Classic Album Review: Wings - Wingspan (2001)

I’m breaking some rules by listing yet another compilation as a classic album, but you know – my blog, my rules, no rules, guilty pleasures, etc. 

Sir Paul McCartney has worn many hats over the years. Beatle, Wings commander-in-chief, and prolific solo artist, just for starters. For many he was the outstanding “composer” of the 20th century, and alongside John Lennon, Macca was one half of the most commercially successful songwriting duo of the Rock n Roll era. 

Even today, in 2021, he continues to attract all manner of critical praise for his work on the late 2020 album, McCartney III. I haven’t visited that release as yet, and to be perfectly honest I probably won’t. But I do want to share some love for McCartney and offer some thoughts on one of the very best compilation sets in my entire music collection.

Just as the album title suggests, Wingspan offers a comprehensive overview of McCartney’s post-Beatles career from 1970 through to the turn of the millennium, featuring 40-odd* tracks spread over two discs. So much so, it actually goes a little beyond the music of Wings and includes material from a few of McCartney’s solo efforts. 

(*As I understand it, there’s a slight difference between the UK and US versions of the album, and apparently the Japanese edition features a bonus track). 

I’ve always had something of a massive soft spot for the music of Wings. The band was one of the staples of my childhood - always there or thereabouts in the charts, and always on the radio. 

So I was pleased when Wingspan was released in 2001. Offering a 2-album set that included a number of unheralded gems and album cuts beyond the obvious hits. Which was a lovely bonus at a time when I had no other McCartney compilations in my collection and had long considered buying the far less expansive Wings Greatest (1978) just to tick that box. 

The two discs are quite distinct: one contains the band’s biggest hits, the other contains the less obvious stuff and wider coverage of McCartney’s solo work. 

I can’t really add anything about Paul McCartney’s music that hasn’t already been said, but I would dispute the notion - one I’ve seen punted often - that the Wings period of his career was something of a low ebb for McCartney. Yes, there were some patchy or uneven albums, but the same is true of late-career Beatles work, and certainly true when it comes to assessing the “solo” output of the rest of the fab four. 

I just think the music of Wings deserves a lot more love.

Just a few of Wingspan’s highlights: ‘Listen To What The Man Said’, ‘Band On The Run’, ‘Another Day’, ‘My Love’, ‘Silly Love Songs’, ‘Goodnight Tonight’, ‘Mull Of Kintyre’, ‘With A Little Luck’, ‘The Lovely Linda’, ‘Maybe I'm Amazed’, ‘Every Night’, ‘Junk’, and ‘Take It Away’ …

Classic Album Review: The Beatles - Let It Be Naked (2003)

After posting the album review for The Beatles’ Love, it occurred to me that it took some 375 posts before everythingsgonegreen finally got around to covering The Beatles in any detail. Which is a pretty shocking state of affairs when you consider what a monumental pop cultural influence that band has been throughout my lifetime. Even more so when you consider that The Beatles were one of the first bands I truly loved – as a child, before the rather more rebellious teenager, and later, even more cynical adult, came along. Even today though, the band’s Revolver album still rates in any notional all-time top five albums, if I was pressed to name them. With Sgt Pepper not far behind. So, yes, coverage of The Beatles was a long time in coming and definitely overdue. But just like a number 17 bus, you wait an age for one, and then two come along at once. So here’s another one, another classic album review written some time ago. A variation on the same theme – a reconfigured classic album in the form of Let It Be, the 2003 Naked version. Most definitely not a George Martin creation:

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It always seemed there was a direct correlation between The Beatles’ decision to stop touring/performing live (post-1966), and a distinct improvement in the quality of the band’s studio output/albums - see Revolver ’66, Sgt Pepper ’67, and the White Album ’68.

That’s a fairly strong run, whatever your poison, and those albums were all pivotal in sealing the band’s standing as iconic pioneers of the album format, far removed from the lovable boy band/singles band status of earlier years.

The same can’t be said about the band’s final studio album however, and by the time the original Let It Be album was released in 1970, The Beatles were a band in name only. Any sense of unity, commitment to each other, or indeed, genuine collective inspiration, had long since disappeared.

Let It Be was a swansong, but despite its undoubted historical significance, and one or two truly exceptional moments, it won’t go down as a classic Beatles album. Far from it - in fact, many of the recordings made in 1969 were originally shelved (others being released on Abbey Road), such was the group’s general nonchalance about the project. George Harrison actually threatened to quit the group while the 1969 sessions were still in progress.

Let It Be represented the sound of a band at the end of its tether, and the fact that the post-production reins were handed to Phil Spector suggests they knew as much at the time. Spector, famous for his “wall of sound” style of production, was belatedly called in to tart up the shelved recordings - something that evidently bugged Paul McCartney for the best part of three subsequent decades. Let It Be Naked is the result of McCartney’s attempt to de-Spector-ise (and remix) the original release. For better or for worse.

Essentially what you get on Naked is Let It Be stripped right back to its bare core - the most obvious development being the removal of the strings so beloved of Spector at the time of the original. The result is a marginally improved album, but certainly nothing spectacular, and sceptics will argue that the release of Naked in 2003 was nothing but another cynical attempt to milk the cash cow that The Beatles’ back catalogue has become.

I’m not so sure I agree with that sentiment entirely, and I’ll take the project at face value - as a genuine attempt to right what McCartney and others perceived to be a long-standing wrong. On Naked, aside from stripping back the excessive production - mostly to discard the decoration and gloss provided by Spector - the track-list also gets something of a minor revamp. This probably improves things slightly, placing as it does a raw version of ‘Get Back’ as a barnstorming album opener, and including the much-heralded ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ (absent from the original Let It Be, but the B-side on the ‘Get Back’ single release) as a welcome additional track.

As you might expect, the most obvious changes can be picked up on the best known stuff from the original Let It Be; the era-defining title track itself (the album closer), the epic ‘Long And Winding Road’ (a much improved version here), and John Lennon’s brilliant dream-like ‘Across The Universe’. Even after the exercise in revamping the original versions, it is these tracks - plus ‘Get Back’ and ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ - that stand out as the album’s best cuts. Proof surely, if it was needed, that regardless of any enhancement or additional production, you just can’t beat a quality tune.

Naked is a slight improvement on the original, but Let It Be was always an album of extremes (uneven in terms of quality), and it always contained a little too much filler for my liking.

My CD edition came with a bonus disc, which turned out to be a bit of a throwaway item really, containing mostly conversation snippets and short rehearsal extracts from the original recording sessions. In these post-Anthology days, it represents nothing particularly new or exciting, neither is it an especially riveting listen. But hardcore Beatles fans may beg to differ on these points given that it does offer a brief insight (albeit a limited one) into the inner workings of a band very much on the cusp of self-destruction.

Albums of 2011 … Afterthoughts …

Since I finished compiling a list of what basically amounts to my “most listened to” albums of 2011 (see the ten most recent posts to this blog), I’ve had some thoughts on a few more 2011 releases that for one reason or another didn’t quite make the cut.

A couple of really strong hip hop albums I got into near the end of the year would probably have made my list had I taken the time to absorb them earlier – The Roots album Undun really is a masterclass in story-telling, and although it doesn’t grab me in quite the same way as How I Got Over did in 2010, it confirms my long held belief that when it comes to intelligent state-of-the-art hip hop, The Roots lead the way by some distance. These guys play live funk/hip hop crossover and do so better than any other act with claims on hip hop’s mythical throne. Make sure you check out Undun if you get the chance.

The second thoroughly enjoyable hip hop release from earlier in 2011 – and I’m no huge fan of the genre – was Talib Kweli’s Gutter Rainbows which continues a run of solid releases from a guy I know very little about. Talib Kweli’s strengths are found in timing and flow, and on Gutter Rainbows he delivers a superb set, with some powerful semi-political lyrics underpinned by a variety of beats and samples. This is another album worth checking out if – like me – you view hip hop with a smattering of cynicism but nonetheless keep willing yourself to remain open-minded about it.

Beyond that, Jamie Woon’s Mirrorwriting came extremely close to making the final selection – tracks like ‘Night Air’, ‘Lady Luck’, ‘Shoulda’, and ‘Spirits’ are all fine examples of Woon’s longer term potential as an artist/producer. The main reason Mirrorwriting didn’t quite get there for me was the realisation that I actually preferred remixed versions of many of Woon’s tracks – as opposed to the originals as found on the album itself. Woon seemed to be everywhere in 2011 – his own remix of Lana Del Rey’s ‘Video Games’ rates as one of the definitive versions of what became one of 2011’s most talked about songs, while a moody yet brilliant remix of Woon’s ‘Spirits’ by a producer called sy.ic was easily one of my electronic tracks of the year (see video link below).

I really wanted to include the Easy Star All-Stars album First Light on my list but over time I came to realise that for all that it was nice to see this collective finally release an album of original material – after successfully covering Pink Floyd and Radiohead on previous efforts (a version of The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper – um, not so much) – it was ultimately a fairly bland piece of work. First Light was just too generic and “safe” for my taste; despite making a good impression initially, it failed to move me much beyond the first few listens. I had expected more from this group. The Dubmatix remix of the title track is still well worth checking out however.

 New Zealand album of the year – Vorn’s Down For It, without a shadow of a doubt. I picked up this quirky pop album in exchange for a crisp $20 note from a close friend of Vorn Colgan, and I foolishly thought it would remain something akin to an intimate little secret but boy was I wrong. It turns out every critic and his dog was raving about this humourous and talented Wellingtonian come year-end. Down For It is strongly recommended.

Reissue(s) of the year – Paul McCartney (1970) and Paul McCartney II (1980). I was lucky enough to be sent a copy of the updated deluxe versions of each of these albums (on CD) by the prolific Graham Reid of Elsewhere http://www.elsewhere.co.nz/

Thanks Graham, your efforts and random weekly giveaways are much appreciated! A superb package, and it surprised me how listenable these albums were, even after all these years. The bonus discs (one for each) contained the genuine highlights however and they offer yet another reminder of what a talent Paul McCartney was. If you’re looking for an insight into the real Paul McCartney – outside of his life with The Beatles or as Wings’ leading man – then you could do a lot worse than to start right here. This is Paul McCartney solo, naked, raw, and not really conforming to anyone else’s expectations. There is some weird and wonderful stuff here, with bonus points given for historical significance.

Here's a sy.ic remix of Jamie Woon's 'Spirits' ...