Articles
Wings’ “Wild Life” release is postponed
Nov 15, 1971
Nov 08, 1971
Shooting of “Wild Life” cover photograph
Oct 01, 1971
Sep 13, 1971
Paul McCartney’s new band is announced
Aug 03, 1971
Paul McCartney starts thinking about a new band
May - June 1971
About
From paulmccartney.com:
Like many debut albums, Wings’ Wild Life wasn’t a real reflection of what was to come, its guiding ethos being Paul’s intention to record the entire piece quickly. Taking just two weeks, Wild Life was about spontaneity: the opening track ‘Mumbo’ was recorded in one take. “I’d read that Bob Dylan had just made a quick album,” Paul explains, “and I really liked the idea, because we tended to take longer and longer to make records. The early albums by The Beatles hadn’t taken long and it seemed to me that Dylan was getting to that. I was a great admirer of his – and still am to this day – so I thought, Well, if it’s good enough for him, let’s do it. Linda was heavily pregnant with Stella while we were recording. If she’d have wanted to stop the sessions we would have done, but it just didn’t arise. A lot of women work until two weeks before the baby is due and that’s what Linda did.” The actual pregnancy was a difficult one and as Paul slept next to his wife he had vivid dreams about angels: “And I thought, that’s a nice image, wings. I wonder if there’s been a band called Wings? That’s how the name came about, in King’s College Hospital, in London, as we recovered from the birth of Stella. So Wings became the name.” Paul, Linda and drummer Denny Seiwell were joined for the album by the former Moody Blues singer Denny Laine, destined to remain with Wings throughout.
Dylan inspired “Wild Life” because we heard he had been in the studio and done an album in just a week. So we thought of doing it like that, putting down the spontaneous stuff and not being too careful. So it came out a bit like that. We wrote the tracks in the summer, Linda and I, we wrote them in Scotland in the summer while the lambs we gambolling. We spent two weeks on the “Wild Life” album all together. At that time, it was just when I had rung Denny Laine up a few days before and he came up to where we were to rehearse for one or two days.
Paul McCartney – Quoted from How Bob Dylan inspired the Wings album ‘Wild Life’ (faroutmagazine.co.uk)
Critics didn’t like Wild Life when it came out so I started thinking like them, that it was rubbish. Then, when I heard it a couple of years later, I really liked it and found it interesting. Okay, it didn’t make me the biggest blockbuster around but I don’t think you need them all the time. I like to have a couple of albums like that because it adds to the whole thing, really. But what made Wild Life okay for me was when I saw this fella heading for the hills in California holding a copy of Wild Life. So someone liked it.
Paul McCartney – From “The Beatles: Off The Record 2 – The Dream is Over: Dream Is Over Vol 2” by Keith Badman
Last updated on March 5, 2022
Special editions
Love Is Strange / I Am Your Singer
By Wings • 7" Single
By Wings • Official album
Wild Life - Archive Collection
By Wings • Official album
Related bootlegs
Wild Life - Ultimate Archive Collection
By Wings • Unofficial album
By Paul McCartney • Unofficial album
Related songs
Officially appears on Wild Life
Officially appears on Wild Life
Officially appears on Wild Life
Officially appears on Wild Life
Officially appears on Wild Life
Officially appears on Wild Life - Archive Collection
Officially appears on Wild Life - Archive Collection
Officially appears on Wild Life - Archive Collection
Officially appears on Wild Life
Related films
1971 • For Paul McCartney
1971 • For Paul McCartney

1971 • For Paul McCartney • Directed by Nick Langley

1971 • For Wings
Related sessions
Oct 03, 1971 • Songs recorded during this session appear on Wild Life
Oct 05, 1971 • Songs recorded during this session appear on Wild Life
Recording "Bip Bop", "Love Is Strange", "I Am Your Singer", "Dear Friend"
Jul 24, 1971 • Songs recorded during this session appear on Wild Life
Recording "Some People Never Know"
Jul 25, 1971 • Songs recorded during this session appear on Wild Life
Recording "Wild Life", "Tomorrow", "Mumbo"
Jul 26, 1971 • Songs recorded during this session appear on Wild Life
Jul 29, 1971 • Songs recorded during this session appear on Wild Life
Oct 02, 1971 • Songs recorded during this session appear on Wild Life
Oct 08, 1971 • Songs recorded during this session appear on Wild Life
Oct 10, 1971 • Songs recorded during this session appear on Wild Life
Recording & mixing "Dear Friend"
Oct 16, 1971 • Songs recorded during this session appear on Wild Life
Oct 17, 1971 • Songs recorded during this session appear on Wild Life
Oct 15, 1971 • Songs recorded during this session appear on Wild Life
Aug 06, 1971 • Songs recorded during this session appear on Wild Life
Jun 06, 1971 • Songs recorded during this session appear on Wild Life - Archive Collection
Oct 09, 1971 • Songs recorded during this session appear on Wild Life - Archive Collection
Oct 27, 2017 • Songs recorded during this session appear on Wild Life - Archive Collection
Recording the "Wild Life" album
Jul 24 - Oct 17, 1971 • Songs recorded during this session appear on Wild Life

July 20-22, 1971
Related interviews
You Gave Me The Answer - Celebrating 50 years of Wings and ‘Wild Life’
Jan 31, 2022 • From paulmccartney.com
You Gave Me The Answer - 'Wild Life' Special
Oct 29, 2018 • From paulmccartney.com
Jan 13, 1972 • From WRKO
Dec 15, 1971 • From WCBS-FM
Interview for Aberdeen Press and Journal
Dec 09, 1971 • From Aberdeen Press and Journal
Dec 04, 1971 • From Record Mirror
Nov 27, 1971 • From Disc And Music Echo
‘Aggressive simplicity’ is how Mike Hennessey describes the new LP by Paul McCartney’s group.
Nov 20, 1971 • From Record Mirror
Nov 20, 1971 • From Melody Maker
Nov 20, 1971 • From Sounds
McCartney: I know I'm good. If I'm in the right mood I can write a solid gold hit
Nov 20, 1971 • From Disc And Music Echo
Paul McCartney is like a man who has dodged the death sentence
Nov 20, 1971 • From New Musical Express
Nov 13, 1971 • From Melody Maker
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