More Pie!

Tom Frangione sends along this wrapup of the extra “Flaming Pie” stuff floating around out there that he did for Joe Johnson’s BeatleBrunch …

 

Well, if the five CDs and two DVDs in the newly released Archive Collection edition of Paul McCartney’s 1997 masterpiece “Flaming Pie” left you hungry for more, you’re in luck … If you know where to look!

As has become practice when these beautiful deluxe editions are released, it pays to keep an eye on Sir Paul’s official website, www.paulmccartney.com  As of this writing, there’ve been three bonus tracks posted and available for download:

1. “Somedays”:the beautiful acoustic ballad, presented in stripped down fashion, without the orchestral backing
2. “Calico Skies”:the complete song, performed beside a campfire (don’t worry, those aren’t vinyl crackles!) as seen in the DVD “In The World Tonight”
3. “Beautiful Night”:the complete, six minute version of the song recorded with Phil Ramone and Billy Joel’s band in 1986. A shortened 4-minute version of this song is included in one of the “Oobu Joobu” spots on the “Flaming Pies” bonus disc in the box set.

Now, you’d think that’d be reward enough for the vigilant fans scouring the internet, but there’s one other track that was made available exclusively on rollingstone.com as part of the pre-release promotion for the new set. This time it’s an alternate instrumental version of the “Young Boy” B-side “Broomstick,” performed with Steve Miller.

Don’t worry … we’re not done yet. The next two are what detectives call “hiding in plain sight”.

Disc 2 of the box set ends with a home recording of the album’s original closer, “Great Day.” Or does it? Make sure you don’t eject the disc till the clock runs all the way down, and an additional 30-second instrumental of the song awaits.

Similarly, yet differently, the track list for Disc 3 shows a rude cassette version of “Heaven on a Sunday.” But, after some dead air comes an interesting minute and a half of Paul and Ringo vamping on the track “Beautiful Night.” Definitely worth the wait!

So, there’s at least six slices of additional pie out there for the ravenous. We’ll have to wait and see if any more get served up, but it’s worth pointing out that the DVDs contain loads of maddeningly short studio snippets of Paul demoing the album’s songs; but one — the title track — appears in complete form.

HEAT IT UP!

Tom Frangione