Dave Amitri on Band On The Run
Earlier this week I watched a clip of Paul McCartney during the recent Get Back film. He was working on The Long and Winding Road. Not only does he look amazing, beard and hair just perfect, he looks in complete control. For a moment it’s not The Beatles it’s just McCartney. There’s a look on Ringo’s face of pure wonder as Paul brings that melody and vocal together almost effortlessly. I began listening to Band On The Run after this with renewed vigour, seeing McCartney as maybe others do. Was it a mistake to take on McCartney before really investigating The Beatles? This I’ve been assured is Wings finest moment and it escapes Macca’s whimsy blight ( ©️ @H-P-Saucecraft ) so it was all set up perfectly for what came next. Less Macca more McCartney is what I’m after and with only Wildlife really hitting the spot so far I needed a big album free from whimsy blight.
Band On The Run is a big song, it’s a monster. Of course, I knew it before this but I’ve only properly listened now. I’ve really learned to love it. It’s a Frankenstein’s monster of a song. There’s lots of parts sewn together to make one great noise that I assume in 1973 after the slightly damp Red Rose Speedway put McCartney back into the record buying public’s hearts. From it’s My Love style opening through to the guitar solo, keyboard section that reminds me of a hundred things. Then into the huge orchestral section that brings you to the main song where there’s hints of You’re So Vain (1972) in the songs structure. Finally, I get an American Pie (1971) vibe when I hear its storytelling. All these are good things. It’s a great opener. Did McCartney take some influence from his contemporaries? Who knows? If he did it worked.
Jet next gave me a feeling of Live and Let Die which should really be on this album in my opinion. Maybe there’s a good reason why it isn’t. Jet is great too. I’ve heard it often but during this it’s taken on new layers and is another huge step away from the safety net of Red Rose Speedway. It rocks but is softened with some really rich harmonies. I had hoped I would discover it was about Emmeline Pankhurst but turns out it’s about a dog, or a horse. Never mind. Two hits. Two great tunes right up my street. A great start.
Bluebird is fascinating to me. It’s beautiful and I love it let’s be clear about that. It’s the sort of song ripe for Macca’s whimsy blight, it’s there for the taking but it’s pitched perfectly to my ears. About 15 years ago I picked up America’s greatest hits because of Horse With No Name and Ventura Highway. I ended up adoring those lilting, melodic, dreamy songs like Sister Golden Hair, Muskrat Love and Sandman. Bluebird gives me same feel of being wrapped in a blanket round a campfire on a cool desert evening. Apparently liking America isn’t cool. I don’t care, I can’t get enough of songs like this. McCartney if flying here and another nod to Linda and those angelic harmonies.
Mrs Vanderbilt doesn’t quite keep the standard as high but it’s a good album track and I’m sure the Ho, hey ho’s have been sampled elsewhere. The random sax comes from nowhere but lifts it as does another great guitar solo (Denny Laine?). I’ve tried to find something in the lyrics but nope, let’s move on quickly….
Let Me Roll It gets things back on track. Moody, and atmospheric with a McCartney vocal that puts me in mind of John Lennon. Deliberate or not it works perfectly. Lyrically it’s typical McCartney in its simplicity “My heart is like a wheel, let me roll it to you”. It makes its point without stretching the listener too far. Overall though it’s grown-up McCartney making a grown-up song and hats off again to the guitarist and Linda.
Mamunia means safe haven in Arabic apparently and it definitely gives you that feel. Lyrically lightweight again but that’s ok. It’s something about rain and in a sense the song does wash over you like a summer shower. It’s that West Coast / America feel again which I love.
No Words sounds like a Beatles song to me, perhaps someone can let me know which one I’m hearing here. It also puts me in mind of my Dad’s England Dan and John Ford Coley album. It fits the whole feel of the album perfectly and it’s hard not to repeat myself with the guitar and harmonies but they are prefect once again.
Picasso’s Last Words (Drink To Me) starts nicely enough following the overall relaxed fireside feel of the album after the two hits. It plods a bit and there’s a hint of whimsy blight in the annoying oompah, spoken word section. The unnecessary insertion of a clip from Jet is just weird, I guess sometimes he just can’t help himself but he’s got so much credit in the bank at this point it’s all good. It all goes on a bit too long but I think he’s trying to purvey a sense of a late night drinking session but it could have been another really good three and a half minute song.
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five closes things and the pace is picked up with a stomping piano sound and a great McCartney rasp vocal. I’m not sure if it’s meant to be a dystopian view of the future like Bowie’s Diamond Dogs, the lyrics don’t really fill you in on much detail. (I doubt he was expecting he’d be doing Spies Like Us in 1985.)There’s a bit of drama and electronica in a fabulous outro spoiled slightly by going back again to a Band On the Run fade but maybe he was encouraging people to turn the album over and play it again.
To be fair that’s exactly what I’ve been doing, playing it again and again. I know I’m weird but it doesn’t quite match Wildlife for me but it’s damn close. I can’t explain fully why the slower songs here work so much better than on Red Rose Speedway. I said on the Red Rose Speedway review that it was an album for the likes of my mum and Radio 2, nice, over nice. This feels like a proper album aimed at an audience that loved The Beatles but have grown up, moved on but still have a connection with McCartney. This is my 5th McCartney / Wings album all released between 1970 and 1973. Like Bowie, Elton and others the demand in the 70s for quantity is obviously going to affect the quality. I feel like Band On the Run is where McCartney and Wings become a real band, a collective. Maybe McCartney felt the pressure was off and he could trust others to bring something to the party. I noted that the omnipresent Tony Visconti was involved here too. It all helps subdue the whimsy blight and produce an album of a rare quality with a couple of massive hits backed up by a selection of songs in that America style that perfectly suits McCartney and Wings in 1973. It’s two years before Venus and Mars comes out so I’m looking forward to hearing what that brings. These first five have been worth it for Wildlife and now Band On The Run where it feels McCartney is clearly starting to get back to where he once belonged.
Personally I think the Band on the Run coda is him going back to the beginning of the album in a deliberate echo of the then-ubiquitous Dark Side of the Moon, which of course was recorded in yer actual Abbey road number 2.
Terrific stuff as always, though I can’t suppress a slight concern at the complete absence of any references to either Billy M or the Del As. U OK hun? 😉
Ha! When you start to bore yourself you know it’s time for a change 😉
It’s a great album. Although it has several superb songs on it the whole is bigger than the sum of the parts. If you read about its creation it is a miracle that it came out so good. Band reduced to a threesome with late withdrawals, recording in an African studio not really fit for for the purpose, session tapes being stolen at gun point etc. Ram was kind of a false start and My Love was a big hit but this is really the start of McCartney the solo star (using the Wings vehicle). Go and see him live today and you will still probably hear 3 or 4 tracks off this album.
Leaving aside the big famous tracks, I really love No Words even though Denny is the main man here. 1985 is stupendous, was wonderful to hear that one live a decade or so ago. Picasso is basically an exercise showing he could write a song about anything (and very quickly too). Mrs Vanderbilt is cheesy but lots of fun.
Along with Ram and Chaos and Creation in the Backyard his greatest post Beatles statement for me.
* Live and Let Die isn’t on the album because it wasn’t part of these sessions (produced by George Martin) and presumably was only allowed to be on a soundtrack album at the time.
US edition also contained the Helen Wheels single, which is fine, but for me doesn’t really fit in, totally different kind of song and production choice. Really like Country Dreamer B side too.
Great to hear your thoughts as always
Yep in Lagos. Were front and centre at the Shrine watching Fela Kuti’s 18 piece band and smoking that incredibly powerful Nigerian weed.
I am with you on Wildlife. It justs grooves but so does this in an amped up way. And you would amp things up if you watching Fela and are in Lagos.
I think Wildlife is the worst Wings album (maybe 2nd worst), but it has 3 wonderful songs on it, all of which are a bit long (Tomorrow, Some People Never Know and especially the wonderful Dear Friend)
Worst ? I am sure you have stated this before but it still surprises me. All those silly bloody ditties and you bollock Wildlife!
Um Bip Bop, Mumbo? If they are not the definition of “silly bloody ditties” then I don’t know which ones are. Add an interminable, very average cover version and an equally flaccid title track and we are not talking peak Macca here.
Probably better than Some Time in New York City though 😉
I love the cover version. STINYC is a low bar In fact the initials are almost a mnemonic.
Both would make excellent EPs, an idea for a thread I had once
Agreed
Dai, you know I love you and you’ve always been very supportive of my drivel but “equally flaccid title track”? It’s a remarkable song. Have you seen this live version? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xF9dWRFh9g0
It’s ok, but I think it has too little to say for an almost 7 minute track, agree better live than on the record.
Love you too Dave!
The trouble with @dai is that I love a lot of the music he does.
The thing is he also dislikes a lot of the music I love.
In the first instance he is of course right.
In the second instance he is of course wrong.
Well you are half right 😉
Picasso’s Last Words (Drink To Me) was written when Dustin Hoffman picked a random item in a magazine and quoted it to Macca to prove he could write a song about anything.
He did it, but I agree with you – does it need to be so long?
Apart from Wings Greatest Hits (accidental Partridge?) this one is probably my favourite Wings elpee. Although as Dai says above, greater then the sum of it’s parts
I love Picasso’s Last Words.
I didn’t always. I think I used to hate it when I first bought the album on vinyl back in 1974, but when I rediscovered BOTR on CD about 15 years ago I found myself replaying it again and again. The Jet reprise. Lovely. The Ho Hey Hos. Marvellous.
I think it’s terrific.
I may be alone in this, but I‘m at an age when I don’t care about that.
You are not alone. I love it too.
I agree with you, Dave. Bluebird, Let Me Roll It and No Words are the keepers. Let Me Roll It is said to be a response to Lennon’s How Do You Sleep?
By this time, the two were okay. The song is almost ironically about their reconciliation.
And How Do You Sleep was an answer to Too Many People allegedly. Let Me Roll It possibly also about marijuana but sung in John’s reverb heavy solo style. Think Paul plays the riff
It’s the best McCartney solo album I suppose. A peak of sorts. I prefer the more sketch like style of the first two though. The best of it is superb. Let Me Roll It and 1985 I would say. Band On The Run is fine but a bit empty, a bit lame, lyric-wise. Very early seventies feel, which I enjoy. Rather nostalgic for me to hear. Jet similarly dumb but fairly enjoyable. Picasso’s Last Words is wonderful. Mamunia is charming, could be on the early records. I find that his albums that come after this have less to offer.
I think it was Charles Shaar Murray (though I stand to be corrected) who pointed out that with Jet, McCartney was the first notable musician to use a synthesiser to create and use a sound that only a synthesiser could produce rather than, as had been the practice, using it to imitate the sound of another instrument.
I think that assertion is right.
Interesting. Of course, George brought the Moog to Abbey Road in 1969, Stevie Wonder used it on Talking Book, Eno did his thing with Roxy Music. Were they using it to imitate other instruments? I don’t think so. They were using it because it sounded different.
Classic CSM – it’s the “notable” that makes it art…
I really like the album. It was his strongest set of songs since the Beatles & it sounds wonderful. Geoff Emerick was engineer (for the first time since Abbey Road) & all the sounds “ were purposefully built around the interplay between the bass and the drums” – Keith Moon was a fan of the drumming.
Tony Visconti provided the arrangements, getting the gig as Macca loved the T Rex strings.
The turnaround was very quick, an initial meeting on a Sunday afternoon & needing all seven arrangements for Wednesday, so it’s not surprising that Visconti was a bit miffed that he was just included in the “thanks to” rather than anything more substantial – When the 25th anniversary edition came out “ Paul aknowledged my orchestrations on the new sleeve and sent me a personal handwritten note saying “you got your credit“
It still surprises me that megastars can be so reluctant to give credit where it’s due…I know they must have big egos and maybe some big insecurities to match: but surely it doesn’t diminish them in any way to acknowledge, eg, an orchestration by someone else?
And the little “you got your credit” – like “not sure what the fuss is about, but if I toss you this crumb, will you shut up and just be grateful that I let you work with me”.
When Visconti met John Lennon (Young American days) he told Lennon about it
“You know what, thanks for telling me that. Even if I whistled a part to an arranger and it was my idea, I would still give the arranger a credit as “orchestrator”. I was about to call Paul tomorrow and get together with him, but you just reminded me of what a fucking cunt he is”
I love your contributions @Timbar. You bring the fire 🔥
You’re too kind, Sir. Have you ever heard this cover?
From the 2014 “The Art of McCartney tribute album, Corinne Bailey Rae’s cover of Bluebird
Visconti is never one to underestimate his own contributions and possibly exaggerate them from time to time.
After Paul got together with Linda it seems John acted like some sort of jealous (platonic) lover, he was so full of insecurities
“Move along, nothing to see here”, then, @dai ?
I am sure he deserved some sort of credit. Unlike Linda who has co-writing credits on most songs which was basically a cynical attempt for the McCartneys to get more royalties as his were locked up in Beatles legal battles.
How was that “interplay between bass and drums” worked out? Paul was playing both of them so it wouldn’t have been live.
Emerick again “ Most backing tracks would begin with him and Denny playing together on drums and rhythm guitar or sometimes they both play acoustic guitars. Then the songs would slowly be built up layer by layer“
Thanks
Visconti was there in Berlin with Bowie and Eno. As his book goes on to remind us, repeatedly. MeMeMe…
Did he contribute anything – or was he the tea boy?
He fucked with the time/space continuum. And Antonia Maass
There’s an Adam & Joe animation which hits the nail square on the head. I would post it, but I’m on shonky Norfolk WiFi for a few days.
This one.
That’s it!
Visconti’s book (charriddee £1) was stupendously dull.
I concur.
I enjoyed TV’s book
(there’s always one dissenting voice)
I get that Visconti’s book is dull.
I get that he bigs up his contributions (although some of the talent with whom he’s worked aren’t exactly backward in coming forward).
I get that he seems to irritate elements of the Afterword.
But referring back to @Timbar’s post above: does that mean it’s ok for the beloved Macca to give no credit for work that Visconti was commissioned to do until 25 years had passed?
With all due respect for his massive contribution to music, TV very often comes across as a right prissy beeatch. This is evident in his book and even many of his more recent recollections and reflections. For example, he wrote the foreword to the Bolan/T.Rex Uncut Ultimate Music Guide that was decidedly ungracious and self-serving (a common trait). He is even brittle and snippy when replying to comments on his Facebook page, particularly when discussing the fall-out of the decision to kick Woody Woodmansey out of the band he formed, Holy Holy.
Not the point: TV could be the biggest shite this side of the Atlantic – but he would still deserve the credit he was due from PMcC when the album was released, not grudgingly given and 25 years late.
Or am I missing something?
On this occasion you’re probably right, but I’m just illustrating the point, as others have done, that Visconti has his own ego trips and petty foibles too, to which others have fallen victim.
Oh, well – sod ‘im, then…
Whatever else you think of Visconti, he was/is an excellent arranger of strings. He was in London sorting strings for Young Americans when Lennon & Bowie recorded Fame and Across The Universe but he did end up marrying May Pang. His relationship with Beatles was complicated.
Despite Mooses well justified little dig at me about my habit of finding links to my favourites I’m kicking myself thst I didn’t research the Geoff Emerick connection. I could have compared the whole thing to Nick Heyward’s North Of A Mircale had i known. What fun that would have been for you all…. Whistle Down The Wind and No Words ate almost identical 😉
Eventually, Dave’s circle of pop references will ate themselves..
Oh we’re waaay past that…
A dig? No.
I’m given to understand that Lord Heyward is not unacquainted with the ouevre of Sir Thumbsaloft…
It’s all good 👍 I know you were teasing and as I say it was well justified. Absolutely he is, he was one of the reasons why I went McCartney and not Bush…
Bush is the next project I assume. Have they done twelve albums? Or merely the same album twelve times?
Yes I will cut myself one day…
U OK, hun?
Oh he meant Kate Bush, not the [I-Can’t-Be-Arsed-To-Google-It-]Hitmakers. Those UK grungers who were big in the US. They’re still at it, apparently. Unlike, it would appear, Kate Bush.
I listened to it last night after reading this and it reminded me just what a great SOUNDING record this is , and I always thought that with my original LP at the time. The spaciousness in the stereo mix is awesome.