Band on the Run

With Paul McCartney's new album, Memory Almost Full, due out the first Tuesday of June, this month seems as good a time as any to review Macca's solo career. I am a fan, not a fanatic; I'm in awe of the guy's talent, though, and find a lot of creative inspiration in his work. I don't own all of his solo albums but I own a lot of them. I'll be writing about them, in the order they were released, over the next few weeks.



Band on the Run is a lot like Red Rose Speedway, only more fully conceived and more expertly executed. The ideas here are better, the hooks are hookier, the arrangements more complete, but in essence this is just another exercise in pop mastery. It's a fun album that is extremely enjoyable when taken on its own terms, but it's very hard to shake the feeling that it's all a little bloodless. That would be disappointing enough on its own, but more bothersome are the deeper questions it begs. For me and, I suspect, many others, the biggest problem with this album (and other similar McCartney solo efforts) is that all the craft and effort invested in lightweight production numbers like the title track and "Picasso's Last Words" not only call into question the value of McCartney's solo work but also leave you questioning some of the Beatles' more ambitious productions (Sgt. Pepper, side two of Abbey Road, etc.). It'd be as if the author of the Bible followed it up by writing Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.

Even so, I'm extremely fond of this album. That's partly due to longevity. I received my first copy of Band on the Run as a bar mitzvah gift, and I wore the grooves out on that copy. It's a perfect album for a thirteen year old with a musical sweet tooth who can accept the often nonsensical lyrics for what they are likely meant to be: pleasant sounds whose primary purpose is to not interfere with the music. If they impart some platitudes about love, peace, and the environment in the process, so much the better, but Macca's approach to lyric writing here seems positively Hippocratic: First, do no harm.

Also, this is an album chock full of irresistible hooks and extremely clever musical ideas. OK, it's not Pet Sounds, but it's not Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods either. Judged against what was playing on the radio at the time, this is a damn good record. "Jet" and "Helen Wheels" are superb rockers, perfect summer radio fare. "No Words" is yet another gorgeous pop song that McCartney seems to dash off with maddening (to songwriters like myself, at least) ease. "Bluebird" is a lovely acoustic number good enough to survive a sax solo, the bane of 70s MOR music. "Let Me Roll It" is a perfect parody of Lennon's Plastic Ono Band on which, if I'm not mistaken, Macca basically calls Lennon a wanker ("You gave me loving in the palm of my hand"). It's all done with the trademark boyish charm, of course, which works a lot better than do Lennon's venomous attacks on his former partner. And, like so much of McCartney's work, this album would make a great semester-long course for any rock bassist looking to escape root-based parts without losing the bottom in the process.

On one front, though, Band on the Run represents a disappointing departure for McCartney, one that bodes ill for subsequent solo albums. On his first three albums, McCartney attempts to address personal themes of love, domesticity, "keeping it real," and the joys of making music. While his work may not have produced the most profound insights, at least there was a sense that he was writing from the heart, and a genuineness shines through that helps mitigate the lyrics' faults. McCartney's efforts to broaden his lyrical scope here don't often detract from the proceedings, but that's mostly because the music is so good that the lyrics are an afterthought. They don't add anything either, and they add distance that doesn't serve McCartney's art well. Commerce is another matter: unlike quirky little numbers like "Big Barn Bed," "Every Night," and "Some People Never Know," many of these songs are ready made to be performed in arenas and stadiums. With Band on the Run, one suspects that McCartney made the conscious choice to bring his organic/pastoral period to an end so that the era of "Wings: Corporate Entity" could begin.