scapp70's Full Review: Band On the Run by Paul McCartney & Wings
I hope that all my favorite CDs come out in this DTS, DVD-Audio or SACD format. In my opinion, this is the only way to listen to music. I only have very few titles in any surround format because there are not many good titles available. I also have Venus & Mars by McCartney & Wings, and Queen's A Night At The Opera. I have about 10 more titles, yet I am anxiously awaiting more. All I can say is keep 'em coming. I feel I have a vast taste in different styles of music, yet so few titles to my liking.
This title is one of the first to come out in a surround sound format, maybe it's obvious since there is only one format available on this disc, DTS.
DTS stands for Digital Theater Systems.
What this DTS surround sound seems to do is to separate the instruments and the voices into 6 different speakers now instead of two. It makes the sounds of the voice and instruments clearer, fuller and crisper.
I'll tell you, I have been listening to Band On The Run for over 20 years, and when I now listen to this CD, I hear things that I have never heard before. Let's get our DTS receivers, 6 speakers, and our DVD-audio CDs. We owe it to our ears.
In my opinion, Band On The Run, this title track, got the most attention (except for the missing guitar intro, why? why?!?). Very nice, it hits you in the face with the fresh sounding production value. The guitar starts strumming, and then somewhere else around you comes the keyboards. (Is this Linda, did she also play on the albums themselves?)
Jet is another single from the album. A real rocker done right. Paul's fiery single from 1973 sounds fresh, lous and in your face in the DTS format.
Paul takes it down for a very ambient song with acoustic guitars and some inviting percussion on Bluebird. This is a very laid-back type of song, very melodic, and the surround mix gives the feeling of being enveloped in the sounds of the acoustic guitars, the voices, the bass, the percussion. This is one of the best tracks to show off your sound system. In the chorus when they sing
♫Bluebird- bluebird- bluebird
with each voice in a different speaker is an amazing effect. It makes the harmonies sound live and in your living room.
Mrs. Vanderbilt is quite addicting, you'll find yourself singing along to the chorus before the song fades. Again, the wonderfully lush melodies stand out on this poppy rocker. Let Me Roll It is my favorite song on this disc. I love the DTS version. I like that Paul's voice is in front of you, and then around you is his echo. How cool can this get? Some Beatle biographies say that this song was a parody of Lennon's Plastic Ono Band, I don't hear it. It's a groovy and heavy number with loud heavy guitars.
The next song titled, Mamunia, is an acoustic number again with ethnic type harmonies. I don't know what the title of this song means, and I don't think it's English. This song is such a departure for Paul's usual music. Lennon fans that bash McCartney and dismiss his music as 'Silly Love Songs', must have never given this beauty a listen.
No Words to me is one of the most Beatle-esque type songs Paul did that was post-Beatles. Denny Laine wrote it, I wonder if that has something to do with it. But, I always imagine that it is John and Paul singing. Maybe it's silly of me, but I can't help my Beatle fantasies. Every Beatle freak has his or her Beatle fantasies.
Helen Wheels is an extra track or a bonus track on my other BOTR CDs. I don’t know what it’s doing here, unless this track listing is the British release or something like that. This is a rocker that it done incorrectly. Compare this song to Jet to see a rocker done correctly.
One of these songs has an interesting story to its origin that I happen to know. Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me) was written (the chorus anyway) at a restaurant in Manhattan when Paul was dining with Al Pacino. Al was asking him on the art of writing songs, and was asking how Paul could come up with so many different melodies and songs. Paul then said that it comes fairly easy, and that you can write a song about anything. Al then gave him a magazine article that talked about the then recent death of Picasso and his recorded last words. Paul starting humming something and within a minute was singing the chorus to the song at which Al Pacino jumped up on his chair and screamed, "Look! He's doing it, my God he's doing it!"
Picasso's Last Words is a cool mellow song with a little Band on the Run quick little medley toward the end of the song.
Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five is another rocker. This is not one of the stand-out tracks from Band on the Run compared to the other stellar tracks, but it's pretty good in its own right. It seems to tidy up the record nicely.
This DTS version was released in 1996, I wonder if it is one of the first or the first DTS music CDs to be released. It doesn't matter really I guess because it was done in the correct sound format, the amazing 'surround' format, whether it be DTS, DVD-A, SACD or whatever's next. Nothing else really matters. So far, still I prefer DTS over the other two because the bass has better management through the optical bitstream compared to the hardly any in the analog RCA hookups.
CD: 5 stars
DTS: 4½ stars
Track Listing
Band On The Run
Jet
Bluebird
Mrs. Vanderbilt
Let Me Roll It
Mamunia
No Words
Helen Wheels
Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me)
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦More Beatles-related Epinions from Scapp70♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
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