10 Great Paul McCartney Solo Songs You Need To Listen To Right Now
3. Too Much Rain (Chaos And Creation In The Backyard - 2005)
Something you realise as a Paul McCartney fan is that he loves using rain as a metaphor. Seriously, there’s usually at least one song about rain on every one of his albums.
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard is an excellent name for an album and continued Paul’s excellent run of albums from Flaming Pie onwards. 'Jenny Wren', 'Friends To Go' and 'Riding to Vanity Fair' stick out as some of the album’s best, but the best of the bunch on this elaborately-titled record is 'Too Much Rain'.
The song uses wet weather as a metaphor for adversity in life, inspired, according to Paul, by his second wife Heather Mills’ personal struggles. As a man who has experienced his fair share of sadness in his life, this song is a brutally honest insight into McCartney's soul and perhaps gives a clue as to how he has managed to live a long, happy and successful life, even when it seemed like he would follow many of his contemporaries into the darkness.
Although the rain metaphor had been exhausted and then some by this point, it’s still a very sweet song, with McCartney’s lyrics coming through crisp and clear over a simple backing of piano and acoustic guitar. Oh, Paul played all the instruments on this record as well, by the way. Some people are just too talented, aren’t they?