These days, many music fans understand that Wings, Paul McCartney’s backing band for most of the 70s, delivered a catalog that ranks up there with any other group from the era. At the time, however, fans and critics compared them unfairly to The Beatles. Maybe Wings’ reputation might have soared higher if they had a high-profile breakup in 1981 to gain them some notoriety. Instead, they quietly shuffled off without much hullabaloo.
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Wings Take Off
Paul McCartney formed Wings in 1971. After a bumpy start, they caught fire with the 1973 triumph Band On The Run. Hitting their stride despite having a fluent lineup beyond McCartney, wife Linda, and stalwart member Denny Laine, they started out churning out No. 1 singles and smash albums with regularity while also becoming one of the world’s most successful touring outfits.
In 1979, Wings released the album Back To The Egg. The album title hinted at the fact that McCartney was hoping it would return the group to a more rocking sound. London Town, the preceding album in the Wings’ catalog, had skewed a bit closer to McCartney’s pop tendencies.
Back To The Egg failed to hit quite the same heights as its immediate predecessors, as it lacked a massive hit single. But there was no indication that it would be the last Wings’ release, which is exactly what it turned out to be.
A Solo Return
A series of factors and events played into the dissolution of Wings. In the summer of 1979, McCartney recorded his first solo album in nine years. McCartney didn’t intend McCartney II, released in 1980, as anything other than a one-off before returning to Wings. But fate intervened.
After playing shows in late 1979, Wings arrived in Japan for an early 1980 tour there. However, McCartney was detained for marijuana possession upon arrival. His 10-day jail stay put the kibosh on the band’s live appearances in the country. It also added to the lingering bad taste in Laine’s mouth about the direction of the band.
On top of all that, McCartney was starting to have doubts about keeping the band afloat. When he assembled them later in 1980 to work on new material that he’d been writing, he didn’t like the results. Those sessions were shelved. Wings wouldn’t get the chance to try again.
Laine Departs
In December 1980, John Lennon was murdered. While McCartney has never spoken on record about whether that contributed to his decision to put Wings on ice for good, it’s easy to imagine that Macca started rethinking his priorities ahead of 1981. When he continued the sessions for the album that would become Tug Of War, it was as a solo record with guest players instead of a steady band.
The closest thing to an official end date for Wings came in 1981 when Denny Laine announced he was leaving the band. For a while, the McCartney camp refused to confirm what most people suspected, that Wings was kaput.
But while promoting Tug Of War for its release in 1982, McCartney finally told the press that Wings was no longer a working outfit. Thus ended an impressive run for this band that didn’t truly receive the acclaim they deserved until they were no longer around.
Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns
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