Old Beatle Looks at His New Career (1976)

 Old Beatle Looks at His New Career

By Brad Balfour

The Cincinnati Post

May 28, 1976

    Paul McCartney denied Time magazine's suggestion in the recent cover story on him that he was afraid of snipers. McCartney cleared the air about this in an interview backstage after his appearance at Riverfront Coliseum with his new group, Wings. 

    "Snipers? I'm not afraid of them. Unfortunately, Time magazine writes its own articles, and I don't write them. I actually didn't say that, but the researchers think it's true. I've got my idea where they got it from. I was just on stage joking, saying to someone, 'Oh, this is it', and I was joking, and there was probably some Time magazine researcher just lurking about."

     Paul's wife, Linda, suggested this would make the situation bigger, saying, "That's sick, because it starts you asking questions about a fantasy that isn't, and then you write about it, and then everybody starts to know about something that isn't."

     To that, McCartney added, "Let's not make it any bigger, folks, it's just a mistake."

     If anything else, the McCartneys strive to be just natural folks (even down to Linda's unshaven legs) and downplay the sensational, but the sensational can't be helped, considering the significance of former Beatle McCartney's return to touring with Wings. The significance that carries a $50 million price tag for a one-time Beetle reunion.

     Was Paul insulted at such commercial value being placed on their creativity? "It's not an insult. I just think it's life. Before that, Sid Bernstein made a couple of offers, though not quite as seriously. They were big offers, but this fellow has just made a massively huge offer. I don't think it's a real offer at all, but even if it were, it's nothing that the four of us would want to do at this time. That's not because of any lousy reason; it's just not anything anyone is interested in."

     For Paul and Linda, Wings is just fine. They are filming a couple of the shows and plan to do a live record, as Paul says, "If it's good enough." Wings is being defined with this tour, just as the McCartneys are relaxed and unassuming, Paul in his Hawaiian shirt, and Linda in her simple jacket and muslin skirt.

     The show is assertive with rock energy. The band comes through completely live and is still uncertain on the recordings --that has been said. "I think it's true to an extent. I think it will be remedied with the next recordings we do. I think it does come across stronger on stage. All the live things do," McCartney said.

     The McCartneys' approach to the live show has been simple and direct, having let it develop naturally. "We could do a lot more slower numbers, but the truth is this is what we ended up with after a few weeks of thinking about it. It's what we like to play. We just put it into order, and the nice thing about that is that when we've got a show around it, it all seems to mean something. We just take a bunch of songs in order and go up and sing them, but it all comes out as a show."

     Does live performance influence work in the studio? "Sometimes you think about that, but sometimes you think, well, however, we're making a record, and that shouldn't be the consideration. We're trying to make an audio trip, so maybe we'll want to do something we wouldn't be able to get, but mind you, we're able to get stuff most of the time. 

    "If you work with tapes, you can get anything. We use a Mellotron, on which you can have sound effects that simulate strings. It's a keyboard instrument. You hit a key, and any given tape will click for you; you can select all kinds of things."

     Linda added, "On 'Live and Let Die,' the strings are actually a keyboard, or on 'Silly Love Songs'. I've got some great sound effects, Bugs Bunny's on the tape. You can switch to a keyboard with sound effects, and you have 40 sound effects to choose from."

     "So we use those in the shows as sort of links," Paul said. "I'm successful at the moment, which is great, but I think the others all make very good music. It all depends when they want to do it. At the moment, we're touring, so it looks very consistent, but if we take three months off and John has got out a new  one or  George, everyone looks that way."

     Finally, I asked Paul if he was weary of questions about the Beatles. "It depends what kind of questions. If they harp too much on the sort of legendary bit, I mean it's a bad vibe question. I'm weary of those."