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Wings - Red Rose Speedway (1973)

Wings - Red Rose Speedway
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Paul McCartney was not in a great place in 1973; his last album had received the worst reviews and commercial performance of perhaps any album in his professional career. He was being bashed by John Lennon, and he thought it was a good idea to release “Mary Had a Little Lamb” as a single. He had gotten to the point where he had something to prove to his own fans. For McCartney, Wings had certainly been a passion project, a way for him to maintain his Beatles-era collaborative working style but with significantly more creative control (he would even end up cutting Denny Laine’s songs off their next record entirely). So Red Rose Speedway also serves as a statement that Wings is here to stay, or at least it should have been. After the quaint but slight Wild Life, they took their time hoping Red Rose would prove a proper debut for the band. It did end up delivering on what most listeners expected from a McCartney studio album, just a very bad one. The album opens nicely enough with the lush harmonies of “Big Barn Bed” but quickly dissolves into indulgence and confusion. “My Love,” despite being one of Wings' first number-one singles, is classic schmaltzy early 70’s drivel as seen through the McCartney lens, while “One More Kiss” misses the mark entirely, a love song that meanders into bucolic nothing. But the worst songs of all are tied together at the end of the album in an embarrassing homage to the Abbey Road medley. The best of Red Rose, on the other hand, are the lowest hanging fruit, “Single Pigeon” and “Loup (1st Indian on the Moon)” will never be included in a list of anyone’s favorite McCartney songs but they also aren’t developed enough to be hatefully disruptive either. At the very least they demonstrate a group of extremely talented musicians not trying very hard and still managing to get by with high-level filler. No one really cares for Red Rose, not even McCartney, but if it primed the gears for Band on the Run a year later, it might have been worth it.
~4.0
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Comments

  1. RevjimbobDecember 7, 2019 at 2:16 PM

    I've always thought 'My Love' was one of McCartney's finest songs. Just love that opening chord.

    ReplyDelete

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