Illustration titled Randy and Tootser Perry-Bus from the Cobblestone annual of Virginia Commonwealth University, 1972
I'm on a bit of a Paul McCartney kick lately - I've been reading Jonathan Gould's Can't Buy Me Love and enjoying the recent McCartney reissues, so I decided to take a chance on a copy of Back to the Egg I spotted gathering dust in a used CD store. I know that this 1979 album is supposed to be Wings' weakest - McCartney's Wingspan collection doesn't include any of the albums' singles, taking only a single instrumental track ("Rockestra Theme") for the set's "non-hits" disc. I was surprised, though, to find that this supposedly highly-contrived arena rock album is a quite enjoyable listen. Songs like "Old Siam, Sir" and "Getting Closer" have the hook-y quality of Wings best uptempo numbers, and the revved-up rockabilly of "Spin It On" sounds just like a Rockpile track (right down to the Nick-Lowe-style reverb on McCartney's vocals).
The album does have some issues, though - the second side of Back to the Egg is weighed down quite a bit by two multi-section ballads (""After The Ball/Million Miles" and "Winter Rose/Love Awake") that are placed back to back for some reason, and it doesn't really work. And then you have McCartney's "Rockestra" experiment, in which he assembled a lot of his talented music friends (including David Gilmour, Pete Townshend, John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Ronnie Lane, Bruce Thomas, and Gary Brooker) to form an ensemble that could deliver a really big "ROCK" sound. But I'll admit that the Rockestra's big number, the aforementioned instrumental "Rockestra Theme" doesn't really do anything for me - it sounds like it could have been performed by any competent arena-rock band of the late '70s. I don't know why it's the best-known number from Back to the Egg - I much prefer the Rockestra's other number, the equally bombastic but catchier "So Glad to See You Here".
"So Glad to See You Here" by Wings
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