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Paul McCartney & Wings / Wild Life 50th anniversary half-speed mastered vinyl

Limited half-speed available via SDE

Wings’ first album Wild Life was released 50 years ago today and Universal Music/MPL have announced that, like with the McCartney and RAM albums, a 50th anniversary half-speed mastered vinyl edition will be issued in February next year.

The album was recorded quickly at Abbey Road Studios in the summer of 1971 and produced by Paul McCartney and engineered by Alan Parsons and Tony Clark. Wild Life features no UK singles and it’s fair to say that it has a reputation for being a little bit lazy and loose in places (primarily thanks to the two opening tracks ‘Mumbo’ and ‘Bip Bop’), although over the years its reputation has improved somewhat and there’s undoubtedly some great material here, including the title track, ‘Dear Friend’ and ‘Some People Never Know’.

The 50th anniversary half-speed mastered Wild Life

The album was cut at half speed at Abbey Road Studios “using a high resolution transfer of the original 1971 master tapes” and includes a special OBI-strip. This edition is exclusive to indie retail and I’m pleased to say that the SDE shop has a limited allocation and we are also offering a specially-priced bundle which pairs the new vinyl with the recent Press to Play at 35 booklet (which is an SDE-exclusive publication).

The Wild Life half-speed mastered vinyl will be released on 4 February 2022. Pre-order via SDE using this link or the buttons below.

Tracklisting

Wild Life Paul McCartney & Wings / 50th anniversary half-speed mastered vinyl

    • Side A
      1. Mumbo
      2. Bip Bop
      3. Love Is Strange
      4. Wild Life
    • Side B
      1. Some People Never Know
      2. I Am Your Singer
      3. Tomorrow
      4. Dear Friend

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46 Comments

46 thoughts on “Paul McCartney & Wings / Wild Life 50th anniversary half-speed mastered vinyl

  1. hi paul . happy beleated birthday. many more to come i am sure. also in passing alot of us would be lost with out your outasite site. congraulations to SUPER DELUXE EDITIONS for being there/here when we need to chat.

  2. Da na na na na nah nah na “They say it’s your birthday!”
    Da na na na na nah nah na “I’m glad it’s your birthday!”
    Da na na na na nah nah na “Happy birthday to you!”

  3. I’d always heard such bad reviews about Wild Life that I’d never previously bought it until the reissue a few years ago. Imagine my surprise when I realised how great it was. Now it’s firmly one of my favourite Macca albums.

    1. I think that both Ram and Wings Wild Life were subject to the “get Macca” campaign around the early 70s because of the Paul broke up The Beatles theory (along with the “blame Yoko” stance, which Lennon never really recovered from in his lifetime). Seemingly, people grudgingly accepted Red Rose Speedway, but it took Band On The Run to put him back in the “good books”.

      1. I’ll agree with you about ‘Ram,’ but I never had too much affection for ‘Wild Life.’ However, in the context of his career, it’s an interesting album and has it’s charms. And now to quote “Mumbo”:

        “Waaaaaaaaaaa my dop m per dub, nit bick in do break hum.”

  4. this reissue of the wings /macca sets is outa hand ,who do they think is gonna buy this ? ….. hard core fans only … no one new to his music will even know about this lp. there is only limted income for cds/box sets etc for many of us collectors. half speed record of a half baked record.

  5. I presume that with the tartan trousers that the cover is shot in kintyre that’s where they would have been living in 1971, I’m on the Glasgow to campbeltown run for the next 5 weeks with work really really stormy today in campbeltown I was lucky to get there alive!!!

    1. The OBI-strip is the green thing on the left of the main image with the writing on. It’s not printed on the sleeve, it’s a Japan-style piece of paper that wraps around the vinyl sleeve. No difference in product between bundle and non-bundle! Hope that helps.

  6. £35 for a single LP. Good god. I just preordered Wet Leg’s debut LP including cd and signed print for £32 so you can’t be telling me that vinyl costs that much to manufacture.

    Paul M and whichever label are chucking this out, you’re a robbing bunch of [insert appropriate expletive].

    And it’s not up to the individual whether they choose to buy these items or not. For many many people they’re simply too expensive. Let’s face it is just a bloody record at the end of the day. When you see how much plastic comes for free when you buy anything else it really makes you wonder.

    1. I just tweeted about this earlier today. £35 is unfortunately going to become the new normal next year for major label vinyl reissues, because the dealer prices are going up massively. I’m talking more than 200% in some cases! I kid you not.

      1. Well that will stop most casual buyers of vinyl from purchasing I would think. Wonder if that’s rising cost of production or greedy record companies.. Let’s hope CD reissues come back on the agenda, if it’s the cost of production.

      2. Bloody hell! £35 becomes the norm for a reissue! Thank God I’ve spent the last few years catching up on what I missed, cos I won’t be paying out £35.
        Last week I ordered The Beatles 2012 remaster of Let It Be from HMV for £24, (which still hasn’t arrived Black Friday fans) and thought that was enough. After listening to the Let It Be box set, I want to be able to hear the songs as I remember them, overbearing strings and all; but at £35 I would have passed. Puts the price of the Bowie vinyl box into different perspective!

      3. So if £35 is the new norm for vinyl pricing in 2022, I’ve two thoughts:

        Thank heavens for the cd, long may it survive.

        Is my collection going to jump in value? The collection that I’ve never sold a thing from (yet) could one day be my financial salvation!

        1. I agree with you Quante as I too hope my vinyl collection will be my financial salvation. Also as someone who has stood selling some of his collection at record fairs I have knowledge of when the optimum time was to sell my Prince picture discs & Freddie Mercury vinyl etc.

          Some collectors do not wish to face the question, ‘who owned that second hand record’ before me? As there will be a tipping point where there will be more sellers than buyers, which is the case with Elvis Presley & other Legacy Acts.

          If £35 is the new norm for 1 new vinyl LP HMV will look cheap with their 2 LP’s for £40 offer, although a lot of these vinyl LP’s can be purchased for less at your local record fair or online + the ££ $$ Postage costs.

      4. I have been trying to stop buying vinyl only half-succesfully, but this will help (along with the trend of not including download codes on mainstream releases). I could get about 15 CDs from musicmapgpie for the price of one LP.
        Now, my next issue is I have a new Mac, which doesn’t have a cd player, and CDs are even less likely to have download codes :/

    2. I don’t agree. What’s the (expletive, if preferred) problem ? If it is too much, don’t buy it. It’s the principle of demand-to-price. Of course, it’s up to the individual to buy or not to buy. If it wouldn’t be, then it is called ‘addiction’, with a big A. I’m flabbergasted with this all-consuming desire to want to own something so badly. It seems so joyless: it’s the perfect recipe for unhappiness, with a small U.

    1. Good question. They do seem to have stopped those now and seem to be working through these half-speeds. I wouldn’t rule out them returning, but hopefully next year we’ll get a full blown archive release reissue (London Town and Back to the Egg, with any luck).

    1. Half speed remasters really are impressive.
      I have several & the sound difference over the original vinyl is on another level. Of course a lot depends on what system you play them on.
      Given the choice I’d go HS every time…….the price. Now that’s entirely up to you.

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