Paul McCartney With Wings (Evening Standard, December 1972)

            Paul McCartney seems to have a rather unfortunate habit of running foul of the body which governs good taste on Radio One and this week, for the second time in less than a year, his latest record has been put on the restricted play list.
            It’s called Hi, Hi, Hi, and apparently it’s a bit rude. So with Mary Whitehouse getting hot under the collar because of Chuck Berry’s Ding-A-Ling, it’s been decided that McCartneysmut will not be sullying our Yuletide listening.
             “The BBC got some of the words wrong,” said Paul this week. “But I suppose it is a bit of a dirty song. If sex is dirty and naughty. I was in a sensuous mood in Spain when I wrote it. To me it was just a song to close our act, and since it went down well when we toured the Continent I thought it would be a good single. I think it’s the best single we’ve done as Wings.”
            He’s right: It’s actually a roller-coasting rock and roll song, created in a style made popular by Chuck Berry  15 years ago and perpetuated since by generations of rock singers from the Beatles and Stones down to T. Rex.
            Despite the raised eyebrows (and sharp ears) at Broadcasting House, it will be, I’m certain, McCartney’s biggest hit in the country since he broke up with the old band. Even the flip side C-Moon (which hasn’t been banned) sounds like a hit.
            I know it and he knows it and I’ve rarely seen him looking as contented and confident as he was this week. We met in a pub: Paul, Linda McCartney and a funny looking dog which is a result of a cross-breeding between an Old English Sheepdog and a Dalmation.
            The last time we spoke was nearly three years ago when the Beatles were breaking up and he was in a very low mood. After that he lost a lot of his momentum and direction, spent a lot of time on his farm in Scotland, made a couple of albums by himself and then last year decided to form a new group called Wings.
            All of his problems recently have sprung from the disintegration of his career as he knew it and as he had expected it to continue, and from the decision that he would have to go out and find some new musicians to work with. After working with the same band for more than 10 years that can’t have been easy.
            He’s well aware that most of the Press reports affecting him since the Beatle break-up has looked bad for him. No group of famous friends can ever have fallen out quite so spectacularly as the Beatles did, with rows being carried on between the four in the newspapers and through the courts.
            But suddenly it looks a though the in-fighting is over: “I think it’s all going to get sorted out pretty soon,” he says. “At the time when Klein came in I just had to dig my feet in because .I just knew where he’d take me and I didn’t want to go there. But now I’m really optimistic that next year will see a settlement.
            “Friendliness will solve everything. I know it sounds a bit corny after all that’s happened between us, but I’m determined to do it. It’s fair that it’s all settled and that we get on with other things. It’s now time.
            “A few months ago John asked us to do a concert with him at Madison Square Garden – and it’s a pity now that we didn’t do it. I didn’t want to do it at the time but we will do things I’m sure. I don’t see any reason why all four Beatles shouldn’t be on stage at some time all playing together and having a good time.
            “I don’t think you’ll ever get the Beatles reforming – because that’s all gone. The Beatles were a special thing in a special era and I really couldn’t see it all coming together again.
            “But I think it’s daft to assume that just because we had a couple of business upsets we won’t ever see each other again, or that if John has a concert some time we won’t go and play on it.
            “John’s great – really. He tells the truth all the time, that’s why people think he’s a bit crazy. He doesn’t try to hide anything. Really he and Yoko are very reasonable.”
Now Paul is getting back to writing and playing and singing, which is what he’s always done best. A lot of the early criticism of the Wings band is likely to evaporate with the new single, but the McCartneys seem to have acquired an ability for riding through the nastier moments of life, like the bad Press Linda got during their Summer European tour.
            Throughout our whole conversation Linda sat happily at Paul’s side, adding the occasional comment, but pretty contented to let him run the conversation.
            “We’re still just putting the band together,” Paul says. “Of course it hurts when we’re criticised, but we’re brave. When we did our first concerts we obviously weren’t going to be as good as the Beatles, but the Beatles had to start somewhere. I remember Brian Epstein coming back from London saying, ‘Sorry lads, they don’t want you.’ Well that hurt, too. Lot’s of things in life hurt.”
            In April he will be taking Wings on a tour of Britain. What would happen, I asked, if there was a negative reaction to the group, and if Linda (who was not formerly a musician) was heavily criticised?
            “Well, it’s not as though I’m taking over,” says Linda. “I’m just one of the band and I actually don’t do that much.”
            Says Paul: “Nobody in a band normally takes it very seriously, they just do it to have a good time. And it’s only when you get to be a Beatle that you start laying down about Vietnam or some crap like that about which you know nothing. Now Linda helps the band out by playing some simple keyboard and doing harmony. We’re not thick enough to give her half an hour by herself. She’s getting pretty good. It’s simple – but she does things I couldn’t do.
            “Honestly, I don’t think it’s going to go wrong. I’m certain it’s all going to go well for us. It was very difficult for somebody in my position to start a new band from scratch, but we either sat around and moped or got on with it.”
            Why does he find it necessary to hide himself behind the name Wings? It  seems to me that he can’t escape being Paul McCartney – and the enormity of his talent and reputation must tend to upset the balance of his new group.
            “Well, to me it would be a slight put-down of the group if I didn’t play myself down a bit personally. I want to give Wings a real chance. It’s nicer and fairer. Obviously it may be a little unrealistic at times, but I’m not hiding behind the group.
            “The first stage appearance I ever made was at Butlins when I was eleven and I went up with my guitar and sang Long Tall Sally. But I had to haul our Mike up on stage with me, although he had a broken arm in plaster and was just wailing along with me. Maybe I’m shy or something, but I work better with someone on stage with me. To me I don’t care what the band’s called. If you want me to call it Paul McCartney and Wings – well, all right.”
            At this point Linda pointed out that younger people – children like their little girl Heather – just accepted Wings as another group, and didn’t know anything about any other band Paul may once have been in.
            One of McCartney’s bones of contention recently has been the intrusion of the media into his personal life, especially when he went up to live on his farm in Scotland. He wasn’t a hermit, he says. He just liked doing it. But the media, he says, couldn’t understand it.
            “Jackie Onassis wants to sunbathe nude, but I’d say that’s going to be very difficult for her from now on, which is a bit tough, I think. Maybe she really digs being nude. I do and if you get the chance – fair enough. We’ve all got one! But she’s going to have trouble in future, although it is her island.
            “Well, we like to live our life our way. And we’re having a good time, too. We’re not hermits.”
            Next year will see a period of quite extensive activity for the McCartneys and their band. In February they have a double album due (which will include a song by guitarist Denny Laine and Paul’s version of the Thomas Wayne classic Tragedy) and then there are television shows planned for Britain and America. Then at the end of the year we’ll be hearing the McCartney theme for the next James Bond film Live and Let Die.
            “I know I’ve been criticised for doing this, because writing for a James Bond film is supposed to be uncool or something, but I don’t see it that way. I think I’ve written a great theme for it and I know you’ll think so, too.
            “After all the trouble I was too touchy about my earlier songs to sing them on stage, but now I think I can do some of the Beatle songs that I wrote. Denny Laine was a real Beatle fan and he’s always coming up to me and reminding me of the old songs I used to do, so it’ll be nice to perform some of them again.
            “I can understand that a lot of people didn’t think Mary Had A Little Lamb was that good, but the children loved it, and really the only barometer you have is sales. If people buy your records then they must like the music you’re producing, which is all that matters. The thing I’m in isn’t like art where Van Gogh could struggle all his life and only be recognised after he died. I’m in a very immediate type of work.
            “I have written songs I haven’t been that happy with afterwards, but I try not to let it bother me too much. There are a lot that I could improve on. Dylan once told me that he thinks of his records sometimes like demo discs which could always be improved on.
            “Obviously at times I worry if I can’t finish something, but I’ve found that working in the relaxed way we do now I can knock off and try again the next day. We really work in a nice casually disorganised way.
            “To me, I’ve always seen writing as a job. I’m happy that way. If I thought I was an artistic genius who had to keep on turning out brilliant things the pressure would be unbearable. For me it’s just a matter of writing songs – and if people like them, then that’s fine. I love to be given the task of writing to order – I mean I’d like to write jingles. Really all I’m concerned about is having a nice time with Linda and the family and the band and writing nice music.”
            And at that point with perfect timing, a girl walked past us and dropped a note into Paul’s hand whispering instructions that he didn’t read it until she was out of the building.
            It said: “Would you believe me if I said thank you for all the good times and that words are inadequate. Love and peace to you all …”
            “Now that’s what it’s all about,” said Paul.

back to the top of the page