Not Wings: “Love Take Me Down (To The Streets)”
I watched Role Models a couple nights ago, a flick that just deepened both my Regular Crush on Paul Rudd and my Opposite Crush on Jane Lynch. KISS and their music could almost be considered co-stars, what with all of the gags and references to Gene & Paul & Ace & Peter, but one of my favorite recurring jokes concerned Paul McCartney and Wings.
When Danny (Rudd) and Wheeler (Sean William When Did He Get So Jacked? Scott) are sentenced to community service at a Big Brothers-style organization called Sturdy Wings, another participant mentions that this is his fifth year with Wings, then quips “Paul McCartney’s got nothin’ on me” before singing a pair of lines from “Love Take Me Down (To The Streets)”. Danny insists that the song doesn’t exist, Martin says it does, lather, rinse, repeat.
A couple of chapters later, they’re on a camping trip when an Acoustic Guitar Dude breaks into the song on command—which was a sweet callback—and my jaw met the coffee table when I heard Sir Paul belt it during the end credits. Or so I thought…
As someone who has amassed everything P-Mac has ever written—even schlock like Press to Play—and who used to ADDRESS HER DIARY ENTRIES TO HIM, I couldn’t believe there was a Wings-era track that had somehow escaped my ears. I also couldn’t understand how the producers scored the rights to one of his songs, so I stayed anchored to the sofa cushions until the music credits rolled.
“Love Take Me Down” is not a Wings song. It was written by A.D. Miles—the Sturdy Wings guy who brings it up in the first place!—and performed by Joey Curatolo. As someone who regularly takes jokes way too far, this bit of well-executed nonsense made me enjoy the movie about a brazillion times more. And because I can’t let things go, a bit of Nancy Drew-ing online revealed that FauxPaul Joey Curatolo makes a living playing McCartney and has portrayed him in the Beatles tribute Rain since 1983, which means he’s been a Beatle more than 2 1/2 times longer than the originals were.
The song sounds like Wings at their London Town lamest…and I mean that as a sincere compliment. Well played, Role Models. Well fucking played.
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