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Read the original blog post1.40pm
31 March 2008
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‘If You Wanna’ is the third song on Paul McCartney’s tenth solo album Flaming Pie.
The song was written during McCartney’s New World Tour towards the end of May 1993. See more…
We had a day off in Minneapolis when we were on tour. Linda was going off to do something and I stayed behind in the room and wrote a song on guitar. Recording wise, I used the same process as the other songs I did with Steve Miller: me on drums, Steve on guitar, both playing acoustic guitars, I did the vocals and produced Steve’s guitar stuff. This is the kind of song you might hear when you’re driving across the desert in America, Easy Rider country.
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5.18am
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline For years I’ve avoided ‘If You Wanna’ as it was one of the songs I hated when the album came out initially and then cared not for with the Archive reissue.
Came on when out and about and it’s not that bad; the guitar fills are pretty nice and Paul’s vocal is firm but casual, which fits the song.
Might listen to ‘Used To Be Bad’ the whole way thru one day. One day, best to take such matters slowly.
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
12.13am
26 January 2017
Offline I think it has an interesting cadence to it, but overall its a part of a first half of Flaming Pie that’s significantly weaker than the second side (aside from Used To Be Bad, i’d agree with mmm its the weakest point) of a great album.
"The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles!"
-Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues
"We could ride and surf together while our love would grow"
-Brian Wilson, Surfer Girl
1.46am
7 May 2017
Offline If You Wanna is far from the best songs on Flaming Pie , but all in all I like it a lot, especially for the guitar work (the acoustic and electronic work so well together) and the lyrics and vocals. I believe Flaming Pie is up there with his work from 1968-1969, just like Chaos And Creation In The Backyard is sort of the rebirth of his work from 1966. Often it’s the Beatles above anything else (which isn’t wrong of course) and their members are treated as if there were never again able to reach the same peak. But Flaming Pie to me shows, that the McCartney from 1997 is the same person and musical genius as the McCartney from 1969.
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10.06am
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline Paul was reliving the Beatles legacy thru the ‘Anthology’ for most of ‘Flaming Pie ‘ so it’s no surprise many find it to be a strong album (for me there are a few tracks I really dislike and I always remember Paul being heavily over-the-top smug when discussing ‘TWT’ which has completely ruined that track). The anticipation and reaction when the album was released was massive (seven months after ‘Anthology 3 ‘) which makes me wonder what would have happened if George or Ringo had put an album out nearer the time (Ringo released ‘Vertical Man’ 20 months and ‘La De Da’ got a lot of play on VH1 in the UK but it didn’t sell much).
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Rube"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
7.24pm
4 September 2019
Offline Flaming Pie is one of my very favorite McCartney albums, you can really feel that he had been reviewing his Beatle days with Anthology, and that it inspired him. But even so, wow it has a few stinkers on it. Used to Be Bad and Really Love You are both very weak, and If You Wanna and World Tonight are just okay IMO. Other than that, great album with some fantastic moments on it.
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sir walter raleigh, Into the Sky with Diamonds8.56pm
10 August 2011
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I’ve always really liked this album as well as Chaos.
“If You Wanna” might have influenced my choice of car a few years ago – just saying. I like the laid back mood and multiple-overdubbed guitar (or that what it sounds like).
“World Tonight” is surrealistically cool with funky chords.
Ironically, perhaps my least favorite song is “The Song We Were Singing” – the opening song.
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