Cattle Beware of Snipers

Wings : To You

[Purchase]

I didn't mean [Back to the Egg] to be underground, but it's nice 
-Paul McCartney

On June 8, 1979 Wings released Back to the Egg in the U.K., the band's final album. In its day it was critically lambasted with Rolling Stone declaring Back to the Egg "the sorriest grab bag of dreck in recent memory" and although it did reach the top 10 in album sales, it has been forgotten by many.

At the time McCartney justified the album in this way:

 "It was just sort of a back-to-the-beginning kind of feeling for us, while we were making it. We were sort of trying different things, while we were making it, and that seemed to sum it up -- Back to the Egg. A back-to-square-one kind of thing, you know?"

I knew nothing of the reviews and picked it up the first chance I got. Why didn't I spend that money on Ram? Isolated in a Connecticut boarding school, I didn't know firsthand the punk scene that inspired "Spin It On" or the Rolling Stones's "Lies" from Some Girls. I just heard a 36-year old man trying to rave things up beyond what his voice could handle.

I have always had a fondness for something that sounds tossed off like a demo. So the deep cut "To You" remains a favorite track from the album.

It's obviously not the first one that comes to mind for anyone else. The single was "Getting Closer", a Top 20 hit featuring the unforgettable lines "I'm getting closer, my salamander" and "cattle beware of snipers". What would John have said had Paul shown him the lyrics? 

"Arrow Through Me", with its Miami style disco beat, is another single from the album.It crept into the U.S. Top 40 barely.  On the B side of the single was another Back to the Egg track, a U.K.#35 riff rocker called "Old Siam Sir". McCartney's voice had never sounded so strained.