Part of
Recording the "Wild Life" album
Jul 24 - Oct 17, 1971 • Songs recorded during this session appear on Wild Life
- Album Songs recorded during this session officially appear on the Wild Life LP.
- Studio:
- EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Some songs from this session appear on:
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About
This was the second day of recording the basic tracks of Wings’ first album, “Wild Life“, and the focus was on the song “Some People Never Know“.
Paul and Linda had been out to Oxford Street. There was that guy selling a long tube, two-foot long. And if you span it round, you got that whistling effect. We had no tracks left so we put it on a gap of a vocal track. You can hear that this sound stops suddenly because it had to drop out before the vocal came in.
Tony Clark – Interview with Luca Perasi – From Paul McCartney: Recording Sessions (1969-2013) by Luca Perasi
I start spinning this thing. All of a sudden, harmonically, it made the right noises.
Denny Seiwell, 2018
Below is a memory from a fan spotting Paul McCartney during the initial recording of “Wild Life”. Days mentioned in his memories don’t really match the days of recording – he mentioned that he met him outside Abbey Road, on a Friday and a Saturday, when the first recording session for “Wild Life” was on a Saturday.
After dinner that night we decided to go down to Abbey Road once more, and maybe even try to say Hello, and tell him that we weren’t the ones that painted his wall. Not more than half-hour after we’d arrived there, the now familiar green Rolls pulled in the yard. I thought this might be the last chance to say something. The excitement level was high, and I got a surge of nerve up and just walked into the parking area and up to the car, much to everyone’s amazement. When Paul got out, I said something like, “excuse me Paul, could I just have 30 seconds of your time?” He looked at me with a weird stare and said, “yeah?” My brain then went numb! I couldn’t think of a damn thing to say for what seemed like an eternity. All I could think to say finally was, “are you recording a new LP?” (Brilliant, as if he was there to build a house) He said, “actually we’re just trying a few things out.” “Well,” I told him, “my friends out there and I are fans and look forward to your next record.” He said, “thanks, gotta go—good night now.” He walked up the stairs and inside. My friends all rushed up and congratulated me and trying to make me believe what I had just done. We then went to a pub and basked in our glory for the rest of the night.
Mike Sacchetti – From fanzine The Write Thing, June/July 1984 – From Meet the Beatles for Real: Encounters in 1971
Paul McCartney spent Sunday night recording et EMI’s Abbey Road Studio. The security net was so tight that EMI staff couldn’t get in.
From Melody Maker, July 31, 1971
Last updated on May 5, 2022
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
Maccazine - Volume 40, Issue 3 - RAM Part 1 - Timeline
This very special RAM special is the first in a series. This is a Timeline for 1970 – 1971 when McCartney started writing and planning RAM in the summer of 1970 and ending with the release of the first Wings album WILD LIFE in December 1971. [...] One thing I noted when exploring the material inside the deluxe RAM remaster is that the book contains many mistakes. A couple of dates are completely inaccurate and the story is far from complete. For this reason, I started to compile a Timeline for the 1970/1971 period filling the gaps and correcting the mistakes. The result is this Maccazine special. As the Timeline was way too long for one special, we decided to do a double issue (issue 3, 2012 and issue 1, 2013).
Maccazine - Volume 47, Issue 1 - The birth of Wings
"Maccazine is a hard copy magazine (a bound paperback) about Paul McCartney. It is published twice a year. Due to the fact that the Internet has taken over the world and the fact that the latest Paul McCartney news is to be found on hundreds of websites, we have decided to focus on creating an informative paper magazine about Paul McCartney."
"In this issue we take you back to the early days of Paul McCartney’s solo career when he decided to form a new group. With Wings he proved there was life after The Beatles. This Maccazine features a detailed timeline of ‘the birth’ of the band with interesting entries including many new facts and unpublished photos. Follow-up timelines will be published in the upcoming years."
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