The Rock n Roll Curmudgeon Rides Again
One Hand Clapping
Paul McCartney and Wings
Paul McCartney, just like all the rest of us non-Beatle, non-genius, non-knighted types, ain’t perfect no matter how hard he tries to convince the world otherwise. But this is an old problem for ol’ Macca. He always wants you believe that it all comes so easy. The music is perfect, clean, and memorable. Even the archival material released over the last decade or so has a decisively new car shine to it.
Mac collectors and completists have always known otherwise and reveled in the fact that, whenever he let his mullet down sparks would fly and the rock rolled hard, much like those old Cavern days.
So here it is, after fifty-two years and God knows how many discussions he had with himself whether to release or not to release his One Hand Clapping: an almost Let It Be-like endeavor to catch his band in the most disorderly act of creation; in the jumbled transformation from a scruffy university gig band into the stadium burning onslaught that Wings soon became. Warts, woggles, and warbles be damned!
And it is a hell of a lot of fun to listen to.
Let us get the background out of the way. Still buzzing from the high of the recently released Band On the Run(December ’73), One Hand Clapping was filmed and recorded at Abbey Road Studios in August 1974. Envisioned as a TV special, director David Litchfield captured a truly one of kind moment: the remaking of Paul McCartney from former Beatle to McCartney a man of the moment; an artist in and of himself who could (and obviously did) rule the stages and airwaves for the decades then to come and well into the years beyond these.
Founding drummer Denny Seiwell and guitarist Henry McCullough (“Hi, Hi, Hi,” “Live and Let Die,” “My Love”) had split McCartney’s insular camp just prior to the sessions for Band On the Run. Two new members — hot shot kid guitarist Jimmy McCullouch and short term drummer Geoff Britton — make themselves known here. (Britton, his Wings tenure barely a year old, did manage to make a mark on Venus and Mars, Wings’ hit laden vinyl of 1975.)
New songs. Old songs. Cover songs. Chit chat. McCullouch kills it on the punky, whirling “Junior’s Farm.” Led by guitarist and longest-standing Wing man Denny Laine, “Go Now” (Laine’s hit from 1965 as a member of the original Moody Blues) flashes back to those swinging London days with a hard-edged pop exuberance. “Hi, Hi, Hi” is a slugfest. Britton bashing, guitars crunching, and the ex-Beatle-with-the-bad-haircut driving the tune both on bass and with a vocal bearing all the markings of those late-night bouts in Hamburg, circa 1960-62.
Though everything Wings ran through during these four days isn’t included here (the infamous “Suicide,” a couple of loose jams and other incidentals were left on the reels) the vibe is here and the vibe is really, really vibey, vibrant, and contagious. One Hand Clapping kicks off with its loopy, synthy stomping namesake track. Triumphant performances like the technicolor “Band On the Run,” the irascibly crunchy “Let Me It Roll It,” and the high fivin’ high flyin’ “Jet” get some of their initial workouts on their way to the complete power packed showstoppers they all became. Linda McCartney proves she can hold her own and her synths soar. “Soiley” a tight, nonsense rocker that McCartney still pulls out of his hat from time to time, cranks and then cranks a whole lot more.
A born busker, McCartney leads his new band all loose and limber, throwing in a woozy acoustic “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” and a pub singalong of “Babyface,” alongside new tunes such as “All of You,” “I’ll Give You a Ring” and a lighthearted, countryfied “Sally G.” He then decides to start introducing such Beatles classics “Let It Be,” The Long and Winding Road,” and a raucous “Lady Madonna.” A never-heard-like-this-again run through of “Band On the Run” is open, congenial, vivid. “That was it lads, that’s a take.” he enthuses. Even the plodding title track from Wings’ first recorded disaster (Wildlife, 1971) gets rawer and rockier, the backing vocals ragged and real. Late conductor/arranger Del Newman (Cat Stevens, Elton John) and his full-scale orchestra do not shake the man’s mellow mood. So there’s a raspy, piss take of “Live and Let Die.” “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five” shuffles and growls.
That all this is now mixed and mastered with all the latest high-tech Macca can afford, One Hand Clapping puts you right there in Abbey Road, alongside Beatle stalwart, original sessions producer Geoff Emerick: hearing things for the first and last time. That’s pretty freakin’ cool no matter how twisted by reality ye all might be.
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Mike Jurkovic publishes globally with little reportable income. His full length books include Buckshot Reckoning, mooncussers, AmericanMental, (Luchador Press 2023, 2022, 2020). Blue Fan Whirring (Nirala Press, 2018) and is a 2016 Pushcart nominee. President of Calling All Poets, now celebrating its 25th year. Reviews appear at All About Jazz & lightwoodpress.com.
He hosts New Jazz Excursions,Mondays, 9-10am, WVKR-91.3FM Vassar College. The Rock n Roll Curmudgeon appeared in Rhythm and News Magazine, 1996-2003. He loves Emily most of all.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaBbZUXlzmQ0lj2DCg3ydg/videos
Mike is a frequent contributor to Lightwood as a poet, music critic and creative writer. He is one of the creators of CALLING ALL POETS, a small press and reading series (live and zoom) in the Hudson Valley.
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