Wings At the Speed of Sound

[The Big Guy]

Released in 1976.

[mervap]

This another one of Macca's albums that was done before I had a working appreciation for his solo stuff beyond "Band". Totally blew it off, never had a chance...couple of hit tunes and a bunch of filler. SWING...and a miss for mervap....at least two of these songs besides the hits warrant a mention. "Beware My Love" rocks like nobody's business...a hidden gem. "Warm & Beautiful" is achingly pretty with great harmonies. Best of the rest include "She's My Baby" with Paulie in R-n-B lite mode, the charming "San Ferry Anne" and three bonus tracks with as wide a range of styles as could be imagined...Not a classic album, but not nearly as bad as I had been brainwashed to believe.

[Kylenz]

I was lucky enough to still be a kid when I bought this, with no prejudices against 'soft McCartney', nor any predispositions towards the McCartney songs and ignoring the other Wings guys. In fact, my favourite songs to begin with on the album were The Note You Never Wrote, Time To Hide, and Must Do Something About It! I must've really liked Denny's voice. Also, being a kid helped me appreciate Cook of The House, I grew up with it and never occured to me 'that I must hate it'. A song is just a song and if it's catchy enough I'd be sure to like it, no matter who is singing it. I even liked Wino Junko by Jimmy. All the songs were good. She's My Baby, Let Em In, Silly Love Songs... but my favourite on the album... that I'd play over and over and over again just to hear it... was Beware My Love. Wow. That song knocked my socks off. Every time a coconut. I thought that was the most rocking thing I'd ever heard - that and the Soily 45 from the Wings Over America album (didn't get WOA at the time but my brother knew about it and kept talking about it).

So, my experience with Wings At The Speed Of Sound was always very positive. It never occured to me that 'it was the worst Wings album', they were all equally great to me. Kids aren't quite so discerning as grownups - either it's flat out BAD or it's the best thing ever! We're like sponges at that age, soaking up every little thing that turns us on!

[Kylenz]

Here's Paul singing a demo of 'Must Do Something About It' -
Have to say though, much prefer Joe English's vocal.. more energy.. brighter.

[Greg]

Just listened to Speed of Sound for the first time in a long time.  I like it.  It was a huge part of my youth.
Here are some impression many years later:

It's not a coherent album.  It's just not focused as an album.  Hard to explain but the songs just don't fit with each other.

Beware My Love reminds me of Go Your Own Way.  The drums on Go Your Own Way are the best, and I wish Mick Fleetwood would have played on Beware.

Note You Never Wrote is really good.

She's My Baby could have been on Ram.  Silly Love Songs couldn't. 

I don't like Linda's song, but I used to like it.

Silly Love Songs should've been a single and not on the album.  Don;t blame you for disagreeing.

It was so great hearing this again.  I like the cover and the album.  Maybe he could have asked Geoff Emerick to produce with him or something.

[2 of 3]

This is another Wings album I don't own. Paul lost me for a few years. I'm not sure if I left, or he did...but at the time I was probably into Led Zeppellin.....which in my mind( at the time), made Silly Love Songs one of the many  moments I had in Paul's solo career.

[Greg]

Oh I know the feeling.  I broke up with Paul in '86.  I think REM had just come out with Life's Rich Pageant or something.  I think he had released Press To Play or something.  Had to go with REM.  Eventually we got back together, but in the early 90's we split again over Off The Ground.  Years later I realized that that is not such a bad album.  I guess I didn't know what I had at the time.  We eventually made up and have been together now for years again...older and wiser.

Yeah...the ballad of Greg and Paul.

[Kylenz]

Eventually we got back together, but in the early 90's we split again over Off The Ground.  Years later I realized that that is not such a bad album.  I guess I didn't know what I had at the time.  We eventually made up and have been together now for years again...older and wiser.

Yeah...the ballad of Greg and Paul.

Same thing here, with Off The Ground, Flaming Pie and Driving Rain. In my case it wasn't because of Led Zep or REM, but Nirvana and Korn and System of a Down and all those heavy grunge/nu-metal bands.

Not sure about the parallel between Beware My Love and Go Your Own Way, 2 very different songs in my opinion. BML shifts around in mood, tempo and intensity throughout, GYOW is just a straight ahead rock/pop song. And the album feels reasonably cohesive to me, especially with the warm production.. maybe I'm just used to it having grown up listening to it as a kid.