You may name it Paul McCartney’s model of the planets suite. Venus and Mars, launched on May 27, 1975, was the album with which Wings rose admirably to the massive problem of following Band On The Run. Such was the group’s ever-expanding recognition that it not solely topped the charts on each side of the Atlantic, however led to a worldwide tour that went on for a 12 months.
The first periods for Venus and Mars occurred in November 1974, lower than a 12 months after the discharge of its predecessor, which was persevering with its multi-platinum recognition on the time. After the trials and tribulations of their recordings for Band On The Run in Lagos, Nigeria, the preliminary periods at Abbey Road would characteristic a newly augmented line-up. Paul and Linda McCartney and Denny Laine had been now joined by lead guitarist Jimmy McCulloch and drummer Geoff Britton.
In London, the five-piece laid down “Letting Go,” “Love In Song,” and “Medicine Jar.” But a deliberate new 12 months journey to New Orleans, for periods at Sea Saint Studios, was dealt one other blow by Britton’s sudden departure. New Yorker Joe English arrived as a swift substitute and, apparently unperturbed, Wings spent a extremely productive month within the Crescent City finishing what grew to become one other rewarding album.
Just forward of the LP launch, the uplifting “Listen To What The Man Said” arrived as an apparent first single and an irresistible hit. It reached No.1 in America and Canada and went Top 10 in lots of different nations, together with the UK. Tom Scott enhanced the highly effective melody and harmonised vocals with a memorable soprano saxophone solo, whereas former Traffic member Dave Mason added guitar.
Venus and Mars was a file with one thing for everybody, from the rocking riffs of “Venus and Mars/Rock Show” and “Call Me Back Again,” through the spoof Twenties-style love music “You Gave Me The Answer” to the McCulloch/Colin Allen composition “Medicine Jar.” There was even a short, closing instrumental model of the theme from the long-running British TV cleaning soap opera Crossroads, which was featured on the present for some time.
McCartney and Mardi Gras
“We went down to New Orleans in search of a musical town and the weather,” defined McCartney to Melody Maker because the album was launched. “And then we came upon Mardi Gras was on whereas we had been there. I’d written a lot of the stuff earlier than we received there, and Jimmy had written one of many tracks with a mate of his.
“We’d been in Jamaica before we went to New Orleans and for the first time ever, I’d got all the songs together,” he went on. “I wrote it all out and stuck it all together like a scroll that went from here to the end of the room. So I had all that together and we just turned up and started recording.”
Ousting Captain Fantastic
The album entered the UK chart at No.3 earlier than spending the primary of two non-consecutive weeks at No.1, in a run of 14 weeks within the Top 10. In the US, the place Venus and Mars was one other million-seller, it had every week on the summit in July, changing Elton John’s Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy.
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So harmonious was the brand new band line-up that, in September 1975, Wings set out on the Wings Over The World tour, which performed 65 dates in North America, Europe and Oceania and didn’t finish till October of the next 12 months.
Buy or stream Venus and Mars.