1972: McCartney builds Wings from scratch but not a good year for Beatles fans
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- For those of you who are interested I discuss the 1973 'Ringo' album with Matt Williamson of 'Pop Goes The '60s'
• RINGO Album Review wit...
Nicely done John. When I went to Lancaster University in 1989, one of my lecturers said that he'd seen Wings and the roadies getting out of the vans in the loading area beneath his office on the second floor of the building - he was still in the same room 17 years later so was able to point through the window at the exact spot. The guy that used to run the record store in the market (long gone) told me that Denny Laine and Henry turned up at his stall with and asked if they could stick a leaflet up.
Good story James!
In 1972, I’d say George was still in the lead as far as being the most respected ex Beatle/solo Beatle. 1972 was a bit of a holding pattern for George but he was still basking in the afterglow of ATMP and the triumphant Bangladesh concert. As mentioned, 1972 of course would be the release Bangladesh album (and film). In a way, it’s too bad George couldn’t have released “LITMW” in say early 1972 because it would have capitalized on the huge momentum he had been riding since late November, 1970. While LITMW was still massive upon its release in 1973, it seems that quite a bit of time has transpired between studio releases and already the music landscape was quickly changing.
John, i went to a Kaleidoscope event last week, where a lot of recently discovered tv clips were being shown, and got to see Wings performing 'My Love' on Top Of The Pops in 1973. It was a performance someone had recorded off their tv screen using a cine camera. They had also recorded the sound. It was definitely a live vocal, but I'm not sure the backing track wasn't the original recording. Paul sang it ok, but his vocals were not as sensitive as the original recording. Also, possibly the biggest disappointment, Henry Mccollough's brilliant guitar solo had been removed. Visually Linda as well as Paul featured prominently. Not sure John whether you might have seen it.
Also there was a brilliant episode featuring Mike And Bernie Winters, Lionel Blair and Jackie Trent , of ABC's Big Night Out, with The Beatles miming to 5 tracks. I believe 'Till There Was You' and 'I Wanna Be Your Man' were included. Also some comedy sketches featuring the boys. It was originally televised 29/2/64.
I like your focus on Paul building something in 1972, which really the ground floor from which he would go on to dominate the charts with Wings through much of the decade to follow. I agree that 1972 is the first "slump" year in the post-Beatles careers. I think for John, George, and Ringo, they were united in their notion that post-Beatles careers could be albums mostly. None of them had any serious plans to tour or create a sustained consistent stardom like they had in the Beatles. Paul was the exception to that, and it's yet another way that he was different from his former bandmates.
Lovely as normal. I don't think he reached his stride until Live and Let Die personally. I love all Maccas stuff of course but he was finding his feet at this point. Sent you a FB request, I'm not a nutter any chance of accepting?
Nice song fam! 🔥🔥🔥
Has any artist released 3 more lyrically and tonally varied singles than Paul did in 72? A topical political song, a kiddies nursery rhyme and a song about sex and drugs?
Brave, but also a sign of an artist trying a bit too hard to forge a new identity.
Cool vid John, have you checked out Paul Simons new album? Any thoughts? Cheers
I kinda agree with that opinion that their cutting edge music ended. I think they where musicially relevant until end of 1971. 1973 was of course a very successful year for them but less cutting edge, just good songs to enjoy.
Yes, Mary Had a little Lamb was a poor choice for a single, but is easily forgettable. I love Give Ireland Back to the Irish, Hi, HI, Hi and C moon. I think I am about a year older than you, John, based on the information you have revealed at various points as when you were doing things at certain times.
In America, "Mary Had A Little Lamb" was a double A side. In my radio market, it was "Little Woman Love" that reached the top 30 and it is quite good. John's 1972 single was not well received.
1972 saw the Beatles bypassed by so many others. Nothing cutting edge about anything they done in that year or since. 1972 had the acts you mentioned taking over plus Alice Cooper doing Dchools Out , Randy Newman doing Sail Away , Joni doing For the Roses, Jackson Brown releasing hi first album, Little Feat doing Sailin’ Shoes. Many others
Lennon and McCartney were a lot less interesting than many albums issued in the year 1972
Fascinating topic. Always important to note that the Beatles were a singles and an albums act, so they would have faced twice as much pressure as the other artists to be classed as being successful by their own criteria.
The later-career trajectories of the former Beatles followed more or less the same arcs as those of their contemporaries from the 60's and indeed virtually all artists in popular music since then: relative decline in quantity and/or quality and/or consistency of work over time, with output either falling below the level of peak accomplishment or reaching that level less consistently.
For me, John Lennon's career path is analogous to that of the Rolling Stones: two or three years in the early 70's at or near the level of the 60's peak, but then a steep decline in inspiration after that, with Lennon retiring from music altogether until just before his death and the Rolling Stones becoming essentially an oldies act, with new records as marketing tie-ins for nostalgia tours.
Paul McCartney's and George Harrison's careers, by way of contrast, seem to me more like Bob Dylan's: an early peak of consistent inspiration, followed by a longer term when the muse comes and goes. Dylan's work after Blonde on Blonde is hit and miss: sometimes on a par with his best, sometimes worse than would have been expected during his peak. And I think the same can be said of McCartney's work after Ram or maybe Band on the Run and Harrison's after Living in the Material World.
For me, Williamson's question of whether the former Beatles were "cutting edge" is irrelevant, not only because it has nothing to do with the merits of their music, but also since, as you note, the term "cutting edge" is hard to define and Williamson never did, even when called upon to do so.
The more interesting question for me is whether, had he lived longer, Lennon's career in the long term would have followed something more like the Stones' paradigm or something more like Dylan's. I like to imagine -- and there's some basis for this in the Double Fantasy / Milk and Honey sessions and in McCartney's and Harrison's longer-term careers -- that the pattern would have been more like Dylan's, with hits interspersed among the misses and ups interspersed among the downs. I think the quantity of work he would have gone on to do would have been more like Harrison's than like Dylan's or McCartney's, but that the quality of the work would have been about the same, for better (sometimes) and for worse (other times).
Sadly for the ex-Beatles, with competition like Machine Head, Made in Japan, Exile On Main Street, Ziggy Stardust, Harvest, Honky Chateau, Close To The Edge, Thick As A Brick, Can't Buy a Thrill, Paul Simon, Transformer, Roxy Music, School's Out, Eagles, Foxtrot, Argus..., they had little chance of being 'cutting edge'.
Still, Leeds U - happy days. How far have you fallen?
Ringo was busy directing T.Rex’s Born to Boogie in 72 and shame on you not mentioning The Slider!
Hi there, John. Great video on an interesting topic. It's great that Paul had a few songs that were banned:) Gives him a rebellious edge somehow.
I was born in ‘72 - Mary Had A Little Lamb featured large in my early childhood - and it’s still one of my all time favourite McCartney singles - I still have the very copy that my mum bought back then. Little Woman Love is also a forgotten gem of a B side. Give Ireland Back….on the other hand is quite awful - I don’t think I’ve ever managed to listen to the thing all the way through!
A lot happened in '72 in US: Nixon's reelection ( ridiculous), 18 year old vote( why didn't McGovern do better?) Munich Olympics.....As always, enjoy the detail that goes into these and am always entertained
Creativity is a bit like a rubber band, you can only stretch it so far, you can’t be endlessly creative did the Beatles had a stretchy elastic band than most
Give Ireland Back To The Irish got to number one in Ireland and Spain!
The real question is what if the Beatles were still together in 1972, and put out an album. Would it had been cutting edge or not? When I hear 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' now, I have fond memories of liking it when I was a kid in 1972. Great video John, I really your look back on 1972, and what the Beatles were up to that year.
Paul McCartney died in car crash on September 11 1966 and was replaced by William. This is THE TRUTH no matter what.
I’m a big fan of your work 👍
Saw Paul/family at nashville airport in '73 a few reporter's and people saying Elvis was on board..I walked out to the steps and when Paul stepped out with Linda and family my jaw hit the ground being a Beatle fan from day one but to me it was unfogetable and soon Band on the run would come out and it was a big hit even he was surprised...
Have you ever reviewed albums by 'The Band'. I am thinking of course of 'Music from Big Pink', 'The Band' (also known as the brown album) and the album/film 'The Last Waltz'.
Hi John I'd be really interested to get your take on the confirmed news that Paul has completed 'Now and Then' (well, it's gonna be that one isn't it?). And also your overall thoughts on the use of AI to produce versions of stuff e.g. Beach Boy tracks found here: ua-cam.com/video/alarQ8TI8zw/v-deo.html The same guy did a lovely version of 'Grow Old With Me' that has been reposted here: ua-cam.com/video/7ZFSV3rYi0Y/v-deo.html
I'd personally be really keen to hear what they could do with Ringo singing 'Nobody Told Me', and realise what could have happened in '81.
In 1980 John Lennon said to Sheff re the early Wings uni tour etc "I kind of admire the way Paul started back from scratch, forming a new band and playing in small dance halls, because that's what he wanted to do with the Beatles... he wanted us to go back to the dance halls and experience that again. But I didn't. That was one of the problems, in a way, that he wanted to relive it all or something... I don't know what it was. But I kind of admire the way he got off his pedestal."
Harvest was Neil Young's breakthrough? What about everybody knows this is nowhere or After the Gold Rush?
i was speaking commercially!
I’m a Beatles’ fan and don’t understand why 72 was a bad year. The Beatles were history.
Wings didn't really "take off" until the following year 1973. Good things came to those who waited. The material they recorded in 1971/72 was really them finding their style and sound, and Paul finding songs to match- it was hit and miss. However, I like both Hi Hi Hi and C Moon which was their first good single, and My Love was the first classic Paul Song since Maybe I'm Amazed. It was recorded in 72 but released in 73. Remember Red Rose Speedway was recorded in late 72, and that was Wings' first good album. 1973 was to be a better a year for pop and rock albums generally than 1972. Music took a while to get going in the early 70's and Novelty and Bubble gum songs dominated the singles charts in any case 1971/72, so Paul can be forgiven for putting out a "Nursery Rhyme" single in that period. However, as a respected songwriter, material wise he was behind the likes of Bowie and even The Stones in 72 who recorded their best albums at that time and were cutting edge. I think Paul was still feeling less confident for a while after the break up of the Beatles 2 years before, and the blame he unfairly got in the music press for the break up. Also, John Lennon's " Muzak" comments didn't help either.
Have you read Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair's recent book The McCartney Legacy on Paul's career from 1969 to 1973?
Not being an expert on John solo album tracks I didn't about his Bloody Sunday song so thanks John. 73 the key year for Paul.
Professor Heaton: What say we hit some tennis balls sometime on the dry grass courts of Heaton Castle?..
I thought he spent a lot of 1972 making Red Rose Speedway.
yes but i was concentrating on what was released in '72
The Wild Life Album is torture to listen to ,I absolutely hate it .
Hi Hi Hi is one of my favorite Paul songs. Love the live version too!
from love me do to mccartny 3 pauls never put a foot wrong
I thought he built Wings in 1971.
Yes but he built their reputation live in 72!
Great video. Bruce McMouse is a great finding! It is energizing / exemplary (donno how to say), how hard and consistent worker was Paul in that difficult period.
John,
Hello, John.
I have been watching your videos for perhaps 18 months and always find interesting and intriguing if a little Beatle centric for may taste. No love for the Kinks? They were still relevant in '71 and '72 with "Muswell Hillbillies" and "Everybody's in Showbiz" respectively. Anyway that's not my point.
I believe it was it was in a video with Matt Williams you felt uncomfortable with the films "That'll be the Day" and "Stardust". I agree rock is littered with poor rip off films. Also I'm no fan of Ringo (his musical output post the Beatle split is questionable, if not lamentable) but his acting in the later is very good indeed. As indeed is Adam Faith's in the sequel an in the LWT series Budgie, which aired in '72. I'm no Slade fan but their film "In Flame" is a classic.
A suggestion is, for a future video is why you feel so so challenged by these films.
Thanks Russell…I respect the Kinks..sorry if I don’t mention them…agree Ringo’s acting is fine and I watched the sequel Stardust the other day…good idea that i should cover these and other films in more detail…cheers!
@@johnheaton5667 Apologies, I meant to add keep up the good work. I enjoy the vids, even the Beatle ones 🙂 Also believe that That'll be the Day, Stardust and Flame are good films. Albeit in a genre where the bar is not particulary high. Thanks for the reply.
Friend I have to respectfully opine that imho you’re clueless about what constitutes great music of the 70’s and esp 72 per your focus. You shouldn’t be making videos trying to document the era….at least without consulting me first. Lol
What are your top albums from ‘72? I was drawing mostly from my collection but I’m sure I missed a few eg T Rex, Steely Dan, Tapestry