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Read the original blog post1.44pm
31 March 2008
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‘Riding To Vanity Fair’ is the ninth song on Paul McCartney’s 13th solo album Chaos And Creation In The Backyard.
McCartney initially conceived it as an up-tempo song, but producer Nigel Godrich persuaded him to make changes. See more…
It was a very different song when I brought it to Nigel and during one moment on the sessions he said, ‘I really don’t like that song.’ It really brought me down. It was one of our crisis moments. I was about to do what I thought was a great bass part and he says, ‘I really don’t like that song.’ Thanks! It totally did me in. I couldn’t do any more work that day. I had to go home. So we had to have a few discussions about that: ‘Come on, Nige, what’s going on, man?’ ‘Well, I don’t like it too much.’ One day I went into the studio and just changed this and that, we made it a song that we both liked. And because we did that, I think it’s a really good song now, with a bit of depth to it.
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1.48pm
31 March 2008
Offline This song is a masterpiece. I don’t think it’s too well-known, but if it was on one of McCartney’s better-selling albums it’d get the attention it deserves.
The following people thank Joe for this post:
RichardCan buy me love! Please consider supporting the Beatles Bible on Amazon
Or buy my paperback/ebook! Riding So High – The Beatles and Drugs
Don't miss The Bowie Bible – now live!
5.02pm
6 May 2018
Offline Joe said
This song is a masterpiece. I don’t think it’s too well-known, but if it was on one of McCartney’s better-selling albums it’d get the attention it deserves.
Yes, I think this a great song too. 
I wonder who the song is about. Paul commented: “It wasn’t Heather [his wife at that time]. It was about some other relationship that I had, and this was my therapeutic way of releasing myself.” OTOH, on another occasion, Paul remarked that this song is “not about any particular person, it’s about anybody who’s like that“. 
If the song is about a specific person, some suggestions online are:
* Geoff Baker – it was rumoured that Baker was writing a “tell-all” book about Paul, and Paul felt betrayed
* Peter Brown
And in the end
The love you take is equal to the love you make
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