An article revisits how Paul McCartney, ever attentive to contemporary studio trends, brought in producers Trevor Horn and Stephen Lipson for a one-off session during the making of his 1989 album Flowers in the Dirt. The pair, celebrated for engineering Frankie Goes to Hollywood's chart-topping run at ZTT Records using cutting-edge synth technology, were invited to rework the track "Rough Ride" at McCartney's Hog Hill Mill studio in October 1987, but were given just two days rather than the months typically lavished on their productions.

McCartney later recalled telling Horn he had "this crazy little thing you won't like," and the pair mixed the track within two days. However, when Horn and Lipson returned with a more polished, synth-heavy version, McCartney felt it sounded too much like a "Paul Goes to Hollywood" pastiche and opted to release the original mix instead, meaning the alternate version has never been officially heard. The released "Rough Ride" still carries a heavily electronic sound, built on a Yamaha RX5 drum machine, TX802 tone generator and Roland MKS-70 synthesiser.