Cover Wars: Band On The Run Edition

With Paul McCartney’s previous two albums (Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway) not being especially critically acclaimed, many see his 1973 release Band On The Run as something of a statement piece, and what a statement it was. Paul once shared that the title track of the album was built around something guitarist George Harrison would say during The Beatles’ business meetings, “If we ever get out of here”.

Side Note: Band On The Run is a great addition to the “What album is Phish going to cover?” discussion that friends of yours are undoubtedly having.

And now, the covers:

The Brew: Leading off this week we’ve got The Brew. Check the rest of this show for a great recording and additional covers from Kansas and The Police. Source: 5-14-2009

READ ON for the lowdown on the rest of this week’s contestants…

Foo Fighters: Foo Fighters (I will always remember that there is no “The” at the beginning because of an episode of The West Wing) recorded this cover for a compilation celebrating 40 years of the station BBC Radio 1. A song was selected from each year the station had been broadcasting. Dave Grohl has had the honor of playing this song with Sir Paul McCartney in Liverpool! Source: Radio 1 - Established 1967

Umphrey’s McGee: For a long time it looked like when Mike Mirro left UM at the end of 2002, he took this cover with him. Mirro sang the last section and it seemed like this would forever be on the shelf until it was busted out at New York City’s Nokia Theater in December of 2006. I shit you not, ScottyB called it in between the 2nd set and the encore with zero prior knowledge of it being on the setlist. Lead Singer Brendan Bayliss took over the vocal duties for the final section. While the audio embedded is from the Mirro era, there’s also some video from the night of the bustout. For whatever reason, both incarnations of the group seem to omit one of the verses of the final section. Source: 5-26-2002

Ween: Played from 2000 to 2002, it seems (at least based on the shows on the LMA) that this cover has disappeared from the rotation. If that’s indeed the case it’s too bad, because Gene Ween’s voice is an especially interesting fit for this song. Source: 5-5-2002

Checking in on last week’s Skin It Back Cover Wars, the Widespread Panic fans cast their votes early and often to catapult their band to a clear victory.

Band On The Run, Who Did It Best?(polls)