Wings performed a version of Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Richard Cory’ during their Wings Over The World Tour in 1975-6.
Written by Paul Simon, it first appeared on the duo’s second album, 1965’s Sounds Of Silence. It is based on an 1897 Edwin Arlington Robinson poem, also titled ‘Richard Cory’:
Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
“Good-morning,” and he glittered when he walked.And he was rich – yes, richer than a king –
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.
Denny Laine sang lead vocals on Wings’ version, with backing vocals by Paul and Linda McCartney.
A recording from the final Wings Over The World Tour date, on 23 June 1976, at the Forum in Los Angeles, can be heard on the live album Wings Over America.
