Name And Address

‘Name And Address’ is the twelfth song on Wings’s penultimate album London Town.

Paul McCartney originally intended ‘Backwards Traveller’ to precede ‘Name And Address’, to give the impression of a shift in time to the 1950s.

I had the tune ‘Backwards Traveller’, and originally I was trying to use that going into the song ‘Name And Address’. And ‘Name And Address’ is like an old-fashioned rocker, sort of ‘after Elvis’, you know, it’s like people paint pictures after so-and-so. Well that’s kind of doing a thing based on the Elvis buzz, for me. And I was trying to get this song ‘Backwards Traveller’ to explain, on the album, why the album suddenly went to a kind of Fifties-type sound. I was hoping to do ‘Backwards Traveller’ and ‘Backwards Traveller’, set it up, and then go backwards into time with some of these… a couple of tracks that sound like the Fifties or Sixties, you know.

‘Name And Address’ was recorded on 14 February 1977 at Abbey Road. A studio visitor on the day was guitarist Hank Marvin, although he did not play on the song.

I wrote this song before Elvis died, about a good few months before he died. So it wasn’t anything to do with the fact that Elvis had died. But I’ve always loved Elvis, he’s always been a big influence on me, mainly the early stuff he did. So this is like a throwback to the old days of straight, three-chord rock ‘n’ roll, straight tape echo on the voice, and kind of very Elvis-y sounding. I played some guitar on it, a couple of guitar solos, and I played the lead guitar on it. In fact while we were recording the takes of this one, Mr Hank Marvin of The Shadows came in for a word, and he was flashing around the control room as we were doing it. So that’s kind of a straightforward rocker, you know, just trying to get the kind of bashing feel of the old records.