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Wings over America (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Wings over America
  • Group name: Wings
  • Year: 1976
  • Number of discs: three
  • Label: Capitol Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Buy it on Amazon: $49.96

Wings over America

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I am not familiar with this live Wings record, but it will be the eighth post-Beatles McCartney record that I’ve reviewed. The previous seven were:

What I expected

Because this is a live record and because it has some Beatles songs on it, I’m optimistic that it might be pretty good, and may break the streak of McCartney making ok (but not really good) records in the early 1970s, but not doing anything worthwhile after 1975.

What it was actually like

This was a really, really long record. Three LPs (six sides) was about three times the amount of material that would actually have been necessary to get their point across.

Despite that, I thought the concerts sounded fun, and that the harder rock sound on most of the songs was generally good (other songs had more of an acoustic sound, and they weren’t necessarily worse).

I liked the electric blues sound of parts of Spirits of Ancient Egypt, but did not like the awful chorus.

Medicine Jar was pretty good, and I enjoyed the strong bass line and loved the guitar.

Bluebird was not a particularly good song, but I would not have minded listening to it if the saxophone solo had been left out. I also hated the saxophone on Silly Love Songs.

You Gave Me the Answer was the most goofily Oompa Loompa song on the record, and My Love was unusually boring and slow, but neither of these was representative of the overall record.

I wrote recently about The Long and Winding Road that it was “certainly one of the worst Beatles songs,” and it was a low point of this record, too.

The up tempo version of Lady Madonna was quite strong, however.

I’ve Just Seen a Face was the record’s best song, but of course I would have loved a song from Help! (as long as it was not Yesterday; in fact, Yesterday on Wings over America was just as bad as every other version of it).

Blackbird, for that matter, was fine, but nothing special.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

Wild Life by Wings (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Wild Life
  • Group name: Wings
  • Year: 1971
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Apple Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • 99¢ sticker on front of album
    • Scratched into side one of LP: SW-1-3386 2112
    • Scratched into side two of LP: SW-2-3386 Z 103 #3
  • Buy it on Amazon: $35.49

Wild Life by Wings

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never listened to this record before, but the album art reminded me of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, which was worrying.

It will be my seventh post-Beatles McCartney record, and the previous six have shown a clear trend, which is that up until the mid 1970s, his solo work was not good, but not terrible, either, and that after the mid 1970s, it got much worse:

What I expected

Rock, soft rock, maybe some blues.

What it was actually like

Mumbo was a rock song that seemed to be putting a lot of effort into channeling Chuck Berry with an electric blues sound, but did not succeed.

Bip Bop was a very strange tribute to the Korean rice dish, using an Oompa Loompa sound with weird, whispery vocals.

Love Is Strange was a reggae style cover of the classic Mickey and Sylvia song that was nowhere near as good as the original, but which did have a good guitar solo.

The title track Wild Life sounded like a waltz, and I did not like its vocals, but thought it was a good song overall.

I Am Your Singer was boring song that introduced a recorder (yes, like you learned to play in your elementary school music class), and the recorder gambit failed.

Tomorrow seemed like it had inside it the germ of an interesting song, but was ruined by the oppressively terrible backing vocals.

Dear Friend would have been good as a rock song, but as a piano ballad was not good.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

Ram by Paul and Linda McCartney (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Ram
  • Artist name: Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney
  • Year: 1971
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Apple Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • Sticker on lower left of album cover: “M” (for McCartney)
    • Scratched into side one of LP: 5MAS-1-3375-Z1 #5 EW/N
    • Scratched into side two of LP: 5MAS-2-3375-F16 #2
  • Buy it on Amazon: $36.13

Ram by Paul and Linda McCartney

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never listened to this record before, but it will be sixth post-Beatles McCartney record that I’ve reviewed (chronologically the second):

What I expected

I have not been particularly impressed with what McCartney has done after 1969, but there does seem to be a trend that I’ve liked his work in the first few years after the Beatles broke up more than what he did later.

What it was actually like

I didn’t hate this at all! It was nowhere near as bad as it could have been and, while I wouldn’t listen again, I do think it was fine to listen once, and it certainly has redeeming value. I did not care at all for the backing vocals, though.

The worst song was probably Long Haired Lady, a classic case of Fauls’s granny shit, as was Heart of the Country.

Monkberry Moon Delight was quite Oompa Loompa and had some weird vocals, but was not that bad.

Dear Boy was the most Beatles-sounding of the songs, but would have been one of the worst Beatles songs. Smile Away also sounded like it could have been one of the worst songs on, probably, Abbey Road, and used an electric wall sound effect.

On the subject of sound effects, Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey was full of them and they were pretty dumb, but the second part was way better than the first.

I liked the electric guitar solo on Too Many People, and the blues rock song 3 Legs was the best on the record.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

Tug of War by Paul McCartney (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Tug of War
  • Artist name: Paul McCartney
  • Year: 1982
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • Scratched into side 1 of LP: PUSHING + PULLING SG AL 37462-1BA G G10
    • Scratched into side 2 of LP: PUSHING + PULLING SG BL 37462-1AE G
  • Buy it on Amazon: $37.99

Tug of War by Paul McCartney

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never heard this record, but I’ve reviewed a bunch of post-Beatles Faul McCartney records, and have not been impressed.

What I expected

Faul’s granny shit, perhaps updated to a 1980s new wave sound.

What it was actually like

There were not any good songs on this record, but the most interesting was The Pound Is Sinking. It was a tiny bit Oompa Loompa, and also a tiny bit rocksteady. I was not sure how to classify it, but I think I would listen to it again.

Another slightly Oompa Loompa song was Ballroom Dancing, which had a good tempo, but I hated the horns – and was that a clarinet? Get It was the most Oompa Loompa song, and the one that fit most acoustically into what Lennon would have described as Faul’s Granny shit.

And on the subject of Lennon, Here Today was a sad song about his death. It was not good musically – I especially did not like the violins – but it was the closest to what I would have expected McCartney to have written towards the end of the Beatles era.

What’s That You’re Doing? and Ebony and Ivory, both of which McCartney recorded with Stevie Wonder, were the two worst songs on the record. The former had a kind of techno-funk sound that anticipated hip hop (though hip hop already had existed by the early 1980s for a while), and the latter was incredibly stupid and would have been better as just elevator music with no lyrics. I was not sure if I had ever heard it before or if I’d just heard of it, but it was so forgettable that if I were to hear it again in an hour, I probably wouldn’t recognize it.

Some of these songs, by the way, sounded like they had autotuned vocals, even though I did not think that was a thing until the late 1990s, and Wanderlust was an example.

The title track Tug of War was completely devoid of anything interesting, but also not particularly bad, either, had a very produced sound, and went from acoustic folk rock to a much harder rock sound in the middle. I guess it sounded kind of McCartneyesque.

Be What You See also changed sounds in the middle, opening like an Enya song, then turning into some kind of rock-disco crap.

Take It Away was much more new wave and terribly reggae-influenced. Somebody Who Cares was soft rock, with flute.

Grade

2/5: bad, but I was able to listen to the whole thing

McCartney by Paul McCartney (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: McCartney
  • Artist name: Paul McCartney
  • Year: 1970
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Apple Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • Hole drilled through top right of album
    • Handwritten sticker on top right of album with radio cuts
    • Handwritten sticker on bottom left with M for classification
    • Scratched into side one of LP: “STAO-1-3363 214 LH/RL”
    • Scratched into side two of LP: “STAO-2-3363 213 LH”
  • Buy it on Amazon: $9.98

McCartney by Paul McCartney

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never listened to this record, but I have reviewed three by Wings, and did not like any of them.

What I expected

Faul’s granny shit.

What it was actually like

The first track, called The Lovely Linda, was all of 43 seconds long, and really seemed like just the idea for a song, rather than a song itself. To me, that was a microcosm for this whole record, which would have been written and recorded at a time when the Beatles were still together and when Faul could have gotten any song he wanted onto one of the group’s records, provided that it was good enough.

Much of this material, though, just would not have been good enough, and I suppose that, as much as the Beatles breakup, was the reason for it to have ended up on McCartney.

Teddy Boy was probably the worst song, and one that I could not imagine Lennon having been willing to co-write and -record. Its backing vocals were especially awful, but it was also just really bland as a folk rock song.

Kreen-Akrore also was essentially just some rubbish noise, and Singalong Junk was instrumental filler.

Momma Miss America, on the other hand, was also instrumental, but I considered it to have been the best song on record, with a great bass line. Most importantly, it was an interesting and bluesy song, and it might have made an awesome part of a great Beatles song.

Valentine Day had a pretty good electric guitar opening, and Oo You had pretty decent country rock or hard rock riff.

Hot as Sun and Glasses, which may actually have been one song, had one of those Caribbean sounds to it that I do not understand.

Junk was the most old timey song – but only until Man We Was Lonely, which was old timey and also Oompa Loompa: Faul’s granny shit to the max.

I actually recognized Maybe I’m Amazed, and considered it to have been closest to the Beatles’ quality and style, but I would probably have hated it as a Beatles song – unless it had been reworked under the influence of Lennon (and maybe even Harrison) and turned into something awesome.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me