Band on the Run (Deluxe Edition)

The DELUXE EDITION includes three CDs: the original re-mastered album; a nine track CD of extra songs, including oft-bootlegged audio tracks from the film One Hand Clapping; a twenty-one track re-mastered documentary disc - originally produced for the twenty-fifth anniversary release of Band on the Run - and featuring interview contributions from Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, Denny Laine, Geoff Emerick, Tony Visconti, Al Coury, Clive Arrowsmith, James Coburn, John Conteh, Kenny Lynch, Michael Parkinson, Christopher Lee, Clement Freud, and Dustin Hoffman, as well as dialogue and music! It also includes a DVD, with four music videos (one an album promo), "Wings in Lagos" (rare footage of a day out in Lagos during the recording sessions), "Osterley Park" (behind the scenes footage at an album cover shoot), and the TV documentary film One Hand Clapping - featuring studio performances filmed and recorded at Abbey Road in August 1974 (directed by David Litchfield). PLUS downloadable 24bit 96kHz high resolution audio versions of the re-mastered album and bonus audio tracks, and all set within a 120 page book containing many previously unpublished images by Linda McCartney and Clive Arrowsmith, album and single artwork, and a full history of the album (complete with a new interview with Paul and expanded track by track information for all four discs)! Phew. Band on the Run is the first release in the Paul McCartney Archive Collection. Personally supervised by Paul, it was digitally re-mastered at Abbey Road Studios in London.

'Neither the dippy, rustic Wild Life nor the slick AOR flourishes of Red Rose Speedway earned Paul McCartney much respect, so he made the self-consciously ambitious Band on the Run to rebuke his critics. On the surface, Band on the Run appears to be constructed as a song cycle in the vein of Abbey Road, but subsequent listens reveal that the only similarities the two albums share are simply superficial. McCartney's talent for songcraft and nuanced arrangements is in ample display throughout the record . . . a handful of the songs are excellent - the surging, inspired surrealism of "Jet" is by far one of his best solo recordings, "Bluebird" is sunny acoustic pop, and "Helen Wheels" captures McCartney rocking with abandon . . . the record is enjoyable, whether it's the minor-key "Mrs. Vandebilt" or "Let Me Roll It," a silly response to John Lennon's "How Do You Sleep?," which does make Band on the Run one of McCartney's finest solo efforts.' - All Music Guide