Wild Life - A New Perspective
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"You didn't finish the bloody thing." -Paul McCartney interview in the '80s regarding certain Wings albums
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audi:
"You didn't finish the bloody thing." -Paul McCartney interview in the '80s regarding certain Wings albums
Audi, my memory may be fuzzy, but my recollection of that comment was that it was specifically about "Mumbo." Ring a bell? If so, I'd say it was an accurate assessment.
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Wild Life stands up to anything he has put out since 2002.
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Mumbo and Bip Bop are wonderful in my opinion. Great jams. To me quite a few Paul albums feel loose, but I like that side to his music.
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RMartinez:
Wild Life stands up to anything he has put out since 2002.
Wow. I didn't realize there are people who actually believe this. Personally, I think Chaos and MAF are better than even the stronger Wings albums, and Wild Life is far from the strongest Wings effort. But, uh... enjoy.
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Bruce M.:
RMartinez:
Wild Life stands up to anything he has put out since 2002.
Wow. I didn't realize there are people who actually believe this. Personally, I think Chaos and MAF are better than even the stronger Wings albums, and Wild Life is far from the strongest Wings effort. But, uh... enjoy.
To be fair, I do think MAF is a great CD. I suppose I see Wild Life in the context of what was going on in his career. It was an introduction to Wings, and then set things up for even greater things. He was on the ascendency with Wings and that LP led to Red Rose Speedway, Band On the Run, and Venus and Mars. A great run by any standard. Since 2002, I just don't hear any solid songwriting. Sorry. I hold the bar up pretty high for McCartney because HE set the bar that high. Chaos is just doodling, and while Wild Life has some strange little jams on it, I don't find anything on Chaos or Driving Rain that are of the caliber of Dear Friend, Tomorrow, or Some People Never Know. In the end, it is in the ear of the beholder.
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Bruce M.:
And I'm not sure why people keep digging up barely plausible defenses for what is simply not a very good record. Yes, it's true that defying fan and critical expectations constituted an act of artistic/career bravery. Paul and John had that in common, and I'll happily give them both credit for it, even when the results weren't very good. But raw and honest actually can live side by side with competent songwriting and arranging -- see, for example, "Maybe I'm Amazed" or John's "God." All the excuses in the world can't change the fact that most of Wild Life just isn't very good: the title tune rambles and loses focus, "I Am Your Singer" is just incompetent, and several tunes go on way too long, among other things.
I agree with you, this is just not very good record. The only song I can somewhat tolerate is "Tomorrow". I think "Bip Bop" is one of the worst songs Mr. McCartney has ever done.
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Bip Bop came out of that time and where he was. I guess like any song. It's much better than Temporary Secretary!! Talk about annoying. Few of McCartney's post Beatle LPs are stellar from start to finish. BOTR may be, they all have something on them to annoy. Bip Bop is no deviation in that respect. Wild Life is not his greatest, but I enjoy it. It's the first real Wings album. They got better!
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Its hard to judge Wild Life to his more recent works. 2 of the songs are jams & 1 song is a cover, so there are only 5 "real" Macca songs on the album. But, those 5 are classic McCartney, even if they are bit rough around the edges. These songs certainly more than stand up to his recent work. Macca was still in his prime & innovating in 1971.
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Wild life has always been one of my favourite albums especially on a long hot summer's day played load! And for what it's worth I also love Press to play and Back to the egg which are also slated by the critics! However Iam not so keen on off the ground or Speed of sound although they both have some good tracks on them.
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RMartinez:
Bip Bop came out of that time and where he was. I guess like any song. It's much better than Temporary Secretary!! Talk about annoying. Few of McCartney's post Beatle LPs are stellar from start to finish. BOTR may be, they all have something on them to annoy. Bip Bop is no deviation in that respect. Wild Life is not his greatest, but I enjoy it. It's the first real Wings album. They got better!
"It's much better than Temporary Secretary!! Laughing Talk about annoying. " They both are awful, close call IMO on which one is more dreadful - lol.
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Folks, this is all about preferences. I don't think the article I originally posted claims Wild Life is McCartney's crowning achievement. Nor do I think it is. But I do think there is much about it to appreciate. Some folks don't like Off The Ground. I do. Clearly many think Chaos is one of his best. I don't. Given a choice to listen to NEW or Wild Life, I choose Wild Life.
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RMartinez:
Folks, this is all about preferences. I don't think the article I originally posted claims Wild Life is McCartney's crowning achievement. Nor do I think it is. But I do think there is much about it to appreciate. Some folks don't like Off The Ground. I do. Clearly many think Chaos is one of his best. I don't. Given a choice to listen to NEW or Wild Life, I choose Wild Life.
"Clearly many think Chaos is one of his best. I don't. "Given a choice to listen to NEW or Wild Life, I choose Wild Life." Yep, to each their own. I think CHAOS is definitely in Mr. McCartney's top 5 records and "New" is incredibly better than "Wild Life".
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Wild Life has 2 riffs, a cover of a mediocre song, an embarrassing Linda vocal, and 4 proper songs. No question it's Paul's low point. By the way, Chaos is his masterpiece.
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TommyC909:
Wild Life has 2 riffs, a cover of a mediocre song, an embarrassing Linda vocal, and 4 proper songs. No question it's Paul's low point. By the way, Chaos is his masterpiece.
Yeah. Sure it is. :
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RMartinez:
TommyC909:
Wild Life has 2 riffs, a cover of a mediocre song, an embarrassing Linda vocal, and 4 proper songs. No question it's Paul's low point. By the way, Chaos is his masterpiece.
Yeah. Sure it is. :
Well... I think it would be hard to argue that Chaos is not the more artistic, polished, complete, critically received album of the two.... that being said, if I'm fumbling around for something different to listen to, and one album is at my right hand, the other at my left, more often than not I'd take Wild Life ahead of Chaos. Foibles, Linda's vocals, half-finished songs and all.
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RMartinez:
Folks, this is all about preferences. I don't think the article I originally posted claims Wild Life is McCartney's crowning achievement. Nor do I think it is.
But it does say that you have to understand what he was going through in his life to fully appreciate it. Compare that to some of his albums that are universally loved and people talk about the music, not about whatever stressful thing he was dealing with at the time. For example, people love Band On the Run on its own. Knowing about everything he went through in Africa and band problems makes for interesting anecdotes, but the album still stands up without it.
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HaileyMcComet:
RMartinez:
Folks, this is all about preferences. I don't think the article I originally posted claims Wild Life is McCartney's crowning achievement. Nor do I think it is.
But it does say that you have to understand what he was going through in his life to fully appreciate it. Compare that to some of his albums that are universally loved and people talk about the music, not about whatever stressful thing he was dealing with at the time. For example, people love Band On the Run on its own. Knowing about everything he went through in Africa and band problems makes for interesting anecdotes, but the album still stands up without it.
Exactly. "Flaming Pie" was recorded while Linda McCartney was battling breast cancer and "Run Devil Run" was his first record after Linda McCartney's death. I am sure Mr. McCartney was going through a lot while those two records were being done but the records stand up without it also.
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yankeefan7:
RMartinez:
Folks, this is all about preferences. I don't think the article I originally posted claims Wild Life is McCartney's crowning achievement. Nor do I think it is. But I do think there is much about it to appreciate. Some folks don't like Off The Ground. I do. Clearly many think Chaos is one of his best. I don't. Given a choice to listen to NEW or Wild Life, I choose Wild Life.
"Clearly many think Chaos is one of his best. I don't. "Given a choice to listen to NEW or Wild Life, I choose Wild Life." Yep, to each their own. I think CHAOS is definitely in Mr. McCartney's top 5 records and "New" is incredibly better than "Wild Life".
That's cool. The world at large, like me, can't remember or name one tune off of Chaos or New. So in that respect, they are no better than Wild Life!
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toris:
RMartinez:
TommyC909:
Wild Life has 2 riffs, a cover of a mediocre song, an embarrassing Linda vocal, and 4 proper songs. No question it's Paul's low point. By the way, Chaos is his masterpiece.
Yeah. Sure it is. :
Well... I think it would be hard to argue that Chaos is not the more artistic, polished, complete, critically received album of the two.... that being said, if I'm fumbling around for something different to listen to, and one album is at my right hand, the other at my left, more often than not I'd take Wild Life ahead of Chaos. Foibles, Linda's vocals, half-finished songs and all.
I suppose, based on what I have read about it (Chaos, I mean). My listening to it, and others I know who are real fans, just shrugged their shoulders and said "Meh." But it is more polished in the modern sense of the word. It's also probably more polished than Band On The Run. But it isn't better.