Wings Back to the Egg 1979 Columbia Records Original Vinyl LP NM w/Insert

$

30

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Back to the Egg Studio album by  Wings Released 8 June 1979 Recorded 29 June 1978 – February 1979 Studio Spirit of Ranachan, Campbeltown; Lympne Castle, Kent; Abbey Road and Replica, London Genre Rock Length 42:01 Label Columbia (US)
Parlophone (UK) Producer Paul McCartney, Chris Thomas Wings chronology Wings Greatest
(1978) Back to the Egg
(1979) Wingspan: Hits and History
(2001) Paul McCartney chronology Wings Greatest
(1978) Back to the Egg
(1979) McCartney II
(1980) Singles from Back to the Egg

1. "Old Siam, Sir"
   Released: 1 June 1979 (UK only)
2. "Getting Closer"
   Released: 5 June 1979 (US); 16 August 1979 (UK)
3. "Arrow Through Me"
   Released: 14 August 1979 (US only)
4. "Rockestra Theme"
   Released: 1979 (Europe only)

Back to the Egg is the seventh and final studio album by the British–American rock band Wings, released in June 1979 on Columbia Records in America (their first for the label), and on Parlophone in the UK. Co-produced by Chris Thomas, the album reflects band leader Paul McCartney's embracing of contemporary musical trends such as new wave and punk, and marked the arrival of new Wings members Laurence Juber and Steve Holley. Back to the Egg adopts a loose conceptual theme around the idea of a working band, and its creation coincided with a period of considerable activity for the group, which included making a return to touring and work on several television and film projects.

Recording for the album began in June 1978 and lasted for almost a year. The sessions took place at Spirit of Ranachan Studios in Campbeltown, Scotland; Lympne Castle in Kent, London's Abbey Road Studios, and Replica Studio – the last of which McCartney built as an exact replica of Abbey Road's Studio Two when the latter became unavailable. Wings returned to Abbey Road in March 1979 to complete the album, before filming a series of promotional videos in Lympne and elsewhere, for what became the Back to the Egg TV special.

Back to the Egg received unfavourable reviews from the majority of critics, with Rolling Stone magazine deriding it as "the sorriest grab bag of dreck in recent memory". Although the album charted in the top ten around the world and was certified platinum in the United States, it was viewed as a commercial failure relative to previous Wings releases, particularly in light of the generous financial terms under which McCartney had signed with CBS-owned Columbia Records. Of its singles – "Old Siam, Sir", "Getting Closer" and "Arrow Through Me" – only "Getting Closer" made the top 20 in Britain or America. The song "Rockestra Theme", recorded with a cast of guest musicians from bands such as the Who, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 1980.

Wings toured the UK in support of the album, but the planned world tour ended in January 1980, when McCartney was arrested in Japan for possession of marijuana, spending nine days in jail. The group disbanded early the following year after the departure of Laine. Back to the Egg was reissued in 1993, with bonus tracks, and in 2007 for iTunes, with the addition of Wings' 1979 non-album single "Goodnight Tonight", in its extended form.

Background

After the release of the album London Town (1978), Wings band leader Paul McCartney hired two session musicians, drummer Steve Holley and lead guitarist Laurence Juber, to replace former members Joe English and Jimmy McCulloch. With the new line-up – Wings' sixth since its formation in 1971 – McCartney intended to record a raw rock and roll album and return to touring, for the band's first concerts since their successful Wings Over the World tour of 1975–76. McCartney also hoped to realise his longstanding plan of making a film adaptation of the Rupert the Bear cartoon series, for which he owned the commercial rights, and commissioned English playwright Willy Russell to write a feature film starring Wings.

Holley and Juber were recruited by Wings co-founder and guitarist Denny Laine who had appeared as a guest on The David Essex Show in 1977 when Juber was working as a guitarist in the house band. Holley, a neighbour of Laine's, joined Wings in time to appear in the promotional video for London Town's lead single, "With a Little Luck", having turned down a position with Elton John's band. According to Wings biographer Garry McGee, Juber and Holley were each paid a weekly sum less than one-fifth of that paid to McCartney, his wife Linda (the band's keyboard player) and Laine.

For the new album, Back to the Egg, McCartney collaborated in the studio with producer Chris Thomas, with whom he had begun working on the audio for two films documenting Wings' last world tour: Wings Over the World, a television documentary, and the cinema release Rockshow (1980). This was the first time Wings recorded with an outside producer since their 1973 single "Live and Let Die", which George Martin had produced. After working with the Pretenders and the Sex Pistols, Thomas brought a punk rock and new wave influence to Wings' sound, matching McCartney's desire to reflect contemporary musical trends.

Reception

Back to the Egg received predominantly negative reviews on release; author Alan Clayson writes of the album receiving "a critical mauling as vicious as that for London Town". In an especially unfavourable critique for Rolling Stone magazine, Timothy White described it as "the sorriest grab bag of dreck in recent memory" and lamented that none of the songs were "the least bit fleshed out", with the listener instead given "an irritating display of disjointed images and unfocused musical snapshots". After opining that, since 1970, "this ex-Beatle has been lending his truly prodigious talents ... to some of the laziest records in the history of rock & roll", White wrote: "Who, one felt compelled to ask, is in charge here? Back to the Egg provides the final, obvious answer: no one."

Village Voice critic Robert Christgau said of McCartney and the new Wings album: "When he's on, Paulie's abundant tunefulness passes for generosity. Here he's just hoping something will stick." In Melody Maker, Ray Coleman wrote that McCartney "seems to be on a treadmill of banality". Coleman described "Rockestra Theme" and "So Glad to See You Here" as "creditable, rolling, raunchy and at least efficient, with Paul's voice at its rocking best on the last named track", but concluded: "This album gets Wings nowhere ..." Billboard's reviewer gave Back to the Egg "Spotlight" status (meaning "the most outstanding new product of the week's releases and that with the greatest potential for top of the chart placement") and commented: "The music features typical McCartney fare of late with nothing here that will distinguish it as one of his classics. The arrangements, though, are interesting, encompassing a variety of styles."

In a more positive assessment, for Creem magazine, Mitchell Cohen highlighted the album's second side as "a collection of McCartney performances that string together like abbey roadwork", and praised McCartney's vocals relative to his past work, writing: "all of the current tracks are terser, sung better, have less of what I suppose would be called the recording artist's equivalent of camera consciousness." To NME critic Bob Woffinden, the attempt at an album-wide concept was "a pretty half-baked one" and Hipgnosis' cover photo was "easily the album's strongest point". While identifying the songs as "particularly weak lyrically", Woffinden concluded: "It was the familiar McCartney problem. He had every essential creative requirement, except the discipline required to knead the parts into a perfect whole."

AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine views Back to the Egg as "a set of [McCartney's] most undistinguished songs" that "have no spark whatsoever", and bemoans "the weak sound of the record and Wings' faceless performances". Among McCartney biographers, Vincent Benitez writes that the songs are "uneven in quality", and Howard Sounes describes the album as "a curate's egg, good in parts, with token attempts at sounding contemporary".[ Tom Doyle views "the new wave-ish rockers" like "Spin It On" as "too smoothed out to be truly edgy" and the two spoken-word tracks as "weird – and not in a good way". Doyle considers that while Back to the Egg has its "moments of inspiration", "There was too much material [recorded during the sessions], and yet not enough of it to gel into a cohesive album."

Track listing

All songs written by Paul McCartney, except where noted.

Side one: Sunny Side Up

1. "Reception" – 1:08
2. "Getting Closer" – 3:22
3. "We're Open Tonight" – 1:28
4. "Spin It On" – 2:12
5. "Again and Again and Again" (Denny Laine) – 3:34
6. "Old Siam, Sir" – 4:11
7. "Arrow Through Me" – 3:37

Side two: Over Easy

1. "Rockestra Theme" – 2:35
2. "To You" – 3:12
3. "After the Ball / Million Miles" – 4:00
4. "Winter Rose / Love Awake" – 4:58
5. "The Broadcast" – 1:30
6. "So Glad to See You Here" – 3:20
7. "Baby's Request" – 2:49