Life is never easy, even in the sun

My college roommate, Aimee, used to tell a story about a visit to her friend Michele's house. You see, Aimee was born to Californian parents who fed her fruits, vegetables and mango chutney. Oh, and turkey dogs. Aimee liked turkey dogs just fine. They tasted like turkey dogs.

One day, not long after meeting Michele, Aimee was by her house after school. Michele comes from a long line of Kentuckians who drink their bourbon neat and know what burgoo is. Michele's mom cooked up some honest to goodness hot dogs for the girls. Aimee had one bite and suddenly realized what she'd been missing. A turkey dog is nice, but it's no hot dog.

This is how I feel about Driving Rain by Paul McCartney. I could mark all his Beatles work as my hot dog moment but I don't think that's really fair. I'd developed a certain tolerance for bad McCartney solo albums over the years. Victories were small and widely spaced and that was okay. They were turkey dogs (or in McCartney's case, not dogs). But last year McCartney released Chaos in Creation in the Backyard and it was a real life hot dog. Now, it's difficult to go back and listen to his recent solo work without thinking about the work he may have been capable of.

Driving Rain is an interesting album. It was first original songs McCartney released after the death of his wife, Linda. There's a sadness even to the poppy tunes that he'd never had before. It definitely has its moments. These days though, just buy Chaos and Creation and enjoy a real hot dog for once.

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Josh once again has a working blog so feel free to click that link over there and harass him. I also think I'm going to start a contest to come up with the name of the new blog he's bound to start in about 6 months when he gets sick of the one he has now. I vote for www.yesiampeeingonyou.com.