THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

107-Paul McCartney and Wings-Band on the Run.

1974-Number 3 single.

Best Bit-At 2.15. On the Album sleeve of ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ there are 58 different people depicted, while on the Album sleeve of ‘Band on the Run’ there are just nine. Paul McCartney. Linda McCartney, (1941-1998) Denny Laine, Michael Parkinson, Kenny Lynch (1938-2019) James Coburn, (1928-2002) Clement Freud, (1924-2009) Christopher Lee, (1922-2015) and John Conteh.

After the Beatles (see also best songs 599-238-218-157-141-80-51-10 and 6) parted ways in 1970, Paul McCartney (see also best songs 646) released his first two solo Albums ‘McCartney,’ (1970) and ‘Ram.’ (1971) He then formed the band ‘Wings’ in 1971, with his wife Linda, Denny Seiwell, and Denny Laine, ‘Wings’ remained active through until 1981, with a total of 10 members coming and going. As ‘Wings’ there were seven studio Albums issued between 1971-1979, and 29 singles released between 1972-2016, with 20 of those reaching the UK top 40, and ‘Mull of Kintyre’ making Number 1 in 1977, and becoming the first single to sell over 2 million copies in the UK. In America on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart top 40, ‘Wings’ have achieved 24 hits, with six of those songs reaching Number 1, including ‘Band on the Run.’

All of McCartney’s four previous Albums post the Beatles had met with a mixed reception from the music press, and the general public, so McCartney felt that he needed to re-establish his career. In order to give himself a fresh start he decided to record his next Album ‘Band on the Run’ somewhere exotic, so he chose Lagos in Nigeria, but it was not the glamorous location he was expecting. The ‘EMI’ recording studio turned out to under equipped, and to add to their woes Paul and Linda were robbed at knife point while out walking in Lagos, and among the things taken were a notebook full of handwritten lyrics, and cassettes containing demos for songs already recorded.

‘Band on the Run’ was written by Paul and Linda McCartney, with Paul being the songs producer, the only other member of Wings at that time was Denny Laine who played lead guitar on the track, Linda played synthesizers, and Paul played all the other instruments on the song and sang the vocals. ‘Band on the Run’ is a song about escaping, McCartney was under pressure to prove he could still do it without the Beatles, he was being hounded by the law over his Cannabis use, and legal wranglings from his days with the Beatles had still not fully been sorted out. ‘Band on the Run’ was also inspired by something George Harrison (1943-2001) (see also best songs 737 and 726) had said back in 1969 when the Beatles were trying to get out of their contract with Alan Klein, (1931-2009) and the ‘Apple’ record label. During a business meeting Harrison had said,’We were all prisoners in some way,’ a remark which resonated with McCartney in his current situation, at that time.

Paul McCartney has said that ‘Band on the Run’ is about several different things, it was symbolic, he has said, ‘If we ever get out of here all I need is a pint a day.’ In the Beatles we’d started off as just kids really, who loved our music and wanted to earn a bob or two so we could get a guitar and get a nice car. It was very simple ambitions at first, but then, you know, as it went on it became business meetings and all of that, so there was a feeling of “if we ever get out of here”, yeah. And I did.’

‘Stuck inside these four walls, sent inside forever, never seeing no one nice again like you, mama you, mama you.