Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney - Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five [Remastered]

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• published: 05 Dec 2013
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Band On The Run "Band On The Run", the second album by Paul McCartney & Wings, was released 40 years ago today (5 December 1973). It was Wings' third album. It became Wings' most successful album and remains the most celebrated of McCartney's post-Beatles albums. It was 1974's top-selling studio album in the United Kingdom and Australia, and revitalised McCartney's critical standing. In 2000 Q magazine placed it at number 75 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 2012, Band On The Run" was voted 418th on Rolling Stone magazine's revised list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. A contemporary review by Jon Landau in Rolling Stone described the album as "with the possible exception of John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band, the finest record yet released by any of the four musicians who were once called The Beatles". After the success of "Red Rose Speedway" and "Live And Let Die" -- the featured song for the James Bond movie of the same name -- Wings began contemplating its next album. Paul and Linda McCartney began writing new songs at their Scottish retreat soon after concluding their 1973 tour. Bored with recording in the United Kingdom, they wanted to go to an exotic locale. After asking EMI to send him a listing of all their international recording studios, Paul happened upon Lagos in Nigeria and was instantly taken with the idea of recording in Africa. Alongside the McCartneys, guitarist and pianist Denny Laine, lead guitarist Henry McCullough and drummer Denny Seiwell also were set to go. However, a few weeks before departing in August, McCullough quit Wings in Scotland; Seiwell followed suit the night before the 8 August 1973 departure for Nigeria. This left just the core of the band -- Paul, Linda and Denny Laine -- to venture to Lagos, along with former Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick. Upon arriving in Lagos, the band discovered a country in stark contrast from their visions of paradise. The country was run by a military government, with corruption and disease running rampant. The studio, located on Wharf Road in the suburb of Apapa, was ramshackle and underequipped. The control desk was faulty and there was only one tape machine, a Studer 8-track. The band rented houses near the airport in Ikeja, an hour away from the studio. Paul, Linda and their three children stayed in one while Denny Laine, Geoff Emerick and Wings' two roadies stayed in another. The band established a routine of recording during the week and playing tourist on the weekends. They would be driven to the studio in the early afternoon where recording would last into the late evening and sometimes early morning. To make up for the departed band members, Paul would play drums and lead guitar parts with Denny playing rhythm guitar and Linda adding keyboards. More incidents would plague Wings' Lagos stay. While out walking one night against advice, Paul and Linda were robbed at knifepoint. The assailants made away with all of their valuables and even stole a bag containing a notebook full of handwritten lyrics and songs, and cassettes containing demos for songs to be recorded. On another occasion, Paul was laying down a vocal track when he began gasping for air. According to Geoff Emerick, Sound Engineer for the album: "Within seconds, [Paul] turned as white as a sheet, explaining to us in a croaking voice that he couldn't catch his breath. We decided to take him outside for some fresh air...[but] once he was exposed to the blazing heat he felt even worse and began keeling over, finally fainting dead away at our feet. Linda began screaming hysterically; she was convinced that he was having a heart attack...The official diagnosis was that he had suffered a bronchial spasm brought on by too much smoking. " Another incident was the confrontation with local Afrobeat star and political activist Fela Kuti who publicly accused the band of being in Africa to exploit and steal African music after their visit to his club. Kuti even went to the studio to confront McCartney who played their songs for him proving that they contained no local influence whatsoever. Recording of the album was completed by the third week of September and the McCartneys hosted a beach barbecue to celebrate the end of recording. They flew back to England on 23 September 1973 where they were met by fans and journalists. In October, two weeks after the band's return to London, final overdubs and orchestral tracks were added and the album was finished at George Martin's AIR Studios (George Martin was not present). The cover photo was taken on 28 October 1973 by photographer Clive Arrowsmith against the gable end wall of the stable block in Gunnersbury Park. It depicts the now iconic view of Paul, Linda and Denny plus six other well-known people dressed as convicts caught in the spotlight of a prison searchlight (Michael Parkinson, Kenny Lynch, James Coburn, Clement Freud, Christopher Lee and John Conteh).