Wild Life (Wings album)

Following the release of Ram in May 1971, Paul McCartney decided to form a band to perform live. He included his wife Linda, as she had sung backing vocals on his debut solo album McCartney (1970), the "Another Day" single, and Ram, which was credited to the McCartneys. Paul had insisted from the beginning of their marriage that Linda be involved in all of his musical projects, despite her lack of musical experience. Paul explained that musicians are typically expected to leave their wives and kids at home when out on the road, but as a newlywed, he wanted to "stick together and play music at the same time". Linda did not want to be in the band, but Paul convinced her and eventually taught her how to play keyboards. In late June 1971, McCartney asked drummer Denny Seiwell and guitarist Hugh McCracken, who played on Ram, if they wanted to join the band. Seiwell accepted, but McCracken declined due to other musical and family commitments. Paul desired an experienced musician in the band, == Recording ==

Initial sessions McCartney's goal for Wild Life was to use a modified version of the recording template used by the Beatles for the Get Back sessions, recording the songs quickly in a few takes with minimal overdubs. He cited Bob Dylan's quick recording schedule for his album New Morning (1970) as an inspiration for the sessions. McCartney said: "We heard he had been in the studio and done an album in just a week. So, we thought of doing it like that, putting down the spontaneous stuff and not being too careful." Rehearsals for the album took place at McCartney's recording studio in Scotland, dubbed Rude Studio, on 22 July 1971. The line-up for the band, still unnamed, was the McCartneys, Laine and Seiwell. The group demoed some of the songs from the 1970 Ram sessions, including "Tomorrow" and "I Am Your Singer", and new songs such as "Bip Bop" and "Wild Life". After the rehearsals at Rude, the recording moved to EMI Studios in London on 24 July 1971. The sessions were engineered by Tony Clark and Alan Parsons, and produced by Paul. Clark remembered the sessions being "very relaxed, mavellous and very enjoyable". According to Seiwell, five of the eight recorded tracks were done in one take. "Tomorrow" features background vocals from Laine and Linda. On the first day, the band recorded "Bip Bop", "I Am Your Singer", "Dear Friend" and "Half Past Ten", a reggae-style jam which evolved into a cover of "Love Is Strange" by Mickey & Sylvia; Linda made her debut on keyboards on the latter. Discussing the first day, Laine stated that Paul "wanted to be in a band in a sense. He wanted equality as musicians in the studio [but] he would still have the final call." Parsons remembered Paul micro-managing Laine, dictating every note he played. The following day, 26 July, the group recorded "Wild Life", "Tomorrow", "Mumbo" and an untitled jam. Paul McCartney told the New Musical Express that "Mumbo" was not rehearsed, saying, "It was just something I'd done on piano, and they just fell in." According to Clark, they were jamming and he decided to start recording. McCartney, upon noticing, shouted "Take it, Tony" and started ad-libbing lyrics. Following a few days' break, overdub sessions took place from 29–30 July. The first day featured the Dolmetsch Consort adding recorder overdubs to "I Am Your Singer", while 30 July saw vocal overdubs on "Some People Never Know", "Wild Life", "I Am Your Singer", "Bip Bop" and "Tomorrow". After the group and Clark had left, Parsons created experimental mixes of the songs recorded. He explained, "I was fairly new to engineering at that time.... [I] did a mix of 'I Am Your Singer' while no one was there, partly for my own amusement, and partly because they wanted some reference copies." Later sessions The group took a break from recording throughout August, after which they reconvened on 31 August for further overdub sessions, which took place on 1 September ("Mumbo" and "Tomorrow") and 4 September ("Some People Never Know"). Recording halted again as Linda gave birth to the McCartneys' daughter, Stella, on 13 September. Her birth led to the naming of the band, Wings; according to Seiwell, "Paul said that she was delivered like on the wings of an angel or something. He took the word 'Wings' from that experience." A further ten overdub and mixing sessions were carried out from 2–15 October. Tracks worked on included "Love Is Strange", "Wild Life", "Tomorrow", "Mumbo", "Some People Never Know" and "Little Woman Love". Also devised was "Bip Bop Link", a fingerpicked guitar piece that acted as a transition between two album tracks. It was recorded as a test while Clark was setting up microphones. Another link was created from "Mumbo" after that track was completed, as McCartney wanted an "acoustic" link and an "electric" link. On 16 October, the orchestration for "Dear Friend" was recorded, conducted by Richard Hewson. Clark revealed to the author Luca Perasi: "There was some discussion about the orchestra being too overpowering, but with a phasing effect and subtle level on the mix it seemed to work." Album sequencing took place shortly thereafter. Mastering was done by Peter Tacklet at EMI on 20 October. ==Music and lyrics==

Wild Life is noted for its raw production. The music is divided into two sides: a "fast, rock side" and a "slower, ballad side". Side one concludes with the title track, which expresses McCartney's support for the preservation of wild animals. Side two begins with "Some People Never Know", a soft, melodic ballad about love, featuring vocals from Linda. about celebrating relaxation and freedom from responsibilities normally associated with Sunday. "Dear Friend" was McCartney's attempt at reconciliation with John Lennon. It followed Lennon's attack on McCartney in the song "How Do You Sleep?", from the album Imagine (1971), which had been in retaliation for McCartney's perceived digs at Lennon in "Too Many People" on Ram. The music critic Ian MacDonald cited "Dear Friend" as a counter-argument to the caricature of McCartney as an emotional lightweight. With minor orchestration and brass, Robert Rodriguez describes the song as "possibly the most musically developed" on the record. ==Album cover and packaging==

The album's cover photograph, depicting the members of Wings in a country creek, was shot by Barry Lategan in Osterley Park, West London, on 1 October 1971. Linda suggested Lategan after witnessing a photograph of the model Marie Helvin in British Vogue, in which Helvin sits on a fallen tree limb above a lake. According to Kozinn and Sinclair, Paul and Linda believed the setting offered "an idealized version of the image they wanted to project to the public about that life [they were pursuing]." Although the image's setting suggests a personification of the song "Wild Life", the album title was not yet decided when the cover was taken. For its American release, Capitol Records added a sticker reading "Wings Wild Life" in yellow all caps. The accompanying liner notes were written by "Clint Harrigan", a pseudonym for Paul, who also sketched the band wearing angel wings. Unlike McCartney's previous releases for Apple Records, Paul scrapped the label's signature Granny Smith vinyl labels, wanting Wings' debut album to be distinct from the Beatles' brand. The vinyl labels were replaced by close-up photographs of Paul and Linda for sides one and two, respectively; Paul has a poppy on his face, and Linda is emerging from a swimming pool, wiping water from her face. ==Release==

After announcing the band's formation to the media on 2 August 1971, Throughout October, the McCartneys made the final preparations for Wild Life, anticipated for release on 15 November, and prepared the release of Thrillington, an instrumental cover album of Ram by Paul, recorded in June. Nicknamed The Ball, the event featured eight hundred guests, including Elton John and members of the Who, Faces and Led Zeppelin. He spoke at length about then-legal troubles with his former Beatles bandmates, and plans he had for Wings, including possible touring. He declared he was proud of Wild Life and did not care what critics thought. Nevertheless, his former bandmate George Harrison voiced his disapproval of the record in an interview with Record Mirror, to which McCartney replied: "Any criticism hurts me, especially from George." Pushback from EMI about the missing Apple logo on the disc labels led to the album's delay; a compromise was reached where the words "An Apple Record" appeared in very small text on each label. modern sources list the release date as 7 December. Kozinn and Sinclair write that the album's delay led to diminished fanfare from the November press party, leading its eventual December release to be a "whimper" rather than the "explosion of excitement" McCartney hoped for. Commercially, Wild Life reached number 11 in the UK, No singles were released from the album in the UK or the US. A promotional single, "Love Is Strange" b/w "I Am Your Singer", was distributed in the UK by Apple in December 1971, but the commercial release was cancelled due to poor album sales. On 17 December 1971, the Ram outtake "Breakfast Blues" was mixed by Paul and Linda at A&R Studios in New York City, Wings introduced the song during a promotional interview with CBS disc jockey Ed Williams, announcing a potential single release; this release never occurred. An earlier mix of "The Great Cock and Seagull Race" by engineer Dixon Van Winkle was released on the 2012 special edition of Ram, while the Wings version appeared on the 2018 reissue of Wild Life. ==Critical reception==

Initial reviews Following Ram poor reception, Wild Life was also greeted with negative reviews from music critics; sentiments towards McCartney had been generally negative in the music press following the Beatles' break-up. In Rolling Stone, John Mendelsohn wondered whether the album may have been "deliberately second-rate", writing that Wild Life is "largely high on sentiment but rather flaccid musically and impotent lyrically, trivial and unaffecting", but nevertheless "unpretentious". More negatively, in The Beatles: An Illustrated Record (1978), Roy Carr and Tony Tyler called the album "rushed, defensive, badly timed, and over-publicized" and wrote that it showed McCartney's songwriting "at an absolute nadir just when he needed a little respect". In The Beatles Forever (1978), Nicholas Schaffner said Wild Life was "sloppily performed, musically listless, and lyrically excruciating". Many agreed that Wild Life fell short of the standards set by McCartney's work with the Beatles. In Melody Maker, Roy Hollingworth disregarded McCartney's claim that Wild Life was music to dance to, writing that it is "a dream album for airline hostesses", further saying that, musically, it has "too many maracas" and "not enough balls". Sounds magazine's Steve Peacock found some of the songs too long and believed McCartney worked best with people "who can spur him". Critics like Peacock and Lew Harris of the Chicago Tribune considered Wild Life an improvement over McCartney and Ram, while they and Robert Hilburn held out hope that McCartney could one day produce an album equivalent in quality to his Beatles work. In his scathing review, Harris, calling McCartney the "idiot child of rock", snidely remarked: "At this rate, he should match the quality of [Lennon's] Imagine, [Harrison's] All Things Must Pass and [Starr's] Beaucoups of Blues sometime in mid-1976." In a review for the NME, Richard Green called Wild Life a "good, solid album" that should "draw forth favourable criticism from even the most biased quarters". In Disc & Music Echo, Peter Gavin described the album as "an appealing mixture of fun, melody and excitement". Writing for Record Mirror, Mike Hennessey found Wild Life "unquestionably Paul McCartney's best solo album to date", highlighting "Tomorrow" and "Dear Friend" as "classic, vintage McCartney, sharply bringing into focus his flair for melody and harmony". However, Hennessey believed that the album, although good, "falls a long way short of the masterpiece Paul has the capacity to produce". Retrospective reviews Decades later, Wild Life continues to receive mixed reviews; it has appeared at the bottom in several lists ranking McCartney's albums from worst to best. Authors and biographers generally hold the album in low regard. Chris Ingram, in his book The Rough Guide to the Beatles (2009), calls Wild Life a "deeply misguided record", further writing: "Though the album has its apologists from those who enjoy their McCartney rough and ready, this one really is only for the curious who have got everything else." Robert Rodriguez believes that the album would have been received better had it not been released as Wings' debut album, instead acting as a "glimpse inside Wings' formative stage" rather than a "disappointing waste of time". He also believed shelving the record would have saved McCartney from much of the public discourse he would receive in the ensuing years. More positively, John Blaney wrote that the album contains songs that are "as good as anything [McCartney's] written", despite a few throwaways. Two years later, Billboard magazine's Morgan Enos argued that the album, and its follow-up Red Rose Speedway (1973), are enjoyable for what they are, with the latter being "warm and inviting as an easy chair". ==Track listing==

All tracks written by Paul and Linda McCartney, except "Love is Strange" written by Mickey Baker, Sylvia Vanterpool, and Ethel Smith (Bo Diddley). Side one • "Mumbo" – 3:54 • "Bip Bop" – 4:14 • "Love Is Strange" – 4:50 • "Wild Life" – 6:48 Side two • "Some People Never Know" – 6:35 • "I Am Your Singer" – 2:15 • "Bip Bop (Link)" – 0:52 • "Tomorrow" – 3:28 • "Dear Friend" – 5:53 • "Mumbo (Link)" – 0:46 Additional tracks on the 1993 CD reissue • "Give Ireland Back to the Irish" – 3:44 • "Mary Had a Little Lamb" – 3:32 • "Little Woman Love" – 2:07 • "Mama's Little Girl" – 3:45 Notes: "Bip Bop (Link)" and "Mumbo (Link)" are unlisted on pressings of the album released before 1987. ==Reissues==

Wild Life was first released on CD by EMI's budget Fame label, on 5 October 1987. In addition to naming the previously hidden tracks ("Bip Bop Link" and "Mumbo Link"), A remastered CD edition on Parlophone and Capitol was released on 20 June 1989. Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway were reissued and remastered as part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection on 7 December 2018, both separately and as a deluxe package titled Wings 1971–73. The deluxe package included a 128-page book written by David Fricke telling the story behind the album, a 48-page scrapbook, previously unpublished Polaroids, lyrics, notes and memorabilia from the MPL archives. The bonus tracks included the 1972 singles "Give Ireland Back to the Irish", "Mary Had a Little Lamb", and "Hi, Hi, Hi" / "C Moon", along with their respective B-sides, a promo single edit of "Love Is Strange" and numerous home demos and studio outtakes. To mark the album's 50th anniversary, a limited-edition, half-speed mastered vinyl pressing by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios from the original master tapes was released in 2022. Beatles author Kenneth Womack called it a "powerful" and "ear-popping" remaster that turned the album into a "hidden gem", further calling "Dear Friend" a "veritable showstopper" and "a singular work of lasting beauty". Record Collector Jamie Atkins was also positive, giving the remaster four out of five stars and calling it "a raw, brilliantly sloppy and human album that sounds a lot like freedom". In Goldmine magazine, John M. Borack said that the album received an "aural upgrade" from the remaster, describing an "overall crispness and freshness" the original master lacked. ==Personnel==

• Paul McCartney – lead vocals, bass guitar, electric guitar, piano, keyboards, recorder, percussion • Linda McCartney – co-lead vocals , keyboards, piano, percussion, backing vocals • Denny Laine – guitars, bass guitar, percussion, keyboards, backing vocals • Denny Seiwell – drums, percussion Technical • Paul McCartney – producer • Alan Parsons and Tony Clark – engineering ==Charts and certifications==

Weekly charts Year-end charts Certifications ==Notes==