Red Rose Speedway - Production

Production

In early 1972, McCartney decided to expand Wings to a five-piece band, by adding an additional guitarist, and to begin touring with the group. The group spent many months on the road across Europe, beginning with a tour of British universities, and continuing in the summer in bigger European venues - where Paul and wife Linda McCartney would encounter their first of several marijuana busts over the ensuing years. Both tours were bookended by Red Rose Speedway's long string of studio sessions, which started that March in Los Angeles and finished in London that October.

Despite not releasing an album in 1972, the first year of his professional career that McCartney had failed to do so, Wings managed to release three singles: "Give Ireland Back to the Irish" which was banned by the BBC for political reasons; an updated rendition of the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb;" and "Hi, Hi, Hi" which was banned by the BBC for drug references (McCartney explains this on the commentary portion of the video on the "McCartney Years" DVD) and backed with "C Moon" on the b-side. Consistent with the practice of the early Beatles, none of those songs were included on the album.

Red Rose Speedway was initially planned as a double album, and McCartney decided to include some unreleased songs that had originally been recorded during the Ram sessions prior to the formation of Wings. Two of those songs, "Get On the Right Thing" and "Little Lamb Dragonfly," eventually appeared on the final album, which was held up a further six months before appearing as a single record. It featured a 12-page booklet stapled into the gatefold featuring pictures from the Wings tours. Its cover design—with the cover shot of a Harley-Davidson shovelhead engine by Linda McCartney—was by Eduardo Paolozzi, while the back cover of the album contains a Braille message of "We love ya baby" for Stevie Wonder. McCartney also decided to rename the group as "Paul McCartney & Wings" (instead of just "Wings"), as he felt the prior Wild Life album failed to generate sales due to most of the buying public not knowing it featured McCartney.

In March 1973 "My Love" was released as the lead single for the album, and became a UK Top 10 hit and McCartney's second US #1. It raised expectations for the album, which shot to #5 in the UK when it appeared and went to #1 in the US. "Live and Let Die", the title song to the James Bond film of the same name, was recorded during the sessions for this album, but would be released on the Live and Let Die soundtrack album rather than here.

The original compact disc version contained three bonus tracks: "I Lie Around," "Country Dreamer," and "The Mess." In 1993, Red Rose Speedway was remastered and reissued on CD as part of "The Paul McCartney Collection" series with "C Moon," "Hi, Hi, Hi," the b-side to "My Love" "The Mess," the b-side to "Live and Let Die" "I Lie Around" as bonus tracks. "Country Dreamer" was later added to the Band on the Run 1993 reissue.

The album cover was designed by Scottish artist Eduardo Paolozzi