Album Review—Paul McCartney and Wings, "One Hand Clapping" (Capitol)

When Paul McCartney released his first Archive Collection set in 2010—Band on the Run, often considered his greatest post-Beatles work (for me, it’s just behind Ram)—he included One Hand Clapping, a long-unseen 50-minute TV documentary from 1974 about Wings, including interviews and live performances at Abbey Road. The quality of the video and audio was lacking, but at least it was officially released (bootlegs had proliferated for awhile).

Fourteen years later, remixed by Steve Orchard, the music from One Hand Clapping gets a shiny new audio release—little can apparently be done for the video quality that was seen on the archive set—and McCartney fans can listen to this superbly played, often raw collection of live songs, comprising solo Paul, Wings, that other band he was in and a few vintage tunes.

The band—comprising Linda on keyboards and backing vocals, stalwart Denny Laine on guitar and vocals, Jimmy McCullough on guitar, Geoffrey Britton on drums and Paul on nearly everything else—begins with the percolating instrumental, “One Hand Clapping,” followed by boisterous run-throughs of Wings and solo classics “Jet,” “Maybe I’m Amazed,” “Band on the Run,” “Live and Let Die,” “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five,” “Let Me Roll It” and “Junior’s Farm.” A hard-hitting “Hi Hi Hi” closes the performance.

In between, amid several song snippets and medleys like “The Long and Winding Road”/”Lady Madonna” and “C Moon”/Little Woman Love,” Paul—either by himself or with his crack band—takes on old favorites like “Baby Face” and “Blue Moon of Kentucky” along with two hidden gems from 1971’s much-maligned Wild Life: the title track and “Tomorrow.” On his truncated solo rendition of “Let It Be,” Paul accompanies himself on harmonium, giving it a more funereal feel. Laine gets his sole lead-vocal turn with a solid take of the early Moody Blues hit, “Go Now.” 

When Paul tosses out the wittily tongue-in-cheek “I’ll Give You a Ring,” some fans might be surprised that it emerged a full eight years before it appeared as the B side of the single of “Take It Away” from Tug of War. But here it is, already fully formed, another example of Paul pulling perfect pop melodies out of thin air, then apparently sitting on them since he’s also written other memorable tunes in the meantime.

Another underappreciated classic, the taut rocker “Soily,” is best known as the incendiary encore on 1976’s Wings Over America. That Paul decided to have “Soily” climax the shows on his first world tour since leaving the Beatles shows how much faith he had in it—and his band—at the time. (Let’s forget that he hasn’t included it in his setlists since.) Although I prefer the balls-out version on Wings Over America with Paul at his screaming best, this energetic blast through it is no slouch either.

My lone quibble: If the 83-minute performance can’t fit on one CD, why not include the six additional songs from the sessions that Paul played solo versions of—’50s chestnuts “Twenty Flight Rock,” “Peggy Sue” and “I’m Gonna Love You Too” alongside the Beatles’ “Blackbird” and Paul’s “Blackpool” and “Country Dreamer”—on the CD release as well as the “special” vinyl edition? It always seems bizarre to prioritize vinyl over digital in 2024.