scapp70's Full Review: Red Rose Speedway by Paul McCartney/Wings
The Speedway and Me
This CD sat in my collection for a few years solely because it's a Paul McCartney release. It is now in heavy rotation because I quickly realized the brilliance. I love McCartney music, I love Beatles, I love Wings. For some reason, it took me a while to give this CD a chance and a listen. Because I'm lazy I suppose.
The Speedway and Us
Released in April 1973, only months before the super successful Band On The Run, and about a year and a half after its poorly selling predecessor Wild Life. Wild Life is Wings first release, and Speedway is Paul McCartney and Wings first release. The band is called Wings, but after the poor sales of their debut, all agreed to put Paul's name nice and big on the album. With Paul's name printed on the cover art and the success of the single My Love, it drove this album to number one.
The Speedway
My Love is the one song I did know from this album. Paul's soulful and melodic vocals compliment this ballad perfectly. Henry McCullough’s guitar solo that plays more like a bluesy saxophone than a guitar is one of the better ones on a McCartney album. The rest of the songs, I have never heard until about three years ago.
The opening song, Big Barn Bed picks up where RAM left us two years before. In the fade out of the reprise of Ram On, you can hear Paul singing the lyrics:
♫"Who's that coming round that corner?
Who's that coming round that bend?"♫
Big Barn Bed's opening lyrics are the same. Makes it epic somehow. Big Barn Bed is the only heavy rock song on the CD. The lyrics are a bit silly, like they were made up on the spot during a rehearsal at Paul's farm in Scotland. Big Barn Bed was an unfinished song left over from the RAM sessions. One song that was completed during these sessions is the next track, Get On The Right Thing. This song has all of the elements that made RAM unique. Paul sang differently on RAM than he did on any other. Linda's background vocals were very prominent, and the whole of the album had a feel of raw power. This song may recall the RAM feel, but it fits in the Speedway even better. The song has lots of reverb, maybe too much? Who's to say, it's sounds great to me.
Little Lamb Dragonfly wins the weirdest lyrics award on the Speedway. I could be wrong, but it seems to be about a cannabis inspired Buddhist story of a lamb, a dragonfly and reincarnation. The song is a bit schmaltzy, but most of this album is. Who better to deliver schmaltz than someone who does it right. There are people out there who will dismiss Macca's solo efforts as a bunch of 'silly love songs'. These people are sheep, and I can prove it. This slanderous remark came from John Lennon one envious day in the 70's. Lennon could not have possibly meant that, he was truly a big fan of McCartney music. Anger may get the better of him sometimes though. For John to give the 'silly love songs' statement is just as bad and untrue as the lyrics in his How Do You Sleep? where he sings:
"The only thing you've done was 'Yesterday'
And since you're gone, you're just 'Another Day'"
referring to two of McCartney's songs, one with and one after the Beatles. No one complained about Paul's schmaltziness when he schmaltzed on the schmaltzy White Album or Abbey Road, so come on people, grow up and stop being sheep. Today is the first day of the rest of your life.
One More Kiss is one of the very few country songs that Macca has ever recorded. This even has Paul yodeling a bit here and there. This is one of my favorites, I like his country stuff. My favorite country song of Paul's is Sally G from At The Speed Of Sound.
Single Pigeon is like a children's story goes jabberwocky. The lyrics seem to be about two birds, one pigeon and one sea gull meeting one Sunday morning after both had separate terrible nights on Saturday. Very schmaltzy and fun to sing along to. When The Night is a bit doo wop-ish yet with lots of schmaltz as well. This is also a big favorite of mine.
In the same way that the incomparable Abbey Road closes with an awesome medley, here on the Speedway, Macca wraps things up with an almost just as awesome medley that consists of five songs.
The first of them is an instrumental called Loup (1st Indian On The Moon). This song is genius because the music absolutely portrays what the title is. You can actually picture an American Indian dismounting from the spaceship and performing a rain dance on the surface of the moon. I'm sure this first song was inspired accidentally while 'eSssing some Jays,' as McCartney has constantly done. His second wife Heather says she's going to stop him from smoking anymore, we'll see, I hope so. She promises better music from Macca now that's he's dropped the habit.
Hold Me Tight is another country song. This isn't like the real country but more like 70's prime time variety show type of country. This whole medley would have worked great on the Donny & Marie Show.
Lazy Dynamite is not a country song, but continues the segue with a beautiful country harmonica performed by Denny Laine. The harmonica is a background subconscious noise that hopefully when and if this CD is finally remixed in the DVD-Audio/DTS sound format, we'll bring the harmonica to the fore, because for me this is truly the hook of the song.
Hands Of Love seems to have the most structure lyrically of these songs. I suspect that maybe this was the main reason for creating this medley, unfinished songs. Undoubtedly this was the case on Abbey Road. Hands Of Love is simply brilliant, it may be my favorite one in the medley or tied with Power Cut the last song. Power Cut, like Hands Of Love have a perfect structure quality in these songs. The lyrics, the music and the melody all seem to compliment each other that you don't see too much of outside of the Beatle world of music.
The Speedway Bonus Tracks
Immediately banned almost before it was released was the single Hi, Hi, Hi from the BBC and some radio stations here in the awesome US of A. Although, it seems to be about Paul's favorite pastime, he denies it. This bonus track is the heaviest song on the album, big guitars, lots of reverb and echo, real fun to sing along to too.
C Moon seems to be a favorite among McCartney fans, maybe because it used to be pretty rare. These days you can find it on a bunch of McCartney CDs. This song is heavy piano and bass. It sounds like just Paul and Linda singing. It's an OK song, it's good, it's catchy, but when placed among all of these songs it doesn't shine like it possibly could.
The Mess which was the flipside of the My Love
single, is a perfect addition here. Also a very heavy song, this song is important because it reminds us that Wings were a constantly touring band, and that they were great. Recorded in late 1972, this shows the raw power of a Wings show. Silly love songs, I think not!
I Lie Around has Denny Laine on vocals. Denny on vocals is a welcome sound for us McCartney fans. Denny was a great bandmate, co writer, and performer overall to be with Paul through all of those years. He may not be have Beatle standing in our hearts, but he's come the closest in my opinion. This song is about, well, leisure. The sounds of laughing and jumping in the lake at the beginning of the song confirm that. A fun song and nice addition to the bonus tracks section. Originally the flipside of the Live And Let Die single released this same year.
What is with Paul's fascination with 'speed' anyway? Red Rose Speedway, Wings At The Speed of Sound were two album titles, Helen Wheels is about driving very speedily. Did Paul think life was moving way to slow in the 1970's?
Speedway Credits
Musicians:
Paul McCartney: Vocal, Piano, Bass
Linda McCartney: Backing vocal
Denny Laine: Electric guitar, Backing vocal
Denny Seiwell: Drums, Backing vocal
Henry McCullough: Electric guitar, Harmonies
Track Listing:
1. Big Barn Bed
2. My Love
3. Get on the Right Thing
4. One More Kiss
5. Little Lamb Dragonfly
6. Single Pigeon
7. When the Night
8. Loup (1st Indian on the Moon)
9. Medley: Hold Me Tight/Lazy Dynamite/Hands of Love/Power Cut
10. C Moon
11. Hi Hi Hi
12. Mess
13. I Lie Around
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦More Beatles-related Epinions from Scapp70♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
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