Why Paul McCartney Changed His Writing Style for Wings, ‘I Had to Move On’
Paul McCartney didn’t want his career to be defined by his time with The Beatles. He started a solo career after the band disbanded and later formed his second band, Wings. Wings didn’t sound remotely like The Beatles, partly because Paul McCartney had to change his writing style for his next chapter.
Paul McCartney formed Wings in a similar way to The Beatles
After The Beatles disbanded in 1970, McCartney released two solo projects: McCartney (1970) and Ram (1971). However, the bass guitarist had the desire to form another band. McCartney wanted to start at the bottom for his second group, similar to The Beatles. Wings was formed in 1972 with a few friends and McCartney’s first wife, Linda.
“I thought that to get a real band and to get a new direction, you’ve got to start at the bottom, square one — start there,” McCartney said in an interview with Billboard. “So we got a band like the Beatles had formed, which was really just a couple of friends, and in this case one of them was my new wife. And it was just a poky little affair, because new bands are. You don’t have to answer to anyone. So we just took off in a van and did this real crazy little thing.”
McCartney had to change his writing style to give Wings a unique sound
While Wings never reached the same success as The Beatles, the band still had several hits, including “Silly Love Songs,” “Band on the Run,” and “Jet.” Paul McCartney wanted Wings to have its own identity, meaning he had to change his writing style so the band didn’t sound too similar to The Beatles.
“I even changed my writing style. I could have, obviously on the first Wings record, had a number of tracks that were ‘Eleanor Rigby’-esque. I could have done that thing. I would see other people do it, and there’s always been people who’ve done Beatle-y type things. Look at some of the bands who came out in the last five years; there’s a lot of Beatle-ish stuff. It’s good that they like it. I had to move on, but there were many people saying, ‘Don’t do this, stick with your old stuff, don’t take a new road.’ To us, that seemed like a cop-out.”
McCartney initially refused to play any Beatles songs with his new band
Paul McCartney knew fans who came to see him with Wings wanted him to perform Beatles songs. However, developing Wings’ identity was fundamental to him. So, in early tours, he refused to play any of the legendary Beatles’ tracks. However, he did become more open to it after Wings had several years of success.
“We were asked to do a lot of Beatles songs on the Wings tours. The promoters would say, ‘Wouldn’t you do some Beatles songs?’ We said, ‘Nope.’ It was like a rule, even if we’ve only got 11 songs,” McCartney explained. “Obviously, we could have packed the act out with plenty of Beatles songs, and the audience would have loved it. But we just thought that it’s not down to what the audience loves, even though that’s part of it. It’s down to what we’re trying here, and we’re trying to make a band called Wings. And it’s just got to do its own thing, even though there’s this legendary past that I was connected with.”
