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With A Little Luck
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12 June 2023
3.26pm
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Joe
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‘With A Little Luck’ is the ninth song on Wings’s penultimate album London Town. It was the follow-up to their smash hit single ‘Mull Of Kintyre’. See more…

I enjoyed the chords in that, and I know we recorded it on the boat in the Caribbean when we were doing the London Town album. I have good memories of that song and its belief that things will work out. I’m playing the synth solo there. It’s one of my more hopeful little ditties.

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13 June 2023
11.23am
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sir walter raleigh
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Just going through Joe’s Wings posts giving my thoughts, hope yall don’t mind. This is another favorite of mine from Paul’s catalogue. The synth work is understated but it fits really nice and segues out of the intro in a really psychedelic way. While not traditionally psychedelic in a Syd Barret/White Rabbit kind of way, I find the late 70s glossy disco sound to be pretty trippy in certain contexts, something that the Grateful Dead realized as well and implemented beautifully during their late 70s early 80s hot streak.

While Paul doesn’t go full disco on London Town , the driving beat in four, the sweeping synths and the repetitive background vocals are somewhat reminiscent. Of course Paul can do no wrong vocally. His light sweet tenor turns into a powerful rock performance, masterfully blending the vocal styles that he’s so good at. 

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"The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles!"

-Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues

"We could ride and surf together while our love would grow"

-Brian Wilson, Surfer Girl

13 June 2023
11.12pm
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meanmistermustard
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The keyboard/synth solo always reminds me of the ‘Thomas The Tank Engine’ theme.

 

"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)

16 June 2023
6.28pm
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vonbontee
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Never been a big fan of this song, but hearing it just weeks ago, I noticed for the first time how (Paul’s bass aside) there are no guitars at all, and the synths supply most of the music, so that’s kinda interesting.

Synthesizers that were polyphonic (ie. able to produce sound from more than one key at a time) had only been available since about 1975, so if Paul had wanted to create this same record just a few years earlier, he’d have had no choice but to overdub all the synthesized chords note-by-note.

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GEORGE: In fact, The Detroit Sound. JOHN: In fact, yes. GEORGE: In fact, yeah. Tamla-Motown artists are our favorites. The Miracles. JOHN: We like Marvin Gaye. GEORGE: The Impressions PAUL & GEORGE: Mary Wells. GEORGE: The Exciters. RINGO: Chuck Jackson. JOHN: To name but eighty. 

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16 June 2023
6.39pm
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Sea Belt
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vonbontee said
Never been a big fan of this song, but hearing it just weeks ago, I noticed for the first time how (Paul’s bass aside) there are no guitars at all, and the synths supply most of the music, so that’s kinda interesting.

Synthesizers that were polyphonic (ie. able to produce sound from more than one key at a time) had only been available since about 1975, so if Paul had wanted to create this same record just a few years earlier, he’d have had no choice but to overdub all the synthesized chords note-by-note.

  

To me, it’s the only actually inspired song on that whole album.

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17 June 2023
1.56am
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Von Bontee
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Sea Belt said

vonbontee said

  

To me, it’s the only actually inspired song on that whole album.

  

I haven’t heard it in years, and very few times total, but your post has induced me to start streaming it now, thanks apple01 

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Paul: Yeah well… first of all, we’re bringing out a ‘Stamp Out Detroit’ campaign.

         

17 June 2023
2.05am
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Sea Belt
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Von Bontee said

Sea Belt said

vonbontee said

  

To me, it’s the only actually inspired song on that whole album.

  

I haven’t heard it in years, and very few times total, but your post has induced me to start streaming it now, thanks apple01 

  

I don’t know what it is about the inspired songs vs. the uninspired ones.  It’s like the former have melodies that are not just catchy but seem to tap into some Muse that came to Paul; whereas the latter are forced by him when he’s lacking inspiration.  Somehow I feel I can tell the difference…

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17 June 2023
2.18am
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Von Bontee
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Good points…it’s like he comes up with a new memorable tune in his head every single week, and only a few of them get worked on enough to become a complete song. 

Another thought I’ve had about “…Luck”: I’d almost guarantee Paul was listening to Stevie Wonder’s “Songs In The Key Of Life” the previous year; it kinda reminds me of the opening track “Love’s In Need Of Love Today” in particular 

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Paul: Yeah well… first of all, we’re bringing out a ‘Stamp Out Detroit’ campaign.

         

16 November 2024
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LucyInTheSkyWithHackneyDiamonds
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I love this song for a cheering up song like Hey Jude ! I needed it today!heartheart

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18 November 2024
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meanmistermustard
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Ever since hearing this track on ‘Wings Greatest’ it’s been a favourite of mine; I was not amused when I bought ‘All The Best’ on CD to find it was one of the three tracks dropped from the cassette and LP variations (of which I had both).

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18 November 2024
11.37pm
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Sea Belt
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I like the way Paul allows the song to “breathe” and doesn’t worry about slowing down and having long interludes that some may find “boring”.

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19 November 2024
5.29am
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sir walter raleigh
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The synths on this song are really cool. I read an excerpt of a Shaar Murray review of Band On The Run that said he plays synths

like an instrument, and not like an electric whoopee cushion

Paul uses mono synths to add rich layers of melody, usually pretty simple, often played by Linda. Paul plays the polysynth (not sure which synth hes playing) on this song, and his playing uses the programming to be expressive playing rhythmically and then holding out the stabs on a pad that evolves really nicely. The lead line on the intro is pretty cool as well. 

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"The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles!"

-Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues

"We could ride and surf together while our love would grow"

-Brian Wilson, Surfer Girl

19 November 2024
5.53pm
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Sea Belt
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@sir walter raleigh — is the solo in “Six O’Clock” (also woven throughout the song) using a synth or just a lowly keyboard?

Now today I find, you have changed your mind

19 November 2024
7.28pm
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sir walter raleigh
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That solo is definetly a synth, sounds like a moog to me with how fat that envelope attack is. Sounds like there might be mellotron in there as well but the line youre talking about is a mono synth for sure

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"The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles!"

-Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues

"We could ride and surf together while our love would grow"

-Brian Wilson, Surfer Girl

19 November 2024
8.16pm
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Von Bontee
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How many polysynths were available in 1977-78 when this was recorded, anyways? Polymoog, Oberheim 4 (and 8?), Yamaha maybe. Prophet V?

The minor-key synth chords on the bridge, the “There is no end…” bit, always always reminds me of the very similar minor-key clavichord-chording on the bridge to “For No One ” – the “And in her eyes, you see nothing” part.

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Paul: Yeah well… first of all, we’re bringing out a ‘Stamp Out Detroit’ campaign.

         

20 November 2024
12.14am
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sir walter raleigh
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Yamaha CS80 and the Sequential Prophet V both came out in 77, Oberheim had a polysynth in 75, I think it was just called the Oberheim Polyphonic Synthesizer. 

The pad sound on Shine On You Crazy Diamond was a composite of multiple layers, none of which were from a true polysynth. The Prophet V was the first poly to breakthrough because of its programmable memory. Paul plays it on Wonderful Christmastime . That leads me to believe it might be the prophet on With A Little Luck, although Denny and Linda both played the Yamaha CS80 on stage in the late 70s, and the sound of the pad is more similar to the CS80 than the prophet. Can’t find any hard evidence either way. 

Recently Dave Smith (founder of sequential) and Tom Oberheim teamed up to make the OB6, supposed to be the best of both worlds between the Prophet and Oberheim sound. Really cool to see such pioneers join forces later in life. 

 

Edit: This post

on a synth forum speculates it couldn’t have been the Prophet in 78 because the prototype was barely finished by that point. 

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"The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles!"

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20 November 2024
6.43pm
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Sea Belt
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I’m almost totally ignorant of synths in terms of hardware & history, but I do note one name may be significant: Larry Dunn, who according to liner notes was responsible for most of the “programming” on the 1980 pop jazz album Routes by Ramsey Lewis.

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21 November 2024
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sir walter raleigh said
Denny and Linda both played the Yamaha CS80 on stage in the late 70s, and the sound of the pad is more similar to the CS80 than the prophet. Can’t find any hard evidence either way. 

Edit: This post

on a synth forum speculates it couldn’t have been the Prophet in 78 because the prototype was barely finished by that point. 

Ok, the folks at the Steve Hoffman forum seem pretty sure it is the Yamaha CS-80, so I’m gonna go with that. That Yamaha model was used pretty extensively by Stevie Wonder throughout “Songs In The Key Of Life” – and I’ve already speculated upthread about Paul drawing inspiration from that album, especially the cushion-y sound of those synth pads.

GEORGE: In fact, The Detroit Sound. JOHN: In fact, yes. GEORGE: In fact, yeah. Tamla-Motown artists are our favorites. The Miracles. JOHN: We like Marvin Gaye. GEORGE: The Impressions PAUL & GEORGE: Mary Wells. GEORGE: The Exciters. RINGO: Chuck Jackson. JOHN: To name but eighty. 

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21 November 2024
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Sea Belt
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Stevie Wonder really went to town with synths — not only Songs in the Key of Life but also the previous album Fulfillingness’ First Finale and (maybe later) Journey Through the Life of Plants

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21 November 2024
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Sea Belt said
I like the way Paul allows the song to “breathe” and doesn’t worry about slowing down and having long interludes that some may find “boring”.  

Excellent point. I really like how almost orchestral this song feels with the numerous, melodic synth washes and free-flowing structure.

Although having been into Pink Floyd since I was a teenager, and subjected to them far earlier, I’m (depending on how you feel about Pink Floyd) either the perfect person to judge when a song is getting overlong vs when it’s justifying its runtime, or far too prog-brained to be a reliable source on song-lengthiness. a-hard-days-night-paul-7

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