The singer Paul McCartney always “intended” to build Wings around
Paul McCartney didn’t know the first thing about building one of the biggest bands in the world all over again.
The only hope was for him to try and keep his insane streak of hit songs going after The Beatles broke up, but it can be kind of hard looking at the model of the greatest pop music in the world and claiming that you can make something nearly as good. But even when McCartney had the odds stacked against him, he was going to do everything he could to reach the top of the mountain all over again.
And even though he’s comfortable resting on his laurels and making the kinds of tunes that would be anyone else’s best track these days, it seemed pretty dire not knowing where he was going to go. He was content knowing that he had his heart broken by losing the musical loves of his life, and while his wife Linda did convince him to make music again, it’s not like he was trying to make the next Sgt Pepper on his self-titled debut.
A lot of that record is based around the kind of demos that he had been kicking around ever since the end of the Fab Four, and if he was going to make something of himself again, he was going to need the right person beside him. So when he started making his next record, he knew that he needed Linda by his side to flesh out RAM. But since that record went over about as well as John Lennon claiming that the band were bigger than Jesus with critics, it was time to switch things up.
McCartney already had the potential to be a great frontman all over again, but getting the right band together was going to be the hardest part. He didn’t like the idea of getting together a supergroup with every other blockbuster musician from that time, but in Denny Laine, he at least had an idea for what Wings was going to be.
Because Laine was the most easygoing person that McCartney could have asked to join him. He was already coming up with great material with The Moody Blues, but after he left the band, the thought of him joining gave Macca the right security blanket that he wanted. Wings was going to be fleshed out with the same collaborative spirit as The Beatles, and having Laine next to him at least gave off the impression that he was working with someone like John Lennon, as he did back in the day.
It was a long shot for them to think that they would conquer the world, but McCartney felt comfortable enough bringing Laine into the equation, saying, “He was what I intended, that there would be another lead singer and me, and with Linda we could harmonise. So it was starting to get to be what I was imagining. He was good. Good guitar player, good singer, and a nice guy. And he stayed that — he remained that way. He got it. He got what we were trying to do.”
Granted, anyone stepping into the shoes of one of the other Beatles would have been unthinkable, but Laine always did a serviceable job working with Wings. His songs had a lot of bluesy punch to them whenever he threw his ideas into the mix, and when you look at their time together, you have to respect the commitment that Laine had to the whole thing, eventually sticking with the band to the bitter end, even after losing everyone on both Band on the Run and London Town.
So while there’s no real debate about who was going to go down in history as the ‘most recognisable’ member of Wings, Laine was the kind of dependable musician that everyone could rely on. He wasn’t going to do anything outlandish by any stretch, but he could at least understand what Paul and Linda were going for and add his own signature stamp onto everything.
