Paul McCartney & Wings — Great Dane
TMQ 2xLP
76/03/21 COPENHAGEN Falkoner Teatret
Wings Over The World Tour
Venus And Mars / Rock Show. Jet. Let Me Roll It. Maybe I’m Amazed. Call Me Back Again. Lady Madonna. The Long And Winding Road. Picasso’s Last Words (Drink To Me). Richard Cory. Bluebird. I’ve Just Seen A Face. Blackbird. Yesterday. You Gave Me The Answer. Live And Let Die. My Love. Silly Love Songs. Beware My Love. Letting Go. Magneto And Titanium Man. Band On The Run. Hi, Hi, Hi. Soily.
AUD: Strong B+ (a dynamic and genuinely exciting recording)
NOTES: Released on double vinyl by TMQ, with cover artwork by William Stout, his last for the label. A generous (but not complete) selection of numbers in a very good plus audience recording. Vastly preferable to the officially released document of this tour (“Wings Over America”), which had typical-for-the-era studio overdubs and a track listing selected from multiple shows (is it me or does McCartney sound hoarse on the official version as well?). There’s an argument to be made that the band were truly road-hardened by the time they reached the US Arena dates of the tour, but I prefer the shows from the earlier European leg, where the venues were more intimate and McCartney seemingly more relaxed and natural in his approach. This bootleg was recorded on the second night at Falkoner Teatret. McCartney’s father had died just three days earlier. McCartney did not travel back to see him, or attend the funeral.
REVIEW: Sharon would have loved Fleetwood Mac, been backstage at the Forum for McCartney. He’d started playing Beatles songs again on this tour. Hell, this band was made to play ‘Helter Skelter.’ Arrangement with horns. Give the other man a hand.
Lennon called Los Angeles “Lost Arseholes,” and in ‘74 when McCartney visited he went to see Brian Wilson at his Bel Air mansion. Turned up with Linda and a tape of some new songs. Brian was paranoid, fried, crying the other side of the door and refusing to let them in.
Wings were such a mess. A “fluid” concept. Stoners hanging loose, jugglers as support acts and half-baked multimedia projects. Paul finally got to be fully in charge and could rubberstamp his own every whim. Band members were interchangeable, underpaid, and if they didn’t like it, they could quit or be sacked. A forerunner to PiL really.
The tour ended with a party at Harold Lloyd’s old place in Benedict Canyon. Guest list: Diana Ross, Cher, Elton John, Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Bob Dylan, Henry Fonda, Tony Curtis, Steve McQueen, Warren Beatty, The Jackson 5, The Eagles. Polanski, naturally. Quite a few of those names had been on Manson’s list too.
Everyone had to wear white and there was a palm reader by the pool.
The best McCartney anecdote? Mills claims he forbade her from breastfeeding their child. “THOSE ARE MY TITS,” he screamed in her face.
DISCLAIMER: All extracts are works of fiction
© Amphetamine Sulphate ©Philip Best 2025
25/05/17
I remember watching Wings Over America whilst in the hospital as a kid. My four go to bands Beatles Whitehouse Genesis and Black Flag. What a party.
I never liked WINGS, save for a song or two. I do weirdly like Paul's solo RAM LP. My stepfather is a massive fan of WINGS and all things Paul.
Of course, you know Macca did that project with Youth of Killing Joke, The Firemen. Mixed feelings on that, too. In the long run, how can you mess with this guy? He's in many ways just a pop genius, but in many ways, he's also a frozen-in-time boy band adolescent, and I'm not certain how much credit he deserves. I do believe Little Richard when he claims/brags that Paul stole his "Woooo!!" from him.