RED ROSE SPEEDWAY! 40 YEARS OLD!
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40 years since this great and highly underrated album was released!
Comments and thoughts on the album... -
illwobble:
highly underrated album was released!
I agree, very underrated. Love Big Barn Bed and Little Lamb Dragonfly (which really grows on you over time). My Love is of course beyond words...
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Little Lamb Dragonfly and Single Pigeon are both fantastic songs! My Love is such a sweet song!
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Absolutely love RRS. It's such a sweet album. Pure undiluted Macca. Very underrated and a little under appreciated, even with fans. Standouts, Single Pigeon, Little Lamb Dragonfly (of course), Get on the Right Thing, When the Night, not even mentioning the syrupy but very lovely My Love. Love the medley too. Happy Birthday RRS!
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It gets highly overshadowed by Band On The Run, but it was No. 1 in the U.S. A fine album imo.
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LOVE Big Barn Bed!
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A great little album, with probably with one of my favorite Wings songs, "Get on the Right Thing".
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A good album that could have been a classic if not for the last 15 minutes to end the album. Loup is complete filler & unnecessary. The medley has some catchy melodies, but the lyrics are complete rubbish. If Paul had spent more than 5 minutes writing those lyrics, he could have created something exciting. Instead, it sounds unfinished. McCartney at his laziest. The rest of the album, however, is very sublime & superb.
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this album cover scared me when i was a little kid good album btw
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Happy 40th! wow we're old. uh, 36 here actually, the album pre-dates me. and my reputation pre-cedes me! I really like this album. possibly my favorite album of all time! just kidding. its really good though. I always wonder, is it a better album that V&M. I think it is, but V&M has at least two songs which are better than anything on RRS I would surmise (V&M/Rockshow and Listen To the Man). but I digress big time.. I like Get On The Right Thing as well. can't you just dig Paul? just rocking the sweater, getting all warm and toastie next to an engine
with a rose in his mouth. packin songs. -
It definitely is my favorite cover of his. Great photo!
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blue jay hey:
this album cover scared me when i was a little kid good album btw
It scared me too! I think I was 12 and just didn't get it. But there were a lot of great tracks onit. I seem to remember a tv special about, like a semi-live, but recorded performance of it. Produced by who? Alan Parsons. Some great players on this album, and some great songs. This album, almost anecdotal, made me want to be a professional. And I was 12. A professional singer, songwriter, musician, engineer, producer -- just a professional within the music industry. Those dreams are long gone, but, who cannot sit through a moment of "My Love" and not get teary eyed. Some staunch and tough memories of this time period, and scary album cover, but the music and performance by PM was superb. Whatever happened to Denny Lane? Why did he and PM part ways? I thought he was a great compliment to PM, and I always expected to see his name on the next album. Seems like after "Back to the Egg", Denny just disappeared. Was there a falling out? Did Denny die or something?
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One of the last Wings albums I discovered when first becoming a fan. Also, it was the last one I bought on vinyl. Red Rose Speedway is 4th on my list of favorite Wings albums, after BOTR, V&M, and WATSOS. I had to listen to RRS a few times before I knew what I thought of it and what I liked. I typically listen to the first five songs - over, and over, and over again. They flow so wonderfully. After that, I'm not too crazy about, except for "Lazy Dynamite" in the medley. It's the kind of album I love to blast in the car on a warm, sunny afternoon with the wind blowing. "Big Barn Bed" makes such a great intro...especially on the James Paul McCartney TV special. The artwork is fantastic, especially all the photos and sheets that came with the album.
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hoodatnva:
blue jay hey:
this album cover scared me when i was a little kid good album btw
It scared me too! I think I was 12 and just didn't get it. But there were a lot of great tracks onit. I seem to remember a tv special about, like a semi-live, but recorded performance of it. Produced by who? Alan Parsons. Some great players on this album, and some great songs. This album, almost anecdotal, made me want to be a professional. And I was 12. A professional singer, songwriter, musician, engineer, producer -- just a professional within the music industry. Those dreams are long gone, but, who cannot sit through a moment of "My Love" and not get teary eyed. Some staunch and tough memories of this time period, and scary album cover, but the music and performance by PM was superb. Whatever happened to Denny Lane? Why did he and PM part ways? I thought he was a great compliment to PM, and I always expected to see his name on the next album. Seems like after "Back to the Egg", Denny just disappeared. Was there a falling out? Did Denny die or something?
Denny is very much still alive and still playing. It's a somewhat complicated story that I'm sure someone on the forum can explain better than I could, and in more detail. Let's just say it didn't help when Paul got in trouble in Japan, the shows were cancelled, and the band started to break up. Then shortly thereafter, John Lennon is killed during the "Tug of War" sessions and that project is put on hold. It wasn't too long after that when Denny Laine and Paul parted ways as a musical team. It probably had taken a toll after the album delay and Paul not touring. Except for Linda, Denny was there longer than anyone with Paul during Wings - from the early '70s until the early '80s. Not too many years back, there was a photo of Paul and Denny together. I don't know to what extent (if any) that they are friends nowadays, but I wouldn't think it likely that they will get back together musically.
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A worthy sequel to RAM. More in the spirit of RAM than WILD LIFE. I love it. The 5 piece original lineup had great chemistry. I wish they had done more together.
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kapoo:
Happy 40th! wow we're old. uh, 36 here actually, the album pre-dates me. and my reputation pre-cedes me! I really like this album. possibly my favorite album of all time! just kidding. its really good though. I always wonder, is it a better album that V&M. I think it is, but V&M has at least two songs which are better than anything on RRS I would surmise (V&M/Rockshow and Listen To the Man). but I digress big time.. I like Get On The Right Thing as well. can't you just dig Paul? just rocking the sweater, getting all warm and toastie next to an engine
with a rose in his mouth. packin songs.No, I can't go with "better than Venus and Mars". Too many great songs on that one. I do love RRS, but find it as a work as totally quirky. Except for a few songs. How does RRS top V&M? Of course, "My love" is way up there, but the rest of the album, especialy the mish/mash compilation at the end (what was he thinking?), is pretty mediocre. But like a lot of McCartney music, it may find it's audience 20-30 years from when it came out. Venus and Mars Rock Show Listen to what the Man Said "Venus and Mars" was actually the first song I learned how to play on guitar from start to finish. I've also always liked "Treat her Gently/Lonely Old People". RRS better than V&M? No, I don't think so.
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Had RRS included C.Moon, Hi Hi Hi, The Mess, Soily, I Lie Around & Country Dreamer it could have been a decent album. As it stands, with its bland production and mediocre songwriting, RRS tends to be a pretty forgettable album. What I find frustrating is that the bootlegged 'basic mixes' sound a lot better than the finished album. The performances did actually have some guts to them originally until Paul watered them down,taking Wings from sounding like a rock band to that of a drippy pop group. Thankfully, he got it right with Band On The Run.
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hoodatnva:
I've also always liked "Treat her Gently/Lonely Old People".
Same here! http://maccaboard.paulmccartney.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=78177&highlight=treat+gently I think you are right about V&M, great songs on it, Magneto, Treat Her Gently, Letting Go, even You Gave Me The Answer.. Good call.
needless to say I go back and forth -
I listened to Red Rose Speedway again just the other night, and enjoyed it. I read in a McCartney book recently about his post-Fabs music up to Flowers in the Dirt, that "Little Lamb Dragonfly" on RRS actually IS about a sick little lamb that he wasn't able to save, at his farm.
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Kestrel:
Had RRS included C.Moon, Hi Hi Hi, The Mess, Soily, I Lie Around & Country Dreamer it could have been a decent album. As it stands, with its bland production and mediocre songwriting, RRS tends to be a pretty forgettable album. What I find frustrating is that the bootlegged 'basic mixes' sound a lot better than the finished album. The performances did actually have some guts to them originally until Paul watered them down,taking Wings from sounding like a rock band to that of a drippy pop group. Thankfully, he got it right with Band On The Run.
I'm with you. The best thing I can say about RRS is that it's slightly less awful than Wild Life. But he left most of his best songs from the period off the album, as you noted, and packed it with drivel. The only tune on RRS I really love is "Single Pigeon," which is an overlooked minor classic.
