How David Bowie Saved Paul McCartney From His Worst Career Crisis: “Complete Disaster”

No one can blame Paul McCartney for being a bit trepidatious about starting another band venture after breaking up with the world’s biggest outfit. That kind of heartbreak must have stung every time he got on stage, at least for a little while. Nevertheless, McCartney built a second life as frontman of another band, Wings. They may not have earned the recognizability or the cultural cachet of The Beatles, but they were successful in their own right; even if McCartney couldn’t always see that.

According to the rock legend, one of his peers, David Bowie, helped put things into perspective for him. The avant-garde star made McCartney realize that Wings weren’t a “complete disaster.”

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The Time David Bowie Helped Convince Paul McCartney of Wings’ Success

Wings always had a big burden to overcome. The Beatles’ success was unprecedented. Fans expected a lot from McCartney’s follow-up, and that pressure certainly weighed on him. ”Anything Wings did had to be viewed in the light of The Beatles,” McCartney once said.

Under that constant lens, McCartney struggled to block out the noise. Even though Wings did well for themselves, they didn’t go toe-to-toe with The Beatles, and that sullied any hope of reveling in that success.

“The interesting thing is that, looking back on some of the work, some of the stuff, it’s better than you think it was, but because it got such harsh criticism…from me,” McCartney once explained.

“The critics gave us a hard run, but I was particularly hard on us,” he added. “I remember looking at a book, there was an album we did, I think it was Back To The Egg, which didn’t do well, and I remember thinking, ‘God, complete disaster.’”

David Bowie’s Help

It wasn’t until he revisited that time in his career with Bowie that he realized things weren’t all that grim. Bowie, who experienced some momentary downslides himself, helped to put things in perspective.

“Years later, I remember looking at it with Bowie in this old book—one of these who-did-what Hit Parade books, looking it up—and it was like number eight in America,” McCartney continued.

“And I thought most people would give their right bloody arms to be number eight,” McCartney continued. “But eight, and I wasn’t satisfied. The Beatles had been number one. This is all right, keeps you going. But yes, a lot of the stuff is underrated, because of that.”

Understandably, McCartney couldn’t see the forest for the trees as he tried to make his second band work. However, time has been kind to Wings. Surely now, McCartney can revel in the unlikely success of his post-Beatles band. Not just any band could have stepped out of that monumental shadow as much as Wings did.

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