Spotlight on Denny Laine

In this article I will examine the contribution of McCartney’s right-hand man throughout the 1970s – Denny Laine.

Laine was born Brian Hines in 1944 and was one of the founding members of the Moody Blues. The Moody Blues had a number of hits, beginning with Go Now in 1964 and toured with The Beatles in 1965. On the 11th April of the same year The Moody Blues appeared on stage before The Beatles at the NME Poll Winners’ Concert. Here is their performance of Go Now with Laine on lead vocals :

Laine left The Moody Blues in 1966 and the band re-formed with Justin Hayward and John Lodge, who went on to score a number of hits such as Nights In White Satin in 1967.

After a number of fairly low-key projects such as The Electric String Band., McCartney recruited Laine for his new band in 1971. The session guitarist from Ram, Hugh McCracken, had been McCartney’s original choice, but McCracken had no desire to up-sticks and move to the UK.

Versatility

Laine was a wise choice for Wings. He was a strong vocalist in his own right, but had the ability to offer harmony vocals. Although Laine was not a lead guitarist in the same league as, for example, Jimmy McCulloch, he was a decent player and could also double on bass guitar. In addition, Laine was a solid piano player, as proven by numerous of performances of Go Now at the piano.

It was this versatility that undoubtedly placed Laine at the heart of Wings. throughout the 1970s. As other musicians came and went, it was the trio of Paul and Linda McCartney plus Laine that formed the enduring core of band.

Songwriter

Laine proved his mettle as a composer at various points through the 1970s. The song Say You Don’t Mind proved to be a hit for The Zombie’s frontman, Colin Blunstone, in 1972. Say You Don’t Mind formed a part of Wings’ 1972 European Tour, where Laine was given a chance to shine.

I Would Only Smile is another Laine song that performed on the same tour. I Would Only Smile was originally intended for release on Wings’ 1973 album Red Rose Speedway. It was, however, dropped from the set-list when the album was streamlined from a double, to a single-disc LP:

He wrote a number of other songs during his time with Wings, such as Time to Hide on Wings At The Speed of Sound and Again and Again and Again on Back to the Egg.

Say You Don’t Mind

It is worth looking at Say You Don’t Mind in a little more detail, as it is an appealing and well-crafted song. The recording below is from the short-lived Denny Laine Band from 1980 and was recorded at Rock City Studios in Surrey. It was released on the album Japanese Tears (1980), which has since been re-released and re-named in a variety of formats including In Flight:

It’s a bright tempo light-rock track in E major. The introduction is imbued with fanfare-like bright synth tones.

The first verse has a vocal melody that is based on the E major pentatonic scale, with answering phrases in thirds from the synth:

Say You Don’t Mind has several other clever hooks that provide variety.

The first hook is heard in the song’s introduction and is based on a set of rising triplet arpeggios. The arpeggios can be viewed as borrowings from the parallel E minor scale. After a steady rock beat in E major, these triplets inject a sudden moment of harmonic and rhythmic interest:

The next hook is in fact the song’s chorus. It is formed from a chromatically descending bass-line that influences the chord sequence. In fact, this sort of chromatic descent is almost identical to the beginning of The Beatles’ Michelle.

Say You Don’t Mind also showcases the remarkable versatility of Laine’s vocal range. In the bridge section (beginning at 1:24) Laine ascends an octave from C#4 to C#5.

Even more remarkably, at the end of the song (2:56), Laine reaches the pitch of E5, which is way beyond the top of the standard tenor range, and only a semitone below McCartney’s high F5 in Maybe I’m Amazed.

There’s more to the song to mention in the space of this blog post, but it is worth noting the key change to A major that comes right after the bridge section and a passage where solo fiddle and synth vie for attention. The various drum fills are provided by Steve Holley, who was in the last line-up of Wings.

The chorus beginning at 2:00 starts on the chord of B minor, as opposed to F# minor. By the end of the song we have re-transitioned back to the original key of E major.

Weep For Love

Another notable song from the Japanese Tears/In Flight album is Weep For Love. Laine showed a proclivity for the folk genre at numerous times in Wings in songs such as Children, Children and Deliver Your Children. Weep For Love is notable because it involves the use of an acoustic guitar with an open-string tuning (E B E G# B E). Laine forms chord shapes in form of “E7” which he moves up and down the fretboard. He punctuates this chordal harmonics at the twelfth fret. In this performance from 1980, his wife, Jo Jo Laine lovingly looks on from the audience.

Same Mistakes

On Same Mistakes, also from Japanese Tears, Laine passes the vocal duties to his wife. Jo Jo’s untutored vocal style lends the song a naive, yet heartfelt charm.

The song has a number of points of interest, including a chord sequence that moves from chord I (C major) to a secondary dominant chord on VII (B major) and also incorporates a rather sophisticated chord of E diminished 7, moving to G diminished 7. The solo flute weaves a delicate counter-melody between vocal phrases.

Jo Jo Laine sadly died in 2006 at the age of fifty-three.

Collaborations

Numerous songs are classed as collaborations with McCartney, such as the UK smash hit Mull of Kintyre. Some songs, such as No Words from Band on the Run and Deliver Your Children from London Town are believed to be almost completely the work of Laine. In Deliver Your Children, McCartney provides a constant upper descant vocal with stunning effect, which is more notable on this rough mix:

For other songs such as London Town and Don’t Let It Bring You Down, it’s not clear if the song was a genuine joint effort where the pair sat down and wrote together from scratch – or if McCartney or Laine put the finishing touches to each other’s efforts. Whatever the case, it is clear that Laine played a direct part in writing a clutch of songs of exceptional quality.

Life After Wings

The last time Laine worked with McCartney was during the sessions for Tug of War at George Martin’s Montserrat recording studios in Caribbean. The pair fell out at some point in the early 1980s, probably triggered by a number of interviews which Laine gave to a journalist working for the British Sun newspaper.

After a decade of being almost musically joined at the hip with McCartney, Laine pursued a solo career with mixed success. He is now based in the USA and at the age of seventy-five, still performs his solo and Wings hits at small venues and is a regular guest at USA Beatles conventions.

A highlight of his solo career is the instrumental album Master Suite from 1986. He coaxes a fine tone from his multi-tracked Ovation Adamas guitar and uses a variety of playing techniques that touch on country, blues and classical:

Reunion?

The only documented contact between Laine and McCartney involved what was perhaps a chance meeting at a UB40 concert in December 2007, where the pair were photographed together:

However, in a very recent interview, Laine has revealed that he has made an approach to McCartney’s MPL office with the suggestion of a collaborative project after almost forty years of separation.

His comment can be heard at the 2:50 mark from this link:

Denny Laine Interview 2020

It would be nice to think that the pair could put aside past differences and rekindle some of the magic of the 70s era, but only time will tell….

More Information

There is a wealth of information about the songwriting partnership of McCartney and Laine in these three books of mine:

(link to shop):

Shop – Paul McCartney After The Beatles: A Musical Appreciation