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Monday, July 26, 1971

Recording "Wild Life", "Tomorrow", "Mumbo"

For Wings

Last updated on May 5, 2022


Master session

Location

  • Recording studio: EMI Studios, Abbey Road

Timeline

Master release

AlbumSome of the songs worked on during this session were first released on the "Wild Life" LP

Some of the songs from this session also appear on:

This was the third day of recording the basic tracks of Wings’ first album, “Wild Life“, and time was spent recording “Mumbo“, “Wild Life” and “Tomorrow“.

Mumbo” was improvised in the studio.

There was a period of rehearsal of this jam. Because there was no actual producer in the box, I would spend as much time as I could in the studio, making sure my mics were in the right place and everyone was comfortable, that there was proper visual contact. Then I returned upstairs for listening. They were jamming, it was building up and, for whatever reason, whether I looked at Paul or Paul looked at me, you felt it was happening. I turned to Alan [Parsons]; ‘Quick, record!’ Parsons hit the button and that’s what you get. That’s the take.

Tony Clark – From Wild Life – Archive Collection“, 2018

We recorded that album very quickly. It was almost like a bootleg, which may be a shame and perhaps some of the songs aren’t as good as they might be. We did Mumbo on the tour and somebody said after we’d done it for a bit that it made the album version seem obsolete. On the album it wasn’t even the first take, we were playing it through and Paul shouted to the others ‘it’s in F’ and in fact on the beginning you can hear him shout ‘take it Tony’ to the engineer.

Linda McCartney – From interview with Disc Magazine, December 1972

At the beginning of the cut, you can hear me say, ‘Take it, Tony.’ We had been going for five minutes and then I suddenly realised that he wasn’t recording. So I shouted, ‘Take it, Tony,’ and he just got it in then.

Paul McCartney – From “The Beatles: Off The Record 2 – The Dream is Over: Dream Is Over Vol 2” by Keith Badman

Session activities

  1. Mumbo

    Written by Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney

    Recording

  2. Tomorrow

    Written by Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney

    Recording

  3. Wild Life

    Written by Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney

    Recording


Staff

Production staff


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.

Shop on Amazon

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

Shop on Amazon

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."

Paul McCartney writing

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