Tomorrow

Song facts

“Tomorrow” is a song from Wings’ debut album, “Wild Life“, released in 1971. If “Wild Life” has often been considered as a low-point in Paul McCartney’s career, “Tomorrow” is usually recognized as one of the best tracks of the album (the other one being “Dear Friend“), even by Paul himself!

From Rolling Stone, January 31, 1974:

Does that mean, then, that you didn’t think too much in retrospect of ‘Wild Life’? Because of all your albums…

No, ah, I quite liked it. I must say you have to like me to like the record. I mean, if it’s just taken cold, I think it wasn’t that brilliant as a recording. We did it in about two weeks, the whole thing. And it had been done on that kind of a buzz we’d been hearing about how Dylan had come in and done everything in one take. I think in fact often we never gave the engineer a chance to even set up a balance. There’s a couple of real big songs on there, that only freaks or connoisseurs know.

Well, “Tomorrow.”

Yeah, “Tomorrow” is one of them. It’s like, when I’m talking to people about Picasso or something and they say, well, his blue period was his only one that was any good. But for me, if the guy does some great things then even his downer moments are interesting. His lesser moments, rather, because they make up the final picture. Some moments seem less, he was going through kind of a pressure period. You know, you can’t live your life without pressure periods. No one I know has.

Paul McCartney

In a Q&A with Paul McCartney, published in Club Sandwich 72:

Any chance of you re-recording the song ‘Tomorrow’ from the Wild Life LP? It’s such a great song and yet it’s been buried. From Amy Benbow, Stroud, England

Another good question. Linda’s Dad, who is no longer alive, was a great fan of this song, and he was always saying to me “You should do it again. You’ve thrown it away and it deserves re-making.” I asked him how he thought I should do it and he said “Slow, really slow”. It got to be a joke in the end, how slow he thought it ought to be. I haven’t yet got around to doing it, though.

Paul McCartney

In September 1974, Paul McCartney and Wings, under the pseudonym “The Whippets”, recorded an instrumental version of “Tomorrow“, in the reggae style, with synth and horns in place of Paul’s vocal line. Some acetates were made, and the track ended up being bootlegged. Also recorded during the same session was “Proud Mum“, an instrumental that Paul recorded as an intended advertising jingle for Mother’s Pride bread.

Some sources claimed that McCartney recorded a new version of “Tomorrow” in 2011 with Diana Krall.

Last updated on March 5, 2022

Lyrics

Variations