"Beware My Love" is a song credited to Paul

Paul McCartney

Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...

 and Linda McCartney

Linda McCartney

Linda Louise McCartney, Lady McCartney was an American photographer, musician and animal rights activist. Her father and mother were Lee Eastman and Louise Sara Lindner Eastman....

 that was first released on the Wings

Wings (band)

Wings were a British-American rock group formed in 1971 by Paul McCartney, Denny Laine and Linda McCartney that remained active until 1981....

 1976 album Wings at the Speed of Sound

Wings at the Speed of Sound

Wings at the Speed of Sound is the fifth album by Wings and was recorded and issued in 1976 in the midst of a large world tour as the follow-up album to the popular Venus and Mars.- History :...

. It was also used as the B-side of the single that included "Let 'Em In

Let 'em In

"Let 'Em In" is a song by Wings from their 1976 album Wings at the Speed of Sound. It was written and sung by Paul McCartney and reached the top 3 in both the United States and the United Kingdom: It was a #2 hit in the UK, and in the US it was a #3 pop hit and #1 easy listening hit...

". A live version recorded on June 7, 1976 in Denver, Colorado

Denver, Colorado

The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...

 was included on the Wings' album Wings Over America

Wings over America

Wings over America is the sixth album by Wings and their only live album. In its initial release, it was a triple album and included a poster of the band.-Recording history:...

and another live version from three days later in Seattle, Washington

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

 was shown in the concert film Rockshow

Rockshow

Rockshow is a 1980 concert film by Wings, filmed during their 1976 North American tour. It features 30 songs from four concerts of the tour: New York, May 25 ; Seattle, Washington, June 10 ; Los Angeles, California, June 22 ; and Los Angeles, California, June 23 , although both the cover of the...

. An excerpt from the Rockshow performance was also included in the documentary Wings Over the World.

Lyrics and music

Like a number of successful Paul McCartney songs, "Beware My Love" is made of several disparate elements. The song begins with a brief harmonium

Harmonium

A harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ. Sound is produced by air being blown through sets of free reeds, resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion...

 melody followed by a repeated acoustic guitar

Acoustic guitar

An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...

 figure. Linda McCartney sings the first verse, with her voice multi-tracked

Multitrack recording

Multitrack recording is a method of sound recording that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources to create a cohesive whole...

, effectively singing on behalf of Paul McCartney, who sings the lead vocal from that point on. Over the course of the song Paul McCartney's singing, as well as the music, intensifies. In the verses, the singer warns the woman he loves to beware because he does not believe that the other man she is seeing is right for her. In the bridge

Bridge (music)

In music, especially western popular music, a bridge is a contrasting section which also prepares for the return of the original material section...

, he tells the woman that although he must leave now, "I'll leave my message in my song." Author Robert Rodriguez finds this line ironic, since the song apparently has no message. Authors Chip Madiger and Mark Easter note that the verses and chorus

Refrain

A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...

 don't seem to have much to do with each other.

"Beware My Love" is a mid-tempo rock song that John Blaney compared to Wings' "Rock Show

Venus and Mars/Rock Show

"Venus and Mars/Rock Show" is a a medley of two songs written by Paul and Linda McCartney and originally performed by Wings that make up the first two songs of the album Venus and Mars. The single was released in the US on 27 October 1975 and in the UK on 28 November 1975. The B-side was "Magneto...

" and "Soily

Soily

"Soily" is a song written by Paul McCartney which was performed by his band Wings, usually at the end of concerts as an encore. This song appeared while the Band on the Run demos were recorded, with McCartney on drums. At least seven takes were recorded in 1974 at Abbey Road Studios for inclusion...

" and author Tim Riley compared to The Beatles

The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

' "Helter Skelter." It is in the key of D minor

D minor

D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. In the harmonic minor, the C is raised to C. Its key signature has one flat ....

, although the harmonium and acoustic guitar sections of the prelude are in C major

C major

C major is a musical major scale based on C, with pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has no flats/sharps.Its relative minor is A minor, and its parallel minor is C minor....

 and A major

A major

A major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps.Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor...

, respectively. The melody of the bridges is based on a descending tetrachord

Tetrachord

Traditionally, a tetrachord is a series of three intervals filling in the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency proportion. In modern usage a tetrachord is any four-note segment of a scale or tone row. The term tetrachord derives from ancient Greek music theory...

 played on the bass guitar

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

. Rodriguez particularly praises Paul McCartney's bass guitar playing, Joe English's drumming and Linda McCartney's and Denny Laine

Denny Laine

Denny Laine is an English songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, guitarist, and lead singer of The Moody Blues' 1965 debut album "The Magnificent Moodies"; and, later, best known for his role as co-founder of Wings...

's backing vocals. The song was recorded in a manner that replicated a live recording set up, with all the players recorded together. McCartney stated that he was looking to achieve "excitement in the backing vocal so it's human; you can hear we're all there."

Critical assessment

"Beware My Love" has been praised for being the only true rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 song on Wings at the Speed of Sound, an album containing mostly ballads and disco

Disco

Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...

-influenced songs. Blaney described the song as being meant to "dispel accusations that Wings were becoming a group of disco-loving softies." In reviewing the album, Allmusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Stephen Thomas Erlewine is a senior editor for Allmusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for Allmusic, as well as a freelance writer, occasionally contributing liner notes. He is also frontman and guitarist for the Ann Arbor-based band Who Dat?Erlewine is the nephew...

 called "Beware My Love" "the best-written song here that effortlessly moves from sun-drenched harmonies to hard rock." Rock music critic Robert Christgau

Robert Christgau

Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...

 claimed that on the album, McCartney is "at full strength only on the impassioned 'Beware My Love.'" Doug Pringle of The Montreal Gazette called the song "the only unqualified success on the album," noting that "it builds from a gentle acoustic beginning to become the only truly electric song on the album." Frank Rose of The Village Voice

The Village Voice

The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...

called this song and Denny Laine's contribution to the album, "Time to Hide" "great, the kind of production numbers McCartney likes to trot out when he knows he's got a real rocker." Rolling Stone Magazine critic Dave Marsh

Dave Marsh

Dave Marsh is an American music critic, author, editor and radio talk show host. He was a formative editor of Creem magazine, has written for various publications such as Newsday, The Village Voice, and Rolling Stone, and has published numerous books about music and musicians, mostly focused on...

 also praised "Beware My Love" and "Time to Hide" as well as "Let 'Em In" as successful examples of McCartney's rock style. Rodriguez considered "Beware My Love" to be the only song on Wings at the Speed of Sound to be as good as the best songs from Wings' previous two albums, Band on the Run

Band on the Run

Band on the Run is an album by Paul McCartney & Wings, released in 1973. It was Wings' third album. It became Wings' most successful album and remains the most celebrated of McCartney's post-Beatles albums...

and Venus and Mars

Venus and Mars

Venus and Mars is the fourth album by Wings. Released as the follow-up to the enormously successful Band on the Run, Venus and Mars continued Wings' string of success and would prove a springboard for a year-long worldwide tour...

. CD Review magazine described "Beware My Love" as "a fiery rocker." Beatle authors Roy Carr and Tony Tyler used "Beware My Love" as an example of Wings at the Speed of Sound being strong melodically. Madinger and Easter described it as one "of the best songs on the LP."

Rodriguez was even more effusive in his praise of the live version of the song on Wings Over America, which is a minute and half shorter than the studio version, praising Jimmy McCulloch

Jimmy McCulloch

James 'Jimmy' McCulloch was a Scottish musician and songwriter, born in Dumbarton and raised in Clydebank and Cumbernauld, Scotland, who was best known for playing lead guitar in Paul McCartney's Wings from 1974 to 1977...

's guitar playing, Laine's piano playing and English's drum roll

Drum roll

A drum roll is a technique the percussionist employs to produce a sustained sound on a percussion instrument. Rolls are used by composers to sustain the sound and create other effects, the most common of which is using a roll to build anticipation.- Snare drum roll :The most common snare drum roll...

s. Larry Rohter

Larry Rohter

William Lawrence Rohter, Jr. — known as Larry Rohter — is an American journalist who was a South American bureau chief for The New York Times from 1999 to 2007...

 of The Washington Post

The Washington Post

The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

described the performance on Wings Over America as "rollicking" and "exciting." Ben Fong-Torres described McCartney's live performance of the song as "reaching back for some of that Little Richard

Little Richard

Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...

 inspiration." Jon Marlowe of Miami News described the performance of "Beware My Love" in Rockshow as "rollicking" and one of the two moments in the film that feels like being at a rock show.