Paul McCartney and Wings - "Ship to Shore"

Having recorded two successful studio albums and a triple live album, Paul McCartney's latest lineup of Wings seemed poised to continue that success in 1977-78. However, while recording a new album, it was discovered that Linda McCartney was pregnant. That put the kibosh on a tour any time in the near future. After recording several songs aboard a yacht in the Virgin Islands, lead guitarist Jimmy McCulloch and drummer Joe English quit the band. That left the trio of Paul, Linda and Denny Laine to continue, record more songs and eventually release the album London Town.

I wanted to re-imagine what the album might have been if only the tracks that included McCulloch and English had been used. That led me to a new version of the album I've titled Ship to Shore.


SIDE A

1. Mull of Kintyre

2. London Town

3. Cafe on the Left Bank

4. Don't Let It Bring You Down

5. Name and Address

6. Children Children
7. I've Had Enough

SIDE B

1. With a Little Luck

2. Famous Groupies

3. Deliver Your Children

4. Girls’ School

5. Morse Moose and the Grey Goose

First of all, London Town seems strangely out of balance, with side two being more than five minutes longer than side one. I don't know what kind of decision-making goes on when a person, band or producer determines which songs go on which side, but I don't see any particular reason for the discrepancy in this case.

The four additional songs recorded after McCulloch and English left were all on London Town's first side, which leaves a gaping hole if we want to keep the running order similar. We do have two songs recorded before McCulloch and English left that were issued as singles: "Mull of Kintyre" and "Girls' School." But that isn't enough to fill the four missing slots (especially since the first side was already short), so some rearranging was needed.

Looking at the three previous Wings studio albums, they all start with rather slow songs. But even by that criteria, I think "London Town" is just not a good opener. So I put "Mull of Kintyre" at A1. It was a major hit in the U.K., and gives the album a slow-building opening. I moved "Don't Let It Bring You Down" and "Name and Address" to Side A and kept the rocking "I've Had Enough" to close it out.

Side B begins with the same three tracks as London Town, but I included "Girls' School" before concluding the album with "Morse Moose and the Grey Goose," just like London Town.

I can't say that the result is a better album than London Town, but I do think that "Mull of Kintyre" is a better opener, and "Girls' School" gives the collection a bit of extra oomph that I think was otherwise lacking. Also, both sides are about the same length now -- the first side is less than a minute longer than the second.

Attempts by others to recreate this album are often titled Water Wings, as apparently that was a working title at some point. I chose the title Ship to Shore because most of the album was recorded on a boat although some tracks were also recorded in Britain. For the cover, I wanted to use a band photo to emphasize the group overall. When I found a cover for a Water Wings bootleg, I reused the photo from it for my cover and thought the title worked well. Although it might be confused for a "yacht rock" album. 😋

Paul McCartney compilation albums

Creating a "best of" album might seem rather unnecessary. But this first one fills a noticeable gap. In 1975, the Apple Records contracts of the former Beatles members expired. The final releases from John, George and Ringo on Apple were "best of" compilations Shaved Fish, The Best of George Harrison and Blast from Your Past respectively. (Well, actually George's album was delayed and ended up released on Capitol).

As originally conceived, McCartney's compilation was to be a bit different than that of his ex-bandmates. Tentatively titled Cold Cuts (or alternately Hot Hitz and Kold Kutz), the album was to be composed of non-album singles and previously unreleased tracks. McCartney then began recording several new songs and overdubbing older unused tracks. But eventually the project was scrapped, and McCartney turned his attention to recording a new Wings studio album, Venus and Mars.

I don't know the reason there was no "best of" from Paul McCartney at the time, but it might have something to do with the fact that he released music under his own name, as a duo with his wife Linda, and with the band Wings. So unlike his former bandmates, it wasn't really possible to release a "solo" best-of compilation. However, if this was the reason, it didn't stop him from releasing just such a compilation in 1978 titled Wings Greatest, even though more than half the songs are not by Wings.

Ignoring that, I assembled a compilation album of all his A-side singles from 1971-1974 that were on Apple. That resulted in a record I've titled Wings & Things (which I think is a better title than Cold Cuts).

SIDE A
1. Another Day
2. Eat at Home
3. Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey
4. Back Seat of My Car
5. Love is Strange
6. Give Ireland Back to the Irish
7. Mary Had a Little Lamb

SIDE B
1. Hi Hi Hi
2. My Love
3. Live and Let Die
4. Helen Wheels
5. Jet
6. Band on the Run
7. Junior's Farm

I tried tinkering with the track order but finally decided to just keep them in chronological order. The only A-side I left off was "Mrs. Vanderbilt" because it wasn't widely distributed and because I thought four songs from the same album were too many. I went back and forth for a while with the idea of including B-sides as well. But that would have made it a double album, and in keeping with the other ex-Beatle compilations I left it as a single LP. I struggled a bit with a cover design, but eventually went with a stream of butterflies I found on the web and added titles.

Having assembled Wings & Things, I decided to redo Wings Greatest, re-titling it Wings Greatest 1975 - 1980. Unlike the original version, all tracks are actually by Wings:

SIDE A
1. Listen to What the Man Said
2. Letting Go
3. Venus and Mars/Rock Show
4. Silly Love Songs
5. Let 'Em In
6. Maybe I'm Amazed [live]
7. Mull of Kintyre
8. With a Little Luck

SIDE B
1. I've Had Enough
2. London Town
3. Goodnight Tonight
4. Old Siam, Sir
5. Getting Closer
6. Arrow Through Me
7. Coming Up [live]
8. Wonderful Christmastime

Like the previous compilation, I put all of the A-sides of the singles in chronological order, except for moving the holiday song to the end. With Wings ceasing to be a band by 1981, this acts as a nice end note. For the cover, I used the original and added the years.