Track Listing

1. Band On The Run
2. Jet
3. Bluebird
4. Mrs Vanderbilt
5. Let Me Roll It
6. Marmunia
7. No Words
8. Picasso's Last Words
9. 1985

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1578 in Music
• Released on: 1993-06-07
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
If Paul McCartney will be remembered for anything post- Beatles, it's Band On the Run. Even though he had to go all over creation to record it, the trip was obviously worthwhile, bringing forth gems like "Helen Wheels", "Jet" and the title track. Everything is in place: the melodies, the pop smarts and a real studio production. Amazingly, Wings actually consisted of Paul and his wife Linda, with guitarist Denny Laine; Paul played almost everything on the record. Regardless, it was his return--finally--to greatness. --Chris Nickson

From Amazon.com
If Paul will be remembered for anything post-Beatles, it's this album. Even though he had to go all over creation to record it, the trip was obviously worthwhile, bringing forth gems like "Helen Wheels," "Jet," and the title track. Everything was in place, the melodies, the pop smarts, and a real studio production. The amazement was that Wings actually consisted of Paul and Linda with guitarist Denny Laine; Paul played most everything on the record. Regardless, it was his return--finally--to greatness. --Chris Nickson

CD Description
BAND ON THE RUN is generally considered Paul McCartney's strongest solo effort. The album was also his most commercially successful--selling well and spawning two hit singles, themulti-part pop suite of the title track, and the roaring rocker "Jet". On these cuts, and elsewhere, McCartney's penchant for sophisticated, nuanced arrangements and irrepressiblycatchy melodic hooks is up to the caliber he displayed in the Beatles, far surpassing the first two Wings releases WILDLIFE and RED ROSE SPEEDWAY.
The focus found in BAND ON THE RUN may have to do with the circumstances of its creation:Two former members quit the band prior to recording, leaving McCartney, wife Linda, and guitarist Denny Laine to complete the album alone (with Paul writing, producing, and playing most of the instruments himself). The album has the majestic, orchestral sweep of McCartney's ABBEY ROAD-era ambition,with a wide range of style-dabbling, from the swaying, acoustic jazz-pop of "Bluebird" to the appealing, straightforward rock of "Helen Wheels" to the wiry blues of "Let Me Roll It" to the swaying, one-off pub singalong "Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)"). Though it lacks the emotional resonance of contemporaneous releases by John Lennon and George Harrison, McCartney's infallible instinct for pop craft overflows on this excellent release.

Customer Reviews

At last a classic
Pauls solo career for the 4 years post the Beatles had been a rather patchy affair. After starting off with two decent albums, he followed that up with two very below par Wings efforts that prompted much mocking of the Wings line up, particularly the inclusion of Pauls wife Linda on keyboards. Here however, reduced to the three core members, Paul, Lindaa & Denny, they produce the kind of rock/pop music that the seventies were meant for.

Recorded in Lagos, their surroundings meant that they recorded an album that had a consistent sound about it, something all Wings previous efforts had failed at. Kicking off with two of pauls best songs, Band on The Run and Jet never fail to lift you up, two of pauls finest rock songs that both follow the theme of flight and escapism that runs throught his whole album.

Bluebird is a delightful acoustic number that again follows the theme of flight, although those expecting a Blackbird part two should look eslewhere. Mrs Vandebilt one can only assume is about returning to nature with its tribal like shouts of Ho-Hey-Ho .

Let Me Roll it still stands as one of Pauls best, a song he performs today with passion and vigour, and one that has been described as out-Lennoning Lennon. The heavy riffs over an organ fuelled drum beat are fantastic, and one cant wonder if the songs lyrics were also aimed at lennon (" I cant tell you how I feel, my heart is like a wheel....Let Me Roll It to you").

Mamunia is Pauls back to nature approach again, but is more successful than Mrs Vandebilt with a delightful melody and acoustics that celebrate the rain as Paul intended. No Words was a co-write between Paul and Denny, and both take turns in shring the vocals. Probably the weakest cut on the album, it still makes for good listening.

Helen Wheels was the single that preceeded this album, and was originally only included on the American version of the album. Its a bit like The Ballad of Paul & Linda, rocking along to great effect, although Lindas vocals often seem a little harsh on the ears. Its B-Side Country Dreamer is included on the re-mastered releases, and that is a pleasant acoustic number originally recorded for red Rose Speedway but never used.

Picassos last words was written in the company of Dustin Hoffman, and recalls the great painters last hours. It works as another great McCartney character song with french sounding horns and a great melody.

The closing 1985 works as a fantastic climax to a fantastic album. This is Pauls musically most consistent and cohesive work. Great songs mix together with excellent production to produce an album that really does make wings sound like a band on the run. It would catapult the band to the kind of global succcess that only the Beatles could better. This is the album Paul had bordered on making for a few years and finally found the focus to do so. It is brimming with great tunes and creativity. Excellent.

Macca's best !
In '73 time was pressing for Macca; RAM and the first solo-album (let's forget Wild Life)are quite a cult-succes now, but for people who were used to the Beatle-albums in the late '60's were still waiting for a sign that McCartney was still able to make great music.
There are still very Beatlesque tracks here:
Let Me Roll It; sounds like a Phil-Spector-produced Lennon track and also it's very John-like in its lyrics.
No Words: sounds very much like a '71 George Harrison.
And these are the lesser known tracks! Jet, 1985 and the title track have a nice, luxurious rock-sound to it, Bluebird is a nice acoustig ditty, Mrs. Vanderbilt is catchy as hell!
I think this is overall the best Macca-album ever; catchy tunes, good ballads, nice rockers and no weak tracks!

Superb - one of my favourite albums
Where do you start with this album? I suppose one way to start is to say that I may not be alone in saying that it is up there with some of the best albums ever made. There is not a bad track on it, including the superb singles: 'Band On The Run', 'Jet' (the name of his Labrador puppies - a link to 'Martha My Dear' from The Whit Album, in that it is about a dog) and 'Helen Wheels'(McCartney's nickname for his Land Rover, the story of a trip down the M6, citing Glasgow, Carlisle, Liverpool and Birmingham) ; as well as fantastic album tracks such as 'Picasso's Last Words', 'Mrs Vandebilt'. Although all the songs are superb, I prefer the non-singles, especially the Lennon pastiche 'Let Me Roll It', the sublime 'Mamunia' (meaning safe-haven in Arabic) and the fantastic final track 'Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five'. The album is one of the best post-Beatles albums, up there with 'Imagine' and George Harrison's 'All Things Must Pass'. If you are someone who loves The Beatles and is interested in expanding to their later solo efforts, this would be a perfect place to start, and 'Band On The Run' should be a part of everyone's record collection. Furthermore, the excellent and original front cover (including the likes of Michael Parkinson) is symbolic of the quality of the music inside. Conisdering the events in which McCartney recorded this, that he and his wife were almost murdered in Lagos (where the record was recorded), had their demo tapes stolen, and 2 members of the band left shortly before the album, meaning that McCartney had to do most of the playing of all the instruments, then this is a tremendous effort. A fantastic album from a superb artist, which deservedly won a pair of Grammy's in 1975 and was Britain's best-seller in 1974. It's one of my favourites of all time - make it one of yours!