Wings of Heaven is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Magnum, released on 28 March 1988.
Wings of Heaven was their first studio album to gain both critical and commercial success and the first to achieve a top 10 placing, which it did in Sweden #2, the UK #5, Switzerland #7 and Norway #8.
The entire album was played live including the song "Different Worlds", never performed by the band on the original Wings of Heaven tour in 1988.
"I suppose you can read into the song a statement about the Reagan-Gorbachov talks as well, which are going to prove to be ultimately superfluous, because however many missiles the Americans and Russians agree to get rid of they’ll still have hundreds of the damn things!
I write a song about it… big deal!”[4] – Tony Clarkin "Wild Swan" "This was written in England and the idea came from a TV programme that showed some birds still quite alive and even flying, yet they had crossbow bolts straight through their bodies!
This gave me the idea for the song and from there I imagined a person taking the part of a swan in an almost fairy tale manner.
I was thinking in video terms with this song, with a person flying over Sailsbury Plains and looking down seeing everything passing under them.
"It was a search for safety, the journey out to sea to discover the place where you’d be safe from all the horrible things which could happen to you.
[4] – Tony Clarkin "Start Talking Love" "It arose from a point when I was feeling a bit lonely for the women back home!
So I went back to the Amityville Horror House (the band's abode during their sojourn in Holland) and I was just sitting there with a lit candle and a glass of wine and I felt a bit lonely, slightly sorry for myself.
[4] – Tony Clarkin "It Must Have Been Love" "This was a song trying to take the opposite point of view to most rock bands when it comes to male-female relationships.
Anyway we went down to Nice and we walked into an antiques market which was changing ridiculous amounts of money for this crazy stuff… nothing that interested me.
Yet I literally walked on a few more yards and suddenly there was a narrow avenue which had excretia everywhere and people where lying in doorways with bottles.
Public opinion can achieve a certain amount, but it's up to governments and those with a lot of money to make a difference.
Over the past couple of albums I’ve broken away from this fantasy approach, which is an easy style to write in as there are no limits put on you, because I couldn’t come up with anything new to say.
Mind you, it's much harder to write straight-down-the-line, contemporary lyrics due to the fact that it has to be totally and utterly understandable – more obvious.
"As a lyricist, I probably write any set of words about 15 or 20 times in various guises, changing the odd line here and there.
And even six months on, I’ll notice a stupid little grammatical error that drives me up the wall but is fundamental to anyone that speaks English.
I’ve got a pile of papers with millions of 'wrong' things on 'em, but usually I’ll end up with just one copy of the final draft, which I give to Bob… and he loses them.
We were staying at a ski lodge whilst doing a festival and was right at the top of a mountain – hence the line 'On top of the world nothing breaks in' – and one day I wend down the road and there were lots of churches, all with wrought iron crosses having black ribbons and gauze hanging off.
[4] – Tony Clarkin "Don't Wake the Lion (Too Old To Die Young)" "The first part was written in Germany and was inspired by the band's sound engineer!
"The middle part, which is actually a separate number called 'Too Old To Die Young' was written at the SFX Hall, Dublin… in a dressing room.