Old Enough to Forget

Back to the Egg was supposed to be the return to form for Wings. Released in the summer of '79 all I remember about this album is the cover. One of the older guys (I think he was maybe 22 or 23 if that) I worked with that summer said he heard it and didn't think much of it. It was a casual comment that stuck. It would be the last album attributed to Wings. Over the years I've picked up a few albums by Wings and they've always been sort of hit and miss for me. There was a joke in the '70s that kids were too young to remember the Beatles and to them Paul McCartney was that guy who had been in Wings. Over time Wings became a footnote, and any of the classic songs by Wings were assimilated by Paul McCartney, the guy who was once in The Beatles. He was chief cook and bottle washer relegating Wings to a supporting role that was merely comprised to a floating cast of characters. It's strange how pissy I get with Wings. The number of truly amazing songs they produced o...

I found Ram in a discount bin and while there was some rash here and there on the record it looked like once the dust and bits of glitter (yes, glitter) were cleaned off the album was likely going to be a keeper. Sure enough after giving a cursory brush to remove some of the surface crap a cycle through the ultrasonic brought this one back to life. Aside from one or two moments of surface noise it played beautifully. I had briefly considered doing a little A/B comparison but I didn't feel like subjecting my needle to needless punishment. Ram is an album I've seen for decades and other than "Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey" I didn't recognize any other songs. The gatefold I picked up didn't have any liner notes, so I'm not sure what originally came with the album but there were some basic credits, and among the supporting cast were Denny Seiwell on drums, Dave Spinoza and Hugh McCracken on guitar. It's funny to me how when I was a kid I just assumed Paul...

Wings. Not Paul McCartney and Wings. Just Wings. Of course the reality is Wings was Paul's band. End of discussion. Wings at the Speed of Sound though is a band effort. To me this was their best line up. The core trio of Paul, Linda, and Denny were augmented by Jimmy McCulloch, on stringed things, and Joe English on drums. While the majority of the songs were credited to Paul and Linda, each member got a turn taking lead vocals which I was Paul's way of emphasizing Wings was a band. As a kid, it was the radio hits I knew, and on occasion a deeper track that would get some play. This is unfortunately the album known for "Silly Love Songs" a song so deeply and truly shitty I want to drag the needle across the record. I don't though. I persevere and who know, it's pushing fifty years now, it should be softening. Why not, I bought a Village People album ... and enjoyed it. I suppose I should just put the record on. I won't have to make any rash decisions unti...

For many years I had never heard the album in its entirety. As a kid I was enthralled with "Band on the Run" and loved the guitar riff from "Let Me Roll It" and really liked "Helen Wheels" which apparently wasn't meant to be on the album - but in North America it was included. "Jet" still remains a song that I like and detest in equal measure. I'm not sure why. It's likely a hold over from my distaste of Elton John's "Benny and the Jets" from that same year, and hearing Jet in a song triggered my gag reflex. Who knows, I can also see I'm starting this off by wandering off topic. Let me see if I can wrestle this to the ground and try and get things back on track. Back in '73 I can't really claim to have had the deepest of musical knowledge, but I can unequivocally state that from my earliest memories I have been pretty obsessed with music. It's pretty rare for something not to be playing in the background,...

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 si...