WINGS
So Wings: Yes, Wings was excruciating. But they made some beautiful pop music. The kind of hooks that today's pop auteurs would kill for. There is a song called "Wino Junko" on the album Wings at the Speed of Sound which is itself worthy of a website. The song is -- not surprisingly -- about an alcoholic. (In fact, it was written by one, Jimmy McCulloch, guitarist for Wings). It has a great chugging tempo, a brilliant ten second guitar solo that is the height of economy, random claps timed with the snare beat, and a frenetic ending that wraps it all up: ergo, its a classic recipe for an uptempo pop rock song of the 1970s. It goes:
"I take what I need until I bleed
People say I've gone insane
Ain't scared to die, it's such a high
Till I go down again."
Umm, how did Wings do a song like that? Not only that, Jimmy McCulloch pulled a classic rock star move a couple of years later by dying of a drug overdose (see below, second from the left). This was Wings, for God's sake! How did this happen?
On the other side, take the song "Arrow Through Me" which is on a terrible Wings album called Back to the Egg. Those of you who are even aware of such a blight on humankind will be forgiven for not knowing that "Arrow Through Me" ends side A of the album. But, ye gods, what a gorgeous song, what a gorgeous melody! If Cibbo Matto (who are awesome by the way) labored into the twenty-second century, they could not have written a love song as beautiful, soulful, and full of Stax/Motown passion as "Arrow Through Me." AND I'M NOT BEING IRONIC. Nor, I hope was Paul. The melody is all odd changes and twists, the horns as if transported directly from Philadelphia, and there you are. Paul sings on this song:
Ooh, baby, you couldn't have done a worse thing to me
If ya'da taken an arrah and run it right through me. ooh.
....Ooh baby, you wouldn't have found a more down hero
If ya'da started at nothing and counted to ze-e-ro.
The way Paul enunciates the "You'da" or "arrah" is genius: "If ya'da taken an arrah and run it right through me."
Wings has just released a greatest hits album called Wingspan. You might consider buying it. You might be surprised. Unfortunately, neither "Wino Junko" nor "Arrow Through Me" are featured on Wingspan although such eternal staples as "Jet," "Junior's Farm," "Let 'Em In," and "Listen to What the Man Says" are. Go here to find out more.
So forgive me my failing, but Wings must be resurrected. Wings must be resurrected.
And I'm not being ironic. Please?