BEATLES MAGAZINE: HOW PAUL McCARTNEY BUILT THE IDENTITY OF ´WINGS´

Friday, 19 December 2025

HOW PAUL McCARTNEY BUILT THE IDENTITY OF ´WINGS´

Paul McCartney recently spoke about his early days with Wings on the December 19 episode of NPR's Book of the Day podcast.

Following the dissolution of the Beatles in 1970, McCartney described entering a "freer state of mind," observing that while the internal dynamics among himself, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr had been shifting, the actual split still came as a profound shock to him.

“I was trying to encourage us to go back and start from square one,” Paul McCartney said , “But in actual fact, I did that with Wings.”

Established in 1971 by McCartney, his wife Linda, and guitarist Denny Laine, Wings maintained a shifting lineup until their eventual end in 1981, during which time they achieved global sales of over 20 million albums and produced enduring classics such as “Band on the Run,” “Silly Love Songs,” and “Live and Let Die.”

“It really was like a rebirth,” McCartney said. “And then the craziest thing was my lovely wife, Linda. We would sing around the house, and I always remember thinking, ‘Wow, she's really got something. But she's completely inexperienced.'"“She was very cute. She could tell I wanted to put a band together. I said, ‘Do you wanna be in it?’ She sorta said, ‘Uh, yeah.’”

Paul also remembered trying to break away from the Beatles’ image during his early days performing with Wings.

“At the time, I thought I'm trying to make a new band here. I'm trying to do this new thing, and promoters would say, ‘Would you just please just do ‘Yesterday’?’ We said, ‘No. We're not doing it.””

“We did it that way in order to build a Wings repertoire,” McCartney continued, adding that after they released their 1973 album Band on the Run, “we had songs that the audience would recognize that were our songs.”

“I felt easier about, ‘Oh, yeah, here's a Beatles song’. So now, I interspersed them. But I felt I had to establish the identity of Wings first.” “I’m so very happy to be transported back to the time that was Wings and relive some of our madcap adventures through this book,” McCartney previously said in a statement. “Starting from scratch after The Beatles felt crazy at times. There were some very difficult moments, and I often questioned my decision. But as we got better, I thought, ‘OK this is really good.’”

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