Search - Paul McCartney, Wings :: Band on the Run

...AS PROUD AN ACHIEVEMENT AS ANY EX-BEATLE COULD MANAGE

N. N Wahlert | seattle, wa United States | 02/04/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"At the same time most critics hastily revised their opinions overnight of McCartney with this album, he was still receiving prejudiced reviews in a few corners. Robert Hilburn (LA TIMES rock critic) reviewed this & Lennon's "Mind Games" side by side in 1974. Hilburn was quite charitable to Lennon (whose album was generally considered below-par for his stature) and giving him a "Yes" vote, and McCartney, "....still a 'No.'" Hilburn's minority opinion stated, "I can predict rather easily that 'Band On The Run' won't be remembered as anything more than a slight upturn, in what has been a steadily declining artistic barometer for McCartney."



I had a friend who grew up in LA, who sarcastically said that Hilburn probably even thought McCartney was (in some small way)to blame for Lennon's death. In any case, history has a way of speaking for itself: over 30 years later, the title track, as well as "Jet," "Helen Wheels," "Let Me Roll It," "Mamunia," "Nineteen-Hundred And EightyFive,"and "Bluebird" are still staples of classic-rock radio.



It is an album which possesses the necessary vision required to make a great album; indeed, there is a confidence & determination about McCartney's effort here that is most striking. Quite a few surprising touches here, too: "Helen Wheels" sounds astoundingly like a bona-fide BEATLES track. Could that really be Ringo drumming? And could that actually be Lennon, doing the falsetto harmony on top during the chorus? Certainly, McCartney's bass playing sees the track through almost singlehandedly and with real spontaneity (my favorite moment is when, after the second chorus, he fluffs a little attempt at a bass solo, then comes in one bar late for the third verse!). "Helen Wheels" would've been perfectly at home on the "White Album": indeed, when I listen to that album at home I like to have the present CD standing by in my changer and substitute it for one of the tiny throwaways (or better, "Revolution 9") that take up space in the Beatle album; I'd program "Helen Wheels" somewhere between "Birthday" and "Helter Skelter".



The title track has McCartney once again utilizing the otherwise-unrelated-song-linking device he developed in "Sgt. Pepper" and "Abbey Road," not to mention his "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" single. But "Band On The Run" impresses most notably by McCartney's admirable holding-back on the gradiosity, and saving the huge orchestra for the final "song."



"Jet," the last single involved here, is another magnificent rocker, one which could almost be interpreted lyrically as another response to Lennon's misdirected vitriol ("Let Me Roll It" is, of course, the other one here). The lyrics are quite vague, although--as the late pop critic Noel Coppage (in STEREO REVIEW) noted--could "Ah Mater/Want Jet to always love me..." be a little jab at Lennon's mother-fixation issue (i.e., "Want you to always love me")? And is "Jet" really another euphemism for "John"? Is the mater who "was a lady suffragete" really Yoko? Best NOT to ponder such things and enjoy the purely MUSICAL aspect of the track (not to mention the album), which was always McCartney's forte anyhow.



Many other pleasant musical touches crop up, as in Wings' tribute to the warmer portions of the planet in "Mamunia," "Mrs. Vandebilt" and "Picasso's Last Words," as well as the amusing little reprises of "Jet," "Mrs. Vandebilt" and the title song that crop up in several other tracks. Linda and associate guitarist Denny Laine more than do their share for the entire effort as well, and the final album constitutes a pretty poor excuse to label McCartney once again as the jerk who broke up the Beatles.



"

Warning : Early DTS CD - Good music, bad mastering

ALK | Houston, TX United States | 06/27/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The "Band on the Run" DTS CD is one of the earliest DTS releases. It is a 4.0 mix (that's right, no center or LFE channels) based on a quadraphonic mix from the early 70s. It also sounds like the equalization is for a quad record rather than a DTS CD - extra treble, very little bass. The DTS CD starts earlier than every DTS decoder can "sync up", so assume you won't hear at least the first two notes of the title track.Obviously the "Band on the Run" music is some of the best and has been critically aclaimed for decades. Hopefully this will be one of the first multichannel SACDs or DVD-Audio discs released by EMI. Until then, while seriously flawed, this is the only multichannel version available."

Sounds fantastic but I feel a little cheated

Zoso67 | Austin, TX USA | 09/15/1999

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This cd sounds incredible except for one thing. The first 2 seconds of the first track (Band On The Run) are cut. The track starts off very awkwardly. The rest of the CD is intact. The missing 2 seconds must be due to the large data size of the DTS encoding. Looks like we will never see DTS versions of longer playing CD's. This would include just about everything from Pink Floyd :( It's a pity because I think Dark Side Of The Moon and The Wall would sound wonderful in DTS"