‘London Town’: How Wings perfectly captured yacht rock
There’s a certain stigma that comes from music that falls under the ‘yacht rock’ category. Although there are some fantastic albums that have been released under that moniker, it’s hard to look at any artist from that era of pop music without thinking of them clad in leisure suits, wearing thick sunglasses at two in the afternoon, having already been slightly buzzed at ten in the morning. It can be more than a little bit trashy and downright cringy in some places, but Paul McCartney actually managed to stick the landing pretty well when he found himself in the middle of the genre.
By the time yacht rock started blowing up, though, Macca had already conquered the world for a second time. Wings seemed to be the last band that anyone thought would be the go-to Beatles solo project during the Wild Life years, but after the one-two punch of Band on the Run and Venus and Mars, people were willing to see McCartney take his material to stadiums around the world and maybe even hearing a few Beatles tunes in the mix as well.
While Wings at the Speed of Sound was the most collaborative album the band had made yet, with every single member singing, it wasn’t enough to save the band from imploding a few months after it was released. No matter, though. When Wings was relegated to Paul, Linda, and Denny Laine, they came up with Band on the Run, so London Town could have been a way for them to do it all over again.
Despite their high hopes, the album barely reached the same sales figures as their previous record, and listening to the lead-off single, ‘With A Little Luck’, it’s clear to see why. Fans weren’t ready to hear McCartney go back to something this poppy, much less a version that went on for over five minutes. If they bothered going through the rest of the record, this was the best possible scenario when it came to making yacht rock.
And the first word of that genre description isn’t by accident. During most of the recording, the band had spent time putting things together on an actual yacht, and it’s easy to hear that breezy feeling on a handful of the tracks. The title track starts things off well enough, and there are some catchy tunes like ‘Cafe on the Left Bank’, but the album works best when it fully commits to the idea, with ‘Children Children’ and ‘Famous Groupies’ sounding like the rock and roll equivalent of a sea chanty.
When it does fall into the idle sins of yacht-rock, though, it’s hardly a bad thing. There’s admittedly not a ton of rock to be found amidst the tracks, but it doesn’t need to, either. This is meant to be the kind of record for people to have a good time listening to, and when it does decide to bring in some rock instruments like on ‘Name and Address’, you can hear Macca having fun as he tries on his best Elvis Presley voice.
But the most impressive parts of the album have to do with them taking things to both extremes. ‘I’m Carrying’ is one of the simplest songs that McCartney ever wrote, and yet it sounds absolutely beautiful as he picks away on the high strings of his guitar. And when they get into full-on whimsy on ‘Morse Moose and The Grey Goose’, the production captures the energy of McCartney’s Beatle days taken to its zaniest conclusion, as if they’re trying to soundtrack some epic action movie that doesn’t exist.
Even though yacht-rock is far from the most celebrated genre in the world, London Town is a great case for it being a genre worth remembering. Everyone might have fond memories of listening to this music as they drink mimosas and unironically lower their shades to look cool, but when all the other Beatles were going through some rough patches in their solo careers, McCartney reminded us that this genre could also be a lot of fun.
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