THE NEXT DELUXE/REMASTERED ALBUM FROM PAUL
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oobu24 wrote:
5th-beatle wrote:
I believe you'll both receive your packages no later than next week... with a little luck, maybe even this week!
I hope so.
Mine shows as being in Doraville, GA and supposed to be delivered by 9pm today!
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Nancy R wrote:
oobu24 wrote:
5th-beatle wrote:
I believe you'll both receive your packages no later than next week... with a little luck, maybe even this week!
I hope so.
Mine shows as being in Doraville, GA and supposed to be delivered by 9pm today!
Mine was shipped on Thursday & it's out for delivery; perhaps today I'll receive it. I understand post office/couriers have been very busy. After all we are in a pandemic.
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5th-beatle wrote:
My tracking code now says "9 AUG, 7:31:00 AM. Parcel Data Received, Shipment In Route To US Export Warehouse".
Got an update from uDiscover: "11 AUG, 10:46:32 AM. Parcel Order Scanned".
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My deluxe edition arrived around 3:30 pm today! Yeay!
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Nancy R wrote:
My deluxe edition arrived around 3:30 pm today! Yeay!
YAY! Mine finally says delivery on Thursday!
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My Review of the 2020 Flaming Pie Reissue/Remaster
I've been enjoying the 2020 Flaming Pie (FP) Remaster very much and I think it is very well done. Some of the best FP songs in this reissue actually sound better (pretty hard to do) and some of the weaker songs sound significantly improved which is what you want a remaster to do. Personally I still think that FP is one of Paul's best Solo Albums... easily in the top #3rd of Paul's Best Post Beatles' albums. Conversely, I don't think that FP quite makes it to Paul's best Top 4 or 5 (Just my opinion)
Here is my Track by Track FP Review (10 being the hightest) :
1. The Song We Were Singing (7) - I distinctly remember really liking this opening track the 1st couple of times I listened to FP back in 1997. On the other hand, the song never grew with me which many good to great Macca songs tend to do. The very limited lyrics (just 2 verses) keep getting repeated throughout the entire song. Also, the more I heard it on this Remaster, I found myself not in love with Paul's vocals throughout the chorus... "But we always come back to the song we were singing" parts that continue from beginning to end. From listening to the 2nd Disc Remaster, I preferred Paul's lower register voice on the home recording version. You can see from the this demo that Paul tried to add some lyrics to the song but he obviously wasn't ever able to flush them out. In summary, the song is not a "dud" but it's not a great opener either in my opinion. To me, it's too lenghy (almost 4 minutes) relative to its continuous repetition. A song like "Great Day" for example has a similar lyric structure but is a much better listen at a 2 minute length. I wished Paul and Jeff Lynne had shortened this opening track.
2. The World Tonight (9) - Probably the best rocker on FP. Good lyrics/vocals by Paul and great overall production by Jeff Lynne. Good guitar and tempo changes throughout and I like the way it ends with the piano and bass guitar highlighted.
3. If You Wanna (8.5) - Good underrated "driving" type pop/rocker on FP. I especially like the "When You want to love me" chorus part of the song with Steve Miller's bluesy guitar licks. A tad too long at 4:37 in length but a good album track.
4. Somedays (10) - One of the 1st great tracks on FP in my opinion and I was a little surprised that some of the Reissue FP Reviews didn't even mention "Somedays". Great orchestration by George Martin and I love the lyrics. Love the lyric "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". I think Paul was thinking of Linda with that line. I also like Paul's solo acoustic guitar in the midde. All in all, it is criminal that this song isn't known much better.
5. Yound Boy (10) - easily the best Paul/Steve Miller collaboration on FP. Great Pop-Rocker with great Paul-Steve harmonies. Love Steve Miller's bluesy guitar solo in the middle and Paul's drumming. I especailly like the way "Young Boy" slows down in tempo towards the end. The Remaster on this track puts the song on an even higher level in my opinion.
6. Calico Skies (10) - This little acoustical gem is one of Paul's best Solo songs ever in my opinion. Put this on a Beatles's album, it would be considered a classic. Great singing and lyrics from Paul. Also love the last verse..."Long live all of us crazy soldiers"part.
7. Flaming Pie (8) - title track that goes way back to one of John Lennon's early quotes about the Beatles. Creative nonsense type lyrics done in a Paul pounding piano jam stye. Good production by Jeff Lynne and nice electric guitars. Thankfully a jam type Paul song that is moderate in length (only 2:31).
8. Heaven on a Sunday (10) - Another example where this FP Remaster makes this peaceful, sailing type Paul song even better. Great production by Paul and Jeff Lynne. Love the jazzy melody and background vocals throughout the song. Great dueling guitar solo's from Paul and his son James in the middle. Finally I love the way this track ends where Paul and Jeff bring back the Father and Son's dueling guitars and the song's title.
9. Used to Be Bad (8) - fairly good album track in my opinion with Paul and Steve Miller exchanging vocals. Very distintive bluesy guitar riffs and vocals from Steve Miller. A tad too long but still a good bluesy jam style song by Paul and Steve.
To be continued...
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(Continued Flaming Pie Reissue/Remaster Review)
10. Souvenir (10) - Great Soulful style vocals from Paul. Great guitars and tempo changes throughout "Souvenir" and I love the Beatleque ending. Another Paul song that should be much better known.
11. Little Willow (10) - Another song that if it was on a Beatle album, it would be considered a classic and universally known like Blackbird. Great lyrics/vocals by Paul and great production by Jeff Lynne. Love the line..."Sleep little willow, peace gonna follow, time will heal your wounds. Grow to the heavens, now and forever, always came too soon". Who said that Paul couldn't write lyrics?
12. Really Love You (6) - I admit that the Remastering of FP really helps this jam style Paul/Ringo song. I think back in 1997 when I first heard it, I gave it like a "4" at best. At 5 plus minutes it is still way too long but at least it has multiple changes and I like Paul's vocals much better in the Remaster. Not a fan of the ab-lib lyrics and jam songs in general and as I said, Paul does a fairly good job on the vocals. One of the tracks on FP that I would have replace for a better alternative. How many times I have said that about a Paul album? I"ll add a post about the "extra songs" during the FP sessions.
13. Beautiful Night (10). Best piano ballad on FP in my opinion and even though it is a long song (5 plus minutes), I love the numerous changes. Love Paul's vocals and lyrics in general. Love the "Things can go wrong, things can go right, things can go bump in the dead of the night...so let me be there , let me be there, let me be there in the dead of the night" where you think that Paul is probably thinking about Linda. Finally I love the speed up "ending" where Ringo joins Paul in the vocals and George Martin does a great job on the orchestration. Love the faster violins during the ending too.
14. Great Day (10) - Finally another song where the Remaster in my opinion greatly improves the sound to this simple acoustic short song. Great singing/lyrics and I Love Linda's harmonies with Paul in the "And it won't be long, oh no parts".
As I said, FP is a great album. The Best FP songs really make this album. I counted 8 songs that I rated a 10 which may be the most 10's I've personally given to any one album. At the same time, there were some down sides to FP. It has a lack of rockers in my opinion and there are too many bluesy jam type of songs that gives it a sameness type of quality. The reason I don't rank it as high as some of early Paul albums...e. g. Band of the Run, Venus and Mars and Ram is that you don't see/feel the "raw" Paul. But then again, Paul was a little older by the time he made FP. I also don't think it is as consistent as Chaos and Creation and diverse as Egypt Station and Tug of War for that matter. I realize that many are going to a disagree with me on these opinions and that is ok. Ranking albums is very subjective and I respect eveyone's opinions. In summary and as I said, FP is a great Paul Solo album on the whole in my opinion.
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Flaming Pie opened at #74 on Billboard 200. Meh. Pretty sure it won't go any higher, still not bad for a 23 year old album. And BJ, great review; patiently waiting for your grades on the additional bonus songs on the second CD. Only complaints on your review of FP are IMO The Song We Were Singing is an ELEVEN; and sorry but Somedays just is a SIX for me. Too slow, too generic for my taste.
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I need to go back and listen to the home recordings for Somedays and Beautiful Night (which were both recorded before Linda's cancer diagnosis) and then listen to the final cuts. Did he add lines to the songs? It says for Somedays that recording began 1 November 1995, which was still prior to her diagnosis. (?)
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wingsoverkc wrote:
Flaming Pie opened at #74 on Billboard 200. Meh. Pretty sure it won't go any higher, still not bad for a 23 year old album. And BJ, great review; patiently waiting for your grades on the additional bonus songs on the second CD. Only complaints on your review of FP are IMO The Song We Were Singing is an ELEVEN; and sorry but Somedays just is a SIX for me. Too slow, too generic for my taste.
Wingsoverkc,
Thanks for the Billboard info on Flaming Pie. I've been looking for it so it just must have come out. You are right...#74 for a 23 year old album is pretty good but for a massive Paul fan (like you) I was hoping for a little higher based on the publicity FP has received as a Reissue/Remaster. Not sure some of the great songs on FP (e.g. Young Boy, Beautiful Night, Little Willow, Calico Skies etc) will receive more radio airplay via all the various published charts. Such a shame that those 4 songs in particular aren't more known to the public in general.
We will have to agree to disagree on "The Song We Were Singing" and "Somedays". The 2 songs from the Target 2nd Disc that I only wished would have been on the original FP are "Whole Life" and "Love Come Tumbling Down". I agree with you that both songs (replacing "Really Love You", and "Used to be Bad") would have made FP a much stronger album. I love "Whole Life" and with a little 'flushing out" would have given FP the addlitional rocker, punch and rawness that it needed.
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Because I finally got away from playing physical CD's (many new cars don't even have CD players) I've been hearing my Paul McCartney music mostly via streaming services like Spotify and Pandora. For that reason I've only heard a couple of Flaming Pie tracks consistently over the last few years.
Specifically, I've been listening to Spotify's "This Is Paul McCartney" the most because they only play Paul's "Post Beatles" discography. While this "playlist" is superb, the only 2 Flaming Pie tracks they consistently play is Beautiful Night and Little Willow.
Since purchasing the Flamin Pie Archive Collection (the Remastered Original CD plus the special Home Recording and Acoustic tracks as well as some of the extra tracks recorded during the FP Sessions, I have been hearing FP non stop over the last 2 weeks.
I knew all the songs from the original album but it had been years since I heard them in full from beginning to end. I have the say that the songs that have surprised me the most with this "remaster" are:
Young Boy - While I always liked this song a lot, I have never heard Young Boy on the radio and I hadn't heard the song in years. The sound quality on the remaster is amazing. I especially hear better the superb vocal harmonies between both Paul and Steve Miller. I also really like Steve's bluesy guitar work as well as Paul's drums. It was like I had totally forgot this song.
Heaven On a Sunday - I also didn't remember how good the production was on this track. Again I loved the harmonies and how good Paul and his son James did the duel guitar parts. The song from beginning to end is one of the best on the whole album. Again, I always liked the song but forgot how good it has aged.
Great Day - I always thought that "Great Day" was a nice but simple little acoustic song but nothing special. But after hearing the remaster, I now think it is much more. It is short but in those 2 lovely minutes the singing and playing by Paul again is amazing. On top of this, I can better hear Linda harmonizing beautifully with her Husband. Linda's vocals on "Great Day" are very underrated and were a big part of Wings and Paul's Solo Career.
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oobu24 wrote:
Mine is black, not blue. Is anyone's blue?
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Nancy R wrote:
oobu24 wrote:
Mine is black, not blue. Is anyone's blue?
It's a blueish black. Those pics look slightly different from each other depending on the lighting. I'd say mine is a navy blue.
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oobu24 wrote:
Nancy R wrote:
oobu24 wrote:
Mine is black, not blue. Is anyone's blue?
It's a blueish black. Those pics look slightly different from each other depending on the lighting. I'd say mine is a navy blue.
I swear, mine is black. How weird. This is black, right? Bedspread is blue.
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Mine is a navy blue.
Have been listening to it on my old Jensen 4 speaker boom box. Taking it around my house as I work. Got inspired by Paul!!
Love that you can hear Linda commenting and her singing harmony was so wonderful, it brought tears to my eyes. I have always loved her singing
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Nancy R wrote:
oobu24 wrote:
Nancy R wrote:
oobu24 wrote:
Mine is black, not blue. Is anyone's blue?
It's a blueish black. Those pics look slightly different from each other depending on the lighting. I'd say mine is a navy blue.
I swear, mine is black. How weird. This is black, right? Bedspread is blue.
I think the color changes a tiny bit in briter light. It is a very dark navy.
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oobu24 wrote:
Nancy R wrote:
oobu24 wrote:
Nancy R wrote:
oobu24 wrote:
Mine is black, not blue. Is anyone's blue?
It's a blueish black. Those pics look slightly different from each other depending on the lighting. I'd say mine is a navy blue.
I swear, mine is black. How weird. This is black, right? Bedspread is blue.
I think the color changes a tiny bit in briter light. It is a very dark navy.
I had all the lights on in the room. It's black.
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OMG!! Please stop. Please.
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I hear ya, Wings, seems like we have to read the same posts over and over in here and it gets aggravating. Repeated over and over. I guess that's what you meant? Also an irritant is having to struggle at times to get "newest" to show up in the box. That's an aggravating feature, to me. I have to press it several times sometimes.
While I'm complaining, all these pricey reissues, sometimes that bugs me. But I realized they draw renewed attention to and appreciation of Paul's excellent songwriting skills. To the songs. He deserves that. It's an extended and deepened experience with a lot of extra songs for fans who don't mind shelling out the bucks. And fairly often the sound of the album is greatly intensified and improved, from what I've read. Things are done to it technically to heighten the listening experience, and all that jazz. Plus that Egypt Station suitcase did look real cute, and special.
