It has only been a week since John Fardy and Shane Coleman took a look at John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band album for the Cultural Toolbox.
It's only fair to give some of the other former Beatles some attention, so this week's choice was Paul McCartney and Wings with their 1973 album Band on The Run.
Shane started by explaining how he agreed with John's suggestion last week that the Plastic Ono Band was a great album, "until he said it was the best post-Beatles album by any ex-Beatles. To which I profoundly disagreed, and I said no - this album, Band on the Run, is a better album".
John 'stands resolute' in his view that Plastic Ono is the finest of those albums, but admits "Band on the Run is a great post-Beatles album, and I think it's the second best post-Beatles album".
They did give passing mention to George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, leading to John reflecting on the origins of the phrase 'band on the run'.
"The story of how this album was made is quite interesting," he explained. "The phrase, McCartney heard it first, was from George Harrison in a meeting on the dissolution of Apple Corps.
"Harrison had used this phrase 'band on the run' and it stuck in McCartney's head. Fast forward four or five years, and [he] took that phrase. In 73 or 74 Harrison and Lennon had a fractious relationship with [executive Allen Klein], and they said 'you know what, he isn't the guy we thought he was... and McCartney felt liberated. And that liberation is all over Band on the Run".
Shane agreed, pointing out that "there's one song Mamunia, which basically means 'safe haven' in Arabic. It's McCartney almost saying 'don't worry about things, get on with your life'".
John said that the album is 'Beatles-esque', and sees McCartney "rocking again... Even the song Band on the Run has three stages, which showed up all over Abbey Road... but it's moving it on a small bit".
John did have a few criticisms of the album, particularly that he's not sure what a few of the songs are actually about. "This is all a bit vague", he argued when comparing it to Lennon's album, highlighting the song Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me) as one he's just not sure about.
Shane on the other hand, believes there's not a bad song on the album, and "that the opening music sequence of No Words is just gorgeous".
So there was a bit of disagreement in studio over whether it was Lennon or McCartney with the best 'post-Beatles' album, but they both certainly have their strong points. Now, about those Ringo Starr and George Harrison LPs...
