Image: Jim Summaria, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Paul McCartney and Wings‘ Band On The Run album turned fifty years old on Tuesday, and for its birthday, we’ll be getting a stripped-down version, similar to Let It Be … Naked.
Says McCartney of the new mixes: “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.” The 50th anniversary set will be available in all the usual suspect formats, including vinyl, compact disc, downloads, and Dolby ATMOS.
Coincidentally, the 50th anniversary of the album also marked the passing of former Wings and Moody Blues member Denny Laine, who succumbed to intersititial lung disease at 79, making McCartney the sole surviving member of Wings.
Ahead of the album’s arrival, here’s the underdubbed version of the title track. The major change appears to be the removal of the orchestration; there’s a difference, albeit a subtle one. The remastered original is here too, for your shopping-and-comparing pleasure.
Band On The Run 50th anniversary reissue tracklisting:
Disc One Band on the Run
o1. Band on the Run
o2. Jet
o3. Bluebird
o4. Mrs. Vandebilt
o5. Let Me Roll It
o6. Mamunia
o7. No Words
o8. Helen Wheels
o9. Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me)
10. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five
Disc Two Band on the Run (Underdubbed Mixes)
o1. Band on the Run
o2. Mamunia
o3. No Words
o4. Jet
o5. Bluebird
o6. Mrs. Vandebilt
o7. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five
o8. Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me)
o9. Let Me Roll It
Love, Dr. Scott James
