Band on the Run

"Band on the Run" is a song by Paul McCartney & Wings

With BandEdit

Band on the Run Paul McCartney & Wings Band on the Run Family Friendly Information Released 1973 (2009) Genre Classic Rock Language English Source Downloadable song Playable in Rock Band 3 Rock Band Blitz Difficulty Band 2 Basic Pro Guitar 3 NoNo Part Bass 1 NoNo Part Drums 2 2 Keys 2 2 Vocals 4 4

Details Male singer 3-part Harmonies

Shortly after the Band On The Run album was released, McCartney told Melody Maker: "The basic idea about the band on the run is a kind of prison escape. At the beginning of the album the guy is stuck inside four walls, and eventually breaks out. There is a thread, but it's not a concept album."

Asked if this was a reference to Wings escaping from The Beatles, he replied: "Sort of – yeah. I think most bands on tour are on the run."

Paul McCartney combined pieces of different songs to make this one. The Beatles did a lot of this on their Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road albums, since it provided a way to use unfinished songs. "A Day In The Life" is a good example of two Beatles songs combined to make one.

During a lengthy meeting with executives at The Beatles' Apple Records, George Harrison complained, "If I ever get out of this house." McCartney remembered the line and used it years later in this song. (thanks, Edward Pearce - Ashford, Kent, England)

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Solo versionEdit

Band on the Run Paul McCartney Good Evening New York City Family Friendly Information Released 2009 (1973) Genre Rock Language English Source Downloadable song Playable in Rock Band Rock Band 2 Rock Band 3 Rock Band Blitz Lego Rock Band Difficulty Band 3 Basic Pro Guitar 3 NoNo Part Bass 2 NoNo Part Drums 4 4 Keys NoNo Part NoNo Part Vocals 3 3

Details Male singer 3-part Harmonies

McCartney recorded the album in Lagos, Nigeria along with his wife Linda and guitarist Denny Laine. The other Wings decided not to make the trip, which worked out fine in the end: McCartney considers the album his best post-Beatles work. He told Word in 2005: "I was on drums and guitar a lot, mainly because the drummer decided to leave the group the night before and one of the guitar players decided not to come! So we got that solo element into an otherwise 'produced' album."

This song was used to nice effect in the movie The Killing Fields, where a young woman with a transistor radio listens to this in the wake of a brutal US bombing of a Cambodian village when suspected rebels are being rounded up and shot. The song exemplified the contrast between the sort of druggy, frivolous Pop culture of the 1970s West and the stark realities of the Third World at the same time.

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