{"id":25433,"date":"2023-06-30T05:30:45","date_gmt":"2023-06-30T09:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=25433"},"modified":"2023-05-26T05:11:01","modified_gmt":"2023-05-26T09:11:01","slug":"take-5-paul-mccartneys-red-rose-speedway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/30\/take-5-paul-mccartneys-red-rose-speedway\/","title":{"rendered":"Take 5: Paul McCartney&#8217;s &#8216;Red Rose Speedway&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After dominating the 1960s pop music landscape with the Beatles, Paul McCartney arguably reached his solo career\u2019s creative peak with the release of 1973\u2019s <em>Band on the Run<\/em>, sustaining that peak well into the future with 1975\u2019s <em>Venus and Mars<\/em> and subsequent efforts. But although it was comparatively overlooked, the second album with his band Wings \u2013 <em>Red Rose Speedway<\/em> \u2013 hinted at the creative heights he\u2019d soon reach. Released fifty years ago this month (April 30, 1973) just mere months before <em>Band on the Run<\/em>, it would be overshadowed by that landmark album. <em>Red Rose Speedway<\/em> included the U.S. #1 hit single \u201cMy Love,\u201d a lush and romantic ballad, but the album explored other musical textures as well.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, McCartney\u2019s wellspring of creativity was so great at the time that he wrote and recorded quite a few songs that didn\u2019t make the cut, and thus weren\u2019t included on <em>Red Rose Speedway<\/em>. A couple found their way into the world a b-sides of singles. A couple more appeared decades later on subsequent CD-era deluxe reissues of the album. And at least one remained unreleased until 2018. Here are five rarities from the era that brought forth Paul McCartney and Wings\u2019 <em>Red Rose Speedway<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cI Lie Around\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 Sessions for this song took place as early as 1970, with Paul singing and playing everything. Nearly two years later, he brought in session guitarist Hugh McCracken and Wings band mates Denny Laine, Henry McCullogh, Linda McCartney and Denny Seiwell for overdubs, and added a horn section as well. After all that effort, the tune \u2013 a strong melody and arrangement with an admittedly modest lyric \u2013 ended up as the b-side of the smash hit \u201cLive and Let Die.\u201d The 1993 reissue of <em>Red Rose Speedway<\/em> featured \u201cI Lie Around\u201d as a bonus track.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/x-fP0FdNquc\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201c1882\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 This dramatic tune premiered as part of Wings\u2019 live set in early 1972, and it was introduced onstage as a song set for inclusion on the band\u2019s next album. That didn\u2019t happen; it would remain unreleased for many years to come. A live version of the song was captured on tape when the band played Europe in August \u201872. Apparently, that was set for release, as studio overdubs were subsequently added to the recording (in a manner similar to the sweetening applied to <em>Wings Over America<\/em>). That version leaked out to collectors, and it appeared on bootleg for many years before getting a belated official release in the 21st century.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/p312gfcMpPY\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cBest Friend\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 A catchy boogie-styled number featuring a lyric reputedly aimed at John Lennon, this song was recorded live in Antwerp, Belgium. The live take of \u201cBest Friend\u201d also received post-production, as \u2013 like \u201c1882\u201d it was mooted for inclusion on the McCartney rarities set <em>Cold Cuts<\/em>, an album that never appeared. The song finally got release in 2011 on an expanded reissue of <em>Red Rose Speedway<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vKsRKl-Fjzw\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cThe Mess\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 Planned for inclusion on <em>Red Rose Speedway<\/em> when the album was still envisioned as a double LP, this rocker somehow didn\u2019t make the cut when the record was pared down to a single record. A live recording, it demonstrates just how cohesive a band Wings had become. \u201cThe Mess\u201d did get released at the time; it was the b-side of My Love.\u201d The tune would be added to the \u201893 reissue of <em>Red Rose Speedway<\/em> as well as to subsequent reissues of that album.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BfPS5TA9sgs\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cTragedy\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 A prolific songwriter, Paul McCartney has only occasionally recorded songs by other composers. His <em>\u0421\u043d\u043e\u0301\u0432\u0430 \u0432 \u0421\u0421\u0421\u0420<\/em>, <em>Run Devil Run<\/em> and <em>Kisses on the Bottom<\/em> albums are notable examples, as is this recording, a cover of a ballad dating from the 1950s. This studio recording of \u201cTragedy\u201d was another track planned for the 2LP <em>Red Rose Speedway<\/em> but left off the final release. It circulated for decades on bootleg before receiving official release in 2018 as part of <em>Red Rose Speedway (Archive Collection)<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/A8a2vS9fwH0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After dominating the 1960s pop music landscape with the Beatles, Paul McCartney arguably reached his solo career\u2019s creative peak with the release of 1973\u2019s Band on the Run, sustaining that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25434,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1663,2386],"class_list":["post-25433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","tag-paul-mccartney","tag-wings","cat-27-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25433"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25435,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25433\/revisions\/25435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}