Denny Laine – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Paul McCartney – Soily

He wrote this song in 1971 and with the Wings they played it live for years. It’s not a love ballad by Paul…it’s a rock song with the same intensity as Juinor’s Farm. In 1974 the Wings recorded an in-studio live version that they were going to release on the album One Hand Clapping. They also shot a video while they were there for a documentary.

The album was shall we say… delayed. It didn’t see the light of day until June 14, 2024…over 50 years after it was recorded. It was recorded right after Band On The Run was released. I like hearing Paul reaching for a distorted guitar in his songs. I wish he would have done more through his career. Paul could write good rock songs such as Juinor’s Farm, Jet, Let Me Roll It, and a few more.

The video portion didn’t get released until 2010 when it appeared in a box set for Band On The Run. The 4K version hit theaters in September of last year. This song didn’t get released to the public until Wings Over America. It was the B side to Maybe I’m Amazed…both versions of course live. The film was going to be Paul’s way of introducing a new Wings.

Guitar player Henry McCullough and drummer Denny Seiwell had left Wings right before the recording of the Band on the Run album. New members…guitarist Jimmy McCulloch and drummer Geoff Britton took their spots. They would use this song as an opener through the years and an encore at some shows. It’s a song that is meant to be played live and was never featured on a studio album.

The One Hand Clapping Album peaked at #10 on the UK Charts and #74 on the Billboard 100 in 2024.

Jimmy McCulloch was probably the most talented guitar player Paul ever had in Wings. He famously made it when he was 16 with Thunderclap Newman. However, he had a lot of problems. He was somewhat depressed and when he wasn’t he was drinking heavily there were many arguments between the two men and he often would target Linda for her lack of musical talent. It really came to a head around the time of London Town when Jimmy quit.

Paul McCartney: “Looking back on it [the Wings era], it’s a lot better than I thought, though some of it is just not played as well as The Beatles. My son plays a lot of Wings, so I’m re-listening, and there’s good shit that I’d forgotten about. A lot of the lyrics were off the wall, drug stimulated. Things like ‘Soily – the cat in the satin trousers says its oily’. What was I on? I think the answer is stimulants.”

Soily

One, two
One, two, three, four!

Well, people gathered here tonight
I want you to listen to me
To your left and to your right
We’ve got some pretty soily company

Readers, writers, farmer, priest
Breed controller, born deceased
Indian, lawyer, doctor, dog
And a plumber with a fattened hog

Soily, soily
Well, the cat in the satin trousers said it’s oily
Soily, soily
Well, the cat in the satin trousers said it’s oily
Yes, he did!

Well, come on, baby, that soily song
Soily people
Well, come on, baby that’s fine now
Yeah

Romans, Italians, country men
I want you to listen to me
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again
We’ve got some pretty soily company

Liars, cheaters, jungle chief
Saint, believer on relief
Action painter, Hitler’s son
And a commie with a tommy-gun

Soily, soily
Well, the cat in the satin trousers said it’s oily
Soily, soily
Well, the cat in the satin trousers said it’s oily
You know he’s right
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Ooh, yeah yeah

Well, come on, baby, that soily song
Soily people
Yeah, come on, baby, that’s going round
Yeah!

People gathered here tonight
I want you to listen to me
To your left and to your right
You’ve got some pretty soily company

Readers, writers, farmer, priest
Saint, believer on relief
Hitler’s painter, action son
And a commie with a tommy-gun

Soily, soily
Well, the cat in the satin trousers said it’s oily
Soily, soily
Yeah, the cat in the satin trousers said it’s oily
Yeah, soily, soily
Well, the cat in the satin trousers said it’s oily, yeah
Soily, soily
Well, the cat in the satin trousers said it’s oily
And you know he’s right
Ooh yeah!

…

Moody Blues – Go Now

I have always liked the song because it’s such a timeless song. This was before Justin Hayward and John Lodge joined the band.

The singer was Denny Laine who quit the Moodies in 1966 and was replaced by Justin Hayward. The Moody Blues started to open up for the Beatles in 1965. The two bands got close and Paul McCartney was a big fan of this song released the year earlier. Laine later ended up playing with Paul McCartney and Wings until 1980. During the 1976 Wings tour Paul stepped aside so Denny could sing this song.

What a mood this song creates. This was before the Moody Blues went searching for the lost chord…or evolved into an Art Rock type of band. They were just a beat group at this stage but the song’s arrangement pointed to a different direction. I would safely say this song was the most important one of their career because it broke them internationally. Without this song who knows what would have happened to them?

Ray Thomas and Justin Hayward tried singing it a few times live but as their music changed they dropped the song. The lineup that did this song was Graeme Edge (drums, backing vocals), Denny Laine (lead vocals, guitar), Mike Pinder (piano, backing vocals), Ray Thomas (backing vocals), Clint Warwick (bass, backing vocals). It was produced by Alex Murray.

The song was written by Larry Banks and Mike Milton Bennett and first released in 1964 by Bessie Banks. Her version did peak at #40 on the Cashbox R&B single charts. Bessie would be songwriter Larry Banks’s ex-wife. She said: “I remember 1963 Kennedy was assassinated; it was announced over the radio. At the time, I was rehearsing in the office of Leiber and Stoller. We called it a day. Everyone was in tears. “Come back next week and we will be ready to record ‘Go Now'”; and we did so. I was happy and excited that maybe this time I’ll make it. ‘Go Now’ was released in January 1964, and right away it was chosen Pick Hit of the Week on W.I.N.S. Radio. That means your record is played for seven days. Four days went by, I was so thrilled. On day five, when I heard the first line, I thought it was me, but all of a sudden, I realized it wasn’t. At the end of the song it was announced, “The Moody Blues singing ‘Go Now’.” I was too out-done. This was the time of the English Invasion and the end of Bessie Banks’ career, so I thought. America’s DJs had stopped promoting American artists”

The song peaked at #10 on the Billboard 100 #2 in Canada, and #1 in the UK in 1965.

Denny Laine: “It came in one of these suitcases full of records from America. This guy, James Hamilton, he was a friend of B. Mitchel Reed, who was a DJ, and he would send this stuff across. So I picked that one out especially because Mike Pinder was a piano player. (chuckles) We’d always get the gig where the piano would be out of tune and we’d get the slow handclap because they were waiting to tune the piano… (laughs) Anyway, we did ‘Go Now’ because it was a song with a piano in it.”

Go Now

We’ve already said “goodbye”
Since you gotta go, oh you’d better
Go now, go now, go now (go now, ooh)
Before you see me cry?

I don’t want you to tell me just what you intend to do now
‘Cause how many times do I have to tell you darlin’, darlin’
I’m still in love with you now
Whoa oh oh oh

We’ve already said “so long”
I don’t want to see you go, oh you’d better
Go now, go now, go now (go now, ooh)

Don’t you even try?
Tellin’ me that you really don’t want it to end this way
‘Cause darlin’, darlin’, can’t you see I want you to stay, yeah

Since you gotta go, oh you’d better
Go now, go now, go now (go now, ooh)
Before you see me cry
I don’t want you to tell me just what you intend to do now
‘Cause how many times do I have to tell you darlin’, darlin’
I’m still in love, still in love with you now
Ooh ooh ooh
I don’t want to see you go but darlin’, you better go now

…

Paul McCartney – Mull of Kintyre …Denny Laine

This song was a monster hit in the UK but did hardly anything in America. The reason I’m posting this today is because of Denny Laine. Laine, who co-wrote this song with Paul… passed away at the age of 79 on December 5th.

When you think about huge-selling singles of the 1970s…this one doesn’t come to mind unless you live in the UK. It was the highest-selling single in the UK over the entire course of the ’70s.

When they were a beat group, Denny Laine was the original singer for the Moody Blues. Their first big hit had Laine on vocals with Go Now.

The song is a tribute to the Kintyre Peninsula in Scotland where Paul and his wife Linda had a farm. McCartney initially thought the song had no chance of becoming a hit. The duo wrote the song one afternoon as they looked at the beauty of the mull while drinking a bottle of Whiskey and letting the scenery write the song.

Wings then enlisted the local Campbelltown Pipe Band who added a sprinkling of Scottish sound to the track and suddenly Wings had their unconventional Christmas song. ‘Mull of Kintyre’ would remain the highest-selling UK single until 1984 when Band-Aid would knock it off the top spot.

The farm he had (and still does) gave Paul a lot of comfort after The Beatles ended. The citizens of Campbelltown were great to him and Linda as well. There was a huge spike in visitors to Kintyre in the wake of the songs’ release which not only boosted the local economy but filled the local residents with pride in their area. After the tranquillity Kintyre provided McCartney at his lowest point, this song allowed him to finally repay the area for helping him.

The song peaked at #1 in the UK, #33 on the Billboard 100, #1 in New Zealand, and #44 in Canada. It sold over 2 million in the UK which was a record at the time beating The Beatles She Loves You over a decade before. The B-side “Girls School” did better in America and Canada than the A-side.

Paul McCartney: “I am very saddened to hear that my ex-bandmate, Denny Laine, has died, “I have many fond memories of my time with Denny: from the early days when the Beatles toured with the Moody Blues. Our two bands had a lot of respect for each other and a lot of fun together. Denny joined Wings at the outset. He was an outstanding vocalist and guitar player. His most famous performance is probably ‘Go Now,’ an old Bessie Banks song which he would sing brilliantly. He and I wrote some songs together, the most successful being ‘Mull of Kintyre’ which was a big hit in the Seventies. We had drifted apart but in recent years managed to reestablish our friendship and share memories of our times together.”

Paul McCartney: “When we finished it, all the pipers said, ‘Aye, it’s got to be a single, that.’ It was up to them, really, to do it. I thought it was a little too specialized to bring out as a single, you would have to bring out something that has something with more mass appeal…but they kept saying, ‘Oh, the exiled Scots all over the world. It’ll be a big single for them.’ Yet I still thought, ‘Yeah, well, but there’s maybe not enough exiled Scots,’ but they kept telling me, after a few drinks.”

Mull of Kintyre

Mull of Kintyre, oh mist rolling in from the sea
My desire is always to be here
Oh Mull of Kintyre

Far have I traveled and much have I seen
Darkest of mountains with valleys of green
Past painted deserts the sun sets on fire
As he carries me home to the Mull of Kintyre

Mull of Kintyre, oh mist rolling in from the sea
My desire is always to be here
Oh Mull of Kintyre

Sweep through the heather like deer in the glen
Carry me back to the days I knew then
Nights when we sang like a heavenly choir
Of the life and the times of the Mull of Kintyre

Mull of Kintyre, oh mist rolling in from the sea
My desire is always to be here
Oh Mull of Kintyre

Smiles in the sunshine and tears in the rain
Still take me back where my memories remain
Flickering embers go higher and higher
As they carry me back to the Mull of Kintyre

Mull of Kintyre, oh mist rolling in from the sea
My desire is always to be here
Oh Mull of Kintyre

George Harrison – All Those Years Ago

I remember this George Harrison song well in 1981. This song was tribute to John Lennon, who was shot and killed the year before. The song had a bouncy melody and it was originally wrote for Ringo. After Lennon was murdered George re-wrote the lyrics to show is feelings for John.

Ringo did end up playing on the track with Paul and Linda McCartney, and Denny Laine from McCartney’s band Wings. Long time Beatle producer George Martin produced this for Harrison. Geoff Emerick, one of The Beatles sound engineers, also had a hand in this tune.

This appeared on the album Somewhere In England. I bought the single and then the album. The album peaked at #11 in the Billboard Album Charts, #13 in the UK, and #14 in Canada. The song peaked at #2 in the Billboard Album Charts, #13 in the UK, and #3 in Canada in 1981.

Al Kooper: “George was in the kitchen, white as a sheet, real shook up. We all had breakfast. He took calls from Paul and Yoko, which actually seemed to help his spirit, and then we went into the studio and started the day’s work. Ray and I kept George’s wine glass full all day…”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85Smw33PKJA

All Those Years Ago

I’m shouting all about love
While they treated you like a dog
When you were the one who had made it so clear
All those years ago

I’m talking all about how to give
They don’t act with much honesty
But you point the way to the truth when you say
All you need is love

Living with good and bad
I always looked up to you
Now we’re left cold and sad
By someone the devil’s best friend
Someone who offended all

We’re living in a bad dream
They’ve forgotten all about mankind
And you were the one they backed up to the wall
All those years ago
You were the one who imagined it all
All those years ago

All those years ago
All those years ago

Deep in the darkest night
I send out a prayer to you
Now in the world of light
Where the spirit free of lies
And all else that we despised

They’ve forgotten all about God
He’s the only reason we exist
Yet you were the one that they said was so weird
All those years ago
You said it all though not many had ears
All those years ago
You had control of our smiles and our tears
All those years ago

All those years ago