About The Song
“Band on the Run” is the title track of the 1973 album by Paul McCartney and Wings, released as a single in April 1974 in the US and June 1974 in the UK through Apple Records, with “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five” as the B-side in the US and “Zoo Gang” in the UK. Written by Paul and Linda McCartney and produced by Paul McCartney, it was recorded primarily at EMI Studios in Lagos, Nigeria, between September 1–22, 1973, with final overdubs at AIR Studios in London in October 1973. The song, a medley of three distinct musical sections, was completed by Paul, Linda, and Denny Laine after drummer Denny Seiwell and guitarist Henry McCullough quit the band just before the Lagos sessions, as noted in a 2023 Billboard interview with Laine.
The single was a commercial success, topping the Billboard Hot 100 on June 8, 1974, for one week, and ranking No. 22 on Billboard’s Top Pop Singles year-end chart for 1974. It reached No. 3 on the UK Singles Chart, No. 1 in Canada (RPM Top Singles), No. 1 in New Zealand (RMNZ), No. 7 in the Netherlands (Single Top 100), No. 21 in Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders), and No. 22 in Germany (GfK). It was certified Gold by the RIAA for over one million copies sold in the US. The Band on the Run album topped the Billboard 200 on three separate occasions in 1974, spending four non-consecutive weeks at No. 1, and was the top-selling studio album of 1974 in the UK, Australia, and Canada, per Wikipedia. It earned triple Platinum certification from the RIAA and sold 6 million copies worldwide, per uDiscovermusic.
The song’s creation was shaped by challenging circumstances. McCartney chose Lagos for its exotic appeal, but the studio was primitive, and the band faced a robbery at knifepoint, losing demo tapes, as McCartney recalled in a 2010 Paul McCartney Archive Collection interview. The lyrics were partly inspired by a remark from George Harrison during a Beatles’ Apple Records meeting about escaping business constraints, as McCartney told Paul Gambaccini in 1973, per Wikipedia. An incident during Wings’ 1972 university tour in Hull, where McCartney accidentally elbowed a hotel owner, prompting a hasty exit, may have also influenced the “band on the run” concept, per Denny Seiwell in a 2018 Billboard article. The track was recorded in two parts in Lagos, with the third section completed in London, featuring orchestrations by Tony Visconti, per Discogs.
Production anecdotes include Ginger Baker inviting Wings to his ARC Studio in Ikeja for one day, where “Picasso’s Last Words” was recorded, but “Band on the Run” remained at EMI’s Lagos studio, as noted in a 2021 dcsaudio article. The song’s structure, blending folk rock and funk, was praised by John Lennon as “a great song” in a 1975 Rolling Stone interview. Billboard in 2014 lauded its “three distinct parts” that feel “anthemic” without a chorus. The track was performed live at Glastonbury in 2022 with Dave Grohl, per uDiscovermusic, and featured in The Killing Fields (1984). A 2023 “underdubbed” mix was released for the album’s 50th anniversary, per Analog Planet.
Video
Lyric
Stuck inside these four walls
Sent inside forever
Never seeing no one nice again
Like you, mama, you, mama, youIf I ever get out of here
Thought of giving it all away
To a registered charity
All I need is a pint a day
If I ever get out of here
If we ever get out of hereWell, the rain exploded with a mighty crash
As we fell into the sun
And the first one said to the second one there
I hope you’re having funBand on the run, band on the run
And the jailer man and Sailor Sam
Were searching everyone
For the band on the run
Band on the run
Band on the run
Band on the runWell, the undertaker drew a heavy sigh
Seeing no one else had come
And a bell was ringing in the village square
For the rabbits on the runBand on the run, band on the run
And the jailer man and Sailor Sam
Were searching everyone
For the band on the run
Band on the runYeah, the band on the run
Band on the run
Band on the run
Band on the runWell, the night was falling as the desert world
Began to settle down
In the town, they’re searching for us everywhere
But we never will be foundBand on the run, band on the run
And the county judge, who held a grudge
Will search forever more
For the band on the run
Band on the run
Band on the run
Band on the run