When the Beatles split up, most people felt that Paul McCartney would be the one most likely to...

He seemed to have the greatest pop sensibilities out of the four of them. Lennon was all hard and artistic and inaccessible, Harrison was all hippy dippy eastern mysticism and Ringo was just jolly old Ringo.

However, Macca went badly off track in the first couple of years post Abbey Road and insisted doggedly that he was only one member of a working group, that wife Linda was a vital cog in the wheel, and that he wanted to be harder than before....

'McCartney', 'Ram' and the absolutely dire 'Wild Life' were very disappointing efforts though they bore the occasional seed of brilliance, but 'Red Rose Speedway' marked a bit of an improvement as the line up started to stabilise.

However, none of this could prepare the world for the mega return to form that was the astonishing 'Band On The Run' masterpiece.

In the previous year or so, Wings had had some excellent singles, but the fruits of a sojourn in Nigeria and a tight little musical backing with a lot of the stuff provided by Our Paul himself were astounding. But that was more out of circumstance than choice, because regular drummer Denny Seiwell quit Wings before recording was about to start in former Cream drummer Ginger Baker’s studios. As it was therefore, only McCartney and his regular sideman Denny Laine were there, although Our Lindy did her normal bit (whatever that was).

The title track, 'Picasso's Last Words', '1985', 'Mamunia' and the rest made this a wonderful return to form from first to last and showed that the pop god was still alive and kicking.

He went badly off line again after this one off effort but Band On The Run is an everlasting proof that the boy can't help it.

Thankfully, Lindy was quite difficult to spot on the album, but we miss her loads - she was a good 'un.

The sleeve notes of the 25th anniversary edition of the album’s release contains some interesting background by Mark Lewisohn: “By 1973 it was clear that Paul McCartney was continuing the fast-track pace of record releases that the Beatles had established the previous decade. Unveiled that December, Band On The Run arrived some three and a half years after the Beatles’ final album and yet it was already Paul’s fifth – and his third with Wings.

“Lagos! For Paul, the word conjured up images of lazy days, hazy days, hot, tropical days, days of ceaseless music and buzzy rhythms on the west coast of Africa. He envisaged ‘lying on the beach all day, doing nothing, and recording at night’. But, as he noted later, drily, ‘It didn’t turn out quite like that.’

“It was a cavalier decision. The McCartneys didn’t know that Nigeria was run by a gun-happy military government, the result of a coup seven years earlier. They didn’t know that, while Nigeria was a member of the British Commonwealth, the first thing they’d see at the airport was men wielding machine guns, that lepers walked the streets, that even the capital city had open drainage, that few things functioned there – officially or unofficially – without generous palm-greasing...."

“The recording of most tracks began with Paul playing drums and Denny the rhythm guitar, laying down the song’s foundation. From here, by a process of layering, and with Linda adding keyboards, each song slowly took shape. No mean lead guitarist, Paul played most of these parts. Some two weeks after returning to London, Wings went back into the studio to complete the album. Most of this final work was done at George Martin’s AIR Studios on Oxford Street (although George himself did not participate). Songs requiring overdubs were transferred from the Lagos eight-track tapes to 16-track. Howie Casey, an old mate of Paul’s from Liverpool (Howie Casey and the Seniors were the first Mersey beat band to gain a London recording contract), was brought in to craft sax solos on ‘Bluebird’ and ‘Mrs Vandebilt’, thus rekindling a friendship that led to Casey’s involvement in all of Wings’ subsequent concerts....

“The most significant work effected at AIR was the recording of ‘Jet’, and the overdubbing of orchestral parts. Paul invited Tony Visconti to write the arrangements, admiring his production work. (He also happened to be married to Paul’s former Apple protégée Mary Hopkin.) Visconti scored the orchestral overdub on ‘Band On The Run’, strings and saxes on ‘Jet’, brass and strings on ‘No Words’, strings on ‘Picasso’s Last Words’, and strings for end of ‘Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five’. (Also during these AIR sessions, Linda recorded ‘Oriental Nightfish’, eventually released on the album Wide Prairie in 1998.)

“Speaking recently, Paul considered that Band On The Run was the second most enjoyable album he’d made since the Beatles, the first being McCartney. ‘It was a challenge to be in Lagos, and very uphill,’ he reflected, but Paul McCartney is never one to shirk from a challenge. Miraculously, the album is so assured – buoyant even – the songs are uniformly strong and the vocals and musicianship brim with confidence. Band On The Run went gold in the USA 12 days after release, was voted best album of 1973 by Rolling Stone, was the best-selling album in Britain in 1974, and became the first McCartney album to be issued in the still iron-curtained Soviet Union. At the 1975 Grammy Awards it won two honours, Best Contemporary/Pop Vocal and, for Geoff Emerick’s work, Best Engineered Album.”

Now all of that stuff might be written through rose tinted specs, but it was certainly true at the time that Band On The Run was seen as being the best release by any of the Fab Four since the group’s split, even getting ranked above Goerge Harrison’s epic albums, and it was certainly a real snap back to form by Macca, who seemed to have rediscovered all his old inspiration and trick of pulling out a decent melody.

But the album was not so much about the tunes and the words, but the gorgeous laid back feel of it all, like Paul had given up trying so hard to outdo his former band and decided to simply get on with making some good music. The tracks here were rough and ready at times, but very accomplished with an instant grab at your feet and gut, dripping with hit singles and punchy charm.

‘Let Me Roll It’ was all soaring rock chant over a sparse track and saw McCartney trying a new, stripped down approach, while the excellent ‘Jet’ and the title track were other stand outs. This album was a bounding beast of a collection, loping and sprinting and then dropping down to a slow stroll, by a distance outdoing any other artist who was on the boards that year…

Stuck inside these four walls
Sent inside forever
Never seeing no one nice again
Like you, mama, you, mama, you
If I ever get out of here
Thought of giving it all away
To a registered charity
All I'd need is a pint a day
If I ever get out of here
If we ever get out of here

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
Band on the run, band on the run
And the jailer man and Sailor Sam
Were searchin' ev'ryone
For the band on the run, band on the run
For the band on the run, band on the run

Well, the undertaker drew a heavy sigh
Seeing no one else had come
And a bell was ringing in village square
For the rabbits on the run

Released: December 5, 1973
Recorded: September, 1973
Produced by: Paul McCartney
Engineered by: Geoff Emerick
Cover Photo by: Clive Arrowsmith
Label: Apple SO-3415

1. Band On The Run {McCartney} (5:13)
2. Jet {McCartney} (4:08)
3. Bluebird {McCartney} (3:24)
4. Mrs. Vandebilt {McCartney} (4:42)
5. Let Me Roll It {McCartney} (4:50)
6. Mamunia {McCartney} (4:50)
7. No Words {McCartney/Laine} (2:35)
8. Helen Wheels {McCartney} (3:47)
9. Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me) {McCartney} (5:49)
10. Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five {McCartney} (5:28)
 Total playing time 44:48

Paul McCartney and Wings
Paul McCartney - lead vocals, guitars, bass, drums, synthesizer, piano
Linda McCartney - keyboards, percussion, background vocals
Denny Laine - guitar, background vocals

with
Howey Casey - saxophone solos
Tony Visconti - orchestrations