Wings
Got Any Toothpicks? (Live 1972)

THE REVIEW

Unlike his three ex-Beatles friends, Paul has always loved performing live, and indeed throughout the '70s, he maintained a constant presence on European and world stages. After Lennon's death, unfortunately, he stopped until the '90 tour, but by then his concerts had become a kind of emotional karaoke for nostalgic fans overly reliant on the Beatles' repertoire at the expense of almost all of his solo work.

"Got Any Toothpicks" is the bootleg that features songs performed by Wings during their European tour of '72, which for Paul was supposed to be a warm-up for the mega engagement with the "Over The World Tour" of '75-'76. But we mustn’t get ahead of ourselves; the group in '72 only had "Wild Life" and a handful of singles to their name, and they were primarily in a phase of continuous learning that inevitably made them quite raw with a sound more akin to garage rock than to the Beatles. There were still no "Band On The Run" or "Venus And Mars", the great albums that would form the backbone of the world tour, nor was there "Red Rose Speedway", which would be compiled only in '73.

However, this record is valuable because it provides concrete evidence of what Paul and his bandmates were up to during that time. They traveled on an open-top bus painted like a caravan of late flower children; for McCartney, it was a return to more than a decade earlier when he played concerts in Germany with the Beatles, earning very little, a way to rediscover the right spirit to tackle his new career leading another band. The concert setlist included some gems, songs performed live and never recorded in the studio.

The very raw and tough opening of "Best Friend" was supposed to be included in the double version of "Red Rose Speedway" that EMI would reject, as well as the curious "1882", very beautiful but forgotten in the recesses of the Wings' unreleased repertoire. Another gem is the live version of "Seaside Woman" sung by Linda, which would not officially see the light until '79. "The Mess", a song that reflects the raw sound of the period, is one of Paul's best live tracks and would also be forgotten, along with Denny Laine's "Say You Don't Mind", a fine song always destined for the second LP of "Red Rose Speedway" discarded for budget reasons by the record label.

The band during this period relied on drummer Denny Seiwell, with Paul since "Ram", and guitarist Henry McCullough. The latter is featured in an interesting blues incursion titled "Sometimes I Just Can't Keep From Crying" but, most importantly, will author the famous solo of "My Love", already performed in this tour in an early embryonic version. Paul impeccably led everyone, had fun, and did not perform a single Beatles song—a trend that would continue until the world tour where he would open up to his past. 

These Wings were very different from those with the phenomenal guitarist Jimmy McCulloch. They were quite raw and sparse, conveying the sense that they were truly a band in its infancy and not just a live appendage of McCartney. In fact, the '70s are the most interesting in McCartney's work; living continuously with his band members, Paul had the opportunity to measure himself against other personalities who, even if they never had a significant compositional weight (excluding Denny Laine), always led him to engage in new projects, and the vast hidden work of this period is ready to demonstrate it when Paul decides to break the seals.