Spirits of Ancient Egypt - The first disappointment especially given it had such a cool title
This is one of my favourite songs on the album, in fact it was the song that got me into Egyptology at a very young age, that and 'Pyramid' by the Alan Parsons Project, got me fascinated by the mystery of the pyramids.
The great thing I like about 'Spirits of Ancient Egypt', is the recording of the drum track, and how it has so much reverb/slap-echo behind it, along with the driving rock guitar sound. And it has a kind of mystical eerie ghostly feel about it.. I love it. Was listening the other day to the 'Wings Over America' version and it's also really good.
I do agree though on the sound quality of the album. My original 1975 vinyl had that same tinny trebly sound, with very little bass and midrange frequencies. I remember thinking how rich and bassy Band on the Run and Red Rose Speedway sounded, and then putting Venus and Mars on and that was the first time I recognised high frequencies and treble vs bass etc. Unfortunately all the re-releases to date have done nothing to improve the sound quality. And I can't see Macca re-eq'ing the entire album when it comes to finally remastering it (whenever that will happen).
Another cool thing this album gave me, is an interest in astronomy as a child. The LP came with a sticker (which I put on the lid of the record player!) and a little cardboard bookmark thingy which had information on all the planets in the solar system. From there, I began to read many books on astronomy and eventually a telescope - all due to this one Wings album!