Love you every day, girl, always on my mind, one thing I can say, girl...is that I'm (over two weeks late--Jesus H., what the hell am I doing with my time?) late again....
Alas, my introduction to this week's song was little more than its release in 1974. I will say, though, that it came out when I was first becoming enamored of pop music, when I would listen to the radio for hours waiting to hear a current fave, much like this week's tune....
After the Beatles (he gives a link, even though the most technologically inept person in the world could find out just about anything about the band) break-up, Paul McCartney (ditto this link) recorded two solo albums before starting another band, Wings, which he would remain with for the next ten years (1971-1981). I think it's often overlooked, as whatever McCartney has done has pretty much been credited to, well, McCartney, that he was actually in two bands. Not much more to add--it's Paul McCartney for Christ's sake--though I did write about a song of his in Vol. CCCIII, as well as two Beatles' songs (here and here), and one absolutely incredible Beatles' album. And, in the immortal words of Forrest Gump, that's all I have to say about that.
"Jet" was the first single released from Wings' third album, the rather elusively named Band on the Run. The single would hit #7 (with a bullet!) in the U.S., and also in the U.K. (coincidence or lucky roll of the dice?). The album hit number one in each nation.
Fun Fact: [Blogger's Aside: Any of my loyal readers (all three of you) who are devotee's of lyrics may want to skip this week's fact.] "Jet" got its title from either a dog (original McCartney claim) or a horse (later McCartney claim). Regardless, it has nothing to do with the song, which is about McCartney meeting his future wife's father, who was something of a hardass and didn't much care for pop stars (I know--he was a fucking Beatle! Give it a rest!). Also, the word "suffragette," which appears several times in the song, has nothing to do with anything--McCartney thought it was a goofy word and liked the way it sounded.
From it's in your face blasting horns beginning with the band shouting "Jet!" in tandem, McCartney and Wings take us on a magical journey that reminds us yet again how unbelievably good the music of the seventies was. Plenty of 'ooh-ooh-ooh's," a stellar vocal performance from McCartney, and rock-solid rocking from the band. A couple of points: First, it's easy to forget, especially with how many ballads or soft rock tunes McCartney did as he career progressed, that McCartney could flat out rock with the best of them. Second, with the amount of weak tunes McCartney released in his later years (with a few exceptions), sometimes it's also easy to forget that he also had a hell of a solo career. There were a lot of smiles this week as I listened to it, as well as a lot of shaking my head as to just how great of a song it was. Suffragette!
Lyric Sheet: "Jet, with the wind in your hair of a thousand laces/Climb on the back, and we'll go for a ride in the sky.."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump,
Peace,
emaycee
