Music News

As expected, the two new deluxe sets in the “Paul McCartney Archive Seies” series will be the first two Wings album — 1971’s Wild Life and 1973’s Red Rose Speedway. The material features the earliest incarnation of the group including co-founders Paul and Linda McCartney, Denny Laine, and Denny Seiwell. Guitarist Henry McCullough joined Wings in January 1971. McCartney sidestepped issuing a press release for the project, instead just offering the Paul McCartney & Wings – 1971-73 Limited Edition Box Set containing both collections in one package via his PaulMcCartney.com website for a cool $399. Although available for pre-order, no release date has been announced.

The Daily Beatle posted extensive details on the set, which reads:

The four-disc (three CD and one DVD) limited deluxe edition of Wild Life features the full album remastered at Abbey Road Studios plus 25 bonus audio tracks including rough mixes of the album, original single edits, B-sides, home recordings and other previously unreleased material across three CDs. The set’s DVD features rare footage of acoustic home videos, rehearsals and more. The Wild Life deluxe package includes a 128-page book written by David Fricke telling the story behind the album – including track-by-track information and new interviews with Paul and key album personnel, a 48-page scrapbook of tour diaries, lyrics and set lists, unpublished Polaroids, lyrics, notes and memorabilia from the MPL archives. Wild Life’s download redemption card will provide access to all audio in HD 24/96kHz unlimited high-resolution versions. The Red Rose Speedway limited deluxe edition features three discs of audio including the original album remastered at Abbey Road Studios, no less than 35 bonus audio tracks, including a reconstruction of the originally conceived double album version of Red Rose Speedway, singles, B-sides, alternate mixes and previously unreleased tracks. The two DVD and Blu-ray portions of the deluxe are packed with rare and previously unseen footage, including the James Paul McCartney TV Special, interviews and music videos, as well as the never before seen film The Bruce McMouse Show — fully restored and remixed in stereo and 5.1 surround sound. The package includes a folio containing 14 replica hand drawn original character sketches by Paul and facsimile dialogue sheets for the film, a 128-page book containing many previously unpublished images by Linda McCartney, expanded album and single artwork from the archives and story behind the album — including new interviews with Paul McCartney, and key album personnel — and track-by-track information, written by Amanda Petrusich, five replica handwritten lyric sheets and photo print, a 64-page ‘Wings In Morocco’ photo book, all housed in a numbered outer slipcase. The Red Rose Speedway download redemption card will provide access to all audio in HD 24/96kHz unlimited high-resolution versions.

The massive box, featuring both the sets combined — along with a newly created live album from the era — comes with a deluxe book of Linda McCartney’s photos from the ’72/’73 tours and the original 1972 tour program.

Denny Laine was the sole member of Wings to span the band’s decade-long run. He recalled the early summer 1971 phone call from McCartney asking him to help form the group: “Y’know, he was looking for people he could get on with and people who would go on in the future with new ideas. So he just called up and said, ‘Paul here, do you fancy getting a band together?”

AUDIO: PAUL MCCARTNEY TALKS ABOUT HAVING HIS LATE WIFE LINDA IN HIS POST-BEATLES BANDS
AUDIO: DENNY LAINE ON BEING PICKED FOR WINGS