Riding Into Jaipur

Song facts

“Riding Into Jaipur” is a track from Paul McCartney’s 2001 album “Driving Rain“. 

Recorded 16th February 2001 onto 8-track analogue tape then loaded into Logic Audio for overdubs. Paul played Martin “Backpacker” acoustic guitar then overdubbed Hofner bass guitar and a vocal. Abe played Roland Handsonic with African drum samples. Rusty played tampura then overdubbed Gibson electric 12-string guitar. Gabe played piano. David overdubbed a synth.

From the liner notes of the album, and from paulmccartney.com

Making up a song is always a great pleasure, it doesn’t seem like hard work to me. ‘Riding To Jaipur’ – funnily enough the melody for this was written outside of India. I had a back-packing guitar, a little Martin travel guitar that is absolutely slimmed down to nothing and weighs sort of zero ounces. I had one of those that Linda had got me as a prezzie; and I took it when she and I went to The Maldives for a holiday. My particular back-packer – and I haven’t noticed this on other people’s – seems to have a bit of a sound on certain frets like a sitar, and because I was in the middle of The Indian Ocean, the two came together in that song. I didn’t have a title for the song, but when I went to India this year I took a train to Jaipur. It was a very exotic over-night train journey and I did some words that were in the same vein as that original melody. So those two things came together.

Paul McCartney – From “The Driving Rain interview” published on paulmccartney.com, November 2001

From Rebeat, November 12, 2004:

“Riding into Jaipur” holds significance in the Paul / Heather [Mills] story: Jaipur, India, is where McCartney bought Mills’ engagement ring. Guess he did choose love over heartbreak in the end.

Last updated on January 21, 2021

Lyrics