Red Rose Speedway was the breakthrough album for Paul McCartney’s 1970s post-Beatles career with his group Wings. McCartney, released in 1970, was his homespun, debut solo album. Ram, released in 1971, was a collaboration with his wife Linda and expanded on the musical ideas and simplicity of McCartney. Wildlife, also from 1971, was the debut album of Wings, his new group, which included Linda, Denny Laine, formerly of the first incarnation of the Moody Blues, and American session drummer Denny Seiwell.
Wild Life continued the less-is-more quirkiness of the two albums that came before it, as Wings was just getting its footing. Red Rose Speedway, the first Wings album of 1973 included new member Henry McCullough from Ireland on guitar. He kicked around England in the 1970s before joining the Grease Band, the group that backed Joe Cocker at Woodstock. He also played with Spooky Tooth and was part of the soundtrack album Jesus Christ Superstar.
McCullough was part of Wings prior to Red Rose Speedway for the rousing hit singles “Give Ireland Back to the Irish,” “Hi, Hi, Hi,” and later the James Bond theme song “Live and Let Die,” which re-established McCartney’s formidable skills as the writer and singer of infectious hit pop songs. McCartney already had songs such as “Every Night,” “Maybe I’m Amazed,” “Another Day,” “Too Many People,” and “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” under his belt prior to Wings and McCullough’s joining the group, but McCullough’s playing helped Wings take that next big leap to bona-fide hit-making ’70s supergroup.
Red Rose Speedway was originally slated to be a double album. In fact, the previous major reissue of this album was an Archive Collection series release in 2018, which included a release of how that double album was intended, among other related reissues of the album in 2018.
This new 50th anniversary reissue of the album is another Paul McCartney Half-Speed Mastering release done at Abbey Road Studios, cut at half-speed using the original analog of tapes by Miles Showell. This is by far the best sounding of these reissues. This one is also a Record Store Day 2023 first release and is limited to 5,000 copies, comes in the original gatefold sleeve, includes the original 12-page book, and like the previous Half-Speed Master Abbey Road releases, includes an OBI-strip and an embossed certificate of authenticity. This is the first Half-Speed Master release to launch on Record Store Day.
The album was a major ’70s release and spawned the huge hit “My Love,” that featured Henry McCullough’s lovely, mostly improvised guitar solo. “Big Barn Bed’ and “Get On the Right Thing,” sounded like other quirky rhythmic tracks that could have come from one of McCartney’s first couple of solo albums and are a delight in their sparse, yet powerful simplicity. Throughout the album, McCartney’s vast melodic gifts as a songwriter are evident and a true band sound that would define Wings as one of the biggest bands of the ’70s is evident.
McCartney and Wings fans and those who like to take a deep dive into this period will have fun comparing this release to the two 2018 Archive Collection releases. This audiophile, single album will most likely be the favorite of those who like superior sound and the original single-album configuration.
This album also was the table-setter for what would be McCartney’s most critically acclaimed and commercially successful Wings album, Band on The Run. It should be very interesting to see what kind of reissue is planned to mark that album’s 50th anniversary later this year.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
B+
