Today, Paul McCartney shared the home-recorded demo of “Dear Friend” from Wings‘ Wild Life. Inspired by Beatles bandmate John Lennon, the previously-unreleased demo features a solo McCartney on piano and vocals. The demo will be featured on the upcoming reissue of the 1971 record, which will be paired with the reissue of 1973’s Red Rose Speedway, set to drop on December 7th, 2018.
With the release of “Dear Friend”, McCartney told Rolling Stone that the song is “sort of me talking to John after we’d had all the sort of disputes about The Beatles break up.” He continues, “I find it very emotional when I listen to it now. I have to sort of choke it back. I remember when I heard the song recently, listening to the roughs [remastering works-in-progress] in the car. And I thought, ‘Oh God’. That lyric: ‘Really truly, young and newly wed’. Listening to that was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s true!’ I’m trying to say to John, ‘Look, you know, it’s all cool. Have a glass of wine. Let’s be cool.’”
He added, “Luckily we did get it back together, which was like a great source of joy because 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.”
Paul McCartney’s reissues for Wings’ Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway are due out on December 7th and will feature rough mixes, home recordings, b-sides, single edits, and other unreleased material, along with rare footage of acoustic home videos, rehearsals, and more. For more information on the upcoming Wings release, head here.
You can listen to the 1971 home demo for “Dear Friend” below, as well as the 2018 remastered version.
Paul McCartney – “Dear Friend”