| Band on the Run | |
| Type: | Studio album |
| Artist: | Paul McCartney and Wings |
| Cover: | Paul McCartney & Wings-Band on the Run album cover.jpg |
| Released: | 30 November 1973 |
| Recorded: | August–October 1973 |
| Studio: |
|
| Genre: | Rock |
| Length: |
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| Label: | Apple |
| Producer: | Paul McCartney |
| Chronology: | Paul McCartney and Wings |
| Prev Title: | Red Rose Speedway |
| Prev Year: | 1973 |
| Next Title: | Venus and Mars |
| Next Year: | 1975 |
Band on the Run is the third studio album by the British–American rock band Paul McCartney and Wings, released by Apple on 30 November 1973. It was McCartney's fifth album after leaving 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 album was mostly recorded at EMI's studio in Lagos, Nigeria, as McCartney wanted to make an album in an exotic location. Shortly before departing for Lagos, 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. McCartney therefore played bass, drums, percussion and most of the lead guitar parts. The studio was of poor quality and conditions in Nigeria were tense and difficult; the McCartneys were robbed at knifepoint, losing a bag of song lyrics and demo tapes. After the band's return to England, final overdubs and further recording were carried out in London, mostly at AIR Studios.
In 2000, Q magazine placed Band on the Run at number 75 in its list of the "100 Greatest British Albums Ever". In 2012, it was listed at 418 on Rolling Stone
By 1973, three years after the break-up of the Beatles, Paul McCartney had yet to regain his artistic credibility or find favour with music critics for his post-Beatles work.[2] After completing a successful UK tour with his band Wings in July 1973,[3] he planned their third album as a means to re-establish himself after the mixed reception given to Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway.[4]
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 attracted to 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.[5] Seiwell left a week later, the night before the band flew out to Nigeria.[6] This left just McCartney, Linda and 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.[7] [8]
The band and their entourage arrived in Lagos on 30 August 1973, returning to London late on 22 September. 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. McCartney, 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. McCartney temporarily joined a local country club, where he spent most mornings. The band was driven to the studio in the early afternoon, and recording would last into the late evening or early morning. To compensate for the departed band members, McCartney played, in addition to his contributions on bass guitar, the drum and lead guitar parts, with Laine playing rhythm guitar and Linda adding keyboards.[9] 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.[10]
Several of the songs on Band on the Run reflect themes of escape and freedom,[11] while the structure of the album recalled the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road.[12] 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[13] – the business manager they had appointed to run Apple in 1969, despite strong opposition from McCartney.[14] Doggett writes 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".[15]
Aside from the challenges presented by the substandard studio, various incidents plagued Wings' stay in Lagos. While out walking one night against advice, McCartney and Linda were robbed at knifepoint. The assailants made off 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.[16] On another occasion, McCartney was overdubbing a vocal track when he began gasping for air. According to Emerick: "Within seconds, [McCartney] 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."[17] Another incident was the confrontation with local Afrobeat pioneer 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 went to the studio to confront McCartney, who played their songs for him to show that they contained no local influence. Later on, drummer and former Cream member Ginger Baker invited Wings to record their entire album at his ARC Studio in Ikeja. McCartney agreed to go there for one day, and the song "Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)" was recorded at ARC, with Baker himself shaking a tin can filled with gravel on the track.
Recording for the majority of the album's basic tracks, together with initial overdubbing, was completed after six weeks in Nigeria. Wings hosted a beach barbecue to celebrate the end of recording,[17] and on 23 September 1973 they flew back to England,[18] where they were met by fans and journalists.[19] Upon returning to London, the McCartneys received a letter from EMI dated before the band had left England warning them to not go to Lagos due to an outbreak of cholera.[20]
In October, two weeks after the band's return to London, work began at George Martin's AIR Studios to transfer many of the eight-track recordings made in Nigeria to sixteen-track. "Jet", named after one of the McCartney children's ponies, was recorded in its entirety at AIR.[21] [22] The McCartneys and Laine carried out further overdubs on the Lagos recordings during this period; all of the orchestral arrangements for the album were taped at AIR in a single day, conducted by Tony Visconti.[23] Visconti was given three days to write the arrangements, including for the 60-piece orchestra on the title track. He said the arrangements were collaborations with McCartney, and was surprised he was not correctly credited for his work until the 25th anniversary reissue of the album.[24] Another contributor was saxophonist Howie Casey, who overdubbed solos on "Bluebird", "Mrs. Vandebilt,"[25] and "Jet", and would go on to become Wings' regular horn player.[26] On 8 October, Remi Kabaka, a musician coming from Nigeria, although born in Ghana, added a set of percussion on "Bluebird".[27] Final mixing of the album was completed over three days at London's Kingsway Studios in early November.
The album cover photograph was taken in Osterley Park, West London, on 28 October 1973 by photographer Clive Arrowsmith from a concept by Hipgnosis and McCartney. It depicts the McCartneys, Laine, and six other well-known people dressed as convicts and posed as though caught by a prison searchlight. The six celebrities are: Michael Parkinson, Kenny Lynch, James Coburn, Clement Freud, Christopher Lee, and John Conteh.[28] Arrowsmith said the photo used for the cover was one of four he found acceptable out of the 24 pictures he took during the session. The spotlight's low potency meant everyone had to stand still for two seconds for proper exposure, which was made difficult by the photographer and subjects reportedly being in a "substance haze" following a party held by Paul McCartney. The golden hue of the picture comes from Arrowsmith’s use of daylight film instead of nighttime Tungsten film, which would have been more typical for the setting.[29]
Apple Records issued Band on the Run in the UK on November 30 [30] (as Apple PAS 10007),[31] and in the U.S. on 5 December (as Apple SO 3415).[32] Rather than having 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 onward,[33] 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]".[34]
"Helen Wheels" was released as a non-album single in late October 1973, and became a top 10 hit in America the following January.[35] 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.[36] While "Helen Wheels" is not included on CD editions of Band on the Run in the UK (except as a bonus track on the 1993 "The Paul McCartney Collection" edition of the album), it has often appeared on CD releases of the album in the US and Canada, 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".
Initially, the album did not sell especially well, with the record-buying public wary after Wings' preceding releases.[37] [38] On the UK Albums Chart, Band on the Run climbed to number 9 on 22 December,[39] remaining there for a second week before dropping to number 13.[40] 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.[41] 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,[42] the public's apparent lack of interest in Band on the Run led him to agree to the recommendations of Capitol's head of marketing, Al Coury,[43] who had similarly pushed for the inclusion of "Helen Wheels" on the album's American release. McCartney therefore authorised single edits of the two A-sides taken from the album.
"Jet" was issued as a single in America on 28 January with "Mamunia" as the B-side, although "Let Me Roll It", which was the B-side of the UK release, replaced "Mamunia" on 15 February.[44] The single's success provided new impetus for the album,[45] [46] which hit number 2 in the UK at the end of March[47] and topped Billboards listings on 13 April. Apple issued "Band on the Run" as a single in America on 8 April, 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.[48] Due to the popularity of "Band on the Run", the album returned to number 1 on the Billboard chart on 8 June, when the single simultaneously topped the Hot 100.[49] In Britain, the album finally hit number 1 on 27 July,[50] and it stayed there for seven consecutive weeks.[51] On the alternative UK listings compiled by Melody Maker, Band on the Run remained in the top ten from 26 January through 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.[52]
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 by the Carpenters. Through this success with Wings, McCartney established himself as the most commercially successful of the four former Beatles. Author Robert Rodriguez views the album's arrival at number 1 in America in April 1974 as the moment when McCartney usurped George Harrison as the "ex-Beatle Most Likely to Succeed", and the beginning of a period of public acclaim that reached its zenith with the Wings Over America Tour in 1976.[53]
Band on the Run was eventually certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and would go on to sell 6 million copies worldwide,[54] becoming 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.[55]
Upon its release, Band on the Run received mostly favourable reviews. 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".[56]
In a combined review of Band on the Run and 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."[57]
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 to the overall effect, Alterman wrote: "McCartney has managed to make the complexities of multi-track recording sound as natural and fresh as tomorrow."[58] 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".[59] Rolling Stone named Band on the Run one of the Best Albums of 1973.[60]
Village Voice critic Robert Christgau wrote in 1981: "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 praised 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". In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that, while some songs are excellent and the album overall is enjoyable, it is more about showmanship than content. A subsequent review on Allmusic by Al Campbell was more generous, considering the arrangements and melodic hooks of the songs up to the caliber of McCartney's work in the Beatles and concluding: "Though it lacks the emotional resonance of contemporaneous releases by John Lennon and George Harrison, McCartney's infallible instinct for popcraft overflows on this excellent release." The Rolling Stone review of the 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of the album said 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.[61]
In 2000, Q magazine placed Band on the Run at number 75 in its list of the "100 Greatest British Albums Ever". In 2012, it was voted 418th on Rolling Stones revised list of "the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".[62] The album is featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[63]
All songs written by Paul and Linda McCartney, except "No Words" (written by Paul McCartney and Denny Laine).
Side one
Side two
Note: Original North American releases also contain "Helen Wheels" (running time 3:45) as Track 8 (between "No Words" and "Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)").
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.
In 1999, Band on the Run: 25th Anniversary Edition, a special extended edition of the album, was released to coincide with twenty-five years after when, after a slow start, sales of the album began to take off in March 1974.[64] 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 liner notes written by historian Mark Lewisohn,[65] and an extra disc of live renditions of songs from the album throughout the years, as well as brief new renditions by McCartney. Spoken testimonials are also included from McCartney himself, the late Linda (to whom this retrospective release is dedicated), Laine, Dustin Hoffman (the inspiration behind the writing of "Picasso's Last Words"), and the celebrity faces on the cover (including James Coburn, who was in Britain to film The Internecine Project (1974) when the picture for the album cover was taken, and Christopher Lee).
The Paul McCartney Archive Collection series started with Band on the Run, released on 2 November 2010.[66] The Archive Collection was administered by Hear Music and Concord Music Group and the album was released in multiple formats:[67] a single remastered CD version of the original UK album (excluding "Helen Wheels" from the track listing), a 2-disc vinyl LP version with the remastered album and a selection of bonus audio materials, a 2CD/DVD edition including a collection of bonus materials in addition to the original album, a 2CD/2DVD edition sold only at Best Buy with additional bonus materials on the second DVD, a 3CD/DVD Deluxe Edition with the additional bonus materials in the other versions and an audio documentary originally produced for the album's 25th anniversary release and a 120-page hardbound book containing photos by Linda McCartney and Clive Arrowsmith, a history of the album, and additional materials. Within the Deluxe Edition was additional included a High Resolution 24-bit 96 kHz (with no dynamic range compression) download of the audio content released for the Archive Collection editions.[68]
In promotion of the Archive Collection edition, a Record Store Day 2010-exclusive vinyl single of "Band on the Run" backed with "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five" was also released.[69]
Disc 3 (Deluxe Edition)
This disc contains an audio documentary of the album, originally released in 1999 as Disc 2 of the 25th Anniversary Edition reissue.
DVD (Special and Deluxe editions)
Download only (Pre-order bonus tracks on paulmccartney.com)[70]
A 50th Anniversary Edition of the album was released on 2 February 2024.[71] [72] The U.S. version of the album, with "Helen Wheels" included, was "cut at half speed using a high-resolution transfer of the original master tapes from 1973 at Abbey Road Studios, London." Additionally, in promotion of the anniversary, "a second LP of previously unreleased "underdubbed" mixes of the songs" was released. The "underdubbed" mixes are rough mixes prepared by engineer Geoff Emerick on 14 October 1973, before the final mixes with Tony Visconti's orchestrations added to the tracks. The 50th anniversary also included streaming versions of the "Underdubbed Mixes" and a Dolby Atmos mix by Giles Martin and Steve Orchard of the full U.S. version of the album.[73]
According to Bruce Spizer:[74]
Band members
Additional personnel
|-| style="width:35px; text-align:center;" rowspan="2"|1975 ||Paul McCartney and Wings / Band on the Run || Album of the Year[75] || |-| Geoff Emerick / Band on the Run || Best Engineered Non-Classical Album || |-| style="width:35px; text-align:center;" |2012 ||Paul McCartney, Sam Okell, Steve Rooke / Band on the Run (Paul McCartney Archive Collection – Deluxe Edition) || Best Historical Album || |-
| Chart (1973–75) | Position | |
|---|---|---|
| Australian Kent Music Report[76] | 1 | |
| Belgium Albums Chart[77] | 4 | |
| Canadian RPM Albums Chart[78] | 1 | |
| Dutch Mega Albums Chart[79] | 5 | |
| Japanese Oricon LPs Chart[80] | 11 | |
| Norwegian VG-lista Albums Chart[81] | 1 | |
| Spanish Albums Chart[82] | 1 | |
| Swedish Albums Chart[83] | 5 | |
| UK Albums Chart[84] | 1 | |
| US Billboard Top LPs & Tape[85] | 1 | |
| West German Media Control Albums Chart[86] | 15 |
| Chart (1999) | Position | |
|---|---|---|
| Japanese Albums Chart[87] | 56 | |
| UK Albums Chart[88] | 69 | |
| US Top Pop Catalog Albums[89] | 1 |
| Chart (2010) | Position | |
|---|---|---|
| Belgian Albums Chart (Flanders)[90] | 89 | |
| Belgian Albums Chart (Wallonia)[91] | 96 | |
| Dutch Albums Chart | 34 | |
| European Top 100 Albums[92] | 46 | |
| Japanese Albums Chart[93] | 25 | |
| Spanish Albums Chart[94] | 47 | |
| UK Albums Chart | 17 | |
| US Top Pop Catalog Albums[95] | 3 | |
| US Billboard 200[96] | 29 |
| Chart (1974) | Position | |
|---|---|---|
| Australian Kent Music Report[97] | 1 | |
| Canadian Albums Chart[98] | 1 | |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[99] | 36 | |
| UK Albums Chart[100] | 2 | |
| US Billboard Year-End | 3 |
Sources