The album that pushed Paul McCartney to the edge: “This was me in hell”
The recording studio is always meant to be a positive environment for anyone working. Even though there may be a handful of hangups that get in the way of getting the right song on tape, it’s all about working your ass off to make sure that you walk out of the studio at the end of the day with something you’re proud of. Some classics come better than others, though, and Paul McCartney said that he was practically living in shambles when working on the album Band on the Run.
In the wake of The Beatles’ breakup, McCartney seemed to be taking it the hardest at first. While George Harrison was finding spirituality with his solo debut and John Lennon was expunging his demons through therapy, the last months of the band’s career saw McCartney drinking all day until his wife Linda convinced him to make music again.
That initial spark may have still been there, but McCartney wanted a band behind him to get the right sound he was looking for. Although albums like Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway were supposed to be about Wings finding themselves, McCartney would be lambasted by the critics relentlessly, making the former ‘Cute Beatle’ look like yesterday’s news in every review.
Knowing he needed a slam dunk on the next project, McCartney decided the band should venture to Lagos to record…only to be told the rest of the band were going to quit hours before they got on the plane. Now down to Paul, Linda, and Denny Laine, Band on the Run would be assembled by different pieces of songs that they would flesh out in the studio.
The songs wouldn’t come easy, though. Outside of having to build the studio into something that they would want to record in, McCartney suffered a bronchial spasm halfway through recording, which led to him being down for the count for a few days before returning to the studio. For a musician who has been known for being upbeat in nearly everything he does, even Macca admitted that he was hitting a personal low making the album.
When reminiscing on those times, McCartney thought that he was going through some of the darkest periods of his life behind the scenes, telling Keith Badman, “This was me in hell. I stayed in bed for a few days, thinking I was nearly dying. It was one of the most frightening periods in my life. The climate, the tensions of making a record, which had just got to succeed, and being in this totally uncivilized part of the world finally got to me”.
By the time the band returned to England and began putting the finishing touches on the record, though, they had come out with a stunning piece of work. From the multi-part title track to knock out songs like ‘Jet’ and ‘Let Me Roll It’, McCartney reminded every one of his detractors why he should never be counted out, making one amazing track after the next and giving Wings the momentum they needed to soar for the rest of the decade.
The core trio would also remain the only consistent members of Wings until the end, eventually folding the group in the late 1970s after McCartney’s drug bust in Japan. McCartney may have moved on to a solo career, but nothing could take away the magic that he captured with his back against the wall.
