In 1971, drummer Denny Seiwell, and ex-Moody Blues guitarist and singer Denny Laine, joined Paul McCartney and wife Linda McCartney to record Paul's third post-Beatles project. The result was Wild Life, the first project to credit Wings. The band name is said to have come to McCartney as he was praying in the hospital while Linda was giving birth to their second child together, Stella McCartney. Paul McCartney recalled in the film Wingspan that the birth of Stella was "a bit of a drama"; there were complications at the birth and that both Linda and the baby almost died. He was praying fervently and the image of wings came to his mind. He decided to name his new band "Wings".
In 1972, McCartney returned to touring, mounting an impromptu tour of UK universities and small European venues (with the group driving around in a van), playing no Beatles numbers. He scored hits with the relatively light singles "Mary Had A Little Lamb" and "Hi Hi Hi" (the latter getting in trouble with the BBC for alleged drug references).
In early 1973, McCartney repeated this pattern, adding ex-Spooky Tooth guitarist Henry McCullough, and re-christening the band Paul McCartney and Wings for the album Red Rose Speedway which yielded the first big Wings hit, the romantic ballad "My Love". That same year, McCartney filmed his first American TV special James Paul McCartney, which was savagely criticised by noted rock journalist Lillian Roxon. Wings also recorded the hit theme song to the James Bond film Live and Let Die, which reunited McCartney with producer George Martin. Over the years, this has remained one of the most memorable of all Bond songs and is always an exciting part of McCartney's concert performances (often played to fireworks).
Following the release of Speedway, Denny Seiwell and Henry McCullough left the band, leaving the McCartneys and Denny Laine to cut their next album at EMI's recording studio in Lagos, Nigeria, recording what turned out to be their breakthrough album, Band on the Run.
The album went to #1 and spawned a half-dozen hit singles including the rockers "Jet" and "Helen Wheels", the acoustic ballad "Bluebird", and the dynamic title track a suite of movements recalling side 2 of Abbey Road. Moreover Band on the Run enjoyed very positive critical reception, and did much to restore McCartney's somewhat damaged post Beatles image. It also included the heavy "Let Me Roll It", which was seen as an affectionate impersonation of John Lennon's solo style.
After this, Jimmy McCulloch and Geoff Britton, lead guitar and drums respectively, joined the band, now rechristened Wings again. The first recording session with the new members was held in Nashville and produced the rocky non-album single "Junior's Farm". The new lineup then moved to New Orleans to create the album Venus and Mars (1975), followed by a return to Nashville for Wings at the Speed of Sound (1976); both albums took top chart positions. During this time, Joe English replaced Britton on drums. Speed of Sound represented a substantial departure from the Wings template in that each member of the band sang at least one song, including Linda ("Cook of the House").
Also during this period, Wings embarked on a very successful and theatrical world tour, documented in the triple-live LP set Wings Over America, which included a late 1975 tour of Australia, McCartney's first visit there since the Beatles' epoch-making Antipodean tour in June 1964. McCartney still mostly shied away from the Beatles catalogue; only five such numbers were typically included in the American shows. Laine sang lead vocal for several songs and McCulloch for one, to emphasize that Wings was more than just a backing band for McCartney. One of the Seattle concerts from the American leg of the 1975/76 world tour was filmed and later released as the concert feature Rockshow (1980). Further hits followed with the singles "Silly Love Songs" and "Let 'Em In".
Also in 1976, McCartney inaugurated Buddy Holly Week in London, founded on what would have been Holly's 40th birthday and marked with an annual celebrity party; his lifelong passion for the music of this rock'n'roll pioneer was also reflected in his acquisition of Holly's publishing catalogue. Ever the astute businessman, McCartney also cannily bought the rights to an off-Broadway musical he had seen in America, and this investment reaped huge returns when the musical was adapted into the smash-hit feature film Grease.
After the world tour, McCartney took a break, but this period produced both the most obscure and the most successful records he has made. During 1977 he released the peculiar, unpromoted and little-known album Thrillington, an orchestral re-make of the earlier Ram album, issued under the pseudonym Percy "Thrills" Thrillington, followed by single version of a live recording of "Maybe I'm Amazed". Later in the year, the band recorded their next album in the Virgin Islands.
At the end of 1977, McCartney released the ballad "Mull of Kintyre", an ode to the Scottish Mull of Kintyre coastal region he had made his home in the early 1970s. Its broad appeal was maximised by a pre-Christmas release, and it became a massive international hit, dominating the charts in Britain, Australia and many other countries over the Christmas/New Year period and becoming one of the biggest selling UK singles of all time.
McCartney released the album London Town in 1978. During the recording of the album in May, 1977, both Joe English and Jimmy McCulloch parted ways with Wings (McCulloch died of a heroin overdose in 1979). Though still released as a Wings album, the band was again reduced to Paul, Linda and Laine and a host of studio players. The album was a major commercial success, reaching #2 on the charts, but featured a markedly softer-rock, synth-based sound and yielded only minor UK hits in "With a Little Luck" and "Girlfriend" (the former was a big hit in the US).
In 1979, Wings released the singles "Goodnight Tonight", "Getting Closer", and "Wonderful Christmastime" and the album Back to the Egg, a critical and commercial failure and the last McCartney project released under the Wings moniker, with McCartney returning to solo billing on future recordings.
In November and December of 1979, Wings performed their final tour of the UK, climaxing with a massive rockestra all-star collection of musicians in London in aid of UNICEF and Kampuchean refugees. This final version of the band included guitarist Laurence Juber and drummer Steve Holly, who had joined the group in 1978. During this tour the live version of "Coming Up" was recorded, this being their final US #1 hit the following year.
Wings continued to demo some more tunes during 1980/1981, but following a disastrous aborted Japanese tour, they fell apart.
Legacy
The longevity and success of Wings can be seen as something of a vindication for McCartney, whose early home-grown solo output, which often featured simpler songs and less lavish production than the Beatles received from George Martin, sometimes led to critical dismissal of his work as "lightweight" next to the seemingly more serious nature of his former bandmates' solo output. Though McCartney was the first Beatle to release a solo album after the official break-up of the band, it was John Lennon's early solo output which initially gained the lead in both critical opinion and commercial success, and George Harrison had scored a huge success with his 1970 triple-album solo debut All Things Must Pass. But by the mid-1970s, Lennon's solo career had run out of steam, and he had stopped recording; Harrison was also fading from view by this time, as by 1976 he had all but retired from recording and performing. As leader of Wings, however, McCartney was rising to a new peak of success. He became the only one of the four Beatles who continued to tour and record regularly in the years after their split.
Wings' 1977 single, "Mull of Kintyre"/"Girls School" is still the biggest-selling non-charity single in the UK (although Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" sold more, its sales include a reissue in aid of the Terence Higgins Trust) and it ranked fourth in the official list of best selling singles in the UK issued in 2002.
The Long and Winding Road
Paul McCartney & Wings Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
That leads to your door
Will never disappear
I've seen that road before
It always leads me her
Lead me to you door
The wild and windy night
Has left a pool of tears
Crying for the day
Why leave me standing here
Let me know the way
Many times I've been alone
And many times I've cried
Any way you'll never know
The many ways I've tried
But still they lead me back
To the long winding road
You left me standing here
A long long time ago
Don't leave me waiting here
Lead me to your door
But still they lead me back
To the long winding road
You left me standing here
A long long time ago
Don't leave me waiting here
Lead me to your door
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
The lyrics to Paul McCartney’s “The Long and Winding Road” are highly poetic and metaphorical. At its core, the song is about the journey to love and the trials and tribulations that come with it. The long and winding road refers to the journey one must take to find love, that is never easy and always unpredictable. The road may lead to many different places before finally reaching the door of the person you love. McCartney sings that this road will never disappear because love is an ongoing journey that continues beyond any single relationship.
The second verse references a “wild and windy night” that the rain washed away. This verse is also highly metaphorical and likely represents the difficult times that come with relationships. Love is not always smooth sailing, and sometimes it feels like it may have been washed away by the storm. When one feels lost and alone, “crying for the day,” they desperately want to find their way back to their loved one’s door. The singer has been down this road before, feeling like they’ve been standing there for years, waiting to be lead to the door once again.
Overall, the song’s message is one of hope and determination. No matter how many times love has led to heartbreak or the long and winding road has left the singer lost and alone, they remain determined to find their way back to the one they love.
Line by Line Meaning
The long and winding road
The path towards you is filled with many twists and turns
That leads to your door
It is the path which I must take to reach where you are
Will never disappear
It remains ever-present and impossible to erase
I've seen that road before
I have traveled this path previously
It always leads me her
It invariably guides me towards you
Lead me to you door
Guide me to the place where you reside
The wild and windy night
The harsh weather which challenged me
That the rain washed away
Which became better only after the rain stopped
Has left a pool of tears
Caused immense sorrow and melancholy in me
Crying for the day
Hoping for a better time which would alleviate the pain I feel
Why leave me standing here
Why abandon me to stand here with no one in sight
Let me know the way
Inform me of how I can find where you are
Many times I've been alone
Frequently, I have found myself in solitude
And many times I've cried
I have shed numerous tears during my time being alone
Any way you'll never know
It is impossible for you to understand
The many ways I've tried
All the unsuccessful methods I have used to find you
But still they lead me back
However, I am always brought back to
To the long winding road
The convoluted path which takes me to where you reside
You left me standing here
You abandoned me to be alone and accompany myself on that path
A long long time ago
A period that lasted an eternity in my mind
Don't leave me waiting here
Please don't abandon me to be by myself anymore
Lead me to your door
This one path I can follow to meet you
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
The emotional plea in my voice
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: John Lennon, Paul McCartney
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@scotthunt2479
While watching this again, it occurred to me that Paul sang the wrong lyrics when compared with the original version. The first verse in the original goes:
The long and winding road , that leads to your door
Will never disappear I've seen that road before
It always leads me here
Lead me to you door
In this live version, when Paul gets to the 3rd line, he sings "Don't leave me standing here"
He did it again on the second verse where the original (on the third line) says "Why leave me standing here?", but on this live version he sings "Don't keep me waiting here" on the third line.
There were a couple of more line inversions, but what the heck? When you're Paul "F'ing" McCartney, and you wrote the song - you can sing whatever lyrics you like, right, Paul?
@scotthunt2479
What an absolute genius. Thank you for writing that song, Paul.
@johnreed9050
This is the best Beatles song of them all. Paul at his songwriting best
@bnbn8119
@John Reed and here there and everywhere?
@MrPlumber18
Oh you can't deny it
@hisoverlorduponhigh90
Absolutely a masterpiece, this version has so much feeling. The slower tempo is perfect, mesmerizing.
@thomasallan8113
I am not a fan of this slower tempo. This is my favorite Beatle song ironically their swan song.
@mouchiecat1
Yes! I heard this live in 76 and to this day love this version the best
@gerrycoogan6544
@@mouchiecat1 Same here.
For me, THIS is the definitive version.
@TASSOS1965
One of the best songs ever written.
@BillySmith-np5zn
Agreed