Last weekend was an exceptional one for fans of rock n roll. Not only did we get a great new album from Mike Campbell & the Dirty Knobs (Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits), but Sir Paul McCartney dug into his vaults and released a nice little treasure from the 70s for us. Paul went back to the days when he still had his back up band Wings in tow and released the “live in the studio” album One Hand Clapping recorded in August of 1974. Just seeing this thing released under the moniker Paul McCartney & Wings is a special treat for those of us who were listening to Paul in the 70s. I still remember a skit from the original cast of SNL where an older guy breaks up with his younger girlfriend because she thinks “the Beatles were just Paul McCartney’s back up band before Wings.” I may have only started listening to music in the late 70s (78-79) but it was still in time to see McCartney get arrested in Japan for possession of pot on the tour in support of Wings’ last LP, Back To The Egg. My brother owned that album and I’d go in and crank up “Old Siam Sir.”

It was obvious to anybody who saw the Let It Be movie (or now it’s companion piece, Peter Jackson’s Get Back series) that the Beatles were on their last legs by the late 60s. The Beatles were able to pull it together one last time for the Abbey Road album but alas, that was it for the legendary band. They did eventually release the stuff they’d been working on for the Let It Be album, pulled together by Phil Spector of all people. By 1970, each of the Beatles were working on solo music. It was Paul who actually pulled the plug on the Beatles publicly. He announced they’d split in the press. I don’t think the critics and rock n roll press ever forgave him for breaking up the band (not his fault). He faced intense backlash for that which seems silly now. It takes, in this case, four to tango… I think there were immense expectations resting on Paul’s shoulder as he went solo.

McCartney then released two classic albums McCartney and Ram who were savaged by contemporary critics (and have since been hailed as classics). The guy must have been reeling. Both albums went platinum but the critical rebuke must have stung. I think McCartney was longing for those early days with the Beatles, driving up and down England in a van. He wanted to start over and just be a member of a band… maybe take some of the heat off the front man, so to speak. He formed Wings with his wife Linda, Denny Laine (guitar), Danny Seiwell (drums), and eventually Henry McCullogh (guitar). The original lineup of Wings, who actually did tour up and down the UK in a van (sans McCullogh) put out the album Wild Life, which may be one of McCartney’s most reviled albums. It, and the follow up Red Rose Speedway (with McCullogh) both went gold but they were uneven albums. At the time even Ringo was out selling McCartney’s albums.

By mid-1973, both Seiwell and McCullogh had departed. McCartney decided to take Linda and Denny Laine to Lagos, Nigeria to record the next album…where he managed to get robbed at knife point. If Linda hadn’t kept repeating, “Beatle Paul, Beatle Paul” we may have had a Lennon-like tragedy 7 years earlier… The studio was poorly put together and by all reports it was a bit of a disaster down there. However, he came up with is most successful solo album, Band On The Run. The tracks on that album read like a greatest hits album. And truly, at the time, two members down, Wings really was a band on the run.

By 1974, McCartney had augmented Wings with Geoff Britton (drums) and Jimmy McCulloch (guitars). They’d gone to (I believe) Nashville and recorded a follow up single, one of my favorites, “Junior’s Farm.” I love when McCartney says, “take me down Jimmy…” and McCulloch unleashes a white-hot guitar solo. Rather than tour McCartney decided to take this new configuration of Wings into Abbey Road Studios in August of that year to record a “live in the studio” album and film a documentary special. By August Band On The Run had been on the top of the charts for over a month so this is Wings at an absolute peak. The recording/filming took place over 4 days.

The film, however, was shelved at the time. Apparently having forgotten what it was like when they filmed him in Abbey Road, ala Let It Be, McCartney wasn’t happy with what appeared to be disagreements between him and his two new members – McCulloch and Britton – and decided not to release the film. The recording, known as One Hand Clapping, after the instrumental title track, has been widely bootlegged over the years. Full disclosure, I’ve never heard the bootleg recording. I think McCartney did finally include the film in one of the myriad Band On The Run deluxe, anniversary releases but I can’t confirm that. I’ve never seen the film either. A few of the cuts from the live album have been released in similar fashion, as bonus tracks on deluxe editions of the Band On The Run album but again, I’d never heard any of this before so it was a bit of a revelation to me. 

I must say, I am quite taken with this album. I’ve always felt that his Amoeba Gig live album, recorded in the intimate setting of a record store was his finest live album but this might just give it a run for it’s money. It’s a much more intimate affair than say, the live album Wings Over America from 1976. This is the sound of a band coming together and the parts are all working together well. Sometimes tension between musicians makes for great music and chemistry… just look at the Who. I just love the sound of this album, especially the guitars. McCartney does sound – despite the supposed bickering on the film – like he’s having a great time. If you’re not a fan of McCartney’s later work – and you’re really missing out if you’re blowing off his work since Flaming Pie – this is the McCartney live album for you. He plays all of his classic early 70s greatest hits. Despite saying he wasn’t going to play Beatles tracks we do get a small ssampling of them as well. He also plays an eclectic bunch of covers. For purposes of this review I’m talking about the CD or streaming edition not the vinyl with the 7″ bonus disc of McCartney playing six track solo, my stereo can’t play 7″ records… so I’m a CD buy on this one.

It’s apparent as you’re listening to the opening, title track “One Hand Clapping,” that the band has settled into a rocking groove. A lot of guitar wailing here. Paul wastes no time and goes straight to his big hit from Band On The Run, the spirited “Jet,” and we’re off to the races. He plays “Soily” which has only ever been released live (as far as I know). It’s just a string of all his great, great 70s tracks: “C Moon/Little Woman Love,” “Maybe I’m Amazed,” “Band On The Run,” “Junior’s Farm,” “Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five” and “Live And Let Die” (complete with orchestra) just to name a few. The band plays muscled up versions of all the songs here. I really like McCulloch and Laine’s guitar interplay.

McCartney also play some great deep cuts here including “Sally G,” “Wild Life,” and “Tomorrow,” to name some of my favorites. “Let’s Love” is a track that wouldn’t see studio release until Venus And Mars. We go from full on band versions of tracks to McCartney sitting alone at a piano. McCartney could never resist that old timey, (aka “Granny music” as Lennon called it) vaudevillian song. “All Of You” continues that tradition. Listening to McCartney sit alone at the piano makes me wonder how much fun it’d be to go to a dinner party at the McCartney’s where we all adjourn from the table with snifters of brandy and head for the piano… “take it away Paul…”

McCartney seems to always return to the standards when he plays in these intimate settings. He plays “Baby Face” which also shows up on Amoeba Gig, and “Blue Moon Of Kentucky” which showed up on his Unplugged record, one of my favorite Unplugged albums. McCartney does stray into the Beatles catalog but only briefly. He plays a snippet of “Let It Be” that sounds like he’s playing it on the accordion. And we get a quick “Long And Winding Road” played more like the Let It Be…Naked version. So if you’re expecting a deep dive on the Beatles catalog, this is not the live album for you. Overall I really enjoyed the cover songs and deep cuts that McCartney and the band choose to play to augment the hits on this selection.

This is not only a great live – in the studio so no crowd noise – album, it’s a great historical document. It really brings home the fact that this version of Wings was a pretty kick ass rock band. Britton didn’t last long, I think he was out before they recorded Venus And Mars, replaced on drums by Joe English (which sounds like a pseudonym that Neil Young would have come up with). While McCartney keeps putting out great late-career records like Memory Almost Full or Egypt Station or even McCartney III this is a fabulous look back to a rockier (and perhaps rocking) time in his career. He’s rocking with a carefree abandon here and everybody should hear this album.

It’s a shame it took almost 50 years for us to get this live album, but we should all be very happy we finally get to hear the whole thing. This is another one I recommend cranking up loud!

Enjoy! Cheers!