Band On The Run (UK version)

UK release date:
Dec 07, 1973

Related sessions

This album has been recorded during the following studio sessions




"Band On The Run" sessions #3

Late October / Early November 1973

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Track list

Disc 1


1.

Band On The Run

Written by Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney

5:13 • Studio versionA

Paul McCartney :
Acoustic guitar, Backing vocals, Bass, Drums, Electric guitar, Electric piano, Producer, Synthesizers, Vocals
Linda McCartney :
Backing vocals, Moog
Denny Laine :
Acoustic guitar, Backing vocals, Electric guitar
Tony Visconti :
Orchestration
Geoff Emerick :
Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
Monday :
Assistant engineer
Pete Swettenham :
Assistant engineer
Beaux Arts Orchestra :
Horns, Strings

Session Recording:
September 1-23, 1973
Studio :
EMI Studios, Lagos, Nigeria

Session Overdubs:
October 1973
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Session Mixing:
Late October / Early November 1973
Studio :
Kingsway Studios, London, UK

Credits & recording details courtesy of Luca Perasi • Buy Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989 on Amazon


2.

Jet

Written by Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney

4:09 • Studio versionA

Paul McCartney :
Backing vocals, Bass, Drums, Electric guitar, Moog (?), Piano (?), Producer, Vocals
Linda McCartney :
Backing vocals, Keyboards, Moog (?)
Denny Laine :
Backing vocals, Electric guitar, Piano (?)
Tony Visconti :
Orchestration
Howie Casey :
Sax
Geoff Emerick :
Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
Pete Swettenham :
Assistant engineer
Beaux Arts Orchestra :
Strings

Session Recording:
October 1973
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Session Mixing:
Late October / Early November 1973
Studio :
Kingsway Studios, London, UK

Credits & recording details courtesy of Luca Perasi • Buy Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989 on Amazon


3.

Bluebird

Written by Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney

3:24 • Studio versionA

Paul McCartney :
Acoustic guitar, Backing vocals, Bass, Chimes (?), Guiro (?), Maracas (?), Percussion (?), Producer, Triangle (?), Vocals
Linda McCartney :
Backing vocals, Chimes (?)
Denny Laine :
Acoustic guitar, Backing vocals
Howie Casey :
Sax
Remi Kabaka :
Drums, Percussion
Geoff Emerick :
Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
Monday :
Assistant engineer
Pete Swettenham :
Assistant engineer

Session Recording:
September 1-23, 1973
Studio :
EMI Studios, Lagos, Nigeria

Session Overdubs:
October 1973
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Session Mixing:
Late October / Early November 1973
Studio :
Kingsway Studios, London, UK

Credits & recording details courtesy of Luca Perasi • Buy Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989 on Amazon


4.

Mrs. Vandebilt

Written by Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney

4:41 • Studio versionA

Paul McCartney :
Acoustic guitar, Backing vocals, Bass, Drums, Electric guitar, Electric piano, Percussion (?), Producer, Vocals
Linda McCartney :
Backing vocals, Keyboards
Denny Laine :
Acoustic guitar, Backing vocals, Electric guitar (?), Percussion (?)
Howie Casey :
Sax
Geoff Emerick :
Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
Monday :
Assistant engineer
Pete Swettenham :
Assistant engineer

Session Recording:
September 1-23, 1973
Studio :
EMI Studios, Lagos, Nigeria

Session Overdubs:
October 1973
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Session Mixing:
Late October / Early November 1973
Studio :
Kingsway Studios, London, UK

Credits & recording details courtesy of Luca Perasi • Buy Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989 on Amazon


5.

Let Me Roll It

Written by Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney

4:50 • Studio versionA

Paul McCartney :
Backing vocals, Bass, Drums, Electric guitar, Producer, Vocals
Linda McCartney :
Backing vocals, Organ
Denny Laine :
Backing vocals, Electric guitar
Geoff Emerick :
Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
Monday :
Assistant engineer
Pete Swettenham :
Assistant engineer

Session Recording:
September 1-23, 1973
Studio :
EMI Studios, Lagos, Nigeria

Session Overdubs:
October 1973
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Session Mixing:
Late October / Early November 1973
Studio :
Kingsway Studios, London, UK

Credits & recording details courtesy of Luca Perasi • Buy Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989 on Amazon


6.

Mamunia

Written by Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney

4:50 • Studio versionA

Paul McCartney :
Acoustic guitar, Backing vocals, Bass, Electric guitar (?), Percussion, Producer, Vocals
Linda McCartney :
Backing vocals, Moog
Denny Laine :
Acoustic guitar, Backing vocals, Electric guitar (?), Percussion
Geoff Emerick :
Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
Monday :
Assistant engineer
Pete Swettenham :
Assistant engineer

Session Recording:
September 1-23, 1973
Studio :
EMI Studios, Lagos, Nigeria

Session Overdubs:
October 1973
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Session Mixing:
Late October / Early November 1973
Studio :
Kingsway Studios, London, UK

Credits & recording details courtesy of Luca Perasi • Buy Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989 on Amazon


7.

No Words

Written by Paul McCartney, Denny Laine

2:35 • Studio versionA

Paul McCartney :
Backing vocals, Bass, Drums, Electric guitar, Producer, Shaker (?), Synthesizer (?), Vocals
Linda McCartney :
Backing vocals, Keyboards, Shaker (?)
Denny Laine :
Backing vocals, Electric guitar, Vocals
Tony Visconti :
Orchestration
Geoff Emerick :
Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
Trevor Jones :
Backing vocals
Monday :
Assistant engineer
Pete Swettenham :
Assistant engineer
Beaux Arts Orchestra :
Strings
Ian Horne :
Backing vocals

Session Recording:
October 1973
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Session Mixing:
Late October / Early November 1973
Studio :
Kingsway Studios, London, UK

Credits & recording details courtesy of Luca Perasi • Buy Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989 on Amazon


8.

Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me)

Written by Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney

5:49 • Studio versionA

Paul McCartney :
Acoustic guitar, Backing vocals, Bass, Drums, Electric guitar, Electric piano, Producer, Shaker, Vocals
Linda McCartney :
Backing vocals, Shaker
Denny Laine :
Acoustic guitar, Backing vocals, Electric guitar, Shaker, Vocals
Tony Visconti :
Orchestration
Geoff Emerick :
Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
Ginger Baker :
Shaker
Monday :
Assistant engineer
Pete Swettenham :
Assistant engineer
Beaux Arts Orchestra :
Horns, Strings
Pierre Denis Le Seve :
French narration

Session Recording:
September 1-23, 1973
Studio :
ARC Studios, Ikeja, Nigeria

Session Overdubs:
October 1973
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Session Mixing:
Late October / Early November 1973
Studio :
Kingsway Studios, London, UK

Credits & recording details courtesy of Luca Perasi • Buy Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989 on Amazon


9.

Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five

Written by Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney

5:31 • Studio versionA

Paul McCartney :
Backing vocals, Bass (?), Drums, Electric guitar, Keyboards, Piano, Producer, Shaker (?), Synthesizers, Vocals
Linda McCartney :
Backing vocals, Organ, Shaker (?)
Denny Laine :
Backing vocals, Bass (?), Electric guitar
Tony Visconti :
Orchestration
Geoff Emerick :
Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
Monday :
Assistant engineer
Pete Swettenham :
Assistant engineer
Beaux Arts Orchestra :
Horns, Strings

Session Recording:
October 1973
Studio :
AIR Studios, London, UK

Session Mixing:
Late October / Early November 1973
Studio :
Kingsway Studios, London, UK

Credits & recording details courtesy of Luca Perasi • Buy Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989 on Amazon

About

From Wikipedia:

Band on the Run is the third studio album by Paul McCartney and Wings, released in December 1973. It marked the fifth album by Paul McCartney since his departure from the Beatles in April 1970. Although sales were modest initially, its commercial performance was aided by two hit singles – “Jet” and “Band on the Run” – such that it became the top-selling studio album of 1974 in the United Kingdom and Australia, in addition to revitalising McCartney’s critical standing. It remains McCartney’s most successful album and the most celebrated of his post-Beatles works.

The majority of Band on the Run was recorded at EMI’s studio in Lagos, Nigeria, as McCartney wanted to make an album in an exotic locale. Shortly before departing for Lagos, however, drummer Denny Seiwell and guitarist Henry McCullough left the group; with no time to recruit replacements, McCartney went into the studio with just his wife Linda and Denny Laine, doubling on drums, percussion and most of the lead guitar parts himself as well as bass. On arriving, it was discovered that the studio was below standard, and conditions in Nigeria were tense and difficult; the McCartneys were robbed at knife-point, during which a bag containing unfinished song lyrics and demo tapes was taken. After the band’s return to England, final overdubs and further recording were carried out at AIR Studios in London.

In 2000, Q magazine placed it at number 75 in its list of the “100 Greatest British Albums Ever“. In 2012, Band on the Run was voted 418th on Rolling Stone’s revised list of “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time“. A contemporary review by Jon Landau in Rolling Stone described the album as “with the possible exception of John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band, the finest record yet released by any of the four musicians who were once called the Beatles“.

It was Paul McCartney’s last album issued on the Apple label.

Background

Paul thought, I’ve got to do it, either I give up and cut my throat or [I] get my magic back. – Linda McCartney to Sounds magazine

By 1973, having been the one to announce the break-up of the Beatles three years before, Paul McCartney had yet to regain his artistic credibility or find favour with music critics for his post-Beatles work. After completing a successful UK tour with his band Wings, in July 1973, he planned their third album as a means to re-establish himself after the mixed reception given to Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway.

Keen to record outside the United Kingdom, McCartney asked EMI to send him a list of all their international recording studios. He selected Lagos in Nigeria and was taken with the idea of recording in Africa. In August, the band – consisting of McCartney and his wife Linda, ex-Moody Blues guitarist and pianist Denny Laine, Henry McCullough on lead guitar, and Denny Seiwell on drums – started rehearsals for the new album at the McCartneys’ Scottish farm. During one rehearsal session, McCullough and McCartney argued, and McCullough quit. Seiwell left a week later, the night before the band flew out to Nigeria. This left just the core of the band – Paul, Linda and Denny Laine – to record in Lagos, assisted by former Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick. McCartney had chosen Lagos, as he felt it would be a glamorous location where he and the band could sun on the beach during the day and record at night; the reality, however, was that after the end of a civil war in 1970 Nigeria was run by a military government, with corruption and disease commonplace.

Recording

The band and their entourage arrived in Lagos on 9 August 1973. EMI’s studio, located on Wharf Road in the suburb of Apapa, was ramshackle and under-equipped. The control desk was faulty and there was only one tape machine, a Studer 8-track. The band rented houses near the airport in Ikeja, an hour away from the studio. Paul, Linda and their three children stayed in one, while Laine, his wife JoJo, Emerick, and Wings’ two roadies stayed in another.

The group established a routine of recording during the week and playing tourist on the weekends. Paul temporarily joined a local country club, where he would spend most mornings. The band would be driven to the studio in the early afternoon where recording would last into the late evening and sometimes early morning. To make up for the departed band members, Paul would play drums and lead guitar parts with Denny playing rhythm guitar and Linda adding keyboards. The first track they recorded at Apapa was “Mamunia“, the title for which McCartney appropriated from the name of a hotel in Marrakesh where Wings had stayed in April 1973.

It’s a collection of songs and the basic idea about the band on the run is a kind of prison escape. At the beginning of the album, the guy is stuck inside four walls and breaks out. There is a thread, but not a concept. – Paul McCartney

Several of the songs on Band on the Run reflect themes of escape and freedom, while the structure of the album recalled the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road. The song “Band on the Run” was partly inspired by a remark George Harrison had made during one of the many business meetings the Beatles attended in 1969, in an effort to address the problems afflicting their Apple Corps enterprise. Four years later, the album’s creation coincided with what author Peter Doggett terms McCartney’s “moral victory in the debate over Allen Klein“, as Harrison, John Lennon and Ringo Starr now became embroiled in litigation against Klein – the business manager they had appointed to run Apple in 1969, despite strong opposition from McCartney. Doggett suggests that McCartney was perhaps liberated creatively by this recent development, resulting in Band on the Run bearing “a frothy self-confidence that was reminiscent of the Beatles at their most productive“.

Aside from the challenges presented by the primitive studio, various incidents plagued Wings’ Lagos stay. While out walking one night against advice, Paul and Linda were robbed at knifepoint. The assailants made away with all of their valuables and even stole a bag containing a notebook full of handwritten lyrics and songs, and cassettes containing demos for songs to be recorded. On another occasion, Paul was laying down a vocal track when he began gasping for air. According to Emerick: “Within seconds, [Paul] turned as white as a sheet, explaining to us in a croaking voice that he couldn’t catch his breath. We decided to take him outside for some fresh air … [but] once he was exposed to the blazing heat he felt even worse and began keeling over, finally fainting dead away at our feet. Linda began screaming hysterically; she was convinced that he was having a heart attack … The official diagnosis was that he had suffered a bronchial spasm brought on by too much smoking.” Another incident was the confrontation with local Afrobeat star and political activist Fela Kuti, who publicly accused the band of being in Africa to exploit and steal African music after their visit to his club. Kuti even went to the studio to confront McCartney, who played their songs for him proving that they contained no local influence whatsoever. Later on, drummer and former Cream member Ginger Baker invited Wings to record their entire album at his place, ARC Studio in Ikeja. Though not wanting the invitation, Paul agreed to go there for one day. The song “Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me)” was recorded at ARC, with Baker contributing a percussive tin of gravel.

[Paul and I] made the album as though we weren’t in a band, as though we were just two producers/musicians. – Denny Laine

Recording for the majority of the album’s basic tracks, together with initial overdubbing, was completed after six weeks in Nigeria. After hosting a beach barbecue to celebrate the end of recording, Wings flew back to England on 23 September 1973 where they were met by fans and journalists. In October, two weeks after the band’s return to London, work began at George Martin’s AIR Studios on transferring many of the eight-track recordings to sixteen-track. The song “Jet“, written about one of the McCartneys’ Labrador puppies, was recorded in its entirety at AIR. Paul, Laine and Linda carried out further overdubs on the Lagos recordings during this period; all the orchestral arrangements for the album were taped at AIR in a single day, overseen by producer Tony Visconti. Another contributor was saxophonist Howie Casey, who overdubbed solos on “Bluebird” and “Mrs. Vandebilt“, and would go on to become Wings’ regular horn player. Final mixing on the album was completed over three days at London’s Kingsway Studios in early November.

Helen Wheels” was released as a non-album single in late October, and would go on to become a top 10 hit in America the following January. For commercial reasons, Capitol Records, the US distributor for Apple Records, asked to include “Helen Wheels” on the album. McCartney agreed although it was never his intention to include the track. While “Helen Wheels” is not included on UK versions of the Band on the Run CD (except as a bonus cut on the 1993 “The Paul McCartney Collection” edition of the CD), it has always appeared on US editions of the CD starting with the initial Columbia Records release in 1984. Early versions of the Capitol release fail to list “Helen Wheels” on the label or the CD insert, making the song a “hidden track”.

Cover artwork

The album cover photograph was taken at Osterley Park, west London, on 28 October 1973 by photographer Clive Arrowsmith. It depicts Paul, Linda and Denny plus six other well-known people dressed as convicts caught in the spotlight of a prison searchlight. They are Michael Parkinson, chat-show host and journalist; Kenny Lynch, actor, comedian and singer; James Coburn, actor; Clement Freud, politician, columnist, gourmet and raconteur ; Christopher Lee, actor; and John Conteh, a boxer who later became World Light-Heavyweight champion.

Release

Apple Records issued Band on the Run on 5 December 1973 in America (as Apple SO 3415), with the UK release following two days later (as Apple PAS 10007). Rather than the band promote the album on radio and television or with a tour, McCartney undertook a series of magazine interviews, most notably with Paul Gambaccini for Rolling Stone. The conversations with Gambaccini took place at various locations from September 1973 onwards and combined to form, in the words of authors Chip Madinger and Mark Easter, “a remarkably forthcoming interview in comparison to the ‘thumbs-aloft’ profiles usually allowed by [McCartney]“.

Reception

On release, Band on the Run received mostly favourable reviews. Author Robert Rodriguez writes that, after the disappointment of McCartney’s previous work since the Beatles, “It was exactly the record fans and critics had long hoped he would make …

In a combined review for Starr’s concurrently released Ringo album, Charles Shaar Murray of the NME wrote: “The ex-Beatle least likely to re-establish his credibility and lead the field has pulled it off with a positive master-stroke of an album entitled Band On The Run.” In addition to praising McCartney for using synthesizer “like an instrument, and not like an electric whoopee cushion“, Shaar Murray concluded: “Band On The Run is a great album. If anybody ever puts down McCartney in your presence, bust him in the snoot and play him this. He will thank you for it afterwards.

Writing in The New York Times, Loraine Alterman considered the album to be “bursting with a great deal of compelling music even if the lyrics at times make as much sense as that cover photo” and admired the “fascinating range of sounds” offered in the title track, as well as the “lovely, romantic aura” of “Bluebird“. While noting the importance of studio production on the overall effect, Alterman wrote: “McCartney has managed to make the complexities of multi-track recording sound as natural and fresh as tomorrow.” Jon Landau of Rolling Stone described the album as “with the possible exception of John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band, the finest record yet released by any of the four musicians who were once called the Beatles“.

Not all critics were as impressed. Writing for his Consumer Guide column in The Village Voice, Robert Christgau wrote: “I originally underrated what many consider McCartney’s definitive post-Beatles statement, but not as much as its admirers overrate it. Pop masterpiece? This? Sure it’s a relief after the vagaries of Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway.” He did however praise the title track and the “Afro-soul” introduction to “Mamunia“, calling them “the high points.” Christgau ultimately awarded the album a C+ rating, indicating “a not disreputable performance, most likely a failed experiment or a pleasant piece of hackwork.

Rolling Stone chose Band on the Run as its Album of the Year for 1974. In early 1975, Paul McCartney and Wings won the Grammy award for “Best Pop Vocal Performance By a Duo, Group or Chorus” for Band on the Run.

Commercial success

The commercial reception was unspectacular initially, with the record-buying public wary after Wings’ preceding releases. On the UK Albums Chart, Band on the Run climbed to number 9 on 22 December, remaining there for a second week before dropping to number 13. On America’s Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart, it peaked at number 7 on 2 February 1974 and then spent the next six weeks in the lower reaches of the top ten. The album went on to achieve considerable success, however, thanks to the popularity of the two singles culled from it – “Jet” and the title track. Writing in 1981, Bob Woffinden described Band on the Run as the first Beatles-related release to be “planned with a marketing strategy“, as Capitol Records now assumed a fully active role in promoting the album following the removal of Klein’s ABKCO Industries as managers of Apple. Although McCartney had been reluctant to issue album tracks as singles, the public’s apparent disinterest in Band on the Run led to him ceding to the recommendations of Capitol’s head of marketing, Al Coury, who had similarly pushed for the inclusion of “Helen Wheels“. McCartney therefore authorised single edits for the two new A-sides.

Jet” was issued on 28 January in America, with “Mamunia” as the B-side for the single’s initial pressings, although this was soon replaced by “Let Me Roll It“, which was the B-side for the UK release, on 15 February. The single’s success provided new impetus for the album, which hit number 2 in the UK at the end of March and topped Billboard’s listings on 13 April. Apple issued “Band on the Run” on 8 April in America, backed by “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five“; the UK release followed on 28 June, with the non-album instrumental “Zoo Gang” as the B-side. Due to the popularity of “Band on the Run“, the album returned to number 1 on Billboard on 8 June, when the single simultaneously topped the Hot 100. In Britain, the album finally hit number 1 on 27 July, for the first of seven consecutive weeks at the top. On the alternative UK listings compiled by Melody Maker, Band on the Run remained in the top ten from 26 January through to 23 November 1974. During that time, its chart performance similarly reflected the popularity of the two singles, with the album spending three weeks at number 2 in April, and six weeks at number 1 throughout August and the first week of September.

The album topped the Billboard chart on three separate occasions during 1974, and was the top selling album of that year in Australia and Canada. In Britain, it came second in the year-end standings, behind the compilation The Singles: 1969–1973 by the Carpenters. Through this success with Wings, McCartney established himself as the most commercially successful of the four former Beatles. Rodriguez views the album’s arrival at number 1 on Billboard, in April 1974, as the moment when McCartney usurped George Harrison as the “ex-Beatle Most Likely to Succeed“, so beginning a period of public acclaim that reached its zenith with the Wings Over America Tour in 1976.

Band on the Run was eventually certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America; it would go on to sell 6 million copies worldwide and become EMI’s top selling album of the 1970s in the UK. Its continued success through 1974 was also beneficial in allowing Wings to recruit a new guitarist and drummer, and to integrate them into the band before beginning new recordings.

Legacy

The album continues to be mainly regarded positively. Though in Erlwine’s retrospective AllMusic review he feels that while some songs are excellent and the album overall is enjoyable, it is more showmanship than content. The Rolling Stone reviewer of the 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition feels that “the real action still lies in the original LP’s revved-up pleasures“. Writing for Mojo magazine in 2011, John Harris included Band on the Run among “the trilogy of truly essential post-Beatles solo albums“, along with Harrison’s All Things Must Pass and Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band.

In 2000 Q magazine placed it at number 75 in its list of the “100 Greatest British Albums Ever“. In 2012, Band on the Run was voted 418th on Rolling Stone’s revised list of “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time“.

Tape formats

As with all albums released contemporaneously by the EMI/Capitol empire, Band on the Run was released, in addition to the vinyl LP, on cassette and 8-Track cartridge in all territories in which they operated.

The US 8-track tape version of this album is one of the few 8-tracks that is arranged just like the vinyl album, albeit with the song “Bluebird” divided into two parts. The UK 8-track however, as was usually the case, had a re-arranged running order. This did at least enable the UK edition to avoid dividing any tracks. Band on the Run was also released in quadrophonic in both the US and UK.

Reissues

In 1993, Band on the Run was remastered and reissued on CD as part of the Paul McCartney Collection series with “Helen Wheels” and its B-side, “Country Dreamer“, as bonus tracks. In 1996, it was released on 5.1 Music Disc. In May 2007, the album was made available through the iTunes Store.

1999

Band on the Run: 25th Anniversary Edition, a special extended edition of the album, was released in 1999 to coincide with twenty-five years after the album began to take off in March 1974 after a slow start. On this version, “Helen Wheels” appeared as track 8, between “No Words” and “Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me)“, as it had been positioned on the original US release. The package includes an extra disc of live renditions of songs throughout the years, as well as brief new renditions by McCartney. Spoken testimonials are also included from McCartney himself, late wife Linda (to whom this retrospective release is dedicated), Laine, Dustin Hoffman (the inspiration behind “Picasso’s Last Words“), and the celebrity faces on the cover, including James Coburn, who was in Britain at the time filming The Internecine Project, and Christopher Lee.

2010

The album was reissued by Hear Music/Concord Music Group on 2 November 2010 as the first release in the Paul McCartney Archive Collection. […]

From Record Mirror, July 27, 1974
From Disc And Music Echo, December 8, 1973

DEAR PAUL (Linda and Denny too).

Felt I had to write and tell you how much your new elpee sounds like that old group you used to play with, the Beatles. I know it’s all in the past now and perhaps you’d all much rather forget your identity, but honest, there isn’t a track that doesn’t send me into a shiver of nostalgia for those Fab Four days.

I’ve got a sneaky feeling that you Paul had an inkling of this when you returned from making the album in Nigeria. You’ve been popping up all over the place, on the telly, on the radio, and in the music papers. You must have felt pleased with your work, glad to have something to shout about?

Well as you might say, “there’s no sweat” over this one; it just happens to be the best thing you’ve done. But just how much does this excellence owe to the fact that Wings is no more? I know it’s still Paul McCartney And Wings, but after all, it’s only your missus and a regular old mate. The other fellers you drafted in were kinda musicians looking for their own expressions, whereas now it’s more a family thing saying: “Look what we can do!”

The cover of the album was the first surprise, I mean that must have been an expensive photo session with all those famous people. Let’s see, there’s Michael Parkinson, Kenny Lynch, James Coburn (?), Clement Freud, Christopher Lee, and someone I don’t recognise (someone said it was a famous boxer). Anyway Kenny Lynch takes the prize for looking most like a frightened prisoner trying to escape.

And Band On The Run is a good title. It seems to be something of a theme, am I right? There’s the cover and all those travellers artefacts in the luverly photo on the back, all those coloured pictures taken on your trip to Lagos, and even the progression of songs. Or is that taking it too far. I know it must have become a drag having so many cultists reading meanings into your words, but this one does have a little mystique about it doesn’t it?

There’s a nice attention to detail too. Like the photos of each of you are in a different order on each side of the record. Paul stays in the same place and Denny and Linda swop positions next to him — just think what that will mean to all the Great Paul McCartney Legend freax who study every fact known about you. Subtle, eh, like to keep them guessing? It was that sort of teaser that started the huge “Paul McCartney is dead” myth.

Still, down to the music. That was what I really wanted to congratulate you on.

It seems to me that the loss of Denny Seiwell on drums and Henry McCulluch on guitar is an important factor to this album. You’ve been unable to rely on an injection of varying musical stimulus, so it’s back down to what you know best plus some very tidy harmony singing and very tasteful touches on synthesizer. I reckon it’s time Linda took some credit for her work on that unwieldy instrument — contrary to popular opinion, it’s not the sort of machine anyone can drive.

For the rest it’s down to your melodic bass and shall we say uncomplicated drumming, and God knows who plays the guitars, did I hear oboes, and definitely some fine sax solos? That did add to the mystique I suppose… not knowing owing who is playing the Beatlish guitar phrases and rhythms, and the piano. I know you can do it all Paul, but Denny’s in there some-were too.

The songs are as good as anything you have written and much more thoughtful than those on your last album. It’s a paradox really; the songs are not as simple as those on Red Rose Speedway but they are played in a simpler more effective manner. ‘Course it’s all down to your drumming Paul. It’s hardly piledriving, but you’ve got a luverly sense of rhythm.

It’s hard to pick a favourite song. You start off with a very intimate leveller to all the listeners — beaut bit on the synthy — and take us into a rather personal comment and then the title song which has a smashing first verse: (Hope you don’t mind me using this?) “Well the rain exploded with a mighty crash as we fell into the sun. And the first one said to the second one there I hope you’re having fun.”

Jet seems to be a personal look back; it’s a good rocker anyway with more nice synthy work.

Bluebird is so romantic and smoochy it makes your toes curl, if yoou know what I mean.

Mrs. Vanderbilt is ever so Beatlish and a bit calypso too — maybe a mark of respect four your location? It’s urgent from the bass up but has a lazy sunny feel too.

Let Me Roll It would certainly be a big hit as a single and as such makes a perfect side one closer. It’s catchy, has a raunchy guitar, and wuite an echo on the mouthbox. Let Me Roll It is the chorus line and really hooks.

Mamunia opens side two and again, it’s a luverly song. I don’t know what it means but it sounds fine. Again the lyrics gently swirl pictures before you.

No Words is the one you wrote with Denny. It sounds almost familiar, Laine and McCartney. It sounds almost George Harrison too. There’s a slight edge that almost (almost?) typifies the Lennon and McCartney thing. Well maybe not, but it would be nice to hear what else you can come up with.

I reckon Picasso’s Last Words (Drink To Me) will become one of our all-time great pub songs and is sure to win fame’ with alcoholics from Mile End to Moscow. Presumably it’s a tribute to the great painter: “Drink To Me, Drink To My Health, you know I can’t drink any more. ’ ’ I love the tempo changes and the French bit and the reprisals for Jet and Mrs. Vanderbilt.

And the last of all Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five. A joke on David Bowie? It’s a happy song musically but just what is the little stuff your lady gets behind? You can’t get enough of it but …. Oh well, Paul, Linda, and Denny, it’s a really good album. Pretty cute of you to drop it on us just before Christmas too.

Thanx for reading the letter, oh and seasonal greetings to y’all.

From Record Mirror, December 15, 1973
From Record Mirror, December 15, 1973
From Disc – December 21, 1974
From Melody Maker – December 8, 1973

BAND ON THE RUN: Wings soar sunward

“IT’S not a concept,” says Paul McCartney, but there is a thread to Wings’ newie “Band On The Run.” The feeling expressed throughout is one of happy, almost exultant freedom, in which the music is open, un-pressured and eminently satisfying. It epitomises what Wings are all about. They soar sunward and revel in light and warmth.

One of the more remarkable aspects of the album is the breadth of sound they achieve when one considers that most of the instrumentation is in the hands of the three surviving members.

With Denny Seiwell and Henry McCullough out, Paul had to take over the drum duties as well as playing bass guitar, and the rest of the instruments are played by Linda McCartney and Denny Laine.

There are some fine songs, as one would expect, including the delightful “Blue Bird,” with its hint of Bossa Nova rhythm, and the title track which sets the pace for richly melodic and memorable material.

A lazy guitar and synthesiser statement opens proceedings with Paul and Linda singing of being “stuck inside four walls,” which alludes to captivity and subsequent escape.

A touch of orchestra leads into a doubled tempo, which is increased yet again for the high-flying “Jet,” which shouts of freedom.

After “Blue Bird,” ” Mrs Vanderbilt,” begins with the classic Charlie Chester line “down in the jungle, living in a tent.” Paul says you “don’t need money. you don’t pay rent.”

Message

I think Charlie used to conclude, “better than a prefab – no rent.” The message here is not to worry, not to hurry, a creed to keep successful rockers sane.

“Let Me Roll It,” has an almost Plastic Ono quality about the hard and sharp guitar riff and strong use of echo.

The bass line here is beautiful, and the simplicity of production stunningly effective. This could become a rock standard, or at least a single.

Side two opens with the sea, where life began, and Paul’s warning on “Mamunia,” not to complain about the rain. There is a slight amount of conga drum but certainly not a great deal of African influence, as was expected from the location of the sessions, in Lagos.

Again, the production is beautifully simple, with the bass most to the fore, and gentle acoustic guitar additions behind the sparkling harmonies.

“No Words” is a romantic ballad with dramatic orchestral interjections, courtesy of Tony Visconti.

The beat is more pronounced and the twists and turns of the arrangement always resolve in an interesting, rewarding fashion.

The guitar solo is faded, which is a shame, but it has to make way for the measured strides of “Drink To Me.”

It reminds me a bit of “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” and has a couple of devices oft favoured in Beatle days, the lugubrious tones of a clarinet and some interspersed radio commentary.

There is a reprise of “Jet,” which comes in with cunning logic, before “Drink” spills over into party mood.

“Nineteen Hundred And Eighty-Five,” streaks ahead with a driving piano pattern over descending chords that terminate abruptly for a Hollywood choir, only to return with renewed energy.

Hypnotic

The drums stomp and the lead guitar howls in ever-increasing excitement, and as the orchestra joins in with great bellowing shafts of sound the effect is hypnotic.

Then tension is released by a return to a few bars of “Band On The Run,” Wings’ understanding of a proper balance between the use of melody and arrangement, complexity and simplicity, should serve as a lesson to all those groups who force themselves into impossible postures and teeter off-balance.

And with this album, Wings prove they are not just a flutter, or plaything, but a highly valued addition to the ranks of music makers.   –  CHRIS WELCH.                                                                                                     

From Melody Maker – December 1, 1973
From Melody Maker – December 1, 1973

Paul rolls it home

RINGO STARR: “Ringo” (Apple)PAUL MCCARTNEY & WINGS: “Band On The Run” (Apple)

RINGO STARR is a wonderful person. His new album proves it.

If he was an evil-tempered schmuck, you don’t think that John Lennon, George Harrison, Klaus Voormann, Billy Preston, Marc Bolan, Jim Keltner, Milt Holland, Nicky Hopkins, Bobby Keyes, Jack Nitzsche, Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, David Bromberg, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Harry Nilsson, Martha Reeves, Merry Clayton, Steve Cropper, Paul’n’ Linda Macca and last but not least Mal Evans would have gotten up off their various floors and hot-footed into the studios to help him out on this album, do you? No way.

The trouble with Ringo is that apart from the star-spotting, it’s not really that much fun to listen to. On Beatles albums, the odd Ringo tune here and there was a pleasant diversion, and occasionally his solo singles like “It Don’t Come Easy” and “Back Off Boogaloo” have been great radio and juke-box tunes, but a whole al- bum of Ringo Starr is rather tough going.

The dearth of good material doesn’t help much either. His Beatle buddies have all weighed in with songs: One each from Lennon and the McCartneys, and no less than three by Harri- son: One on his own, one (“Photograph” written in collaboration with Richie himself and one joint effort with Mal Evans.

Lennon’s “I’m The Greatest” verges uncomfortably on self-parody, and Ringo becomes the butt of the joke, as he’s the poor sod who’s actually singing it. Lines like “I’m only thirty-two and all I wanna do is boogaloo” may well win Lennon the Marc Bolan Memorial Prize for Unenviable Achievements in Lyric Writing, and the Billy Shears reference (complete with canned applause) simply give the impression that Ringo and his helpmates are trying to plug the musical holes in the album with large handfuls of charm and nostalgia.

The McCartney’s contribution is well below form, but it’s far superior to any of Harri- son’s. “Sunshine Life For Me” is probably the best of his three, seeing as how it features Bromberg and four-fifths of the band (so how come Richard Manuel stayed home sulking?) Harrison is credited with “Backing Vocals” on that track, which is odd since he’s been singing like that for years.

It’s rather pointless to go on, except to mention that Marc Bolan’s performance on Randy Newman’s “Hold On” consists of the “Get It On” riff or its second cousin. Ringo is an album that should be purchased only by those who wish to go to extraordinary lengths to indulge their nostalgia for the Beatles. Principally because of Ringo’s limitations as a vocalist, it’s a quite frighteningly boring album.

Mind Games, Material World, Ringo. Three down, one to go. The ex-Beatle least likely to re-establish his credibility and lead the field has pulled it off with a positive masterstroke of an album entitled Band On The Run.

From the cover, depicting Paul, Linda, Denny Laine, James Coburn, Christopher Lee, Michael Parkinson, Kenny Lynch and John Conte in convict costume up against a wall, right through to the closing reprise of the title track, Band On The Run comes on as one of the best albums of ‘73, and, with the possible exception of Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band al- bum, the best solo performance of anybody who used to be in the Beatles.

The album was cut in Nigeria with a basic personnel of three: the McCartneys and Mr. Laine all overdubbing their asses off. Howie Casey assists here and there on Professor Sax’s invention every so often. The range of mood is startling: the cool spaciousness and straight-ahead drive of “Jet” contrasts beautifully with the nightclub folkiness of “Bluebird” and the “Road To…” feel of “Mrs. Vandebilt.” But the track that’s gonna be the conversation piece at every cafe society wine and cheese party this season is “Let Me Roll It.”

It sounds exactly like Plastic Ono period Lennon, and some uncharitable souls might suspect it to be payment in kind for “How Do You Sleep,” although the parody element is extremely good-natured, right down to the Primal Whimper at the end. McCartney denies any conscious parody in this tune, but I have my suspicions about that.

On the second side, there’s “Mamunia” which is a pleasant but insignificant piece with one of those White Album-ish descending sequences.

“Picasso’s Last Words”, however, is the track that recalls the Beatles most exactly: more because of its production than its content. The way the spoken voices are used behind that lazy synthesised clarinet …oh, it takes me back.

From there on, we’re simply left with “1985”, which has Paul dusting off his “Lady Madonna” voice and which rocks like a muthuh, intercut with reprises of “Jet”, “Mrs. Vandebilt” and “Band” itself.

As you may have noticed from the almost unprecedented brevity of the above comments, Band On The Run is considerably easier to listen to than to write about. So… hey, I nearly forgot. For a real revelation, listen to Macca’s synthesiser work. He uses it like an instrument, and not like an electric whoopee cushion.

Band On The Run is a great album. If anybody ever puts down McCartney in your presence, bust him in the snoot and play him this. He will thank you for it afterwards.

From New Musical Express – January 19, 1974
From New Musical Express – January 19, 1974

Last updated on August 23, 2023

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TurbanGuy4k 4 years ago

Paul plays a drum machine on bluebird


The PaulMcCartney Project 4 years ago

Thanks TurbanGuy4k, will update accordingly !


Ten Essential Solo Beatle Albums – Mandatory News 2 years ago

[…] “It’s a collection of songs, and the basic idea about the band on the run is a kind of prison escape,” he surmised. “At the beginning of the album, the guy is stuck inside four walls and breaks out. There is a thread, but not a concept.”[7] […]


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