The Wings Lyric That Indulged Paul McCartney's Love of Reggae
Paul McCartney‘s long, storied recording career has included forays into just about every style of music you could possibly imagine. On the 1972 single “C Moon,” recorded with the earliest incarnation of his band Wings, he lovingly tackled reggae.
McCartney played it light in a lyrical sense with the song, even creating his own lingo with the title phrase. “C Moon” hit the Top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic, despite having to overcome obstacles caused by “Hi Hi Hi,” the track with which it was paired as a double A-sided single. In the Key of “C”
When Paul McCartney emerged to make music again following the breakup of The Beatles in 1970, he seemed determined to do so in a relaxed, off-the-cuff fashion, perhaps to temper the expectations of fans and critics. Both his first solo album (McCartney) and his first album with Wings (Wild Life) were somewhat ramshackle affairs, free of excessive fussing when it came to the writing and recording.
McCartney also seemed determined to broaden his horizons in the types of music he was going to make. While he had dabbled lightly in reggae with The Beatles (“Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” features hints of it), he went all-in on “C Moon.” It was a trip to Jamaica with wife Linda that helped light his fuse, as he explained in the book Wingspan: Paul McCartney’s Band on the Run:
“We both loved the music and going to Jamaica became our big ambition. When we did, we really fell in love with it: the country, the people, the music, the lifestyle, the weather. We spent weeks there, soaking up a lot of reggae—it was the start of rap but they used to call it toasting. There was a radio station called RJR that played reggae all day long, and a little shop in Montego Bay called Tony’s Record Store where we used to sift through all the 45s.”
Source: Jim Beviglia/americansongwriter.com
