Wings Over America

Wings
 
Wings Over America - Rear cover Wings Over America - Front Cover
Wings Over America - Rear Cover Wings Over America - Front Cover
Wings Over America - Gatefold Inner
Wings Over America - Gatefold Inner

Label Parlophone
Catalogue No. PCSP 720
Release date 10th December 1976
Total time 1 hour 47 minutes
U.K. Album Chart Detail :
Entry Date :15th January 1977
Highest Position :8
Weeks in Chart :22
Detail : Paul's eighth "solo" release, first Wings live album, and first triple L.P. (third triple by an ex-Beatle).
Wings V (1975) - Paul, Linda, Denny Laine, Jimmy McCulloch (guitars) and Joe English (drums).
The brass section are :
Tony Dorsey - Trombone,
Howie Casey - Saxophone,
Steve Howard - Trumpet and flugelhorn, and
Thaddeus Richard - Saxophone, clarinet and flute.

Released two weeks before Christmas, it took another two weeks after Christmas to hit the U.K. charts. It then took three more weeks to hit it's peak position of no.8 ... one restriction on sales might have been it's £6:80 price tag.

The thirty songs on this triple set covered a typical Wings live set of 1976, although the World tour (seen by over two million people) encompassed six subsiduary tours :
9/9 to 23/9 1975 - British Tour (tickets are £1 to £2:80),
1/11 to 14/11 1975 - Australian Tour (tickets $6.80 to $10),
20/3 to 26/3 1976 - European Tour (Denmark, Germany, Holland and France),
3/5 to 23/6 1976 - American Tour,
19/9 to 27/9 1976 - European Tour (Austria, Yugoslavia, Italy and Germany),
19/10 to 21/10 1976 - London ! (tickets are £1:80 to £3:50)
The live set for the entire year was basically the same, although occasionally in a different sequence and with some additions and omissions, but it was the U.S. tour that is featured here, as all thirty dates were recorded. Paul and Wings then listened to over 90 hours (nearly 4 days !) of tape during October and November 1976 at Abbey Road studios until the final selection was made, which were then mixed (and overdubbed) into this epic piece.
Many of the tracks are actually from the final date, 23rd June, at the Los Angeles Forum.

On previous tours Paul had refused to play his Beatle tunes, but here, five are included. Four of the five are cheekily credited on the sleeve to "McCartney-Lennon", with the fifth (The Long And Winding Road) assigned to McCartney alone.

For the U.S. portion of the tour, a specially chartered BAC 1-11 had "Wings Over America" painted on it's fuselage, with the air freight costs coming to £7,000. Then, nearly 13 tons of equipment, including 37 guitars, were transported in three articulated trucks across America. The three trucks had "Wings", "Over" and "America" emblazoned on their roofs.

The cover design was by MPL and Hipgnosis. The cover is not a picture of the tour plane, it is a painting by Richard Manning representing the arrival in America, with the show about to burst through the opening door hatch with a shower of light and sound. This idea of the door gradually opening, exposing more light, is continued on the six sides of the three inner sleeves with a spectograph on each.
Although only a gatefold sleeve, it is very thick and each half is split into two compartments, with the fourth compartment housing a 20" x 30" Wings poster. This poster has a Wings picture on one side with "Wings Over America" in neon lights, and on the rear has 10 large concert photographs taken by Bob Ellis.
The inner picture on the gatefold as can be seen above, is a painting by Jeff Cummins.
The six labels on the vinyl, each show a different aeroplane control panel instrument, one of which can be seen on the Maybe I'm Amazed single.


Side 1 - PCS 7201

Track Composer Time
Medley :
Venus And Mars/Rock Show/Jet
McCartney 11:15
Let Me Roll It McCartney 3:40
Spirits Of Ancient Egypt McCulloch-Allen 3:59
Medicine Jar McCartney 3:57

Side 2 - PCS 7201

Track Composer Time
May'be I'm Amazed McCartney 5:10
Call Me Back Again McCartney 5:04
Lady Madonna McCartney-Lennon 2:19
The Long And Winding Road McCartney 4:13
Live And Let Die McCartney 3:07

Side 3 - PCS 7202

Track Composer Time
Picasso's Last Words McCartney 1:55
Richard Cory Simon 1:52
Bluebird McCartney 3:37
I've Just Seen A Face McCartney-Lennon 1:49
Blackbird McCartney-Lennon 2:23
Yesterday McCartney-Lennon 1:43

Side 4 - PCS 7202

Track Composer Time
You Gave Me The Answer McCartney 1:47
Magneto And Titanium Man McCartney 3:11
Go Now Banks-Bennett 3:27
My Love McCartney 4:07
Listen To What The Man Said McCartney 3:18

Side 5 - PCS 7203

Track Composer Time
Let 'Em In McCartney 4:02
Time To Hide Laine 4:46
Silly Love Songs McCartney 5:46
Beware My Love McCartney 4:49

Side 6 - PCS 7203

Track Composer Time
Letting Go McCartney 4:25
Band On The Run McCartney 5:03
Hi Hi Hi McCartney 2:57
Soily McCartney 5:10


Further Issues of "Wings Over America"

There is also a cassette version released on the initial release date, TCPCSP 720.

January 1985, the next listing is on the Parlophone label, ATAK 17 (+ TCATAK 17).

26th May 1987, the first C.D. release, it's on Parlophone catalogue number CDPCSP 720
(the International number is CDS 7 46715 8)
It has the same tracks as the original, but split over two C.D.'s.

There is also a listing for 1989, on Parlophone catalogue number CZD 292.

19th February 1990 - The EMI Music Catalogue also has this release date for CDS 7 46715 8

27th May 2013 - Wings Over America - The Paul McCartney Archive Collection is released (3 CD/1 DVD + book)



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