Just recently Paul McCartney released a cleaned up mix of One Hand Clapping, one of Wings most popular bootlegs , but what is so special about One Hand Clapping?
Wings, in their early years, was trying their best not to seem like Paul McCartney and his hired guns. There was always critique of Paul and his ego, how his perfectionist tendencies were to always make him a man alone even in a sea of those trying to help (see the McCartney trilogy as proof of this, as Paul played every instrument and sang every song on all three records), but he wanted Wings to be different. Wings struggled their way up to any sort of success, they became a singles act in the eyes of the public as opposed to revered for their great live shows or their more quirky, whimsical take on popular music. Wings was never all that serious, Mary Had A Little Lamb is proof, The Bruce McMouse Show is proof, the matching outfits were proof, but the public expected more of a former Beatle, writer Elenor Rigby, of James Paul McCartney. When they released Band on
the Run in late 1973, they were finally seen as serious contenders for rock musicians. They cut the fantastical stories (kind of, you can’t really take that from Paul McCartney after all), dropped the matching outfits, and set out to make their greatest work, one still revered as one of the greatest albums of its time. Short, sweet, and great fun, that was Band on the Run. Suddenly, Paul was seen as a serious contender once more, on par with his former bandmates and the popular music world at large. To celebrate this, in August of 1974 Wings set out to Abbey Road studios to record a TV special and live album….
… That would cease to see the light of day. The special already had ads go out but was never to be released. The live album would go on to be a widely circulated bootleg, becoming infamous amongst Wings fans in the decades following its release; the bootleg was some of the only glances of Paul in what felt like his natural habitat following the Beatles breakup before the following years sprawling tour of America. One Hand Clapping was the groundwork for Wings Over America and its concert film Rockshow, finally marking what many saw as the “return” of Paul McCartney, selling out stadiums with near universal
praise. For many of Wings first tours, they would play college shows at the insistence of Paul, who seemed to want the life of a touring musician as opposed to global superstar. It was also during this time he was very distant from his Beatles work, so One Hand Clapping was something to behold in it’s time with Paul’s renditions of Let it Be and a medley of The Long and Winding Road with Lady Madonna. The bootleg was also the first appearance of Wings star Jimmy McCulloch who would be on their next two albums to praise, and showed how well Paul, Linda, and Denny Laine had begun to mesh in a live setting. The live album was long too, almost an hour and half, twenty seven different songs. It was, understandably, a loss that Paul had chosen not to release it originally. For a few Paul McCartney Archive Collection releases an appearance of a cleaned up One Hand Clapping song appeared, in all it’s prime-Wings glory. It wouldn’t be until just June 14th of this year, nearly 50 years since the recording first happened, that it would be cleaned up in its entirety and released. The meaning of this is great for Wings, pushing a gap in their recording history closed. While Wings only existed for a little over 9 years, they’re history had been incredibly well documented. From studio albums, outtakes, singles, TV specials about animated mice, banned tours, everything about them was pretty public and easily accessible. One Hand Clapping was one of the only “buried” pieces of their history, their first attempt at a live album that had been shelved and never spoken of again within the band and their history officially. Similar to Paul McCartney’s other remasters, the album sounds great for it’s age and much better than the bootlegs that had circulated for so many years. It’s quite exciting to see such a well known bootleg get this treatment (the Stones did this in 2020 as well with The Brussels Affair), and speaks well of what to expect if his team chooses to remaster Wings final albums as well.
Wings may not have the most fond outlook in many eyes, even Paul himself is rather unsavory about the band, but if nothing else they proved time and time again to be a great and unique rock band for their time. Not copying the Beatles and never similar to their contemporaries in pop-rock, the band was unique and a breath of fresh air in a rather serious musical landscape. With the passing of Denny Laine late last year, Wings saw a bit of reconsideration to some. Their animated and outlandish approach has become understood a bit more, how to be good doesn’t equate to being all that deep. For every introspective singer songwriter hit, Wings was having the time of their lives in their own fantasy worlds. It’s important to have a little fun with art, and Wings was the definition of fun. While they were never respected when they were around, it’s nice to know they left a happy legacy to all those who think back on the little band that could.
Paul McCartney and Wings performing Soily during the One Hand Clapping sessions:
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