Top Ten 1973 Songs: Band on the Run (#5)

Tweet

The holiday weekend is upon us! Please remember that your three-day weekend came with a big price: the men and women who laid down their lives in defense of our nation. Okay, that’s the Debbie Downer part. Have a great weekend! And celebrate with a great song that’s now celebrating half a century of existence! #5: Band on the Run - Paul McCartney & Wings In a little over three weeks, Sir Paul will be 81 years old. So don’t let the fact that this song is 50 now make you feel old. Imagine how he feels! If you ask me (and you’re not, but this is my discussion, so I guess you are asking me in a way ), Band on the Run is McCartney’s post-Beatles masterpiece. In fact, I’d dare say it’s THE post-Beatles masterpiece. It started out rough: for some reason, Paul, Linda, and Denny Laine (all that was left after “Wings” sort of broke up after Red Rose Speedway) went to Lagos, Nigeria. They were mugged at knifepoint on the beach. They lost money and the original demos for these songs. Fortunately, Paul has a good memory (for a pot smoker ), so he was able to re-record the demos. In this case, he added a little about the situation of Wings at the time: down to three musicians (someone’s gonna say, “Well, two and Linda,” but it won’t be me ), they were “stuck inside these four walls” of the studio. He said in many interviews (at the time and subsequently) that part of his “demonization” as a marijuana user (if you don’t know about Paul and Linda’s love story, the only time they ever spent apart in their marriage was when he was incarcerated in Japan for marijuana possession) is part of being “on the run.” Fifty years later, everyone’s fine with pot (Kentucky just legalized medical marijuana….although you can’t smoke it, the law says ), and we’re still fine with this marvelous McCartney classic. Band on the Run Written by Paul and Linda McCartney Recorded by Paul McCartney & Wings From Band on the Run, 1973 The jailer man and sailor Sam: