There are a few reasons I do this article series. One is to demonstrate how a song can tell a regular narrative. Another is because there’s a particular part of the song that’s fascinating when I go to research it. Sometimes the latter comes out of me hearing a line and wanting to know about it. 1973’s “Band On The Run”, from the Paul McCartney & Wings album of the same name, is one of those songs, because I really want to know who Sailor Sam is. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The song has an interesting history, as this may not be the song they originally came up with. According to Wikipedia (question the source), the McCartneys (his then living wife Linda) and the only other member at the time, Denny Lane (how many times did he deal with Penny Lane jokes after joining Wings?) went to Lagos, Nigeria, to record the album. Why all the way down there instead of a studio in London? It doesn’t say. It does say, however, that Paul and Linda were robbed at knife point, probably thinking they had something more than demos to the song. Paul also assumes they probably recorded over them or something, not realizing they had the only demos for a future gold record hit. That means the song was recreated by memory. But what is the song actually about and who is Sailor Sam? I have the answer…to one of those.
