Paul McCartney - Take It Away

What this video is

Released in June 1982 as the second single from Tug of War, Take It Away arrived at a pivotal cultural moment: the nascent MTV era was transforming music promotion into a narrative cinematic form, and McCartney—ever alert to media evolution—invested in an unusually high-budget, story-driven promo. The video was celebrated as a partial Beatles reunion, featuring Ringo Starr and producer George Martin in on-screen…

Why it matters

A landmark in early British music video production: one of the first promo films by a legacy rock artist to deploy full cinematic narrative infrastructure—professional film director, named cinematographer, wardrobe designer, live audience, and an A-list cast—establishing a template for the…

The director

John Leonard Duncan Mackenzie (22 May 1928 – 8 June 2011) was a Scottish film and television director born in Edinburgh. He worked in British film from the late 1960s, beginning as an assistant director to Ken Loach on productions such as Cathy Come Home and…