Wings Over America - Ultimate Archive Collection

Hide track details

Track list

Disc 1

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

Disc 2

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

Disc 3

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

Disc 4

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

About

Liner notes from Voo-Doo Records:

This landmark 3-LP set chronicled his triumphant 1976 tour of the U.S. and still stands as the mark that all of his subsequent live albums have (perhaps unfairly) been compared to. To say that this album has had a troubled history on CD would be something of an understatement! Several attempts have been made, including various remasterings and no fewer than three labels trying to get this record right. ALL HAVE FAILED in one way or another! Remarkable, but true to say that here in 2015 – 39 years after the original LPs release, there hasn’t been a CD issue to get it all right.. until now! (y’all just knew that last bit was coming, right?? )

Let’s break it down – the 1985 US issue on Columbia Records got the closest to replicating the actual content of the original LP. It has all the proper fades intact between sides, which includes some interesting sounds at the very end of some of the LP sides (in particular, the “Alright, alright!” at the end of Side 4). No other CD issue (be it the EMI/Capitol/Parlophone version from 1987 or the latest reissue on Hear Music from 2013) has gotten the content aspect correctly. The main drawback to the 1985 issue is the sound quality, which is rather weak, having been taken from LP submasters (with the vinyl eq applied). Next up would be the EMI issue from 1987. The less said about this monstrosity, the better. Not only was the sound horrid (even worse than the Columbia CD), but it was incomplete, cutting close to two minutes of audience noise from the overall LP. Absolute garbage! Naturally, this was the standard version of this album on CD for the next 25+ years.. Cut to 2013 and the remastered version from Hear Music. On the one hand, it sounded great! The live performances finally came alive in a way that only the original vinyl hinted at. The downside to this was once again it was incomplete, cutting away the side breaks to give the album more “flow”, despite the important fact that this was not how the LP was presented back in 1976. Well, we here at Voo-Doo records said enough is enough, and have put together the final version of this LP that will ever be needed. To wit, the Hear Music version is used for the body of the album, with the side breaks being flown in from a version of the Columbia CD that was gently re-equed to match the Hear Music version. This being the Ultimate Archive, we didn’t stop there! Disc two is fleshed out with all of the performances that were found on the bonus disc that came with the 2013 version when purchased at Best Buy, along with the original 45 versions of Maybe I’m Amazed / Soily (with proper fades intact). But we didn’t stop there!!!

Discs three + four contain an audio rip of the entire Rockshow DVD, which is important in that every performance in that film differs from what was on the record. Now there was some controversy over the mix used on the DVD in that it’s different to what was used in the original film. For me, the incredibly better sound quality of the DVD far outweighs the fact that it’s a new mix, so I decided to go with the DVD rip. For the one part where the bass inexplicably drops during Beware My Love, I tried to re-eq it to put some bass back in. I’ve played that part back on various systems. On some, it sounded fine, on others, a little less so. Your mileage may vary. To those discs, I’ve added a few interesting / relevant cuts, such as the promo edit of Maybe I’m Amazed, the only two live cuts from the Australian leg in ’75 that differed from the US set list, and a few other tidbits to fill up all four discs. Full color artwork is included, and I had some fun with the disc labels. The original LP had six unique labels and the 2013 release utilized four of those. I made it a point to use the other two labels for my release! Anyway, I hope y’all enjoy this one. See ya next time!!

Additional notes:

Between September 6, 1975 and October 26, 1976 Wings played 64 shows, over three continents for some two million fans. Nearly it was four continents, but at the last minute, Paul was refused to enter Japan due to previous drug convictions.

Paul wanted badly to prove that he was able to pull it off without John, George and Ringo and so he was well prepared. He even added some Beatles songs to the set list – something he refused to do during the previous live outings of Wings.

The built up was well though off: first some indoor shows in Great Britain (September), then Australia (November), and Japan.

After recording Wings at the Speed of Sound in a few weeks (January), and four concerts on the mainland of Europa (March) Wings was ready for the big outdoor arenas of America (May-June). And the big finish: three triumphant concerts in Londons’ Wembley Arena.

With a big lightshow, pyrotechnics, projections etc… a new standard was set for stadium rock.

Most, if not all of the 34 concerts in America were recorded on 24-tracks – some 90 hours of music to choose from. Of these the five best performances of every track were selected. From these Paul selected the best and personally oversaw the mixing. Apparently he worked 14 hours a day, seven days a week , for six weeks to get everything ready for the live album Wings Over America and tour documentary Rockshow.

CD 1 – 1-22 and CD 2 – 1-8 – Wings Over America, released on December 10, 1976. The triple live album became Paul’s sixth Number One album in the USA.

Recording dates:

• May 7, 1976 – Olympia Stadium, Detroit, Michigan: cd 1 – 9
• May 21, 1976 – Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, New York: cd 1 -21
• May 22, 1976 – Boston Garden, Boston, Massachusetts: cd 1 – 11, 12, 16, 18, 19
• May 25, 1976 – Madison Square Garden, New York: cd 2 – 2,3
• May 27, 1976 – Riverfront Coliseum, Cincinatti, Ohio: cd 1 – 1-4, 6, 8, 14
• May 29, 1976 – Kemper Arena, Kansas City, Missouri: cd 1 – 7, 10, 22 & cd 2 – 5
• June 7, 1976 – McNicholds Sports Arena, Denver, Colorado: cd 2 – 4-8
• June 10, 1976 – King County Multipurpose Domed Stadium (The Kingdom), Seattle, Washington: cd 1 – 5
• June 23, 1976 – The Forum, Los Angeles, California: cd 1 -13, 15, 20 & cd 2 – 1

9-16 – Wings over San Francisco ( Live at the Cow Palace): bonus cd, available as part of the Deluxe version of the Archive Collection, in May 2003 with the Archive Collection re-release of Wings Over America. And also as bonus of the regular version of that album, at Best Buy. Recording date: June 13 or 14, 1976 – Cow Palace, San Francisco, California.

17 – Maybe I’m Amazed – single released on February 4, 1976 18 – Soily – b-side of the above

CD 3 – 1-17 and CD 4 – 1-14 – Rockshow

The music for the concert film was produced by Chris Thomas and engineered by Phil McDonald during 1979. The film was premiered in New York’s Ziegfeld Theatre, on November 26, 1980.

According to drummer Joe English one of the reasons the movie (and the TV documentary Wings Over the World) were so long in coming was that it took quite a bit of time to get the soundtrack in suitable order. Before he left Wings, he said, the band spent many hours in the recording studio “doing a bunch of overdubs on the soundtrack and mixing it down.” Most of the overdubs were necessary because of “people singing out of tune and I don’t mean Paul . . .” In the interview, published in Beatlefan (April 1979) English said a list of sound problems to be corrected in the studio showed that “the keyboard had the most, Denny the second most and then most of the vocal harmonies. Paul had to do a few lead vocals because of a bad mike or something, but most of the harmonies were out of tune. It was an abnormal amount of overdubs” taking about two months to complete. “We would sit in a giant recording studio and you’d watch yourself singing or playing on the screen and have to make the same inflections with your voice just like in the movie. It was funny, a real trip,” he said.

The film was later edited down to 102 minutes for its home video release. Its first home video release was on Betamax in October 1981 (with a VHS, laserdisc, and CED release in 1982). In 2007, a shortened cut with only seven songs was released as part of the The McCartney Years DVD set. The feature-length version of the film was finally released in 2013.

Although Rockshow was presented as a document of the Seattle concert, the songs were taken from four shows.

Recording dates:

• May 25, 1976 – Madison Square Garden, New York: cd 3 – 7, 10, 17 & cd 4 – 8,
• June 10, 1976 – King County Multipurpose Domed Stadium, Seattle, Washington: cd 3 – 1-3 & cd 4 – 912
• June 23, 1976 – The Forum, Los Angeles, California: cd 3 – 4-6, 8-9, 11-16 & cd 4 – 1-7, 13-14

CD 3 18 – Maybe I’m Amazed – US promo edit – stereo version 19 – Apology/Bluebird – especially recorded version of ‘Bluebrird’ for the Japanse TV, as an excuse from Paul to his fans there, because of the cancelation of the planned tour. This version of ‘Bluebird’ was also released in March 1999 on Band on the Run: 25th Anniversary Edition

 

Last updated on February 15, 2017