Well the rain exploded with a mighty crash as we fell into the sun 
Ted Widmer’s Wings book is the sweeping post-Beatles journey of the most influential musician of our time, Sir Paul McCartney. From the trauma of the Fab Four parting ways and the former Beatle feeling “completely lost”, to forming Wings with wife Linda, hitting the road, rediscovering his voice and songwriting magic to release an endless streak of classic tunes over a six-decades-and-counting career.


Image courtesy of MPL

Here Widmer talks about his humour-filled collaboration with the living legend, why it was important for him to “do a better job by Linda” who was “often dissed by snarky critics”, McCartney’s emotional reconciliation with John Lennon, his impact on social issues, why Maybe Im Amazed is the greatest love song ever and more. He reflects on McCartney the phenomenon – his songs admired by fans and his creative forte revered by his peers too numerous to note – from Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen and Brian Wilson to Oasis, Ed Sheeran, Jacob Collier and Dave Grohl.

HG The book is beautifully designed, did you have access to McCartney’s vast archive?

TW I worked with a team that included Paul and several very capable MPL staffers in London; they had direct access to the archives. Being based in the USA I was a littles  further away but we all stayed in touch seamlessly and talked about the images.p

HG The book’s format is brilliant – you have different band mates commenting on the same events throughout which is very illuminating, but you also provide listings of the album chart and news items of the day, at any given part of the journey. This all gives priceless context

TW We did not want an omniscient narrator, we thought it would work better to have a lot of voices. We were inspired by a few other books including ‘Edie, about Edies Sedgwick, and Please Kill Me, about the punk scene of the 70’s. Also, the format worked because we had access to a big trove of interviews from the Man on the Run documentary by Morgan Neville.Although I never saw the film during the book’s prep I had all these great transcripts  of interviews and that was an important foundation for the book I could cut and paste liberally from these new interviews while occasionally going back to old interviews from the 1970s to add context

HG McCartney is the most influential musician of our time – the number of timeless classics he has crafted, his multi instrumentalism, over 65 years of world tours, his impact on culture and politics


Paul McCartney. Image courtesy of MPL.

TW I must say I do agree, I can’t think of anyone else who comes close. Michael Jackson sold zillions of records but wasn’t really a voice on social issues, Same for Prince, Madonna, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga – all fine but not really very sforward on social issues and not players of instruments, and the leaders of old concerts for social causes such as Bono and Bob Geldof art as important musically as Paul, they also are not in his league as a songwriter and a musician.

HG He is admired by the millions who love his songs and idolised by professional musicians for his creative forte – he has revolutionised bass playing and sparked the careers of generations of musicians from Knopfler, Joel and Cobain to Ed Sheeran and Billie Eilish. What makes him the phenomenon that he is? What do you think makes his music ‘magic’?

TW I think his mastery of bass is quite important, he’s so solid on his instrument that other musicians really respect him. More than solid, he has redefined the playing of bass for all time with a surprisingly lyrical touch for what was originally a heavy, plodding part of the band’s sound. But also, one must acknowledge his greatness as a singer, a songwriter and an arranger – all different things. His vocal range is astonishing- from Little Richard style rockers to tender ballads.

Similarly, we’ve seen what he can do as a songwriter, for sixty years, every possible kind of song. And without his talent as an arranger I doubt that The Beatles would have been nearly what they were; he could take a quickly expressed thought for a song, usually from John Lennon, and turn it into something eternal.


Image courtesy of MPL

HG I love how the late Linda McCartney comes across – she is genuine, fun, loving and honest, it is clear that her positivity was instrumental to McCartney and Wings. Given that she was a band member, fellow musician, wife, soul-mate and mother – was she a challenging character to portray?

TW It was important to me to do a better job by Linda. She was often dissed by snarky critics, but I felt that she was a big talent and positively essential to Wings. Both for musical reasons – her backing vocals are great, but also because she had so much courage; who among us would go out onto that stage with so little training? Plus, she just made everyone around her better, all agree that she was a great maternal presence and that means a lot to a band.

HG In Morgan Neville’s Man on the Run documentary, you hear Stella and Mary comment on the hostility towards their mum all those years ago. In the book you have fellow musicians refer to her humility – she has ‘admitted’ being there because Paul asked her and because they were in love..  that said, as noted by her band mates, she soon was a full-on member of the band – she played, sang, performed and recorded with Wings. Most importantly she was Paul’s rock.


Image courtesy of MPL

TW I can’t think of another example in the entire history of rock, of a young family going out on the road. We have a lot of fake families, like the Partridge family, The Ramones and Archies sort of pretend to be in a family. But this was the real thing, it is beautiful that they pulled it off.

HG So many moving moments in Wings’ journey – McCartney feeling ‘lost’ after the Beatles broke up, nailing the Wings winning sound, reconciling with John Lennon.. What moments stand out for you?

TW I thought it was important to begin with the trauma of the break-up. It adds depth and complexity to the triumph of Wings. It’s the slow working out of a problem, and it’s beautiful that the success of Wings does lead, as you say, to reconciliation with John and the other Beatles. I love the moments of adversity – the crazy university tour of February 1972, going from town to town in Northern England with no plan, and also the Lagos visit in 1973, in the middle of a Cholera epidemic. And there is a satisfaction to reading about the over-the-top magnificence of the 1976 Wings Over America tour. But I like the hard moments best, when they are a band proving themselves.

HG Is My Love one of the greatest love songs ever written?

TW Yes but Maybe I’m Amazed is, I think, the greatest.

HG In the film there is a striking clip of McCartney in a Liverpool pub with his dad, Linda and extended family members in the midst of a good old fashioned English sing-along. I note this because McCartney has often referred to performing, including the world’s biggest stadiums, as a good old sing – along with the audience –  ‘just me on the piano and thousands joining in..’ Is this neighbourly, family feel something that came across to you when you collaborated with the man?

TW Yes, the spirit of a family collaboration was present throughout the writing process, there was a lot of spontaneity and humour, he encouraged me to find stories that were different from the film so they would be two separate creative projects.

HG Can you share the process of putting this gem together – the initial contact, your research and collaborating with McCartney.


Image courtesy of MPL

TW It was all a profound honour. We had a great Anglo-American team. I appreciated Paul’s personal involvement, naturally, but also really enjoyed the members of his team, and their fact checking and image searching capabilities. It was just a joy. In a lot of ways, the original friendly spirit of the band was with us. Wings is a gift that keeps on giving.

HG This may well sound odd but with this book you remembered the music. It could have easily been a gushing tribute to the living legend’s legacy – but you made a point of voicing McCartney’s bandmates’ and collaborators’ take on the different songs, which provides priceless context. You created a book that avid McCartney-fans as well as professional musicians and ‘laymen’ would enjoy – this is not a given.

TW Thank you

Hannah’s credits include Quillette, The Critic, The SpectatorUS, UnHerd, Creative Review, The Guardian (Art&Design) and The Jerusalem Post among others. Hannah’s posts have been kindly retweeted and shared by Jordan Peterson, Douglas Murray, Warren Farrell, Sebastian Gorka, Will Knowland and Christina Hoff Sommers among others. Gal is a multi award winning documentary filmmaker.