The 20th of February 1972
Official U.K. Singles Chart results from Sunday the 20th to Saturday the 26th of February 1972
Cut-off for sales figures was up to the end of Saturday the 19th of February
Results counted from Sunday the 20th,
announced on Tuesday the 22nd,
and broadcast on B.B.C. Radio 1 on Sunday the 27th of February 1972.
Wings
Give Ireland Back To The Irish
At No.49, on the the U.K. Top 50 Singles Chart the day I am born, is Wings with “Give Ireland Back To The Irish”.
Two and a half years before…
…but now what….?
at some point, that thought must have tormented James Paul McCartney.
He’d decided to take himself, and his young family, away from everything.
He needed to, for his own sanity.
The next few months would be a recovery time like no other.
Those moments, at that time, were probably the closest he came to a nervous breakdown.
And, if things had got much worse, he could well have become a new member of the fated ’27 Club’. Giving credence to the myth that had been circulating for the past few years that Paul was indeed dead.
Thank goodness for Linda, for Heather, for new baby Mary, and of course, for his dear old english sheepdog Martha.
Linda would later recall to friends that this point was one of the most challenging of her life.
While everyone else in the old band had moved on, Paul was still getting used to the vaccuum that they had left behind.
With no future that he could envisage,
…and no plan, and (while the mess of the business side of things was being thrashed out), no money either, the weather outlook in Paul’s head during that Autumn would look incredibly bleak.
His only saving grace was the love of his new family, who were struggling through with him, never leaving his side. And so, with soft but solid encouragement from his new wife to look after him, he somehow found the strength in his soul to do the only thing he knew.
Where once upon a time, he’d been ensconced in the high energy which had been swinging London, he now found himself living in seclusion, about as far away from city living as he had the strength to manage at that point, at a timber yard at High Park in Campbeltown, on the outer reaches of western Scotland.
He was also having to dip into Linda’s savings for the family to live day to day.
It would be this environment, this dire financial situation, and with the storm swirling in his tortured head’s alcohol infused abyss, where he’d attempt somehow to begin to create a new musically creative road of his own.
And slowly. Very slowly…
Paul would begin to sing again.
Since heading back to London at the very end of the 1960’s for Christmas,..
…the first weeks of the new decade would see Paul begin his first solo project in earnest.
Initially tentative (which he would describe as “a Studer [4 track tape machine], one mic, and nerve”), he began to pick up instuments, play something directly onto tape, pick up another, play and record that, mould, sculpt. Make something new.
Gradually, over the next few months, studio time would be booked, the project would be gently nurtured, until it was finally time to release it out into the world.
A step into the unknown. Paul’s first solo experiments were set free, to fly, or fall.
Still unsure of his own beliefs,..
…reeling from the huge negativity from a misjudged self produced press release (which he’d issued as part of the promotional material for this first album of entirely his own work), and unadvisedly taking on other people’s judgements and suggestions, Paul and the family went back up to High Park during the summer of 1970 to work on the farm and listen to a few Reggae records Linda had picked up (which were filtering through the country at the time), that she absolutely adored.
Fresh music to listen to. Fresh air and sun in Scotland. Paul began to feel alive again.
Another bonus was that money owed to Paul was finally starting to drip through, and so they decided to not just listen to the records, but to fully immerse themselves in the lifestyle as well. The family needed a proper holiday, and so they packed up and jetted off to Jamaica.
A little while later, and back in Scotland,..
…the family relaxed into a farm life existence, riding horses, and making more music.
With the first year of the new decade coming to a close, and Paul ready to record again, he decided to officially bring Linda fully on board, crediting her on the planned next LP (which would end up causing another upset back in London).
Flying the family off again, this time to Linda’s familiar scenery of New York, Paul and his wife began work on the project, which would begin to take shape as a more cohesive album, due to Paul’s prior decision that, rather than playing everything himself, he’d opt to seek out other musicians, which would at this point start with a session guitarist, and also a drummer (the latter who’d arrive in the form of Denny Seiwell), to play on the new record.
Returning to England prior to the album’s launch, a standalone single was produced and released. A tune Paul had been playing with during the ‘Get Back / Let It Be’ recording sessions in his old life, back in January 1969. Just like the forthcoming album, the single would be credited to both himself and his wife Linda.
He would end up releasing the song in early 1971, a year and a day before I’d turn up in the world.
The furore regarding the addition of Linda to the credits…
…although some would say petty, made sure lawyers on both sides had a reason for making themselves a living.
The result at the end of it sealed a new record deal, encompassing both Mr and Mrs McCartney, for the majority of the 1970’s.
The new (and much more polished) album by Paul and Linda, although ridiculed just as much as his previous solo effort the year before, by the majority of the music press and once close friends, managed to perform strongly nevertheless, which sent it high into the charts.
In the U.K., the only single issued from the album itself was released in the late summer to try and maintain album sales momentum.
A different release from both the U.S. and mainland Europe (which both had various amounts of success with their respective singles). “The Back Seat Of My Car” would take the bronze medal for the British in the competition, peaking at a lowly No.39.
The silver…
…would end up going to the European contender “Eat At Home”, which would achieve the Top 10 in some territories, including Holland and Norway.
Ultimately,..
…it would be the U.S. which would take the gold medal with the single “Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey”.
Not only hitting No.1 in that country, but also Canada and New Zealand too.
Gold would also be the record award he’d gain for selling over one million units, and he’d also pick up a Grammy for it too.
With a huge feeling of justification for his efforts on his and Linda’s collaborative presentation,..
It was time for Paul to ask his lady wife if she would be prepared to not only record with her husband, but also go on tour as part of a band.
The reasoning for this request was, to put it simply, he couldn’t bear to be away from his family.
It was their constant love and presence that now powered his drive to compose after all.
If it hadn’t been for the presence of them in his life over the past couple of years, who knows where he’d be.
The old process of Daddy going away for months at a stretch, leaving his wife and family to stay back and wait for his return, was now unthinkable.
Paul’s new thinking process would be a travelling family, home educating the children, where Mum and Dad would perform in the evening, and be back with the children immediately afterwards, wherever they may be.
Linda had a natural aptitude for rhythm, she would just need to familiarise herself with the more technical, but simple, musical basics. Learn a few chords here, sing some backing vocals there, but most importantly, be with her husband.
After some contemplation (and probably some twinkly eys from Paul), she agreed, as long as he would look after her. And look after her, he would.
With new family friend Denny happy to stay on…
…after his drumming on the sessions for the “Ram” album, Paul now looked for a more permanent guitarist to partner himself out front.
This would eventually lead to Paul teaming up with another Denny.
Denny Laine (a stage name for Birmingham born Brian Hines), who had created his moniker after his nickname at school (Denny), and his sister’s pop idol Frankie (Laine), had long been a friend of Paul’s, going way back to 1964, when Denny had fronted the first incarnation of the Moody Blues, and had scored their own U.K. No.1 hit at the end of that year with “Go Now”.
Since then, he’d gone to to collaborate with other musicians, creating a couple of groups, namely the ‘Electric String Band’, and then ‘Balls’, both of which didn’t quite reach successful fruition.
He also became a songwriter (for which one of his compositions will appear, further up this very chart), and it was while Denny was in between jobs (so to speak) that he got the call from Paul to ask if he would like to join the band.
With the new band set up,..
…they convened at the recently set up ‘Rude’ studios, at their Scottish home in the late summer of 1971, to record their first album.
However, after a month, the main two essential members of the new group had more pressing issues to contend with.
Over the summer, the McCartneys had been expecting their next child together, and by September, the time had come to meet their new arrival. But there were now complications, which were putting both mother and baby’s lives at risk.
Feeling helpless, Paul was left alone while the drama unfolded.
It was at this point, praying for his family, that the vision of angel’s wings appeared in his subconscious.
Once their new baby daughter Stella was eventually delivered safely, and her mummy was making a recovery, the thought of the wings remained in Paul’s head.
Seeing this as a positive sign, he decided to call the new family-led group ‘Wings’. Partly due to the experience that bore a happy ending, and partly due to the wings he envisioned always providing shelter over them, protecting the family and the band.
After a couple of months,..
…to let Linda convalesce, and bond with her new baby, the McCartney’s decided to then publicly celebrate their new group, and to look forward to the band’s debut album, which was due to be released a month later, with a ‘ball’ at the Empire Ballroom in London.
For the recorded feel of the upcoming album, Paul’s idea was to attempt to only pass through a few takes of each track to try and capture some of the raw spontaneity, similar to the recording process he initially tried to steer the old band to achieve with the ‘Get Back’ sessions a few years before. And if the old band weren’t willing to collectively go through with it, then his new band would.
But although the party itself went down well, the resulting feeling from the critics, when the LP eventually released a month later, was less welcoming. A reaction that Paul was unfortunately getting used to by this point.
The family therefore decided, instead of fighting the tide, to close the year of 1971 by flying off to see Linda’s family in New York for Christmas, and maybe try and see some old friends.
There was a chance, also around this time, that a single was going to be released to help boost the album’s awareness, with promotional copies sent to all the relevant players.
However, the panning that the album was subjected to, sealed the fate of the single “Love Is Strange” (a reggae tinged re imagining of the 1957 song by Mickey and Sylvia) and the release would ultimately be shelved.
Instead, the honour of the first official single from Wings…
…would not be picked from the current album, but be a reactionary new piece, motivated by harrowing reports that were coming from over the Irish Sea.
In Northern Ireland, what had previously been envisioned as a peaceful installation of British Troops to protect innocent civilians from any possible escalations of discriminating behavior , had recently turned to deadly chaos. With one British Army regiment in particular, quite literally getting away with mass murder.
Tensions had recently escalated in Northern Ireland,..
…due to constant manipulation of elections (known as gerrymandering), which had been going on for at least 50 years.
With a great many people being penalised in life, due to their faith, the segregation had shown no remorse, since the official partitioning of the northern territories in the country had taken place back in the early 1920’s, leading to areas (Derry being just one particular county), becoming castigated and turning into one of the poorest, and highest unemployed areas, and with little support available from the British Government.
In an attempt to quell the rising rate of rioting, the U.K. decided to ferry in the army as peacekeepers until these tensions could be amicably solved with words, not actions.
The tipping point came when it was decided to bring in ‘internment without trial’ under a codename the British army called Operation Demetrius. This basically meant that they could put anyone in a prison cell if they thought they posed a threat by being a member of the army of the Irish Republic (the IRA for short).
Those who decided which people were to be thrown into a cell, didn’t have to justify their actions, didn’t have to go through the courts. There were no fair trials required.
Guilty or not guilty, if the army thought you might be, they had the power to send you down.
Although the Northern Irish Prime Minister had ordered no more public protests,..
…back on the 18th of January of this new year of 1972, which were meant to go through into 1973, the people were having none of it, and (after marching a few days after the ban was put in place, to one of the new internment camps which the army had set up, that culminated in some civilians being so badly beaten by the army, even their own officers tried to restrain them), the protesters decided to hold another peaceful protest. This time on Sunday, the 30th of January, which began as a beautiful crisp blue sunny day.
Although the parade was promised to be peaceful, there were those with high tension who would throw stones, rocks, anything they could get their hands on, to hurl at the soldiers behind barricades and barbed wire, who were blocking the route which had been planned.
However, the soldiers were on strict instructions (due to the promise that this would be a peaceful protest with no actual weapons assured from the protesters), that no bullets were to be fired. Only the use of batons, rubber bullets, and water canons, to dispell and divert any troublemakers. And if any civilians displayed such aggravating behaviour, the army was assured that they could arrest and intern those people later on. It was to be called ‘Operation Forecast’.
The protest began peacefully, with up to 15,000 participants joining the march, but due to the army putting blockades on the previously planned route, the protesters thus were forced to reroute and the crowd stewards decided to finish the march at Derry Corner instead of Guildhall Square, which passed a couple of housing estates. And this is where events turned murderous.
When the protesters passed by a derelict building,..
…and they noticed paratroopers keeping watch 3 floors up, some stayed back and decided to throw stones at them. And it was at this point where those paratroopers, against orders, exchanged stones with real bullets.
Although, these rioters were shot, they kept their lives. However, worse was to come further along the route.
The army broke free from behind their own barricades, and began running down the rioters, but having gone too far, eventually pushed into the peaceful civilians, running a couple over in the process with their armoured vehicles.
Others throwing stones in the open, in broad daylight, at soldiers who were behind a wall, got shot and killed.
The panic of hearing gunfire started a stampede, as everyone was trying to run away into one of the housing estates. One person, running next to a priest was shot in the back as he tried to flee.
In the other housing estate, people were trying to escape through the car park when they were headed off by the army who then shot 4 more dead.
When the first bodies were picked up by the paratroopers, they roughly handled them by the arms and legs and unceremoniously flung them into the back of an army truck like carcasses of meat.
One brave man, who was cowering with a group of others, and could see someone wounded out in the open, got out a white handkerchief as an act of surrender and peace, and decided to try and go and help the person, waving his white flag as he made his way over to him. He was summarily shot in the back of the head and killed instantly.
In all, out of the 26 protesters…
…who were shot by the British army, half of those were killed on the day, with a fourteenth dying a few months later from his wounds.
Out of the thirteen killed:
- Seven of them were under 20 years old. Six of those only aged 17.
- Six out the thirteen were also shot in the back as they were trying to run away. One of those was trying to crawl on his hands and knees to safety.
- Another, who had been headed off by a paratrooper, and immediately threw his arms in the air in an act of surrender and asked them not to shoot, was not only shot at close range and killed, but the bullet, having passed through him, fatally wounded another standing behind him too.
- One of the first to be shot, but who ended up being the 14th, and last to die a few months later from his injuries, wasn’t even on the march. He was visiting a friend nearby.
Later on, it would be ascertained that no one in the protest march had any weapon of any kind (apart from getting hold of stones and glass bottles), and that the British army used this false information, of rioters with make believe guns and other devices, as excuses to open fire.
Some members of the British armed forces even attempted to plant nail bombs on the deceased protesters, in an attempt to justify their actions, only to be later discredited once photos of the victims, prior to, or immediately after the shootings, clearly showed no such devices were being carried by them.
In all, the massacre would go down as one of the worst atrocities in British peacetime history, and would become forever branded as ‘Bloody Sunday’. The repercussions and outcomes of which, are still being felt, and dealt with, to this day; over half a century later.
Six days before these events which were to occur in Derry,..
…and to help with some lead guitar work on the upcoming first small tour of random university campuses around the country, Paul secured the talents of Henry McCullough (ironically from Northern Ireland), who, with Joe Cocker’s Grease Band, had previously performed at Woodstock, and a year later, would become the lead guitarist for Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s studio album “Jesus Christ Superstar” (which, more of that album in a separate post later on).
However, once rehearsals were completed, Paul then flew back over to New York on Saturday the 29th of January to make friends again with an old writing buddy.
24 hours later, affected by the reports he was suddenly witnessing, he was writing this new song.
Within another 2 days, flying back, Paul got the band together at Abbey Road in England to record the single. Shortly after, with the last minute overdubs, mixing, then final mastering completed within a matter of days, the single was ready to be released.
From the outset, Paul could sense that the single may fall foul of the censors, due to the sensitive topic (one which the band’s new guitarist, being an Ulster Protestant, probably felt uncomfortable even playing on, and which ultimately ended up with his brother getting glassed in the face in an Irish pub in London), so he’d attempted to pre-empt the ban, by hoping the instrumental B-side may be played instead.
Even the head of his record company told him it would be censored, and at one point refused to release it entirely. However, Paul didn’t care. He wanted to have his say, he pushed to have it released anyway, and besides, he knew that the publicity would only make the public (who to him, felt the same way about the atrocities) go out and buy it anyway.
In fact, straight after he’d recorded it, he took his new band out on the road, to random university campuses around the country, and played it to anyone who would want to listen.
When the music paper ‘Melody Maker’ eventually caught up with him, to get his reaction to the ban (which was published the day before this chart rundown) he just had this to say…
“Up them! I think the BBC should be highly praised, preventing the youth from hearing my opinions.”
…and so…
At Number 49, the first New Entry, and the first single during my lifetime which got a ban,..
…and the privilege goes to Paul McCartney’s new musical outfit, Wings.
This was the first week in the chart run where it would live for the next 8 weeks in total.
After this week, with all the publicity surrounding it, the single would first zoom up to No.21, breaking into the Top 20 the week after, as it heads into March.
By the third week of that month, it will climb to it’s peak position of No.16, before it falls back through, finally departing after the 15th of April.
As many noted at the time,..
…the song was completely out of character for the songwriter they thought they knew of old. In fact it was more in line with the attributes of his old songwriting partner.
However, this was now a new group, in a new decade, and with his new wife and family. And with all the harshness and finger pointing, and judgements he’d faced, since the break-up of his previous life, Paul was a changed man.
Out with the old, and in with the new.
Wings had taken flight.
The “A” Side
The “B” Side
Wings – Give Ireland Back To The Irish (Live Performance)
Wings – Give Ireland Back To The Irish (Live Rehearsal)
Paul McCartney & Wings – Give Ireland Back To The Irish – ABC News Broadcast – 7 March 1972
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