Is Driving Rain a "generation gap"?

Everyone seems to love Calico Skies except me, so I realise I'm alone there! It just does nothing for me.

 

IMO a very beautiful ballad...similar to I will and Mother Nature’s som.

 

Seriously. They're obvious b-sides...I hate that the reissued album had to be a double just because CD bloat enabled some aimless blues jams to be forced into the tracklisting. I suppose without them the album would've been a bit too mellow and downtempo, but then again that didn't stop him from making Chaos & Creation so that argument doesn't hold up. Take those two out and it's a nice, tight album with 6 tracks on each side. (I probably could've dropped the title track, but it's short and harmless...the "Ram On" of this album, if you will)

 

Like many folk, 40-45 minutes feels like the ideal length for an album to me - presumably because I grew up listening to LPs. However, I don't see the length of an album being an issue provided the tracks are good enough.

One of my favourite bands is The Flower Kings, a popular Swedish prog band. Their albums range in length from 53 minutes up to 140 minutes. Their longer albums take many listens to digest, but that's just part of the fun of following them and means you can keep on discovering new interesting instrumental parts for years to come. I find it helps to mentally divide them up into LPs / LP sides, so 140 minutes corresponds to a triple album / six sides of vinyl, and then to focus on one LP or LP side at a time.

Helpfully, their "lock down" album of last year, which was recorded remotely and clocks in at about 92 minutes, was released on two discs - 49 minutes and 43 minutes in length. So, I've just been listening to the second disc, which I'm growing to love.

DR I think of in terms of two halves - Lonely Road to Your Way and Spinning On An Axis to Rinse The Raindrop - and generally listen to the two halves separately - missing out Freedom.

It is the sad fate of all but one of Paul's albums to not be his best album.

 

When it came out I was in my early forties with a long history of enjoying Paul's solo output and found it a fine record. Sounds great, pretty contemporary but waaaaay too long (he's not the only artist to sin in this manner, of course) and then there's ..."Freedom". Is it Ram or Band on the Run or even London Town? Of course not.

 

'driving rain' is not a generation gap, 'driving rain' is a horrible album, simply horrible.

 

As I have to always keep reminding you....horrible is always in the ears and opinions of the beholder.

 

I'm 60 now and still think it sucks.

 

I don’t think it had a “generation gap” problem. Old people didn’t buy it, and neither did young people. It sold very few copies, and the new songs he played on the tour were poorly received. I think it was a bad idea slotting songs like “Driving Rain”, and “Freedom”, which are catchy enough but feature some pretty cringeworthy lyrics, in a setlist featuring his best Beatles era songs.

I remember it charted very poorly, which stool in stark contrast to The Beatles’ 1, which went to #1 and was one of the best selling albums of all time.

 

yes it is, my ears and mind behold 'driving rain' to be horrible. to this day i cannot believe he even got the record company to release it, anyone else, anyone else, but a beatle does not get this album on the market, no way, no how.

and, i know joy, that you do not want to hear this, but there others of his in the same catagory.

 

Yawn...your usual anyone else but a Beatle couldn’t have gotten the record released trope...alas never said about ... yawn...another Beatle though would still be a boring argument ..zzzzz. It’s not a matter of what I want to hear..see, it’s a matter of what I like and it’s always a matter of what someone likes and doesn’t like. It’s alway has been matter of what someone likes. You can see by this thread that some Macca fans and folks like it, but some don’t. Macca had gone through several solo record companies by DR and it was actually Ringo who by the end of the seventies had trouble getting a record company despite having been a Beatle and John had to shop around as wanted DF to be half yoko.

A case could be made that there’s there’s other albums in any artists catalogue released because they are who they are...but who makes these determinations that were it not for who they are wouldn’t have been released? Do you make these decisions? The majority of buyers?...... though later some albums become cult favorites like back to the egg or are critically reassessed, like ram? Rock music critics? How do you know it’s the reason DR or any solo Beatles or McCartney album was released. You keep resorting this very lame...because he was a Beatle argument..how about...rotogravure? Stop and smell the roses? Gone troppo? 33&athird? STINYC? Two virgins? Life with the lions? The wedding album? I’m simply listing solo Beatle albums that didn’t sell well..also wildlife, though worse sellers earlier were STINYC and wildlife though they eventually went gold. Some of the less popular McCartney albums I tend to like, like DR and I see others here like it. Now I’m just sticking to solo Beatles because I know them better but could easily get on the solo CSNY albums or any artist but I don’t know them as well and I may actually like them.

There are others of your comments in this category that you basically keep repeating the same comments...so just cut and paste them. Sometimes I agree with your opinions cuz that’s the way it is with opinions. Maybe you don’t like the album in question, and you don’t have to like it...but I have a room full of albums many could argue wouldn’t have been released had the artists not been who they are. Nevertheless, I enjoy most of them. I know you don’t want to hear this. I’m always glad for all music to be released cuz though I may not like it, someone else may and sometimes I decide I like it later.

 

Had NO IDEA there was so much "DR"-HATE!
WOW.....
It's not that bad.....Jeez!
Some of these folks need to take a deep breath, smoke some of this.,.....and, listen to this:

 

Indeed, Vince, you are one of if not the coolest dudes on the forum. I’ve read through the forum before joining and realized from SHF members that some Macca fans don’t like DR, but never understood why. Yes, it has some weaknesses as does every other album by anyone. LOL....your smoke some Jaipur and chill reference.

PS...I absolutely love your cat avatar and I just got a new kitty.

 

Could be some folks are just lookin' for a fight....sign of the times, I'm afraid....

 

ya know, i just might be in the majority on this one

 

Our histories are about the same, except I was 16 when Driving Rain came out. Have always loved the album. I'm a bit surprised that songs like "Rinse the Raindrops" don't get more love, such a great jam.

 

Who cares about majority and minority? I certainly never did. I wouldn’t own or have heard many of my albums if I just had always chased the majority crowd....very glad I didn’t. I am a listener and not dependent on the fickle notions at any one time of the crowd.

 

Its an extraordinary jam....I was way older than you when the album was released..as was the ripe old middle age of 44, lol. As with all albums and songs, some get attention and love, but some don’t and a few are belatedly recognized as good or great.

 

Perhaps it's the association with 'she-who-shall-not-be-named' that makes the older folks have disdain for it?..........
Or....maybe they don't like David Kahne, though I don't see why....
He also produced those wonderful early Fishbone albums!......so good!

 

well, i think you and i need to stop our discussions for a while, we will never agree, and the older i get i find that like him even less than i did before.

i'm sorry if i ever offended you in any way, it was certainly not done on purpose.

 

It’s fine..his fandom and those of other artists I have noticed balances out because the older I get, the more I like most of his catalogue even more than I did upon when the albums and singles were released...and I especially greatly enjoy his stylistic variety. However, I find with other artists, it is true, that the older I get I like them less and their stuff sounds dated to me now. You have not offended me as I see that you do like some of his albums and that you are not just trolling or closed minded completely. Perceptions of music can change with age, I’ve learned. We’re cool.

 

Age is just a number! This was my first new McCartney album. At the time I owned the 25th Anniversary edition of Band on the Run, and the Wingspan comp. So I was excited for the new album, it didn't let me down. I'd love an Archive release of the album someday, but I know I'm in the minority, and Paul probably doesn't want to revisit that time period too much.

 

Nah, none of that.

I don't care for it because I think that most of the songs are poor and uninteresting and not up to par with most of his albums. I'd listen to Wild Life all day long before I'd listen to Driving Rain.

I also saw the Driving Rain tour. All of the Driving Rain songs were poorly received.

 

Yep.....Heather, I’ll name her, was indeed a character in every way and he was a lonely old man who let a younger gal make a fool of him and a public spectacle of their problems.

 

You speak the truth because you were ahead of me...I still don’t own those great McCartney items you speak of though am an old collector but got lost and behind there and later. Touché for owning those great albums then, as you were an astute and precocious Macca fan in your youth and you knew exactly what to get.