‘Medicine Jar’ is the ninth song on Wings’ Venus And Mars album.
Wings spent seven weeks in Nashville in mid-1974, where they worked on songs including ‘Sally G’. While there, Paul McCartney first heard guitarist Jimmy McCulloch working on ‘Medicine Jar’.
The song had been written in the early 1970s by McCulloch and drummer Colin Allen during their time in Scottish rock band Stone The Crows. Originally titled ‘Itchy Fingers’, their band first recorded the song in 1973 at a London community centre.
In the studio
Wings recorded ‘Medicine Jar’ on 13 November 1974 at Abbey Road Studios.
Overdubs followed on 3 and 6 February 1975 at Allen Toussaint’s Sea Saint Studios in New Orleans, and the song was completed at Wally Heider Studios in Los Angeles on 2 and 22 March.
A live version of ‘Medicine Jar’, recorded on 27 May 1976 at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, appears on the Wings Over America album.
