Photo Credit: Bill Kelly

Paul McCartney & Wings’ have announced the 50th anniversary of their iconic LP, Band on the Run. The ensemble has announced its intent to deliver a specialty edition of the album to mark the occasion, due on Feb. 2, 2024. The reprised delivery will be available in various formats, highlighting aspects and bonuses from making the album and more. 

1LP presents a special vinyl edition cut at half speed using a high-resolution transfer of the original master tapes from 1973 by Miles Showell and recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London. The single vinyl album resembles the U.S. tracklist, featuring the song “Helen Wheels” and a Linda McCartney Polaroid poster.

Moreover, the 2LP vinyl edition comprises the original U.S. album, remastered at half speed, and a second LP titled Underdubbed Mixes Edition, and housed in a premium slipcase. The set also includes two Linda McCartney Polaroid posters, slightly differing from 1LP, offering an expanded format. 

Apart from vinyl, the 50th anniversary of Band on the Run will also be available in CD format. Like the other editions, this set once again focuses on the original U.S. album while also featuring “underdubbed” mixes, and a double-sided fold-out Polaroid poster taken by Linda McCartney. Band on the Run (Underdubbed) will also be released digitally.

Touching on the “underdubbed” version, McCartney offered via press release: “This is Band on the Run in a way you’ve never heard before. When you are making a song and putting on additional parts, like an extra guitar, that’s an overdub. Well, this version of the album is the opposite, underdubbed.”

Band on the Run (Underdubbed) includes nine songs for the first time without any orchestral overdubs. Geoff Emerick created the previously unreleased rough mixes, assisted by Pete Swettenham at AIR Studios, on October 14, 1973. The tracklist, newly ordered and detailed below, reflects the original analog tapes discovered in the MPL archives.

As a final offering, Band on the Run will also be available in Dolby ATMOS for the first time, newly mixed by Giles Martin and Steve Orchard. Scroll down to view a breakdown of the tracking lists. 
For more information, follow this link.

Disc Two Band on the Run (Underdubbed Mixes)

1. Band on the Run

2. Mamunia

3. No Words

4. Jet

5. Bluebird

6. Mrs. Vandebilt

7. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five

8. Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me)

9. Let Me Roll It

1LP Band on the Run

1.  Band on the Run

2.  Jet

3.  Bluebird

4.  Mrs. Vandebilt 

5.  Let Me Roll It

6.  Mamunia 

7.  No Words 

8.  Helen Wheels 

9.  Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me) 

10.Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five

Digital Formats

Band on the Run (Underdubbed Mixes) 

1. Band on the Run

2. Mamunia

3. No Words

4. Jet

5. Bluebird

6. Mrs. Vandebilt

7. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five

8. Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me)

9. Let Me Roll It