Dear Friend (Wings song)
1971 song by Wings
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"Dear Friend" is a song by the English rock band Wings, released as the penultimate track on their debut studio album Wild Life (1971). Written by Paul and Linda McCartney, the song was Paul's attempt at reconciliation with his former Beatles bandmate John Lennon; the two's relationship had deteriorated following the break-up of the Beatles, and the pair had exchanged digs at each other in their music throughout 1971, particularly in Paul's "Too Many People" and Lennon's "How Do You Sleep?".
In "Dear Friend", a piano-led ballad, Paul shows affection for Lennon. He questions his own views on the personal and professional conflicts that had fractured their friendship. The song was recorded in a single take and features orchestration conducted by Richard Hewson. Initially receiving mixed reviews from critics, retrospective reviews generally consider "Dear Friend" a highlight of the Wild Life album.
Background
After John had slagged me off in public, I had to think of a response, and it was either going to [reciprocate] – and some instinct stopped me, which I'm really glad about – or do something else. So, I worked on my attitude and wrote "Dear Friend", saying, in effect, let's lay the guns down, let's hang up our boxing gloves.[1]
Paul McCartney began writing "Dear Friend" during his time in the United States recording Ram (1971), a collaborative album with his wife Linda.[2] Written in response to John Lennon's controversial Rolling Stone interviews published in early 1971,[3] which were published after Lennon went through primal therapy in 1970 after a copy of The Primal Scream by Arthur Janov was sent to Lennon,[4] and were about what Lennon thought McCartney would hatefully tell him, such as "Speak to my lawyer; I don’t want to speak about business anymore" which, according to Lennon, would be McCartney telling him "I'm going to drag my feet and try and fuck you".[5]
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"Dear Friend" was Paul's attempt at reconciliation with Lennon,[6] as the two's personal and working relationship had soured since the break-up of the Beatles;[2] Lennon had called his album McCartney (1970) "rubbish"[7] and had attacked him in the song "How Do You Sleep?" from the album Imagine (1971),[8][9] which was written by Lennon in retaliation for McCartney's perceived digs at him in "Too Many People" on Ram.[10][11] With "Too Many People", lines such as "Too many people preaching practices" show McCartney referring to Lennon's attempts to tell people what to do, including trying to tell McCartney to start doing business with Allen Klein.[12] In "How Do You Sleep?", Lennon threw digs at McCartney, notably the line "The only thing you done was Yesterday / And since you've gone you're just another day", which referenced McCartney's 1965 Beatles song "Yesterday", and his and Linda's 1971 single "Another Day".[13] Chip Madinger and Mark Easter also argue that "Dear Friend" is, to an extent, an answer song to George Harrison's "Isn't It a Pity", from the album All Things Must Pass (1970),[6] a song which Harrison referred to in his autobiography I, Me, Mine as being about "whenever a relationship hits a down point".[14] McCartney recorded multiple home demos of "Dear Friend".[15]
Composition and recording
"Dear Friend" is a piano-led ballad in C minor,[16] featuring only verses and no chrous.[17] In the song, McCartney expresses affection for Lennon and interrogates his perspective regarding the personal and professional conflicts that fractured their relationship.[2] With minor orchestration and brass, Robert Rodriguez describes the song as "possibly the most musically developed" on the record.[18] Vincent Benitez Jr. compares the song's structure to a classical music lament, emphasising the idea that McCartney missed his friend rather than pleading to end their public feud.[17] McCartney initially refused to clarify the song's meaning. In an interview with David Jensen of Radio Luxembourg, he stated: "Lyrically—I don't know really. It's just about a dear friend, whatever it means to you," quoting Harrison's "Isn't It a Pity" in the statement.[19] Decades later, McCartney explained that it was a difficult period for him, describing Lennon as "double-sided" and a "wounded pigeon". He responded to Lennon's insulting comments with "Dear Friend" as a way to say, "'Why don't we just sit down, shut up, and have a glass of wine. And, come on man, we've known each other too long to really get into this bullshit!' And so, I was glad to do that in the song."[2]
Shortly after the formation of the band Wings, the band—Paul and Linda McCartney, guitarist Denny Laine and drummer Denny Seiwell—began recording sessions for what became Wild Life at EMI Studios in London on 24 July 1971.[20] Tony Clark and Alan Parsons engineered the sessions, and Paul produced them.[21] "Dear Friend" was recorded on the first day in a single take. Paul played piano, Seiwell played a subtle drum part featuring mostly cymbal taps and swells, and Laine played a simple vibraphone part using a vibraphone leftover from an orchestral session.[22] Clark remembered: "That was one of those magical, live recordings—and they are magical when they're like that. It's a fantastic track. It's very emotional."[22] Paul then overdubbed a simple bass line.[22] The orchestration for the song was recorded on 16 October 1971, conducted by Richard Hewson.[23] According to Hewson, McCartney gave him full freedom for the arrangement, recalling that he simply said, "I want to put some strings on it."[15] The orchestra featured eight violins, four cellos, four flutes, two trombones, two French horns, an oboe, a tenor saxophone and a harp. Hewson later recalled that McCartney flanged the tenor saxophone part to make it sound like two instruments.[24]
Release and reception
Wild Life was released through Apple Records on 7 December 1971,[25][26] with "Dear Friend" as the album's penultimate track.[a][28] Initial reviews of the song and album generally reflected the animosity McCartney received in the press following the Beatles' break-up.[29][30] In Rolling Stone, John Mendelsohn wrote that McCartney became the "unjustly-hurt but nevertheless understanding golden boy" on the track, noting that the track "paints on which to base your perception of McCartney's role in the feud."[31] In a scathing review for the Chicago Tribune, Lew Harris derided "Dear Friend" as a "slow, sloppy, whiney attestation of love to a friend" with gay undertones.[32] In the Los Angeles Times, Robert Hilburn said the song "suffered from a lack of direction" and never reaches its full potential, ending up a "disappointing, even empty" journey.[33] More positively, the NME's Richard Green said "Dear Friend" said the piano and vocals "compliment one another in fine style—simply and effectively".[34] Mike Hennessey in Record Mirror called "Dear Friend" "classic, vintage McCartney, sharply bringing into focus his flair for melody and harmony".[35] The music critic Ian MacDonald cites "Dear Friend" as a counter-argument to the caricature of McCartney as an emotional lightweight.[36]
Retrospectively, critics have generally considered "Dear Friend" a highlight of the Wild Life album.[26][37][38][39] American Songwriter's Jim Beviglia wrote that it "certainly doesn't sound as tossed-off as the rest of Wild Life", noting that "McCartney tries to take Lennon's temperature about the status of their friendship. He wants to know if they are really so far down a bad road that there’s really no chance for reconciliation".[40] Author Andrew Grant Jackson wrote that the track "show[s] the continued primacy of the feud in his life", when comparing it to later rap feuds, he called it "pretty mild".[41] In The Mojo Collection (2009), Jim Irvin praised "Dear Friend" as a "first-class, Paul-at-piano heart-render".[42] Andrew Wild argued that the song's "balance between pain and love" proves McCartney is a strong vocalist when he's given "the right material" to work with.[43] Writer Jamie Atkins wrote in a review of the 2022 half-speed master of Wild Life that the track "feels fraught and hurt, [with] Paul ricocheting through confusion, exasperation and attempts at reconciliation with his former writing partner over minor chords and doomy orchestral clangs, evoking the tight head and jangled nerves of stormy emotional weather."[44] Reviewing the same half-speed master, Beatles author Kenneth Womack called "Dear Friend" a "veritable showstopper" and "a singular work of lasting beauty".[45]
In 2018, to mark the reissuing of Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway (1973) as part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection, McCartney shared two new exclusive versions of "Dear Friend", including his piano-only demo of the track. He said in a press release: "I find it very emotional when I listen to it now. I have to sort of choke it back." He also expressed relief he reconciled with Lennon before his murder in 1980, saying, "... it would have been terrible if he'd been killed as things were at that point and I'd never got to straighten it out with him. This was me reaching out. So, I think it's very powerful in some very simple way. But it was certainly heartfelt."[46][47] In his book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present (2021), McCartney said that, upon reconciling, the two never personally discussed "Dear Friend", although he imagined Lennon had heard it.[48] In a review of the album's Archive Collection reissue for Spectrum Culture, Justin Cober-Lake wrote that any version of the track "holds more emotional weight than the rest of these recordings, but feels out of place in the album".[49]
Personnel
According to the authors John Blaney, Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair:[50][51]
Wings
- Paul McCartney – vocals, piano, bass
- Denny Laine – vibraphone
- Denny Seiwell – drums
- Linda McCartney – backing vocals
Technical
- Paul McCartney – producer
- Tony Clark – engineer
- Alan Parsons – engineer