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The jailer man and Sailor Sam are at it again. Paul McCartney & Wings will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Band on the Run on February 2, 2024, with a 2LP edition from MPL/UMe featuring previously unreleased “Underdubbed” mixes on LP2, and a separate half-speed-mastered 1LP version of the original December 1973 release.

The 50th anniversary edition of Band on the Run will be available in a variety of formats, beginning with the 1LP half-speed-mastered edition. According to a statement sent to AP directly by UMe, “the vinyl [was] cut by Miles Showell at half speed using a high-resolution transfer of the original 1973 master tapes at Abbey Road Studios, London. This half-speed master closely references the 2010 remaster by Sam Okell and Steve Rooke. It was made as a vinyl-specific transfer in high resolution, and without digital peak limiting for the best possible reproduction.”

The single vinyl album configuration of Band on the Run mirrors the U.S. LP tracklist, and it includes a Linda McCartney Polaroid poster,

Meanwhile, the 2LP edition features the original U.S. album on LP1 (also remastered at half speed), and a second LP titled the “Underdubbed” Mixes Edition. The 2LP set will be housed in a premium slipcase, and it will include two Linda McCartney Polaroid posters.

SRPs for these two Band on the Run vinyl sets are $49.98 for the 2LP version, and $35.98 for the 1LP edition, and both can be pre-ordered here.

Regarding the “Underdubbed” version, Paul McCartney noted, via a press statement from parent label UMe, “This is Band on the Run in a way you’ve never heard before. When you are making a song and putting on additional parts, like an extra guitar, that’s an overdub. Well, this version of the album is the opposite — underdubbed.”

Band on the Run (Underdubbed) presents the core album’s nine classic songs for the first time without any orchestral overdubs. The previously unreleased rough mixes were created by Geoff Emerick, as assisted by Pete Swettenham at AIR Studios, on October 14, 1973. The tracklist, newly ordered as detailed a little ways below, mirrors the original analog tapes discovered in the MPL archives.

Herewith are some facts about Band on the Run, by way of the wording of the official MPL/UMe press release. By the summer of 1973, McCartney had a fresh batch of songs earmarked for a new album. Looking through a list of EMI’s international studios, he chose Lagos, Nigeria, to be the location of its recording, having become enthralled with the idea of recording in Africa. Just days before departure, lead guitarist Henry McCullough and drummer Denny Seiwell quit the band. Wings were now, suddenly, a trio. Paul, his wife Linda, and bandmember Denny Laine (along with recording engineer Geoff Emerick) toiled in the Lagos studio’s relatively rudimentary conditions, working up the new songs over two months. Disaster struck one night when Paul and Linda were robbed at knifepoint while walking home from a friend’s house, the thieves making off with a cassette of home demo recordings of the songs. Paul was able to remember the songs as he’d only recently written them.

Noted for its suite-like structure of three distinct movements, the title track “Band on the Run” was not an obvious pop hit, but it would top the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and propel its parent album back up the charts, becoming a No. 1 smash in both the U.S. and UK, and then returning to the top spot twice more in America. It also became the best-selling studio album of 1974 in Australia, Canada, and the UK.

Band on the Run received two Grammy Awards in 1975, and the Deluxe Edition was awarded a third Grammy in 2012. The latter was soon followed by the album’s induction into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2013.

Besides the title track, other Band on the Run favorites include the worldwide hit “Jet,” the wistful “Bluebird,” the longtime live staple “Let Me Roll It,” the multi-faceted “Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me),” and the climactic closer, “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five.” In fact, it took until 2010 for “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five” to be performed live, but now it is a regular presence in McCartney’s current live sets.

Sadly, one of Band on the Run’s chief Wings, Denny Laine, passed away on December 5, 2023, at age 79, 50 years to the day when the album was initially released. We raise a virtual glass to Laine’s memory, and will spin the 2LP edition in his honor as soon as we can get our own copy of it in hand.

PAUL McCARTNEY & WINGS
BAND ON THE RUN
2LP (MPL/UMe)

Disc 1 – Band on the Run

Side A
1. Band On The Run
2. Jet
3. Bluebird
4. Mrs. Vandebilt
5. Let Me Roll It

Side B
1. Mamunia
2. No Words
3. Helen Wheels
4. Picasso’s Last Words (Drink To Me)
5. Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five

Disc 2 – Band on the Run (Underdubbed Mixes)

Side C
1. Band On The Run
2. Mamunia
3. No Words
4. Jet
5. Bluebird

Side D
1. Mrs. Vandebilt
2. Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five
3. Picasso’s Last Words (Drink To Me)
4. Let Me Roll It

PAUL McCARTNEY & WINGS
BAND ON THE RUN
1LP half-speed-mastered edition (MPL/UMe)

Side A
1. Band On The Run
2. Jet
3. Bluebird
4. Mrs. Vandebilt
5. Let Me Roll It

Side B
1. Mamunia
2. No Words
3. Helen Wheels
4. Picasso’s Last Words (Drink To Me)
5. Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five