Band on the Run is the third studio album by the British rock band Paul McCartney and Wings, released on 30 November 1973 in the United Kingdom and 5 December 1973 in the United States. It was Paul McCartney's fifth album after leaving the Beatles in April 1970 and his final album on Apple Records. A rock and pop rock album, Band on the Run songs reflect themes of escape and freedom.
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. The cover photograph by Clive Arrowsmith was taken at Osterley Park, West London, and features the McCartneys and Laine with six celebrities dressed as convicts, and posed as though caught by a prison searchlight.
Although sales were modest initially, its commercial performance was aided by two hit singles – "Jet" and "Band on the Run". McCartney did not want any singles at first, but agreed due to the modest sales. At the request of Capitol Records, Apple's US distributor, the non-album single "Helen Wheels" was added to the American version of the album, for commercial reasons. Enhanced by the success of the singles, Band on the Run topped the album charts in the UK and the US and became the top-selling studio album of 1974 in the UK and Australia. It remains McCartney's most successful album.
After a string of poorly received projects, Band on the Run revitalised McCartney's critical standing, becoming his best-reviewed album following the break-up of the Beatles. It remains celebrated as one of McCartney's best solo albums and one of the best by a Beatle. It appeared on lists of the greatest albums of all time by Rolling Stone in 2012 and by NME in 2013. The album has been reissued numerous times with bonus tracks, including in 1993 as part of The Paul McCartney Collection, in 1999 for its 25th anniversary, in 2010 as part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection and in 2024 for its 50th anniversary.
Background
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. After completing a successful UK tour with his band Wings in July 1973,Doggett, p. 208. he planned their third album as a means to re-establish himself after the mixed reception given to Wild Life (1971) and Red Rose Speedway (1973).
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.McGee, p. 48 Seiwell left a week later, the night before the band flew out to Nigeria.Perasi, p. 101 This left just the McCartneys and Laine to record in Lagos, assisted by former Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick. Paul 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.Perone, p. 584
Recording Lagos The band and their entourage arrived in Lagos on 30 August 1973.Kozinn and Sinclair, p. 608 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 eight-track tape machine. 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, Emerick, and Wings' two roadies, Trevor and Ian, stayed in another.Kozinn and Sinclair, pp. 609–612
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 drums and lead guitar parts on top of bass guitar, with Laine playing rhythm guitar and Linda adding keyboards.Perone, p. 585 Laine explained: "We put the backing track down first, and we had to remember the arrangement, but just play the drums and the guitar part. So you're now learning the songs in little pieces, rather than as a song."Kozinn and Sinclair, p. 615 McCartney had originally considered former Cream member Ginger Baker to play drums on the album, but Baker declined when he found out the band were using the Lagos studio rather than Baker's own ARC studio in Ikeja to record the album.Kozinn and Sinclair, pp. 614, 617 The sessions began on 3 September.Kozinn and Sinclair, p. 613 The first track they recorded was "Mamunia", the title for which McCartney appropriated from the name of a hotel in Marrakesh where Wings had stayed in April 1973,Madinger and Easter, p. 189. followed by "Band on the Run" and "Helen Wheels".Kozinn and Sinclair, pp. 615–617 The second week, 10–14 September, the band recorded "Mrs. Vandebilt", the McCartney–Laine collaboration "No Words", and "Let Me Roll It".
Aside from the challenges presented by the substandard studio, various incidents plagued Wings' stay in Lagos. After the second week, the local Afrobeat pioneer and political activist Fela Kuti publicly accused the band of being in Africa to exploit and steal African music after they visited his club. Kuti went to the studio to confront McCartney, who played their songs for him to show that they contained no local influence.Kozinn and Sinclair, pp. 619–623 The following day, to thank Baker for assisting in the Kuti incident, Wings recorded the song "Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)" at Baker's ARC studio, with Baker himself shaking a tin can filled with gravel on the track.Kozinn and Sinclair, pp. 623–624 While out walking that same night against advice, the McCartneys were robbed at knifepoint. The assailants made off with all of their valuables, stealing a bag containing a notebook full of handwritten lyrics and songs, and cassettes containing demos for songs to be recorded. The next day after the mugging, McCartney was overdubbing a vocal track when he began gasping for air.Kozinn and Sinclair, pp. 625–626 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."Emerick 2006
Following his hospital visit, McCartney decided to return to England. Wings hosted a beach barbecue to celebrate the end of recording,Kozinn and Sinclair, pp. 626–627 and on 23 September 1973, they flew back to England,Badman, p. 108. where they were met by fans and journalists.Spizer, p. 172. Upon returning to London, the McCartneys received a letter from EMI dated before the band had left England, warning them not go to Lagos due to an outbreak of cholera.
London Having recorded most of the album in Lagos, the band spent October 1973 finishing it at George Martin's AIR Studios in London. One of the tracks, "Jet", named after one of the McCartney children's ponies, was recorded in its entirety at AIR.Badman, p. 118.Madinger and Easter, p. 188. The first thing McCartney did was prepare the release of a single from the Lagos sessions. He chose "Helen Wheels", the only fully completed track, as the A-side, choosing the Red Rose Speedway outtake "Country Dreamer" as the B-side.Kozinn and Sinclair, pp. 631–632 The following day, 3 October, McCartney spent time transferring many of the eight-track Lagos recordings to sixteen-track, while the band also recorded "Bluebird" and Linda's song "Oriental Nightfish". Two days later, the band taped "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five".Kozinn and Sinclair, pp. 632–635
The McCartneys and Laine continued overdubbing the Lagos recordings throughout October. All of the album's orchestral arrangements were taped at AIR in a single day, 17 October, conducted by Tony Visconti.Madinger and Easter, p. 186.Kozinn and Sinclair, pp. 639–641 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.Visconti, Tony. The Autobiography. Harper Collins. 2007. pp. 204–206 Another contributor was saxophonist Howie Casey, who overdubbed solos on "Bluebird", "Mrs. Vandebilt",Spizer, p. 174. and "Jet", and would go on to become Wings' regular horn player.Sounes, pp. 313, 316. On 8 October, Nigerian musician Remi Kabaka added percussion to "Bluebird".Perasi, p. 169 Mixing briefly took place at London's Kingsway Studios for two days, as AIR was booked, before completing at EMI Studios by the end of October.Kozinn and Sinclair, pp. 644–646, 649–651 Compared to the almost year-long production of Red Rose Speedway, Band on the Run was completed in only eight weeks.Kozinn and Sinclair, p. 645
Music and lyrics
A rock and pop rock album, Band on the Run contains ballads and rockers. Several of the songs reflect themes of escape and freedom,Rodriguez, p. 158. while the structure of the album recalled the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road.Schaffner, p. 166. 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 KleinDoggett, pp. 211–15, 216. – the business manager they had appointed to run Apple in 1969, despite strong opposition from McCartney.Sounes, pp. 251–54. 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".Doggett, p. 216.
Side one