Red Rose Speedway is the second studio album by the British-American rock band Wings, although credited to "Paul McCartney and Wings". It was released through Apple Records in the United States on 30 April 1973 and in the United Kingdom on 4 May, preceded by its lead single, the ballad "My Love". The artist name change was made in the belief that the public's unfamiliarity with the band had been responsible for the weak commercial performance of the group's 1971 debut album Wild Life.
Before recording the album, Wings recruited lead guitarist Henry McCullough and released their debut single, "Give Ireland Back to the Irish", which was banned by the BBC for its political message. Recording sessions for the album took place throughout 1972 at five recording studios in London. The group also recorded the non-album singles "Mary Had a Little Lamb", "Hi, Hi, Hi" and "Live and Let Die", the last of which was issued in June 1973. Originally planned as a double album, it was condensed into a single LP at the request of EMI. The company believed that the material was not of a sufficiently high standard and were mindful of the modest sales of Wild Life and Wings' first two singles. Members McCullough and Denny Laine later expressed disappointment in the choice of songs on the single album.
Red Rose Speedway peaked at number 5 on the UK Albums Chart and number 1 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart in the US, while "My Love" topped the US Billboard Hot 100. Although a commercial success, the album received a mixed response from music critics, with several reviewers considering the songs to be inconsequential and mediocre. Decades later, it continues to receive mixed reviews. The album was reissued in 1987 and 1993 with bonus tracks and remastered in 2018 as part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection. The 2018 remaster includes the reconstructed double LP version of the album.
Background In early 1972, Paul McCartney expanded Wings to a five-piece band by adding another guitarist, Henry McCullough, and began touring with the group. The band briefly toured British universities in February. They played in small halls, often unannounced, to avoid the media scrutiny that came with performing at more established venues. The tour was a success, with audiences praising the band's shows and attracting attention in the music press.
Despite not releasing an album in 1972, Wings issued three singles while preparing their follow-up to Wild Life: "Give Ireland Back to the Irish", which was banned by the BBC for its political sentiments; "Mary Had a Little Lamb", based on the nursery rhyme; and "Hi, Hi, Hi", which was banned by the BBC for drug references and sexually suggestive lyrics.
McCartney's solo output following the breakup of the Beatles (McCartney, Ram, Wild Life and the subsequent singles) had been mostly critically derided. He was concerned with his public image. He later told the Los Angeles Times in 1974: "When the Beatles broke up, I personally think my music took a bit of a knock. I lost direction in songwriting." Nevertheless, by March 1972, he believed he had an eclectic assortment of songs that would cover stylistic ground, including newly-written songs and ones dating back to 1970 before the formation of Wings. Two of these songs, "Get on the Right Thing" and "Little Lamb Dragonfly", appeared on the final album.
Recording
Recording for Red Rose Speedway began at Olympic Studios in London on 6 March 1972, with Glyn Johns engineering and McCartney producing. McCartney wanted Johns because he believed he would offer the band a sharper musical direction; Johns had previously worked with the Beatles during the aborted Get Back sessions in 1969. He also chose Olympic because he believed that a break from their regular EMI Studios would help the band find their own sound. McCartney aimed for a relaxed, loose feel for the sessions, which led to jamming and experimentation, at the expense of fully written songs ready to record.
At the first session, the band recorded "Big Barn Bed"; McCartney asked Johns to think of him as "the bass player in the band" rather than as Paul McCartney, but then took offence when Johns duly treated him as an ordinary musician. The next day, 7 March, the band worked on "When the Night", a track that allowed Linda McCartney to play keyboards. The following day, the band recorded "The Mess I'm In" (later shortened to "The Mess"), a song they had been performing live. By 9 March, the band's laid-back attitude and slow progress began to frustrate Johns.
Work continued from 14–23 March, although the band members and Johns grew increasingly frustrated with one another. Johns thought Wings were not a genuine band and not of the calibre of artists he usually worked with. Before long, according to author Howard Sounes, citing the producer's recollection, Johns was reading a newspaper in the control room at Olympic as the group smoked marijuana and jammed aimlessly in the studio. Following the recording of the non-album single "Mary Had a Little Lamb" from 27–30 March, Johns quit the project. Johns believed McCartney was "less than secure" about using an outside producer and called the rest of the band members "a bunch of sycophantic musicians who were all climbing up his backside". Seiwell explained that McCartney was "difficult to work with" because he "held the reins so tight", believing he was a "great producer himself" but not with others because he "took his music so personal". On 17 April, Johns told the press that he had quit working on the album due to a "disagreement" with McCartney and that "Now we have respect for each other".
With Johns gone, McCartney initially lost sight of the album and recording was halted. Wings continued to record sporadically in between promoting "Mary Had a Little Lamb", with the group recording the newly-written "Soily" in late April. After the band toured Europe in July and August, further recording sessions took place at Abbey Road Studios and Olympic from October and November 1972. In early September, the band worked on the non-album single "Hi, Hi, Hi" / "C Moon" at Morgan Studios in London. Work continued at EMI Studios for the rest of September, continuing work on "Hi, Hi, Hi" and recording the new songs "Hold Me Tight", "Lazy Dynamite", "Country Dreamer", "I Lie Around", "Night Out", "One More Kiss", "Bridge Over the River Suite" and "Hands of Love"; McCartney decided several of these would be spliced together into a medley. Recording continued into October, recording "Power Cut" and overdubs on several songs. In mid-October, the band recorded "Live and Let Die", the title song to the James Bond film of the same name, with McCartney's former Beatles producer George Martin at AIR Studios in London. Final recording sessions took place throughout November and into December, with overdubs and new tracks such as "Little Lamb Dragonfly", "Jazz Street", and "Captain of Love"; mixing was completed by 13 December. The album title, Red Rose Speedway, was decided on around the same time. According to McCullough, it came from a book called Tales of the Truth, which had numerous words and phrases that were "really good sounding".
With the large amount of material recorded, McCartney initially planned Red Rose Speedway as a double album by mid-November 1972. The purported track listing from drummer Denny Seiwell's acetates of the early incarnation of the album dated 13 December 1972 is listed as follows:
Side one "Big Barn Bed" "My Love" "When the Night" "Single Pigeon"
Side two "Tragedy" (Gerald H. Nelson, Fred B. Burch) "Mama's Little Girl" "Loup (1st Indian on the Moon)" "I Would Only Smile" (Denny Laine)
Side three "Country Dreamer" "Night Out" "One More Kiss" "Jazz Street"
Side four "I Lie Around" "Little Lamb Dragonfly" "Get on the Right Thing" "1882" (live) "The Mess" (live)
Mixing continued into January 1973 with Alan Parsons. By late January, McCartney had deemed the live version of "My Love" from the 1972 tour unsatisfactory and decided to record it properly using an orchestra. Recorded live at EMI Studios, the recording featured McCullough exerting control over McCartney, who expressed himself in his playing of a guitar solo and departed from what he saw as McCartney's regimented approach to recording. In his book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present (2021), McCartney called the solo "absolutely beautiful" and was proud he gave McCullough the freedom to improvise given his short tenure in the band at that point. By the end of January, additional track lists were conceived. According to McCartney's official website, his archive team found a track listing from 30 January, which McCartney confirmed as the one originally intended for release. It is presented as follows:
Side one "Night Out" "Get on the Right Thing" "Country Dreamer" "Big Barn Bed" "My Love"
Side two "Single Pigeon" "When the Night" "Seaside Woman" (Linda McCartney) "I Lie Around" "The Mess (Live at The Hague)"
Side three "Best Friend (Live in Antwerp)" "Loup (1st Indian on the Moon)" "Medley" "Hold Me Tight" "Lazy Dynamite" "Hands of Love" "Power Cut"
Side four "Mama's Little Girl" "I Would Only Smile" (Denny Laine) "One More Kiss" "Tragedy" (Gerald H. Nelson, Fred B. Burch) "Little Lamb Dragonfly"
In February 1973, Red Rose Speedway was cut down to a single disc by McCartney – according to McCullough, in an attempt to release a more commercial and less expensive record. The decision came about through EMI, however; in addition to believing that the material was not of a sufficiently high standard, the record company were mindful of the modest commercial performance of Wild Life and Wings' first two singles. The album ends with an 11-minute medley of the songs "Hold Me Tight", "Lazy Dynamite", "Hands of Love" and "Power Cut", which was made in a similar style to the Beatles' Abbey Road medley. "Power Cut" was written during the 1972 miners' strike. Laine later expressed his disappointment that only a single album was issued, saying that in its original form, Red Rose Speedway was "more of a showcase for the band". Among the omissions were his compositions "I Would Only Smile" and "I Lie Around", on which Laine also sang the lead vocal. McCullough was similarly disappointed that several of McCartney's rock-oriented tracks were cut from the running order, which favoured the more lightweight material from the sessions. According to authors Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair, the double LP would have been "a freewheeling collection of ballads, rockers, country tunes, jams and a bit of reggae, with showcase moments for everyone, either as a singer, a player, or a songwriter". As a single LP, the album was reduced to a heavy number of ballads. Kozinn and Sinclair also wrote that, with the deletion of "Seaside Woman", "I Would Only Smile" and "I Lie Around", the album lost the notion that Wings were a band rather than sidemen for McCartney.
Outtakes