So I’m starting another food adventure next week. Eight weeks of wings. I got a shit-ton of suggestions on facecrack and thanks to all who made a suggestion. I can’t go to all of them, but I have chosen my eight places for wings in the next two months.

Since I didn’t have a food place for this week, I thought I’d go through the dicography of Wings, Paul McCartney’s band he formed after The Beatles busted up. Come fly with me...

Wild Life - Released December, 1971

Wings Personnel: Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, Denny Laine and Denny Seiwell.

The debut of Wings came after Paul McCartney released two solo albums: McCartney, released in 1970 and Ram, released in 1971. Those albums marked the end of The Beatles and while I was bummed out that The Beatles broke up, I was excited that the four of them would be releasing solo records, so that meant a lot more music from them.

I got Wild Life for Christmas in 1971. I was in the eighth grade and my brother Jim and I couldn’t wait to listen to it. After our family was done celebrating, Jim and I took the disc and ran to our room to listen to it on our stereo record player that sat on a table between our beds.

There’s just eight songs on the album and one is a reggae cover of “Love Is Strange,” which was a 1957 hit for Mickey & Sylvia. The sad news is that aforementioned cover song is my favorite song on the album. Most of the other songs were just forgettable, in fact I don’t even remember much about them other than “Bip Bop” sounds like it’s the work of a retarded person.

Favorite song from the album: “Love Is Strange.”

Red Rose Speedway - Released April ,1973

Wings Personnel: Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, Denny Laine, Denny Seiwell and Henry McCullough.

After the flop of the first Wings album, I didn’t have a lot of hope for the next one, but I dutifully bought it anyway. For this album Wings added a fifth member, Henry McCullough on guitar. By this time I was a freshman in high school and I had just started smoking pot. The first time I heard the song, “My Love,” was when my brother Jim was driving me to my friend Dan Langan’s house. We had smoked a joint and “My Love” came on the radio. I was really stoned and to this day whenever I hear it, it sends me back to that moment and I feel high all over again. The album was a lot better than their debut. Still not as good as The Beatles and I was soon realizing that those four guys needed to be with each other to make that musical magic happen.

Favorite songs from the album: “My Love,” “Get On The Right Thing” and “Medley: Hold Me Tight/Lazy Dynamite/Hands of Love/Power Cut."

Band On The Run - Released March, 1975

Wings Personnel: Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney and Denny Laine.

This is my favorite Wings album and was created in a bit of chaos. They were scheduled to record this in Lagos, Nigeria and right before they left both Denny Seiwell and Henry McCullough quit the band at the last minute. Not having time to replace them, Paul and Linda McCartney and Denny Laine played all the instruments and sang all the vocals. Paul McCartney did all the drumming. The conditions in Lagos around this time was tense to say the least.

In 1970 a civil war ended and Nigeria was being run by a corrupt military government and violence and disease was commonplace at the time. At one the three were robbed at knife-point. They stayed and recorded the album there and got an invitation from former Cream drummer, Ginger Baker to record a song at a studio he owned in Ikeja, which is a suburb in Lagos. They recorded the song, "Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)" there and it’s one of my favorite songs on the album. Another interesting song is, “Let Me Roll It,” which is a nod to his former writing partner, John Lennon. Lennon had written a vicious song called, “How Do You Sleep” about Paul McCartney. It’s never been confirmed, but supposedly this song was a jab back by doing a very John Lennon sounding song.

I think this is Wings finest album

Favorite songs from the album: I like the whole album.

Venus and Mars - Released May, 1975

Wings Personnel: Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney and Denny Laine, Jimmy McCulloch, Geoff Britton and Joe English.

I was really excited when this record came out. Maybe too excited. I remember feeling let down after listening to it. I was expecting something as good, if not better as Band On The Run and it wasn’t. It was okay, but there was one spectacular song, “Listen To What The Man Said.” That’s probably my favorite Wings song of all times.

Wings went back to a full band at this point with Jimmy McCulloch on guitar and vocals and Geofff Britton on drums. Britton had troubles with McCulloch and quit after recording three songs. His replacement was drummer Joe English. It’s the first Wings album that features other members doing vocals. McCulloch sings lead on “Medicine Jar” and Denny Laine has lead vocal duty on the song, “Spirits of Ancient Egypt.”

Favorite songs from the album: “Venus and Mars/Rock Show” and “Listen To What The Man Said.”

Wings at the Speed of Sound - Released March, 1976

This album fucking sucked. The real low/embarassing moment was Linda McCartney’s “Cook of the House.” The only saving grace for this pitiful album is the bass line on, “Silly Love Songs.”

Favorite song from the album: “Silly Love Songs” (just the bass part).

Wings Over America - Released December, 1976

Wings Personnel: Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney and Denny Laine, Jimmy McCulloch and Joe English.

This was a live triple album release. I liked it but always felt it would’ve been better as a double album set and they could’ve tightened it up a little. Some people were excited that he was singing some Beatle tunes on this tour, but I felt they could’ve been left off, the only people I wanted to hear play Beatles songs at the time was The Beatles.

Favorite songs from the album: “Listen To What The Man Said,” “Band On The Run” and “Hi Hi Hi.”

London Town - Released March, 1978

Wings Personnel: Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney and Denny Laine.

I bought this album but can’t remember a single song off of it, so it couldn’t have been too good.

Favorite songs from the album: I don’t remember any of them.

Wings Greatest - Released November, 1978

This was a good collection because it contained some songs that were only available as singles, including: "Live and Let Die,” "Junior's Farm,” "Hi, Hi, Hi” and "Mull of Kintyre.”

Favorite songs from the album: “Live and Let Die” and “Mull of Kintyre.”

Back to the Egg - Released June, 1979

Just like London Town, I don’t remember any songs off of this album. I remember playing it and hating it, though. I think I only played it once.

Favorite songs from the album: I don’t remember any of them.

Wingspan: Hits and History - Released May 2001

This is a great collection and is a good retrospective for the band Wings.

Stay tuned for next week when we start eating chicken wings. We’ll see you all tomorrow!

The only thing that bugs me about this song is that we never find out exactly what the man said. It makes me think of the last scene in “Lost In Translation.”

Surprise link, click on it...I dare you!