Driving Rain landed in 2001 as Paul's first full studio album of fresh material since Flaming Pie in 1997. He recorded and mixed it across two sessions totalling five weeks in February and June 2001 at The Henson Studios in Los Angeles. The initial two weeks in February brought together a band that had never met before, let alone played together. They cut 18 tracks from which the final album was shaped.
This record sounds nothing like anything Paul had done before. New sounds, new rhythms, new atmospheres everywhere. His exploration of unfamiliar territory produced one of his best works.
The Band and the Producer
Paul performed vocals, bass guitar, guitars, and piano across the album. Rusty Anderson handled guitars and backing vocals. Abe Loboriel Jnr played drums and percussion with backing vocals. Gabe Dixon contributed keyboards and backing vocals. His son James McCartney added percussion and guitar on select tracks. Ralph Morrison played violin on one song, and a string quartet of David Campbell, Matt Funes, Joel Derouin, and Larry Corbett appeared on another.
Paul tapped David Kahne to produce the record. Kahne had already worked with Tony Bennett and Sugar Ray. Paul's New York office supplied him with producer CDs to review during a six-hour drive north. Kahne's work stood out as what Paul wanted to make: "a little bit adventurous but not too pop."
The sessions ran civilised hours. Paul and the band worked 11:30 in the morning until 6:30, then left Kahne to work until 3 in the morning. Kahne described the process as completely spontaneous with no rehearsals. Paul brought songs in on acoustic guitar and the band learned them on the fly, the same way the Beatles recorded. "Ringo and George never really heard the songs before the Beatles recorded them," Kahne explained.
Personal Backdrop
The album reflects Linda's death and Paul's new relationship with Heather Mills, whom he got engaged to earlier in 2001. That context shaped the emotional landscape throughout.
Lonely Road (3'16)
Recorded 16th February 2001
Paul opens with mournful strains and the lyric: "I tried to get over you / I tried to find something new / But all I could do / Was fill my time / With thoughts of you." The song carries a stiff-upper-lip quality about perseverance. His sound toughens up and the track ends as a hymnlike ballad.
Paul revisited emotional terrain from Run Devil Run here, giving Lonely Road a bite that becomes a frenzied growl by the end. This could be his best new tune. A song worth hearing live.
From A Lover To A Friend (3'48)
Recorded 20th February 2001
This became the first single from Driving Rain. Though Lonely Road would have made an equally strong choice, From A Lover To A Friend captures something earnest and melancholic with hymnlike wonder tempered by anxiety. Paul originally wrote it for Tom Cruise's film Vanilla Sky.
The composition echoes Brian Wilson's Beach Boys classic God Only Knows. Many heard it as Paul's song to Linda about his new relationship with Heather. The lyric pleads: "From a lover to a friend, let me love again." Paul insists he didn't write it with that intent.
"It could have been subconscious," he said. "Only years later it was suggested 'Yesterday' could have been written about my dead mother."
She's Given Up Talking (4'57)
Recorded 17th February 2001
A strange song opening with acoustic guitar arpeggios. Slide guitar rushes in, reminiscent of Dave Gilmour's work, creating a heavy, obscured atmosphere. Particular and interesting throughout.
Paul explained the inspiration: "She's Given Up Talking was about someone I know whose kid had gone to school and wouldn't talk all day that she was in school. For a year she wouldn't talk at school and his idea of her giving up talking seemed like a good title to me. I wrote the song a couple of years ago when I was on holiday in Jamaica and remembered this story of this girl who wouldn't talk to the teachers or anything. I ended up thinking that was a pretty good strategy for school. I wish I'd have thought of that. Of course I would have just got caned, they were wise to that kind of shit, my school."
Driving Rain (3'27)
Recorded 27th February 2001
McCartney's bass-line percolates through this snappy title track, where Paul tackles getting over his wife's death and entering a new relationship with Heather Mills. He wrote it during the recording session in LA in February when it rained endlessly.
"We had this one day off while we were recording, and it rained a lot in February in L.A.," Paul recalled. "But we didn't mind because it was still nice. So I hired a little black Corvette, which is one of my little perks. I was enjoying myself driving around. Heather and I took off up the Pacific Coast Highway past Malibu in the rain. We got back to the studio and said, 'Wow, we had a great day yesterday.' So after this lovely day, this very free day, I was playing the piano in the evening. I kind of did this song, which was Driving Rain. I started off quite sort of low and ballady. By the time I got into the studio we started moving. I ended up singing it up the octave and it got a bit faster and we redid the drums. It's really nice. It's a bit of a driving song."
I Do (2'56)
Recorded 17th February 2001, mixed by David Leonard
Paul wrote this song during a vacation in Goa in January 2001 with Heather. "It was one of those 'if you only knew' songs, like just talking to someone," he said. "If you only knew, that it's OK from my side. It's like a communicative statement to someone. Whatever you think at any given time, remember this: I do. Like I may be goofing off but I wrote this song to say it's OK. That was another afternoon in Goa song. My three little Goaers. I started singing it low but then, as a vocal trick to kick the song along in the second verse, I found I could actually easily lift it an octave and a nice little moment happened that I like on this song, when I'm catching my breath in order to go up the octave. It's a little signature thing that happened which I like on this song."