1972, part 2

The Rest Of The Year
After the Wings Over Europe tour ended on August 24th, the band headed back into the recording studio to record more songs written by McCartney. It’s amazing how busy he was this year, and how much output he had. Nowadays artists (including Paul) take many years between releases.

Songs recorded during this period

“C Moon” The song became the b-side of the next Wings II single. Paul loved this song, as he has done it in concert on many of his tours. He originally mixed this song with “Little Woman Love” on the 1972 “Europe” tour. Piano driven stoner feel of a song, it has always sounded very odd to me. This track has not been a favorite of mine. He even leaves in the vocal of his missing his intro cue. I bought the single when it came out and it had a striking RED design on it. Rating – 5

He continued to record all of the songs that would appear on the single album release of RED ROSE SPEEDWAY.

On September 18th the band recorded “Hi Hi Hi.”
“Hi Hi HI” is a classic rocker whose lyrics proudly announce their love of altered reality and the pleasures that one can have (sexually) when one is in such a state. It was also immediately banned by the BBC for its seemingly pro drugs and overt sexual references. When he plays this song in concert he always speeds up the tempo too much for me. I really like this single, as it took the attention away from the “little lamb” reaction. I think Paul secretly liked it being banned, for it gave it some much needed bad boy publicity. Sold well in the USA but not a mega hit. Rating – 8

“Country Dreamer” Became the B-side to the 1973 single “Helen Wheels.” “Helen Wheels” was recorded much later, by Wings III and included on the American version of “Band On The Run.” So it was over a full year before Dreamer saw the light of day. A very lovely acoustic toe tapper, with great vocals and background vocals. Very nice steel guitar done by Henry or Denny add to this fine song.
Rating – 8

“Bridge On The River Suite”. The instrumental was released as a b-side to the single of the instrumental “Walking In The Park With Eloise.” Interesting fact is that the a-side was written by Paul’s dad when he was a youngster, and Paul recorded it as a tribute to him. The single was released as The Country Hams. It didn’t make any impact commercially. It is a slow moving song with nice horn work, but not much else. Rating – 5.5

“Live And Let Die” Paul jumped at the chance to record this song for the proposed 1973 James Bond movie of the same name. Recorded before the film was finished. Paul brought back George Martin to do the amazing scoring on this classic track. It is hard to believe that the film executives when they heard the final mix thought it was a demo that they needed to find a singer to record it. Martin thankfully showed them the reality of this being the only version they needed. Became a huge hit for Wings II when released, and a staple and bombastic highlight of EVERY McCartney concert he has ever done since then. Linda contributed the middle reggae break….. well done.
Rating – 9.75

“1882” Unreleased in its time until the RED ROSE archives box set. They seemingly couldn’t get this slow blues track with great lyrics recorded to Paul’s satisfaction. Shame…as it seems to have had more potential than songs that did see the light of day in this time period. Rating – 8

“Jazz Street” Like 1882, another song that didn’t make the final RED ROSE album but appeared on the Archive release. Paul was trying hard to make Wings II sound edgier and show off Henry’s gritty playing. Rating – 6.5

By early 1973 the mixing for the next album was completed. Paul sent a proposed double album of songs from the studio and from the concerts of 1972. EMI rejected the idea and cut out the raw and most rocking tracks….

To avoid a potential lawsuit because of the listing of Linda McCartney on most songs written since RAM, Paul agreed to do a TV special for the suits in early 1973 to end this potential legal nuisance.
Up next…. 1973. A very busy, frustrating and amazing year for Paul…….. starting with RED ROSE SPEEDWAY.