Review: Paul McCartney's 'Man on the Run (Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack)'

It seems like it was only four months ago that a big, comprehensive Paul McCartney and Wings compilation hit the market. That's probably because it was. The wide release of Morgan Neville's documentary Man on the Run late last month has necessitated the release of yet another compilation with all due haste. Unlike three LPs worth of Wings, Man on the Run (Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack) is an austere single LP collection. It might have been an opportunity to sweep up the major McCartney numbers that got shut out of Wings because they technically weren't Wings songs, essentials such as "Maybe I'm Amazed", "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey", and "Another Day". Perhaps those songs weren't in the documentary. I don't know because I don't throw my business at the fascism-supporting streaming service that's hosting it. 

In any event, Man on the Run does offer non-Wings cuts, just not the ones you might expect. There is one big hit, "Coming Up" (the studio version that was hit in the UK but not in the U.S., where DJ's preferred the live flip side), but there's also "That Would Be Something", "Too Many People" and "Long Haired Lady" (two of the best songs from RAM), and Big Barn Bed (arguably the one worthwhile song on Red Rose Speedway).

For relative rarity value there is also a demo version of "Silly Love Songs", which has been released before,  and a hornless rough mix of "Arrow Through Me" and "Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance", which have not. That latter song finds McCartney in his olde timey "Honey Pie"/"You Gave Me the Answer Mode" and is decent considering its origin in a TV special that by most accounts is pretty dire. I haven't seen that one either, but not for political reasons. However, it would have been merciful to edit out a long, corny tap dancing sequence.

For non-rarity non-value, there's also "Band on the Run", "Mull of Kintyre", and "Let Me Roll It". Since two of those are among McCartney's best post-Beatles songs, I won't complain about this pretty negligible amount of overlap between Wings and Man on the Run. 

So, how does Man on the Run hang together as a compilation in its own right? Aside from not mirroring the mass of McCartney/Wings comps, of which there have been many, the Man on the Run Soundtrack has the benefit of only including good songs. McCartney received a lot of criticism during the seventies, and while a lot of that criticism was unwarranted, his work was still inconsistent. This soundtrack cherry picks it in an interesting way and sidesteps the outright clunkers. I like it.

Presumably these are the same masters used for all recent reissues of McCartney's albums, because those are the ones that keep getting trotted out, but, for example, when I played "Too Many People" on this new soundtrack against it on the 2017 edition of RAM, it sounded quieter, less open, and less dynamic. Overall, the audio sounds fine enough but similarly on the flat side. "Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance" sounds like it was recorded directly off an old VHS copy of the James Paul McCartney special.

The vinyl itself sounds good, but required some attention to get to that state. There was some schmutz from the factory that needed to be cleaned off, and a particularly tenacious wad on "Silly Love Songs" left a small scratch, which I was able to eliminate with a damp toothpick (may sound crazy folks, but it often works!). My copy is very slightly bowled at the label, but it doesn't seem to have any affect on the audio. It's tough to tell because the last song on the bowled side is "Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance", which sounds so rough that it's likely the distortions I heard were just down to that poor sound quality. Clamping did nothing to ameliorate it. Despite a bit of edge warp, Side B sounds fine all the way through. A folded poster is included.