McCartney & Wings: Band on the Run Half-Speed LP Vinyl

Why you'll love it

Miles Showell cut this 50th anniversary half-speed master at Abbey Road Studios, using the North American running order with "Helen Wheels," and it comes with a fold-out poster. Band on the Run went to No. 1 in both the UK and the US and was the top-selling album of 1974 in Canada.

This edition

50th anniversary edition
Half-speed master
Cut by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios
Poster included
Lyrics inner sleeve
Pressed in Germany
Remastered
Stereo mix

About the album

Making a record rarely goes smoothly, but Band on the Run had a bumpier start than most. Just before Wings flew out to record at EMI's studio in Lagos, Nigeria, in September 1973, drummer Denny Seiwell and guitarist Henry McCullough left the band. That left Paul and Linda McCartney and Denny Laine as a trio, with Paul covering bass, drums and most of the lead guitar himself. Then a bag of lyrics and demo tapes were stolen in a robbery during the trip, and the songs had to be pieced back together.

You'd never guess any of it from the music. The title track stitches several song sections into one great escape story, "Jet" roars along on a big glam riff, "Let Me Roll It" is a slow-burning rocker, and "Bluebird" is soft acoustic bliss. The finishing touches went on back in London, mostly at AIR Studios, where Tony Visconti arranged the orchestra, and "Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)" and "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five" bring things to a grand, sweeping close. Engineer Geoff Emerick won a Grammy for his work on it.

It was McCartney's best-reviewed album since the Beatles, and it's still widely seen as one of his finest. Clive Arrowsmith shot the cover at Osterley Park with the band dressed as convicts alongside James Coburn, Christopher Lee, Michael Parkinson, Clement Freud, Kenny Lynch and boxer John Conteh, surely the most distinguished group ever caught in a single searchlight.

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