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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
We Will Fly Away, Going "Wing"ing, August 16, 2004
It was 1971, only the year after the Beatles' breakup. And yet Paul McCartney had already released two albums when Wild Life, the first by his new band Wings, came out to lukewarm sales and critical disdain in December. Ram received the same critical bashing and has aged very well, remaining a fan favourite - even the critics have begun to recognize its genius. But what of Wild Life?
Well, the bulk of Wild Life was recorded in the space of three days, with a band of musicians that (apart from Linda, obviously) Paul had really just run into whilst making Ram. They just headed to the studio, laid the tracks down without a thought, and had the album mixed and ready to go in two weeks. So the production is minimal to say the least - a cobbled-together, one-take-as-it-stands-mistakes-and-all rush job. It sounds as if Wings were just rehearsing rather than making an album. This gives it kinship with the original McCartney; but it also comes with all the problems that plagued that album. Namely: sloppy musicianship, unfinished ideas, and ultimately a lack of effort.
Another problem is a lack of material. There are only ten songs here, and of those two are forty-second instrumentals. Two more are the "proper" songs upon which these clips are based, the wordless rocker Mumbo and the dismally inane Bip Bop. And then there's a cover (albeit not a bad one) Love Is Strange. That gives Paul only five tracks to really show off his talents. Good thing he does too, or Wild Life would have been a total failure. The plodding title track is nothing special, but the rest are real McCartney gold. The lachrymose Dear Friend, which finds Paul bemoaning his friendship with none other than John Lennon, is very much a standout, not least because it's uncharacteristically sombre for the usually upbeat Mr. McCartney.
In the end the critics weren't entirely askew on Wild Life - it's unpolished, amateurish, and lacking in most things that make a great album. It's certainly not a good place to start, if you're new to Paul, and should best be left toward the tail end of your collection even if you're a fan. But there's plenty of fun and enough good stuff to make it worth it, so why not?
NOTES FOR REMASTERED PAUL MCCARTNEY COLLECTION:
More than any other disc in the Paul McCartney Collection I've yet purchased the bonus tracks truly help Wild Life out. The best of the lot is Mama's Little Girl, a gorgeous acoustic ode to Paul's daughter, but the other's ain't half-bad either.
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26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
McCartney's Primal Scream Album, October 24, 2005
This is what I hate most about history: So much of it is based on misconceptions, biases and utter bull. I just experienced the wonder that is Wings' first album, WILD LIFE. Recorded in a one-week period in 1971 (shortly after McCartney's ambitious RAM album), WILD LIFE is even more makeshift and loose than McCartney's first solo release McCARTNEY. In fact, like John Lennon's first solo album (PLASTIC ONO BAND), WILD LIFE could easily be viewed as a precursor to punk-rock. Heck, these idiosyncratic ditties could pass for contemporary indi-rock. The first 2 tracks, "Mumbo" and "Bip Bop" are built on simple, raw and very funky guitar riffs. But it's the vocals/lyrics that really distinguish them. In "Mumbo", McCartney screams out some brilliant nonsense, breaking down all lyrical pretense-the very pretense the Beatles indulged in the mid-1960s-and creating the most pure rock singing I've ever heard. This is what every "hoochie-coochie", "be bop" and "ooo ooo ooo" has been suggesting from 1950s R&B. "Bip Bop" continues with this scat/jive approach. Every critic and so-called musical expert has always savaged the "lyrics" of "Mumbo" and especially "Bip Bop" for being absurd. Every one of these clueless squares should never be able to evoke the name of Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker or any major artist from 1950s blues and rock&roll. They clearly don't GET IT. Nor should they ever be allowed to cite "The "White Album" as brilliant, because they obviously don't get the brilliance of minimalist rockers like "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?" If you like that song, there's no justifiable reason to dislike "Mumbo" and "Bip Bop". What? Does everything need the brand-name stamp of The Beatles? It's only clever or edgy if it's on a late-period Beatles album? Perhaps not. Many critics have praised PLASTIC ONO BAND for its rawness and minimalism. Oh, but John was singing about important things: His resentment towards his parents, to religion, to everything that wasn't himself or Yoko. All fine and good, but why is having a sense of humor and lack of pretension such a bad counterpoint? Not to say WILD LIFE is all silly fun. It's not just similar to PLASTIC ONO BAND because of its minimalist, off-the-cuff approach. The title-track is a cathartic, melancholic outpour of dark, DARK blues; McCartney screaming his head off even more than he did on "Mumbo" (think The Beatles "Oh Darling!"). This is a man who has been criticized for being too shallow and detached from his material. Well, I hear a man in a fevered madness of pain on "Wild Life". And that's just the warm-up for the real stab of pathos. The last full-track, "Dear Friend", is without a doubt, the single most somber and heart-wrenching piece of music Paul McCartney has ever recorded. This is the midnight of McCartney's soul. Lennon lamented "the dream" being over; McCartney lamented the friendship being over. "Dear Friend" can only be taken as a heart-broken-yes, heart-broken-message from Paul to John. The mood and nuance of the playing, singing...everything is perfect on this track. It doesn't sound like a song that was written; it's too organic, too subtle. It's as if Paul broke some piece of a lonely night and caused it to materialize in sudden song. WILD LIFE ends with a tiny snippet of funky bass jamming to the "Mumbo" groove. Then it cuts off just like that. The album even begins in mid-jam and there are all sorts of little eccentric touches throughout. There's a great Afro-techno percussion coda in "Some People Never Know" and the modern-sounding oddity of "I Am Your Singer" will cause you to think McCartney created Stereolab among other things. To sum up, WILD LIFE is cooler than history.
He was the Walrus. But now he's Paul.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Some People Never (Will) Know..., August 6, 2005
Here is an album many people seem unsure about liking; it's been that way since it was released in the early 70's. I think it's well worth checking out because, unlike Macca's later work, every song on this disc has something going for it. Usually, I don't like to go song by song through an album because it makes the review too long, but this album has few songs, and they are so different from each other it really seemed the best way, so:
MUMBO: Mumbo Jumbo, Paul mixes up some magic with his first Wings lineup on this opening garage-rocker. I think he was very pleased to be playing with a band again, and he cuts loose with a paint-peeling vocal and some great grunge guitar. People who had criticized Paul for being 'soft' might have been comforted by this one.
BIP BOP: Yeah, it's got a childish lyric, he wrote it for his kids! I personally love Paul's acoustic bluesy numbers, this one is very reminiscent of '2 Legs' on 'Ram', the album before this. Surreal and cool.
LOVE IS STRANGE: The great story behind this number can be read in another review below. This is a great reggae-style cover of the old Mickey And Sylvia number, with some crazed slide guitar from Sir Paul. Fun and charming.
WILD LIFE: Another rocker with the Wings lineup. This is probably my least favorite song on the album, but I still enjoy the strange backing vocals and the lyrics (an early foray into animal rights) especially where McCartney sings 'Aminals' instead of 'Animals'!
SOME PEOPLE NEVER KNOW: My favorite track. Triunphant, lyrical, melodic, this song is what we expect from Macca, and what he delivers here. Very much like the better cuts from 'Ram', Paul has it all working here. And to those who complain about the out-of-tune guitars, remember, they didn't have electronic tuning in those days. And Paul may have had one or two low-alcohol lagers while recording 'Wild Life'...
I AM YOUR SINGER: Extra-charming ballad from Paul And Linda. We've all heard the complaints about Linda, but I honestly think the contrast between her 'hard' American voice, and Paul's 'soft' English voice, can work really well, as it does here. Paul also does some great guitar here, love that vibrato twang!
TOMORROW: A nice piano popper with vocals so high-pitched, I'd swear Paul sped up his voice. Try singing along and you'll see what I mean. This song is like a somewhat more rockin' 'Another Day' with a great bluesy 'Oh Darling!' end bit...lovely!
DEAR FRIEND: Woo-hoo...creepy, haunted, jazzy, spectral, shadowy...this is Paul at his most creepy and melancholic (who thought he had it in him?) . A sad letter of loss and confusion to John Lennon, Paul mournfully noodles on piano while horns, drums, and other things come in and out. The song seems to end and restart and is very hypnotic. One of a kind stuff and very very good.
But what about those extra tracks eh? 'IRISH" was banned by the BBC and is tremendous rocked-out fun, nice to see Paul be political for once. 'Mama's Little Girl' is a neat little acoustic number, reminiscent of 'Mother Nature's Son'. 'Little Woman Love' is some sexy, New Orleans-style pianobilly (a personal fave)...and then there's 'Mary Had A Little Lamb'. What can I say, the guy had children to amuse AND a sheep farm, OK? Give him a Wee Break!
So, don't be afraid, get 'Wild Life' and live it up with Paul, Linda, & all the gang...
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