Paul McCartney/Wings-song by song thread

More about The World Tonight...

The single was released in a picture sleeve on July 7, 1997.

CD 1:





CD 2:





Promo Film # 2:

 

More about The World Tonight...

7" Picture Disc:







Promo Film # 3:

 

More about The World Tonight...

The US single was released on April 17, 1997 as a part of the promotion of the Father's Day Film:







Promo Film # 4:

 

More about The World Tonight...

Finally,

The World Tonight (Film Edit) (3:28 minutes)

This is the version from the Father's Day Film:

At 19:26:

 

NEXT ONE
Flaming Pie
The winners keep on coming. This is one of the best and most fun rockers ever from Paul. The boogie piano gives the song a little LadyvMadonna feel, the melody is insanely catchy and the lyrics fun
It s like the Beatles on streroids
Love it and lovedcseeing Paul perform it live 2004
Song facts
“Flaming Pie” is a Paul McCartney song appearing on the eponymous album released in 1997. From the liner notes:

The “pie” lyric that had arrived unto Paul on horseback fitted perfectly with some funky riffs he and Jeff Lynne had evolved days earlier while waiting to overdub on to ‘Souvenir’. With lyric and music suddenly fashioned, “Flaming Pie” was recorded quickly – for, entirely appropriately. Paul suggested that the song be taped with the speed that the Beatles often worked, cutting three songs in a day. Setting themselves a four hour deadline, Paul singing live to his own piano accompaniment with Jeff on guitar before adding drums and bass, and then, guitars and harmony vocals.

“John joked that the name Beatles came in a vision from a man on a flaming pie, coming unto us…you are Beatles with an A. I was riding with my missus, thinking of lyrics, searching for a rhyme with ‘sky’… ‘bye’… ‘pie’. The story came back and I thought ‘Ooo, ‘flaming pie’.”

Paul McCartney, in Club Sandwitch n°82, Summer 1997:
We had some funny moments during the making of the Anthology, when we remembered things differently. The biggest was “who thought of the name Beatles?”. George and I both remember it the same way: John and Stu had come out of their flat in Gambier Terrace, Liverpool, and we were walking towards the Dingle, chatting, when they told us of their new name for the band. But, what with one thing and another, we didn’t exactly say this in the TV and video series.

I was working with Jeff Lynne on ‘Souvenir’ when we decided that we wanted to add some raw, heavy-ish guitars. We had the amps belting in the studio, playing the guitars in the control room with long leads, and while the engineers were getting the sound we started vamping and found a few chords and some funky riffs. I started shouting a little bit of a melody and so I asked the engineer to stick on a DAT tape. We just jammed, but then I suggested we turn it into a song. The words came to me a few days later when I was out horse riding with Linda, going through some birch woods. I was musing and dreaming about the lyrics, looking for a rhyme for “sky”, going through the alphabet, when I got to “pie”. The words “flaming pie” fitted and I got quite excited about it. “Making love underneath the moon” became “Making love underneath the bed” – it was great fun to write.

Mark Lewisohn, in Club Sandwitch n°82, Summer 1997:

One of the many remarkable aspects for Paul when revisiting his earlier years for The Beatles Anthology was the problem of correlating differing memories of the same event. Perhaps the knottiest issue was the all-important “how did the Beatles acquire their name?”. The crux of the matter was a short, witty article written by John Lennon for the launch issue of the Liverpool pop paper Mersey Beat, published in July 1961, in which he wrote “How did the name arrive? It came in a vision – a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them ‘From this day on you are Beatles with an A’. Thank you, Mister Man, they said, thanking him.” While some recognise this as characteristic Lennon whimsy – much like the prose that would later go into his best-selling books – there remained, during the making of the Anthology TV series, a fantastic private debate as to whether or not John really did receive a vision about a man appearing on a flaming pie.

The dispute fascinated Paul, and one morning in February 1996, while out horse-riding, his musings about song lyrics caused him to recall the phrase “flaming pie”. With what he now admits to being a “mischievous” gleam in his eye, he quickly wrote the entire set of verses and chorus, which fitted perfectly with some funky riffs he and Jeff Lynne had evolved days earlier while waiting to overdub guitars on to ‘Souvenir’. With lyric and music fashioned, ‘Flaming Pie’ was recorded quickly – for, entirely appropriately, Paul suggested that the song be taped with the speed that the Beatles often worked, cutting three songs in a day. Setting themselves a four hour deadline, the track came together with relative ease, Paul singing live to his own piano accompaniment (something rarely done in these days of expansive multi-tracking) with Jeff Lynne on guitar, before adding drums and bass and then more guitars and harmony vocals.

Months later, with his collection of songs complete, Paul dismissed Calico Skies, The Song We Were Singing and Souvenir as possibilities and, finding its comedic element coming nicely unto him, had the vision to title his new album Flaming Pie.

 

I am a bit behind and can"t really add what everyone has written about the tracks.
When Flaming Pie came out i was in 7th heaven. What a record! And i still have that feeling.
The Song We Where Singing 9/10
The World Tonight 9/10
If you Wanna 7/10
Somedays 10/10
Young Boy 9/10
Calico Skies 10/10
Flaming Pie 8/10

 

Calico Skies - I've little to add all of the previous comments. Here lovely vocal melodies combine with poignant lyrics and heartfelt vocals to produce one of the best acoustic tracks of his career - solo or otherwise. Had this appeared on Revolver or The White Album then it'd be probably be one of his most well-known and lauded songs. It's nice to see that some other artists have recognised its quality and recorded excellent covers of it. Really, it'd be difficult to record a poor cover of this good a song.

I'm going to give it 4.5/5, as, despite it's greatness, it isn't quite my favourite of his acoustic tracks on this album.

 

Calico Skies: 5/5

Ah sweet release. This song just floats off into the warm blue sky on a sunny day. George Martin produces this perfectly. And it’s perfectly instrumented and played. The perfect light touch. I guess you could say it's . . . perfect!


Flaming Pie: 3/5

Unfortunately this is a bit of a fluff piece for me. Absurd lyrics built around The Beatles’ naming mythology. Paul does well enough making this a piano track but there isn’t really much that stands out here. It is energetic. That’s for sure.

 

Flaming Pie.
Love it. Love it. Love it. Great guitar work. Great vocal. Great lyrics too."Cut my toes off to spite my feet." Absurd, but kind of genius in a way. That little piano riff thing he does too. Amazing. Gives me Lady Madonna/Little Woman Love vibes. He can write a piano rocker as good as anyone. Not only does it refer back to his Beatles past and the inspiration he gained from the Anthology, but it also gives us a taste of the great work he would do in Run Devil Run. Again, I love it.

 

Calico Skies 4.5/5

"Blackbird" territory here. It's amazing how Paul can create great melodies on the acoustic guitar. But my favourite acoustic guitar track on this album is yet to come!

Flaming Pie 4/5

This sounds like a piano driven song John could have written for Ringo back in '73/'74. Very beatlesque all the way. I like the tempo changes and the prominent drums during the guitar solo.

 

I think think there's been more gushing on this thread about Flaming Pie than any Paul album yet.

Is this everyone's favorite Paul album?

Or are you all just happy to get out of the 80s?









Hot! Flaming Pie promo items

Polo Shirt






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Neon Sign






Stamper





Zippo Lighter

 

I' ve got a feeling you like this song...

 

Just a little...

 

If You Wanna

A road trip rocker song with great vocals and a wonderful guitar work by Paul and Steve Miller. The lyrics are simple but effective, repetitive but hypnotic complemented with a good melody.

Lyrics:

If you wanna
If you wanna
If you wanna love me again
I'll take you for a ride in my Cadillac
He'll be in the front, we'll be in the back

When you're ready
Let me know
I'll be waiting
To make arrangements for the trip
To make arrangements for the trip
To make arrangements for the trip

And if you wanna
If you wanna
If you wanna do it again
I'll take you to the coast for a holiday
You can be my guest
You can let me pay-yeah

When you're ready
Well, let me know
I'll be waiting
To make arrangements for the trip
To make arrangements for the trip
To make arrangements for the trip
Whenever you're ready

When you want to love me
This is what you need
To be thinking of me
When you plant the seed of love

When you're ready
Let me know
I'll be waiting
To make arrangements for the trip
To make arrangements for the trip
To make arrangements for the trip

Well, if you want to love me
This is what you need
To be thinking of me
When you plant the seed
The seed of love

If you wanna
If you wanna
If you wanna love me again
I'll take you for a ride in my Cadillac
He'll be in the front, we'll be in the back

When you're ready
Let me know
I'll be waiting
To make arrangements for the trip
To make arrangements for the trip
To make arrangements for the trip


Credits:

Produced by Paul McCartney
Written by Paul McCartney
12 String Acoustic Guitar, Bass Guitar, Drums, Electric Guitar, Lead Vocal by Paul McCartney
Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Harmony Vocal by Steve Miller
Engineered by Geoff Emerick, Jon Jacobs
Assistant engineer: Keith Smith
Label: Parlophone
Release Date: May 5, 1997
Recorded at Hog Hill Studio, Rye, UK
Length: 4:36 minutes

Paul's own words:

From Flaming Pie Radio Special:

Paul About 'If You Wanna' (at 35:17):

 

Flaming Pie - another winner for me! The "old man" vocals add a reflective quality to the gusto with which his sings the lyrics. The highlights are the piano fills after each bridge / chorus, the guitar solo and also the lyrics themselves. Even the most Jeff Lynne-esque drum sound on the album doesn't distract from this song, which rounds what might well be his best Side 1 since at least Band On The Run.

I'll give it 4/5.

 

This is from video installation during the exhibition of Paul McCartney's Paintings at "Kunstforum Lÿz" in Siegen, Germany from May 1 to July 25, 1999, and it's his weirdest work...

 

FLAMING PIE - The second best rocker on the album, and it's great for live performance. I like it.

 

To my ears, Flaming Pie is not so different from Nod Your Head. Then why is the former so great and the latter - not so great? I think Paul & Jeff were a real simpatico team. Sorry they haven't recorded together since. Too bad John wasn't around for this one. Can't you hear him adding vocal harmonies?

Rumor has it that Flaming Pie may be the next album released in the Archive Series. While I would love to finish up the 70's albums, I wouldn't mind having all of the Ooobu Joobu (or however you spell it) stuff gathered together.

 

Speaking of the famous flaming pie story....
Did I read somewhere that Yoko actually believes the story that a man on a flaming pie appeared to Lennon and said : " You are Beatles .With an 'a'. "
I'm sure McCartney mentioned this belief of Yoko's in some interview. He also said he tried to tell her otherwise but she wasn't having it.

 

I had already written up a little overview of how I got into 'Flaming Pie' when I saw your 'Father's Day' comment. Yeah who would think those 2 couldn't be funny the writing was so bad.
----
FLAMING PIE

Finally we’ve come to the first album that I purchased right away. By 1997, I finally was infatuated with music in general and ready for a new album from Paul after the amazing Beatles Anthology. I didn’t know when he’d come out with something until I one night, I took my girlfriend to see the movie “Father’s Day” with Robin Williams and Billy Crystal and and I started hearing a song that sounded like McCartney. I’m not paying attention to the movie much and I see now it was a total flop but my ears perked up and it turned out being “Young Boy”. Then I heard another one – by then I knew all the Paul singles so when I heard “The World Tonight”, I realized he must have snuck an album out when I wasn’t looking.

I must have gotten the album a week after and I immediately thought it was the type of album that would be called a comeback and it was hyped that way. But it felt great and fresh and I finally had a new McCartney album in my hands after watching all the old Wings films. Now it was my turn to experience what it was like to have one of these released out to the world and the talk surrounding it. I had a lot of fun with the album and the girlfriend.

Still think it’s a great album, I remember playing this for my mom too at the time and it turned her opinion of Paul some. She liked his Beatles stuff but not any solo stuff except “Band On The Run” the song. “Beautiful Night” was one of her favorite songs from anybody and recently, “Somedays”. I think the maturity is a big difference and the clean sound with plenty of acoustics and a nice minimal Jeff Lynne production. I don’t mind Lynne’s production generally anyway. Great lyrics here and there too.

(Could have sworn I heard "Junk" in its instrumental version from 'Unplugged' in that movie but I could be wrong. Not on the soundtrack.)

 

I see the Flaming Pie album as the antithesis of Flowers In The Dirt. Flowers had really killer singles but the rest of the album strikes me as kinda meh. By way of contrast, the singles from Pie seem rather insubstantial. However, the album itself is filled with solid songs from beginning to end. It was wonderful to see that Macca could still deliver the goods like this at this point in his career.

 

I enjoy Flaming Pie, but there's too much filler for me.

1. The Song We Were Singing - 3/5
2. "The World Tonight" 4/5
3. "If You Wanna" - 3/5
4. "Somedays" – 3/5
5. "Young Boy" - 3/5
6. "Calico Skies" – 3/5
7. "Flaming Pie" – 4/5
8. "Heaven on a Sunday" 4/5
9. "Used to Be Bad" - 3/5
10. "Souvenir" – 5/5
11. "Little Willow" 2/5
12. "Really Love You" 2/5
13. "Beautiful Night" 5/5
14. "Great Day" 5/5

 

NEXT ONE
Heaven on a Sunday
Another great song. It s a multilayered composition that’s both uplifting and melancholic at the same time. I like everything about this song including the guitar “duell”between Paul and James. Linda’s backing vocals add some extra bitter-sweet touch to this brilliant song
Another one that shows Paul at the top of his game

Paul’s son, 19 year old James makes his first guitar appearance on disc. Paul said, “I played the acoustic stuff and left the Young Turk to play the hot electric stuff.” When proud Dad suggested formal lesson, James’s response “Well, you didn’t, Dad.” echoed down the decades rom 1950’s Liverpool. Like father, like son. Or, as Paul puts it, “The saga continues…”

“I was out sailing in a small boat; just me, the sail, the wind. Peaceful, like Heaven On A Sunday. That opening line led me through the song, I though it’d be nice to play with James, my son, so we traded phrases. Lovely to do.”

Paul McCartney, in Club Sandwitch n°82, Summer 1997:
This is the most recent of all the songs on Flaming Pie, written shortly before I finished the album. I like to sail when I’m on holiday: just me, the wind and a little boat – a Sunfish. I was having a very relaxing time, and this is when I came up with the song. The opening line led me through. I like the idea of heaven being busy in the week and peaceful on a Sunday, and I like mentioning Devon – there are a few places called Devon in America, plus the original here in England.

James is getting really good on guitar, and though we’ve not played together in a band for 20 years we are simpatico because we’ve lived together for almost 20 – he’s 19 now. It didn’t take long and he wasn’t too nervous: I played some, he answered it, I played some more, he answered some more, and he came up with some really good phrases. It was very satisfying. People have always asked me “Are any of your kids musical?” And yes, they all are. James got a guitar when he was 9 or 10. He loves it. He’s good enough to be on this album on merit.

Mark Lewisohn, in Club Sandwitch n°82, Summer 1997:

Paul was sailing his boat in America in August 1996 when ‘Heaven On A Sunday’ – the most recent composition on Flaming Pie – materialised. Enjoying the notion of the celestial city being busy in the week but peaceful on a Sunday, he developed the tune from there, its relaxed ambience reflecting his holiday mood.

The song was recorded on the McCartneys’ return to England, and the middle section was endowed with a bluesy feel on the spur of the moment. The guitar solos are shared by Paul and his 19 year old son James, making his first disc appearance with the instrument. “I played the simpler stuff and left the Young Turk to play the hot electric stuff,” says Paul. James McCartney’s talent on the guitar is the result of some ten years’ practice and home-development while listening to the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd, rather than formal lessons. When his father suggested these, James’s response, “Well you didn’t, Dad”, echoed down the decades from 1950s Liverpool.

Like father, like son, indeed. Or, as Paul puts it, “The saga continues…”

 

"Heaven on a Sunday" is another good one.

The acoustic numbers are the highlights in this album.

 

Somedays

A beautiful acoustic song. The performance is sublime with a melodic and intimate melancholic sound, great vocals and lyrics and a fantastic orchestration by George Martin.

Lyrics:

Somedays I look
I look at you with eyes that shine
Somedays I don't
I don't believe that you are mine

It's no good asking me what time of day it is
Who won the match or scored the goal
Somedays I look
Somedays I look into your soul

Sometimes I laugh
I laugh to think how young we were
Sometimes it's hard
It's hard to know which way to turn

Don't ask me where I found that picture on the wall
How much it cost or what it's worth
Sometimes I laugh
I laugh to think how young we were

We don't need anybody else to tell us what is real
Inside each one of us is love
And we know how it feels

Somedays I cry
I cry for those who live in fear
Somedays I don't
I don't remember why I'm here

No use reminding me, it's just the way it is
Who ran the race or came in first
Somedays I cry
I cry for those who fear the worst

We don't need anybody else to tell us what is real
Inside each one of us is love
And we know how it feels

Somedays I look
I look at you with eyes that shine
Somedays I don't
I don't believe that you are mine

It's no good asking me what time of day it is
Who won the match or scored the goal
Somedays I look
Somedays I look into your soul


Credits:

Produced by Paul McCartney
Written by Paul McCartney
Acoustic Guitar, Bass Guitar, Spanish Guitar, Lead Vocal by Paul McCartney
Orchestration by George Martin
Conducted by David Snell
Violins by Keith Pascoe, Jackie Hartley, Rita Manning, Peter Manning
Celli by Christian Kampen, Martin Loveday
Violas by Peter Lale, Levine Andrade
Alto Flute by Andy Findan
Flutes by Martin Parry, Michael Cox
Percussion by Gary Kettel
Harp by Skalla Kanga
Oboe/cor anglais by Roy Carter
Engineered by Geoff Emerick, Jon Jacobs
Assistant engineer: Keith Smith
Label: Parlophone
Release Date: May 5, 1997
Recorded at Hog Hill Studio, Rye, UK / AIR Lyndhusrt Studio
Length: 4:11 minutes

Paul's own words:

From Flaming Pie Radio Special:

Paul About 'Somedays' (at 30:38):