There are many great things about music. One of the things that I enjoy particularly is that there is just so much of it. The sheer volume, not only of new stuff coming out, but also from decades and decades of backlog, is hard to fathom. It means we all get a chance to constantly fall into new soundscapes.
I try to stay on top of (some of) what’s new, but also enjoy going over ‘the music of olden days’. The Beatles, for instance, are a band that I have spent some time on sifting through the entire discography of.
But what I hadn’t done was dive much into any of the solo projects that sprouted after the band’s heyday. That is: until this week! At the end of last year, Paul McCartney & Wing’s “Band on the Run” turned 50 years old, and now, with a slight delay, an under-dubbed version of the album was released, putting it on my radar – and now on yours. (Under-dubbed meaning the original album version was augmented in post through additional layering of things like added percussion, but that’s stripped here)
It’s a brilliant pop album that showcases Paul’s capacity to create captivating melodies, despite hardship – the album was recorded in an unfinished studio in Nigeria, after he was robbed of his demos and lyrics at knifepoint, and had to recreate things from memory on the fly. Alas, it just sounds great.
After The Beatles disbanding, John was the one to get most of the fanfare, but “Band on the Run” reinstated Paul as a force to be reckoned with.
Guess it’s time for me to do a deep dive into his catalog 🙂
Coryphe 