“Let’s try and jump it”: The Beatles album that set the bar for Paul McCartney
Most artists don’t like dwelling on the past. It might be good for a moment to relive those old glory days, but the more someone starts looking at those times as their absolute peak, the more they will want to relive those days and make the same old schlock in hopes that fans will still like it. While Paul McCartney could always dive into The Beatles’ catalogue when he wanted to, he thought one album set a standard he wanted to reach throughout his solo career.
Before Macca had become comfortable on his own, though, some of his best moments were based around running away from the Fab Four’s shadow. None of them liked the idea of being that same old band forever, and when looking at where everyone went by the end of it, they were interested in doing other things, whether that was Ringo Starr making country records or George Harrison chanting the names of the Lord on All Things Must Pass.
While John Lennon had a goal in mind by taking on political issues, McCartney spent the lion’s share of his career trying to make the catchiest tune he could think of. RAM already gave him a chance to get weird, but throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s, he was writing the rulebook on how to be a great pop-rock act, whether that was making solid gold like ‘Band on the Run’ or making something as nauseatingly sweet as ‘Ebony and Ivory’.
There was a moment where things seemed to grind to a halt in the 1990s, though, but The Beatles Anthology led to him getting back in touch with his roots. He knew he had created some great stuff with his old mates, so when he started working on Flaming Pie with Jeff Lynne behind the board, the reference point was always Rubber Soul.
Since most of the band’s early albums were about making a collection of songs, this was the first to truly gel as an album statement, with each song playing off the other. While Macca wasn’t looking to make a carbon copy of his work, he felt that what that record captured was at least attainable.
When discussing how he approached the songs, he felt that Rubber Soul gave him a good target, saying, “I would play, say, Rubber Soul. I would play it in its entirety, just taking it in like a fan. And realise, that’s where we are up to. There’s the bar. Now, let’s try and jump it. Flaming Pie had an element of that.”
While McCartney may have looked at Rubber Soul in the same manner when trying to best it with his old mates, Flaming Pie infuses some of that sentiment there as well. Regardless of how many times he makes whimsical tunes, tracks like ‘Calico Skies’ and ‘Beautiful Night’ tap into that same tuneful energy that his old records had, especially towards the end of the latter track when Ringo Starr’s voice joins him on backing vocals.
Then again, when McCartney talks about this competition with himself, it’s not only about Rubber Soul. It’s about going through every record and making sure that he’s come up with something that satisfies him even more than his last record did.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Beatles Newsletter
All the latest stories about The Beatles from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.