MPL-Concord Music Group

When speaking of the finest albums in The Beatles’ post-breakup catalog, 1973’s Band On The Run by Paul McCartney’s Wings is normally one of the first titles to enter the conversation. And with good reason. Following a bit of a creative slump in the wake of the winning one-two combination of his eponymous 1970 solo debut and its quirky, quintessential follow-up Ram, released that same year and co-credited to his wife Linda, Macca came back in a big way in 1973 with Band, the crown jewel of the Wings catalog. Recorded in that summer in the sweltering heat of Lagos, Nigeria, with core members Paul, Linda and guitairst Denny Laine following the sudden departure of both guitarist Henry McCullough and drummer Denny Seiwell, the album overcame some real heavy setbacks during the two-month creative process. The worst of which being the knifepoint mugging of the original demo tapes at the hands of African locals, forcing the trio and longtime Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick to record the entire LP from memory. As it turns out, in its own twisted way, the theft could have very well been the best thing that could have happened to the project. The nine song cycle highlighted by such smash hits as “Jet,” “Let Me Roll It” and the classic title track, personified a bold return to Macca’s rock roots that inspired Jon Landau of Rolling Stone to declare it to be “the finest record yet released by any of the four musicians who were once called The Beatles,” though no doubt to the chagrin of hardcore fans of John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band and George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass the world over.

For its second makeover in ten years, with MPL-Concord offering the release in four different formats, this is by far the most comprehensive version of Band On The Run to come out to date. Your best bet, however, is to just stick with the Special Edition, which contains the most bang for your buck. Included in this 2-CD/1-DVD set is a remastered version of the album with the original UK track listing, a bonus CD featuring the 1974 single “Helen Wheels” and its subsequent b-side “Country Dreamer”, Wings’ theme to the UK television series The Zoo Gang and six tracks from the 1974 TV special One Hand Clapping, as well as a generous DVD that contains the videos for “Band On The Run”, “Helen Wheels” and “Mamunia”, the album promo short, footage of Wings recording in Lagos and the photo shoot for the iconic cover (which boasted appearances by renowned actors Christopher Lee and James Coburn) and the entire One Hand Clapping special. It would have been cool if Macca, who supervised this reissue personally, went ahead with the decision to put all the performances from One Hand Clapping on the second disc, to be quite honest. But despite that sole caveat, this is a formidable edition of Band On The Run, one that does great justice to the incredible story behind one of Paul McCartney’s greatest studio achievements.