and you might get hooked. It sounds like a disco tune pitched down to about 25 rpm.

Venus and Mars
Fragile with a pretty melody. Immediately followed by...

Rock Show
...this behemoth. Being 1975 there’s a Bohemian Rhapsody flavour off this one but it really rocks in a gritty fashion. Worthy of stadiums the world over.

Love Is Strange
Reggae-tinged duet with Linda from Wings’ debut. Originally a hit for Mickey and Sylvia back in 1956 and subsequently recorded by Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly and Peaches ’n’ Herb. Comes with a wonderful groove and a hypnotic vocal mantra.

The Broadcast
This has been described as “the most experimental track in Wings’ entire output”. It’s certainly an oddity, a spoken word piece over a fragment of melody which was recorded at Lympne Castle in Kent. The speaker is the owner, Harold Margary, described as possessing a “very plummy kind of voice’. Macca picked the books and Harold read random selections from them. Ian Hay’s The Sport of Kings and John Galsworthy’s The Little Man. David Bowie loves this tune.

Let Me Roll It
Lots of exposure to Band On The Run as a kid meant that this one really got under my skin. Written as a response to John Lennon’s How Do You Sleep and much the superior tune with some deadly guitar licks.

Loup (1st Indian On The Moon)
Red Rose Speedway is one of my lesser favourites but this track is marvellous. Haunting, eerie and reminiscent of Pink Floyd. Some might say it would have fitted in perfectly on Meddle.

Morse Moose and The Grey Goose
Prog-disco from 1978 that’s very much at odds with people expected from Wings at that point. Baffling lyrics but an utterly compelling epic masterpiece of a track. The vocal delivery becomes more aggressive as the song unfolds.

Reception
Remember Harold Margary on The Broadcast? Well they also got his wife Deirdre to read a few passages. Some snippets appear as fragments here.
Another atmospheric cutlet.

Getting Closer
Straight-ahead rock anthem. I love the mention of Salamander – it doesn’t get referenced enough in music.

Dear Friend
You can really feel the anguish and pain in this track, lifted from Wings’ underrated debut LP Wild Life. It’s an honest examination of friendship that sounds devastatingly forlorn. Maybe it’s the piano that does it.

Zoo Gang
Zoo Gang was a late period action series from ITC. Wings recorded the title track which was relegated to the b-side of Band On The Run. A shame really because it’s a groovy library monster.

Old Siam, Sir
Heavy stuff; Wings do post-punk with plenty of riffage. Hoary old vocals and a great rockers’ vibe.

Beware My Love
Wings At The Speed Of Sound is my least favourite albums of theirs. However Beware My Love shines like a crazy diamond amongst its turgid companions. Superb throat-ripping vocals and very atmospheric key changes make this one a true epic.

Get On The Right Thing
Composed during the Ram sessions, Get On The Right Thing is one of two high points on Red Rose Speedway – the other being Loup (1st Indian On The Moon). It’s hard to put my finger on it but it crackles with energy and optimism. Plus the soulful backing vocal really helps.

Lunch Box / Odd Sox
This was recorded back in 1974 during the Venus and Mars sessions. It’s a loping piano-driven instrumental with a great groove.

Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five
I always had a soft spot for this futuristic Band On The Run closer. A driving beat and a somewhat progressive ending complete with title tracks snippets thrown into the mix. Just can’t get enough.

Birneybau

The band the Beatles could have been.

loyatemu

There is a Classic Rock forum....

Not Wings as such, but "Ram" is Macca's best post-Beatles album.

Sideshow Mark

Give Ireland back to the Irish, of course.