- Album Songs recorded during this session officially appear on the London Town Official album.
- Studio:
- Spirit Of Ranachan Studio, Kintyre, Scotland, UK
Some songs from this session appear on:
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About
The air is fresh and clean in high summer across the whole of the peninsula of Kintyre in the Western Highlands of Scotland. It’s quiet there, too. Up near the “Spirit of Ranachan” studio, house martins twitter in and out of the eaves. The cattle and sheep are at pasture. A rabbit scurries across and disturbs a pheasant in the tall hay field.
Then a new sound, quiet at first and swelling to a crescendo – Wings are at work on MULL OF KINTYRE.
It all began back in August when seven tons of Rak Mobile recording equipment was hauled up a track to the house. The reason, more work on the songs recorded in the Virgin Islands and two new songs to be perfected and taped, one of them with the local flavour of Kintyre. Local flavour indeed, for the group were augmented with the full complement of the Campbeltown Pipe Band.
The band arrived in full dress and it was a great sight as well as sound when the drums were tuned and pipers marched off at tangents into the hills, drones echoing across the heather.
Paul has absorbed the local atmosphere and translated it in his own unique style to a song that is of today, yet as romantic as any Scottish legend.
For the technically minded, the Rak Mobile gear is one of the few vans where such a large range of equipment can be removed and installed in a room with all the control back-up. It included a 24 track machine, mixer, a raft of microphones, limiters, digital delay and echo kit. This really beautiful song, Mull of Kintyre, that reflects some of the loveliest scenery in the Western Highlands, might well have stirred the ghost of Scotland’s great poet Robert Burns, for he wrote—
‘As bees flee hame,
Wi’ lades o’ Treasure,
The minutes wing’d their
way,
In pleasure.
Mark Vigars, from Club Sandwich N°4, August / September 1977
Last updated on March 6, 2020
Going further
Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989
With 25 albums of pop music, 5 of classical – a total of around 500 songs – released over the course of more than half a century, Paul McCartney's career, on his own and with Wings, boasts an incredible catalogue that's always striving to free itself from the shadow of The Beatles. The stories behind the songs, demos and studio recordings, unreleased tracks, recording dates, musicians, live performances and tours, covers, events: Music Is Ideas Volume 1 traces McCartney's post-Beatles output from 1970 to 1989 in the form of 346 song sheets, filled with details of the recordings and stories behind the sessions. Accompanied by photos, and drawing on interviews and contemporary reviews, this reference book draws the portrait of a musical craftsman who has elevated popular song to an art-form.
Eight Arms to Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium
We owe a lot to Chip Madinger and Mark Easter for the creation of those session pages, but you really have to buy this book to get all the details!
Eight Arms To Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium is the ultimate look at the careers of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr beyond the Beatles. Every aspect of their professional careers as solo artists is explored, from recording sessions, record releases and tours, to television, film and music videos, including everything in between. From their early film soundtrack work to the officially released retrospectives, all solo efforts by the four men are exhaustively examined.
As the paperback version is out of print, you can buy a PDF version on the authors' website
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