Wings - London Town

1978 was a pivotal year for me as a kid. The sheer number of watershed albums that were released that year is actually kind of astounding. When I found London Town in the dollar bin, complete with the original poster, I couldn't actually remember when it came out, but I figured it would be a decent listen. After all, it had at least one memorable song on it, even if I thought it was cheese when it was on the radio. Then to be fair, an awful lot of what Paul released with Wings in the'70s was questionable, even if it was catchy.

Yeah, you probably know this was released in 1978, but I didn't. You probably also know that the biggest omission here is "Mull of Kintyre" which was recorded during the same period London Town was being put together. I know bands released non album singles, but it was really irritating when you bought the current album and a big song was absent. The album really needed another good song. It boggles my mind that the folks in charge were sitting around and saying, "You know Paul, I think we should leave the biggest selling single in UK history off your next album, it'll just be a distraction. Could you add a song about, oh, groupies instead?" To which Paul likely took a puff, held his breath for a few seconds before exhaling, and agreed saying he had such a song in mind and this would be perfect time to finish it for the record.

Wings were an always an odd band, as it was always just thought of as Paul's band anyway and in later years the band's catalogue just more or less seemed to be rebranded as Paul McCartney solo albums. Which may seem unfair, but I can see why this happened. By this time Wings was back to being Paul, Linda and Denny Laine. Now I don't want to shit on Linda's contributions, but she always seemed a little out of place. At least Paul did his audience the great service of not alternating songs with his wife.

Denny Laine was another kettle of fish altogether, and frankly the songs he and Paul co-wrote are probably the best songs on the album, and Denny's turn behind the microphone on "Deliver Your Children" is one of the highlights on the album, if not the best song on it.

My first impression after a spin is that London Town suffers from a serious case of "meh" and is frankly a rather uninspired effort - and I am really trying hard to be positive here. It's not really good, nor is it that bad - it's just a nothing album. Not to say that there aren't the occasional glimmers of energy. Like "With a Little Luck" and a couple of other songs but mostly there's nothing that sinks in (trying to stay with the nautical theme).

Addendum (After a couple of more trips through the grooves): Yeah, this one just felt half done. I can't really change my initial reaction, but I was hanging out in the basement doing some general housekeeping and figured I'd just give this another spin or two and see if I was just being pissy or if I missed the boat (sorry, once I get going with the bad puns and references it's hard to stop). 

I will say that I did enjoy the album more with repeated listens and I especially enjoyed the McCartney / Laine collaborations starting with the title track. Now I know I was bitching about how the band left off one of their best songs ever in "Mull of Kintyre" but it's not like the album already had fourteen songs, and I suspect the band (Paul) figured there wasn't any room for any extra passengers.

Maybe, but it would have put this over the top.

Considering how many bands were killing it in 1978 and blazing new trails, London Town just plays it safe and sails right down the middle. If it wasn't Paul McCartney behind Wings I wonder if this would even have seen the light of day.