A Rapper Said Wings’ ‘Arrow Through Me’ is Paul McCartney’s Most Soulful Song

A rapper once said “Arrow Through Me” by Wings is Paul McCartney’s most soulful song. He almost immediately took back that statement and said that all of Paul’s work is soulful. Paul was disappointed in the tune’s parent album before spending some time with David Bowie changed his mind.

A rapper said Paul McCartney’s ‘Arrow Through Me’ helped him get songwriting

Channel Tres is a rapper most known for his tunes “Topdown” and “Controller.” During a 2022 interview for Stereogum, he cited Wings’ “Arrow Through Me” as his favorite composition by Paul. “I never knew Paul McCartney had an extra group,” he said. “This song was kind of my intro to getting into Paul McCartney as a songwriter, when I learned about songwriting. I think it’s the closest to a soulful song from him — I mean, all his s*** is soulful, but you know what I mean.

“As an artist, once you’ve been around for a long time you start to leave a trail of different personalities you have, different things you can write about,” he said. “‘Hey Jude’ is one of my favorite songs too. When you’re 10 or 12, you haven’t really gone through a lot of things. You grow up, you start traveling the world and seeing different things. You start relating to different music more.

“I was in my early 20s when I started to listen to him more,” Channel Tres added. “He’s still doing it. One thing I picked up from him is you can never stop learning no matter what age you’re at.”

‘Arrow Through Me’ isn’t the only track by the songwriter that Channel Tres enjoys

Channel Tres said he’s inspired by the period of Paul’s career when he made solo albums and wrote tunes for other artists. The rapper feels that era proved that anyone could start over and reinvent themself. He is also a fan of “The Girl Is Mine,” Paul’s duet with Michael Jackson from the album Thriller.

Channel Tres says he can “see” Paul’s songs when he listens to them. In his opinion, that’s a great compliment.

Paul McCartney was disappointed with Wings’ ‘Back to the Egg’ at the time

Channel Tres’ favorite Paul song, “Arrow Through Me,” appeared on Wings’ album Back to the Egg. During a 1994 interview posted on Reverb.com, Paul said he was disappointed with the commercial performance of Back to the Egg when it first came out.

Years afterward, Paul was reading the magazine Hit Parade with David Bowie when he learned that Back to the Egg hit No. 8 on the charts. Paul realized most artists would love to release an album as popular as Back to the Egg. Paul was only disappointed in the album initially because of the tremendous success of The Beatles. In retrospect, Paul opined Wings are underrated because they were constantly compared to the Fab Four.

Back to the Egg was popular upon release and Channel Tres was able to appreciate the soulfulness of the album’s song “Arrow Through Me.”