#flaming pie

[sgtpeppers]

Paul McCartney in the In The World Tonight documentary for Flaming Pie, 1997.

[faultlessspills]

Could you share your thoughts on Flaming Pie? It’s an album so full of emotion, and many of the songs carry such a profound John influence. I think this has a very important connection to the Anthology project. As you mentioned before, Paul is always at his best when he feels John’s love.

Flaming Pie, my beloved!!! Thank you for the ask<3 I will absolutely share my thoughts, of which I have many.

To begin with, I think the connection you’ve identified between Flaming Pie and Anthology is incredibly significant. The album was released in 1997, immediately following Anthology, which was preceded by Paul’s Liverpool Oratorio. Imo, these projects seem to be indicative of a sustained period of retrospective return, or Paul’s persistent identity work in the wake of John’s death.

Anthology required Paul to revisit the formative structure of his creative life (the Lennon–McCartney dyad) in archival form. He was likely ready/willing/able to take on that project bc of his work on the Oratorio, which was an even more intimate exploration of personal history. I’ve written before about Paul’s poignant decision to include the last words ever spoken to John: Do you know who you are? In Flaming Pie, I suspect he’s approaching an answer to that question, and the answer is (surprise!) organized through time.

Throughout the album, Paul continuously looks backward in order to locate the self. The Song We Were Singing opens the album to an image of two people wandering through the intricacies of life in search of a cosmic solution— yet they always came back to the song. It’s epistemological: no matter how expansive the inquiry, meaning resolves at that shared creative origin. The past is not a closed chapter but a gravitational center, and that pull extends across the record. Somedays and Young Boy and Used To Be Bad and Souvenir all explicitly recall youth. They define the present self through temporal contrast and anchor reality in internal recognition.

What’s at stake in that contrast is not generic maturation, but relational formation. Paul looks back to determine what persists after rupture. If Lennon–McCartney was the formative structure of his selfhood, then the question isn’t simply “Who am I without you?” but “What of that structure survives you?” And the answer is, perhaps: more than one might think. The song is no longer materially shared, but it remains the axis around which Paul’s interiority organizes itself. John’s presence is no longer external, but it is still constitutive. Death did not shatter the mirror, bc the mirror lives in Paul, too.

The World Tonight articulates this sentiment really profoundly. I go back so far I’m in front of me operates as both discovery and declaration. It’s a temporal paradox, but it’s also a statement about mirroring. If Paul and John constituted one another, then going back into that formative bond is a return to the site of selfhood. And at least one early demo of the song includes a slightly different lyric: I go back so far, *he’s* in front of me. To go back was to encounter John, and the final version only deepens the encounter. “He’s” becomes “I’m.” I am he as you are he. What once stood opposite now stands within. To be “in front of me” is to recognize that the reflection has been absorbed— that John’s formative influence persists inside Paul’s present tense identity.

From here, the question expands. If the mirror has been internalized, what does that make the bond? Merely biographical? Or something destined, cosmically sanctioned? Calico Skies offers the most direct articulation of that possibility: It was written that I would love you. This language suggests that love is not coincidence or choice, but already inscribed, fated. The song is often (and understandably) read as an address to Linda, and it coheres beautifully on that register. That said, it is my opinion that the phrasing alludes to something more foundational. From the moment I opened my eyes foregrounds the emergence of the “I” itself, the emergence of consciousness, of selfhood. To claim that love was written from that first moment is to suggest a bond that was not merely part of Paul’s life story, but the beginning of Paul’s life.

Heaven on a Sunday shifts that inscription into suspension. Sunday is the day of resurrection; it is also symbolically inseparable from the sun— in Paul’s work, this motif is so very, very evocative of John, his Emperor of Eternity. The sun is constant, a fixed center around which everything else turns. In that light, we’ve been learning a song implies continuation— the shared song they were singing persists, changing but ongoing. The relationship itself is likened to a dream, hovering slightly outside linear time. Heaven is not atmospheric, but durational; the bond that was “written” at the opening of Paul’s eyes is reimagined under celestial conditions— sustained, constant, larger than life.

And this celestial imagery brings us, inevitably, to the title track. Under shooting stars from a purple sky, Paul returns to the Beatles’ most improbable, cosmic origin myth. The song is absurd, and absurdity is the point. Paul is neither solemn martyr nor second-fiddle to John Lennon; he still operates in the playful, surreal register they developed and inhabited together, their shared imaginative terrain. The vision may have been John’s, but Paul was never incidental to it— the vision couldn’t have existed without him, it was always reciprocal. The album is a recognition and reclamation; by going back so far that he stands in front of himself, Paul arrives at an answer to the question of identity. At least for a moment, he knows who he is: he’s the man on the flaming pie. Who else?

[eggshell-seas]

Has anybody else here ever posted about the similarities between Great Day from Flaming Pie and the transition between Ram On (Reprise) and Big Barn Bed... specifically "who's that coming 'round that corner, who's that coming 'round that bend" - it's almost an identical melody!!

And even just as an individual song in general it sounds like it could've fit in perfectly on Ram... the chords, the fingerpicking, the overall vibes, Linda's backing vocals, etc... anyways, just one of ten things today that has me going !!!!! wait a second !!!!!!!!!

[therealsaintscully]

I'm going to need five business days to recover from The Song We Were Singing (Home Recording)

Paul McCartney hiding lyrics about waking up from a dream in a songs so blatantly about John between the album version's lyrics and and one particular love that never runs away: Wake up from your dream, come and take the day You wanna look bright, but you don't know what to say Hold on to your love, hold on to the string she gives you Never runs away, never runs Never runs away, never runs Hang on to your hat while you make a move You wanna be bold, but there's nothing left to prove Go on and enjoy the love that is staring at you Never runs away, never runs Never runs away, never runs

[tavolgisvist]

Follow Me

Well, I don't even know maybe I'd better go to sleep…

You lift up my spirits You shine on my soul Whenever I'm empty You make me feel whole

(Follow Me, 2005, Chaos And Creation In The Backyard)

Opposites attract. I could calm him down, and he could fire me up. We could see things in each other that the other needed to be complete.

(Paul McCartney, The Lyrics, 2021)

You give me direction You show me the way You give me a reason To face every day <…> I can rely on you To guide me through Any situation You hold up a sign that reads, follow me

(Follow Me, 2005, Chaos And Creation In The Backyard)

There was a guy up on the platform with curly, blondish hair, wearing a chequered shirt-looking pretty good and quite fashionable - singing a song that I loved: the Del-Vikings ‘Come Go With Me’.

(PM, Anthology, 2001)

You hold up a sign that reads, follow me, follow me Down the track of loneliness Down the path of love Through the woods of heartache to the end On the shores of sorrow Where the waves of hope crash in The perfect place for me to find a friend

(Follow Me, 2005, Chaos And Creation In The Backyard)

I thought I saw your shadow in an old doorway But when I looked again I thought I made a big mistake, It was someone else, who looked a little like you, But now I know, ah ha ha, ain't no one like you. I'll tell you why I know, babe, Hey, 'cause I'm looking for you, looking for you, Yeah, I'm looking for you, That's all I do, that's all <…> Hey nah nah nah, let me tell you, baby, The earth ain't flat, I finally made the decision, and that is that. And now I know, there's only one place to be, You know where that place is, Yeah, for you to be with me.

(Looking For You, 1997, Flaming Pie)

At the end of the end It's the start of a journey To a much better place And this wasn't bad So a much better place Would have to be special No need to be sad

(The End Of The End, 2007, Memory Almost Full)

Q: There is a very beautiful song on your last record called ‘The End of The End’, where you talk about your own ending, and it goes: ‘It’s a start of a journey to a much better place’. You mean better than England? Paul: [laughs] It’s basically a start of a journey to France. Or Spain through France. Yeah, that’s what it is… It’s a much better place, Paris.

I can't find my love No matter how hard I try She's giving me the runaround And makes me wanna lay down and cry Come on back to me right now 'Cause you don't have to stay away I won't play no hide-and-seek It's not a game I wanna play

(Hunt You Down, 2018, Egypt Station)

I keep waking up when I'm trying to sleep I've been naked since I was born Born to follow you wherever you go But my problem is I never do know Where you're taking me, I don't have a clue I've been naked since I was born Save my soul and set it free Free to fly home There's a place I'm meant to be Back, back home

(Naked, 2018, Egypt Station)

When you lose someone dear you just wish someone could magic it all back again. And maybe there is some way, who knows, in the great beyond.

(Paul McCartney, 2003 interview for MOJO)

[nedison]

An animated retelling of John Lennon's Being A Short Diversion On The Dubious Origins Of Beatles recited by Bernard Hill, in character as John, from the 1985 TV special John Lennon: A Journey In The Life.

[lenetaylor]

Letter from Paul McCartney to Julian Lennon 1997

"A month ahead of the release of his new album, Paul sent just 200 'white label' vinyl advance copies of Flaming Pie to what he dubbed 'extremely groovy' people - and Julian was one of them. It arrived with a note dated April 14m 1997 and the personal handwritten message: 'I hope you'll enjoy this! Best regards from me and the family' [sic]"

Dear Julian, Please find enclosed a white label vinyl advance copy of my new album "Flaming Pie". Only 200 have been pressed and sent to *extremely groovy* people such as yourself. Linda and I hope it brings you a moment or two of joy. We also hope you have a record player - and if not, why not get one! Failing that, I understand that when warmed up it can be made into a rather attractive plant pot holder. Love, Paul [handwritten] I hope you'll enjoy this! Best personal regards from me and the family XXX Love from Linda

Scanned from Beatles Memorabilia: The Julian Lennon Collection, by Brian Southall and Julian Lennon, 2010

[king-of-the-birds]

Photographs taken by Linda for the flaming pie booklet