Kevin Morby names his favourite Paul McCartney song
Kevin Morby has been accumulating a devoted fanbase ever since the release of his 2013 debut solo album Harlem River. The serpentine studio effort saw the former Babies frontman break out of the shadows and establish himself as one of America’s most respected songwriters. His seventh studio album, This Is a Photograph, was released in May 2022. Here, however, Morby names his favourite song by the great Paul McCartney.
Choosing just one song by such a prolific songwriter is no easy task. As one half of the era-defining songwriting duo Lennon and McCartney, the former Beatle helped shape modern pop music, suffusing it with his own taste for curious, frequently surreal narratives. After The Beatles’ split in 1970, Paul continued to push his songcraft in new and surprising directions, releasing the wonderfully DIY Ram in 1971 and founding Wings that same year.
Despite having an enormous discography to choose from, Morby seemed confident in his choice. Speaking to Stereogum ahead of Paul McCartney’s 80th birthday, the singer-songwriter said: “I think my favourite song, or at least the one I’ve listened to more than any other written and performed by Sir Paul, would have to be ‘Band On The Run.’ I was never a huge Beatles fan off the bat, and it took me getting into John and Paul’s solo careers first and then following the breadcrumb trail backwards.”
Released in 1973, ‘Band On The Run’ hit Morby like a tonne of bricks. “It was the first moment I remember loving this guy Paul McCartney from the biggest band of all time, the Beatles,” he continued. “This would have been when I was in my late teens, and I remember thinking, ‘Wow, I didn’t know you could do that’ the first time I heard it — meaning I didn’t know that you could essentially put three songs into one!”
Morby went on to explain how the sonic juxtapositions in ‘Band on The Run’ deeply influenced his own songwriting. “It blew my mind to hear someone so confidently lay out a song in three parts while seamlessly sewing them all together in one. When that horn section hits outta nowhere and the acoustic comes in and that little drum roll leads into Paul singing “Well the rain exploded with a mighty crash as we fell into the sun” …well gotdamn.”
Pointing to the song’s impact, he added: “Look no further than my song ‘Campfire,’ which is also laid out in three parts, to see this song’s influence on me. There’s that scene in Almost Famous where everyone on the bus is singing along to ‘Tiny Dancer’ and while that song, and that scene, are both iconic and great they’re not entirely accurate — bands don’t actually sing along to ‘Tiny Dancer’ while the wind’s in their hair out there on the open road. They sing along to ‘Band On The Run’.”
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