The most difficult phase of the ex-Beatle's career

Paul McCartney has revealed that he went through a period of deep depression after the Beatles broke up, at one point thinking he would never write music again. The memory surfaces in the documentary “Paul McCartney: Man On The Run“, directed by Morgan Neville, released a few days ago on Prime Video.

In the film the former Beatle looks back on the years immediately following the band's end, explaining how hard it was to imagine a future after an experience that had taken up his entire life. “The Beatles really were everything to me”, McCartney says in the trailer. “When we split up I thought: I'll never write another note”.

The split from John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr left him lost and discouraged. “I was very depressed”, he recalls. At that decisive moment, though, he found crucial support in his wife Linda McCartney, whom he married in 1969 and who passed away in 1998, and who helped him piece his personal and artistic life back together.

It was together with Linda that the idea of forming a new band, Wings, took shape - the group that would mark his musical rebirth throughout the Seventies. In the documentary McCartney also recalls the moment he asked her to join the group. Asked when he found out Linda could sing, he jokes: “On our wedding night”.

At first the reception was far from warm. McCartney admits that Wings were met with skepticism, with many dismissing them as a lesser project compared to the Beatles' legacy. “At the start they were a flop”, he recalls. The criticism, however, ended up strengthening his resolve: every negative review became a spur to make a better record.

Over time the band won over audiences and the charts thanks to hits like “Band On The Run”, “Live And Let Die”, “Jet” and “Silly Love Songs”. Still, as director Morgan Neville points out, the Seventies were a complicated stretch for McCartney: every new record was inevitably measured against the history of the Beatles.

The documentary reconstructs this phase through archival footage and testimonies, also showing the final years of the Liverpool band. McCartney recalls his growing estrangement from John Lennon: “We were simply going different ways. We'd argued, sure, but we loved each other our whole lives”. According to Neville, the story told in “Man On The Run” goes beyond music: it's the journey of an artist trying to redefine his own identity while still being watched and judged by the public. A long process, through which McCartney ended up clarifying his priorities and defending them with determination.

The documentary

“Paul McCartney: Man On The Run” tells the story of the decade of transformation that followed the Beatles' breakup and the rise of Wings. Through archival footage, photographs by Linda McCartney, and interviews with Paul, Linda, Mary and Stella McCartney, as well as band members, Sean Ono Lennon, Mick Jagger, Chrissie Hynde and others, the film carefully reconstructs a period often flattened by historical narrative. Morgan Neville explains the point of the project this way: “When people talk about the great artists of the Seventies, Paul McCartney is rarely mentioned. Not because he wasn't central, but because the weight of what he'd already done with the Beatles kept defining him. With 'Man On The Run' I wanted to observe his run out from under that shadow. It was a journey made up of unlikely choices: touring in a van, Bruce McMouse, Nigeria, Thrillington, an ode to Scotland. Taken together, those decisions reveal a clear logic. It was the only way to deal with such overwhelming expectations. During that decade Paul stopped running from something and started moving toward something else: his own voice, his family, his life. This soundtrack is the musical reflection of that journey”.

The film is the final piece of the recent celebrations dedicated to Wings. In 2025 the book “Wings: The Story Of A Band On The Run” was released, followed by the compilation “Wings”, personally curated by McCartney. During the same period the fiftieth anniversary of “Venus And Mars” was celebrated, now available in a half-speed edition and, for the first time, in Dolby Atmos. All of it accompanied by the “Paul's Got Back” tour, which took in 18 cities across the United States and Canada.

The soundtrack

To coincide with the release of “Paul McCartney: Man On The Run“, the official soundtrack “Man On The Run – Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack” has also been released, conceived as a direct companion to the film's story of Paul McCartney's creative rebirth after the end of the Beatles. “We pulled off what felt like an impossible dream”, McCartney commented, summing up the spirit of a project that looks back at the Seventies as a decade of artistic, family and personal rebuilding.

The soundtrack brings together twelve tracks drawn from the catalogue of Paul McCartney and Wings, mixing classics, hits and rare material. It's a compact yet meaningful snapshot of his output in the post-Beatles years. Among the most notable inclusions are “Arrow Through Me (Rough Mix)”, a previously unreleased version taken from the 1979 “Back To The Egg” sessions, and “Live And Let Die (Rockshow)”, taken from the 1980 concert film “Rockshow”, both available in an exclusive preview on Amazon Music. Added to these is a third unreleased track, “Gotta Sing Gotta Dance”, originally included in the 1973 “The James Paul McCartney TV Special”.

The soundtrack's tracklist and artwork

1. Wings – Silly Love Songs (Demo)

2. Paul McCartney – That Would Be Something (2011 Remaster)

3. Paul And Linda McCartney – Long Haired Lady (2012 Remaster)

4. Paul And Linda McCartney – Too Many People (2012 Remaster)

5. Paul McCartney And Wings – Big Barn Bed (2018 Remaster)

6. Paul McCartney – Gotta Sing Gotta Dance

7. Wings – Live And Let Die (Rockshow)

8. Paul McCartney And Wings – Band On The Run (2010 Remaster)

9. Wings – Arrow Through Me (Rough Mix)

10. Wings – Mull Of Kintyre (2016 Remaster)

11. Paul McCartney – Coming Up (2011 Remaster)

12. Paul McCartney And Wings – Let Me Roll It (2010 Remaster)

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04/04/2026