August may have heralded news of a brand-new Beatles Anthology release and an expanded companion documentary — following some not-so-cryptic teasing from Paul McCartney — but February has delivered even more Fab Four content.
McCartney has just released the new documentary Man on the Run, which focuses on his life after the end of the Beatles. The film, available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, charts his transition from one half of the band’s storied songwriting partnership to forming Wings with his wife, Linda McCartney.
“The Beatles had broken up and I was thinking, ‘What do I do now?’” the bass guitarist explains in the film. “How can I ever do anything that’s anywhere near as good as the Beatles? I was on my own for the first time, so I had to look inside myself.”
McCartney arguably had the most complicated adjustment to life after the band. George Harrison, long frustrated by his peripheral role in the group, came flying out of the gates with All Things Must Pass. John Lennon and Ringo Starr each carved out distinct solo identities as well, while McCartney’s early post-Beatles years were comparatively uneven.
That’s ironic, considering he was the one who closed the door on John Lennon’s plans to keep the Beatles going into the 1970. Man on the Run explores how he navigated those uncharted waters and rebuilt his confidence from the ground up.
As McCartney notes in the documentary, he was the only member of the quartet to “put a band together,” leaning back into collaboration while the others embraced solo autonomy.
“I thought we should start from square one,” he says. “It was a puzzle I had to unravel.”
According to Amazon MGM, “The film chronicles the arc of McCartney’s solo career as he faces down a myriad of challenges while creating new music to define a new decade,” offering “unprecedented access to previously unseen footage and rare archival materials,” with the story told “through a uniquely vulnerable lens.”
The documentary captures key moments from McCartney’s post-Beatles career, including footage from his 1973 TV special, which proved a pivotal turning point in his solo trajectory. It also addresses the deterioration of his friendship with Lennon — documented in the pointed songs they wrote about one another — as well as its eventual reconciliation.
More significantly, the project is not a one-off. It kickstarts a new working relationship between McCartney, Universal Music Group, and Amazon, encompassing exclusive music and merchandise initiatives.
“Right now, I have 25 songs that I’m finishing in the next few months — new songs that are interesting,” McCartney revealed in an interview with Vulture. “Often, a constant thread through my writing is nostalgia, the memories of things past. I don’t question too much how it happens. I’m just thrilled it does.”
Elsewhere, super-producer Mark Ronson has offered fresh insight into what it was like to work with McCartney, noting that his penchant for “weird” sounds has always been part of the creative equation.
Meanwhile, Guitar Player has unearthed its historic 1990 interview with McCartney from the archives, in which he makes some surprising revelations about his favorite guitar.
