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Paul McCartney always knew The Beatles wouldn’t be his only legacy.
In 1970, a month before the band’s swan song, “Let It Be,” he dropped the first nugget of a five decade (and counting) continuation of his musical genius, the solo album recorded at his remote sheep farm in Scotland simply dubbed, “McCartney.”
He was 27.
The decade that followed intertwined work from McCartney solo, with wife Linda and, between 1971 and 1979, with Wings, his band with an oft-changing cast of players except for Denny Laine, the sole constant on several instruments.
Wings sold more than 22 million records, spawned No. 1 hits that continue to blanket radio (“Band on the Run,” “My Love” and yes, “Silly Love Songs” among them) and earned the first-ever Oscars nomination for a James Bond theme with the ever-fiery “Live and Let Die.”
A comprehensive oral history of the outfit, “Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run” (out now, Liveright/ W.W. Norton & Company) unfurls 42 hours of new interviews, historical records, and previously unheard interviews from McCartney’s archives. Fans will hear recollections from Wings band members, Linda McCartney, the couple’s daughters Stella and Mary, Sean Ono Lennon and Beatles comrades George Harrison and Ringo Starr, among others.
Comments from John Lennon also pop up throughout, with the bespectacled Beatle’s reflection about his partnership with McCartney particularly affecting. “There’s only been two artists I’ve ever worked with for more than a one-night stand. Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono. I think as a talent scout, I’ve done pretty damn well.”
More than 150 photos – many taken by Linda McCartney – as well as diary pages and handwritten lyrics shared by McCartney with editor Ted Widmer are stationed throughout.
Some stories, such as Wings losing the master tapes to “Band on the Run” after being robbed and mugged while recording the album in Lagos, Nigeria, might be familiar to Wings aficionados.
But most other tales are newly shared and offer fascinating insight even for casual fans.
Michael Jackson is quoted as he remembers meeting McCartney at a wrap party for the Wings Over America tour in 1976. McCartney told the young star he’d written a song for him. “I was very surprised and thanked him. And he started singing ‘Girlfriend’ to me,” Jackson says. The pair exchanged phone numbers, “Girlfriend” wound up on Wings’ “London Town” and the mega-pairing of the King of Pop and a Beatle finally happened in the early ‘80s with “The Girl is Mine” from Jackson’s “Thriller” and “Say Say Say” on McCartney’s “Pipes of Peace.”
McCartney tells the saga of wrangling Stevie Wonder in the studio to record “Ebony and Ivory,” as well as his humorous recollection of Wonder showing up for an invited lunch at his home at 10 p.m., “nonchalant … and singing away.”
Then there are the heartbreaking memories from McCartney, his daughters Stella and Mary, George Martin and Yoko Ono about the night Lennon was murdered. “I didn’t realize at first John had been hit. He kept walking. Then he fell and I saw the blood,” Ono recollects. “It was all blurred,” McCartney says of when his manager called to give him the news, “You couldn’t take it in. I still haven’t taken it in. I don’t want to.”
Here are some other highlights from the book.
Sean Lennon praises the ‘beautiful relationship’ between Paul and Linda McCartney
Sean Lennon recalled the angelic vibe of Linda McCartney when she and Paul came to the Lennon home at The Dakota in New York to talk to Yoko about Beatles-related business.
“I remember there was some tension between Paul and my mom. Let’s just say my mom could get a little bit testy sometimes!,” Lennon says. “And I’ll never forget, Linda just reached out and grabbed her hand and grabbed Paul’s hand. And she goes, ‘Hey, come on, guys. Like, we’re hippies. Like, it’s all about love. Let just relax. It’s love. We love each other!”
Lennon praised Linda’s “good energy” and says he could see his mom and Paul visually relax before they all smoked a joint. “It was really cool because it just seemed so simple,” he says.
But while Lennon was immediately intoxicated by Linda’s “love energy,” he also recognized how her marriage to Paul reflected the type of man he was to be with such a nurturing companion.
“All you need to know is they had this beautiful relationship and that they were great parents,” Lennon says. “That, in the end, is the measure of a man. Both my dad (John) and Paul had such strong women to be partners with.”
McCartney’s Japan arrest for drugs: ‘Did someone put that stuff in there?’
McCartney believes that the “Japan episode,” as he calls it, signified the end of Wings. He was already disgruntled about touring the country with the band because he felt they were under-rehearsed. Then he got arrested at airport customs with nearly half a pound of marijuana in his suitcase.
“It’s almost like I got myself busted to get out of it,” McCartney says. “I really don’t know to this day. I also think: ‘Did someone put that stuff in there? To bust me?’ I don’t know. It’s very psychodrama.”
McCartney’s daughters share their vantage point of the scene unfolding and their father being taken away.
Mary remembers her parents looking at each other to decide who would admit to owning the suitcase – which Paul and Linda shared – because they knew one parent would need to stay with the kids.
Stella recalls, “I remember the (customs) guy opening it. And I remember him picking up a pillowcase worth of skunk weed. Even a 9-year-old could have hidden skunk weed better than my parents.”
McCartney spent nine days in a detention center as Prisoner 22 and the Wings tour was canceled.
The end of Wings. ‘Once they’re gone, they’re gone’
McCartney’s Japan arrest undoubtedly served as the catalyst to the end of Wings.
“There was never a big announcement. It just kind of folded,” says Laurence Juber, the band’s guitarist starting in 1978. “The official end of Wings was 27 April, 1981, when Denny officially left.”
Laine, who was the last member to still perform and record with McCartney, recalls the band merely fizzling.
“There is no end. It’s just that we didn’t go out on the road again or make another album as Wings. Just as (McCartney) didn’t want to go out and do whatever for his own reasons, I wanted to go out and do something for my own reasons,” Laine says.
McCartney, meanwhile, admitted to frustrations with frequent lineup changes (“That often distracts you from the music”), but concurs with Laine’s assessment that conflicting feelings about touring instigated Wings’ demise.
“There were little personal things here and there … it blew up a bit,” McCartney says. “We didn’t part shouting at each other or arguing. We both decided it would be best … I can never remember these things because once they’re gone, they’re gone.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Paul McCartney's Wings oral history delves into drama, drugs and much love
Reporting by Melissa Ruggieri, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
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