Paul's next album wasn't a song of records, but a special 30-minute "episode" of Oobu Joobu. Oobu Joobu was a radio show that Paul did in the early '90s, and the format was part commercial for his recent albums, part sharing new music he was working on, part reminiscing about old favorites and then covering them, part goofy stuff (my favorite: Linda's "Cook of the House" segments, where she talked about how to cook simple things like garlic bread), and part interviews on subjects important to Paul. The album, Ooobu Joobu: Ecology, is mainly that last part, with Paul talking to people about the environment and how we should all be vegetarians.
I also got detoured into listening to the first nine Ooobu Joobu episodes. Fun! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHPNcaBxqTo
Okay, time to get back on track, because we're up to Paul's next album, Flaming Pie, and here, again, is where I came in. It's now 1997 -- albums are starting to come out few and far between for our boys -- and I'm 26. By then, I was a big fan of the Band on the Run Wings album, but somehow the rest of Paul's solo career had managed to stay largely off my Radar. And then this came out.
As ambitious as some earlier albums, Flaming Pie starts off with "The Songs We Were Singing," signaling that we are not in pop song territory anymore and are about to be treated to something more mythic, if not epic. The narrator of "Songs We Were Singing" could live in any century, perhaps a bard of old, about to share stories through song. "The World Tonight" is a companion song, a song about time, but also about something as simple as seeing someone special to you and how that makes you feel. Following that is a step back, though, with "If You Wanna," a much weaker version of "Sitting in the Backseat of My Car." Then we're back on the right track again with "Somedays," a beautiful slow song that is itself a companion song to "The World Tonight," jumping onto the same theme of seeing someone special to you. "Young Boy" is not as strong until it gets to its chorus, which makes up for a lot. Just as we start rocking on "Young Boy," we slide back into soft and beautiful with "Calico Skies." Again, time is a theme of the song, a strong enough theme to carry the whole song, so the sudden anti-war theme that appears in the middle feels tacked on and unnecessary. And all of that is just preamble to "Flaming Pie," Paul's best attempt yet to get into John's head when he was writing nonsense lyrics (though Paul still can't help himself and explains the song in the bridge). And that's just side one!
Side 2 starts gently with the gently moving "Heaven on a Sunday" that ends with one of Paul's many great romantic lines repeated over and over. "Used to Be Bad" is a fun jam piece that shakes things up just before "Souvenir." If most Paul songs are gems (and I would definitely agree with that assessment), then "Souvenir" is one of the diamonds -- a flawless, powerful song like nothing we'd ever heard before. Then we're back to soft and gentle with "Little Willow," a touching tribute song so good Paul has dedicated it to people twice. Then another jam piece, not quite as good as "Used to Be Bad," but "Really Love You" is just another set-up song for the album's other masterpiece -- that's right, this album has two masterpieces -- "Beautiful Night" (that Ringo is backing Paul on both songs makes "Really Love You" feel even more like a warm-up session for "Beautiful Night"). "Beautiful Night" tricks you; it starts out and you think, "oh, it's another gently moving song," but halfway through -- like "Let It Be," it kicks into high gear and becomes the hardest rocker on the album. And then, like pudding dessert at the end of a great dinner, you get "Great Day" at the end, the perfect title to follow "Beautiful Night," and...well, somedays pudding for dessert might seem like a good idea, and other days it doesn't.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPrBJnK751Q
Ringo and His Third All-Starr Band comes next, but I haven't been able to find a recording of this one anywhere, so I have to skip over it. And that takes us back to Paul, with "Standing Stone."
If you've been reading all these posts, you know I mentioned "Standing Stone" earlier, when talking about how disappointing Paul's attempt at opera was. But it's been a few years since then and Paul has put the work into making his first orchestral classical music album perfect. This was perfect timing because, by '97, I was 26 and just starting to get into classical music. I bought the cassette of "Standing Stone" myself as soon as it came out and loved it, particularly the powerful beginning, where the music surges and ebbs, like choppy water before a storm. With this album, Paul proved that there was nothing he couldn't do brilliantly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQf_FL9rPLA&list=PLQVM4ld7LE3ktyd80mKgaevjnhLLH2rT9&index=2
Ringo continues to impress me, though only now looking back, and apparently the rest of the world wasn't really paying attention when he released "Vertical Man" either. It doesn't start off great, with "One" sounding like Ringo's version of George's "You" (in fact, the song would probably sound better had he replaced "one" with "you" everywhere it occurs in the song, but if he was plagiarizing his old mate, maybe he didn't want to be so obvious about it). "What in the World" is ...just okay, but then things start to explode with the hard rocker "Mindfield" (which, in fact, is a bit too heavy metal towards the end for my liking), and then this is followed up by "King of Broken Hearts." This is a completely new song and not the earlier country song with the same title, but this second act of plagiarism can be forgiven because this song is fantastic -- almost as beautiful as Ringo's masterpiece "Photograph," and probably belongs in any list of his top 5 songs (like "Photograph," George helped him on this song. Hmm...). After that we get a cool cover of "Love Me Do" bookending the title track "Vertical Man" with a cool cover of "Drift Away." "Drift Away" is an ensemble piece, highlighted by a long verse by Tom Petty that makes me wish Tom and Ringo had done much more together. Unfortunately, that's the last of the really good songs on this album, and I begin to understand why Ringo wasn't able to get more traction with this album when I listen to "La De Da," watch the video, and realize this was the song he thought would be a hit. Like too many songs on this album, it's unoriginal, this a country rock updating of Doris Day's "Que Sera Sera," which is even referenced in "La De Da" like its works cited page.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjAq3Nx3S14
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