2011 on the run tour

[chris]

first my review of paul's wrigley field appearance...

let me tell you something honest. i can go on and on about how great his voice is...but the truth is after years of touring it is just a wee bit worse for wear. after watching his recent concert dvd the space within us, i thought...his voice can't hit the notes. good thing he has such an amazing band to help him perform these songs, both instrumentally and vocally, he does get by with a little help. so natrurally, i was a little concerned that his voice would be even less effective this time around. my concerns were completely unwarrented.

his voice was not top notch for a 69 year old. it was just plain old top notch. he sounded as good here as he did in the back to the us tour, which i never...ever..expected. the croud soaked up every song, story (and he was most talkative this evening). the sound system was as pristine as any i'd heard before. the band, as usual, rocked hard. and they continue to evolve as well. subtle changes in solos and even tempos suggest the band really doesn't play a song in consecutive tours the same way. i like that. rock and roll is a living, breathing entity. it should come with surprises. and in this case it did.

he flubbed a lyric or two. which for me is always welcome as it means you are truly watching a live event. no canned vocals. juniors farm was amazing. let em in was completely unexpected. the night before sounded as if he smuggled in 1965 vocals. i will was a beaut. i may not get that one out of my head for a while. the only hiccup (if i had to name one) was the transition from a day in the life (are you kidding me?) to give peace a chance. and there were extended jams on more than a few songs. this is what a live rock show is all about.

and he spoke. a lot. again, another staple of live music storytelling. much of this i heard before. but that didn't seem to slow my enthusiasm. he spoke of jimi hendrix playing sgt pepper two days after it was released. he spoke of jimi "bending" his guitar out of tune, then putting a hand on his brow to block out the lights to look at the audience and ask, is eric out there? he spoke of finnaly meeting the russians (who, as it turns out, were just like us, he said) pres putin told him the first record he bought was love me do. another russian dignitary said he learned english to beatles records. he spoke of him and george learning classical guitar, and thru flubbing it, he came up with blackbird.

listen. i've seen hundreds of concerts in my time. many of them great. and i've seen paul more times than i can remember. he looks great. he sounded great. his band does whatever they have to do to make sure the song gets provided with whatever it needs that night. and i saw this show with my whole family. this is a family show, kids. and at nearly 3 hours, it will give us something to talk about for years to come.

if you get a chance to see a living legend, please do so. the set may be one we have seen multiple times before. but there is something just a wee bit unique about each and every one of them. because, after all, it is rock and roll.

[chris]

chicago sun times review aug 1, 2011

Paul McCartney lives it up with a little friendly help at Wrigley Field

By THOMAS CONNER Pop Music Critic/tconner@suntimes.com July 31, 2011 11:32PM

PAUL MCCARTNEY
 
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

? 8 tonight
 
? Wrigley Field, 1060 W. Addison
 
? $29.50-$250
 
? (800) THE-CUBS; tickets.com

Paul McCartney began his concert Sunday night at Chicago’s Wrigley Field, his first of two at the ballpark this week, with the jaunty Beatles song “Hello, Goodbye.” This is just the latest of Sir Paul’s long and winding tours — the Up and Coming Tour blended right into this current On the Run Tour — and there seems to be no sign that the man would ever dream of actually saying goodbye.
 
The concert, which includes more than 30 songs and lasts more than 21/2 hours, features most of the Beatles, Wings and solo chestnuts you can think of — except “When I’m 64,” of course, which is now moot. McCartney, 69, clearly is still needed, fed and far from that song’s cozy retirement of knitting and gardening.
 
In fact, in the August edition of Britain’s Mojo magazine, the former Beatle relays an anecdote about a former manager who had the gall to suggest that McCartney, then 50, consider putting his feet up. “If I’m really enjoying this, why retire?” says Macca. “So I decided against it, and got rid of him. I wonder what he thinks today. Perhaps that he was right, but hopefully not.”
 
The manager was wrong, of course. It’s good to have McCartney still out there bashing through shows with this much unbridled spirit. Sunday’s concert was, like many McCartney shows, mostly refreshing, even if you’ve seen this same shtick from him numerous times. God knows he doesn’t need to be, but he’s still touring because he obviously is still enjoying it — and his joy, however scripted it may be, is infectious.
 
Sunday night found McCartney — in his first Chicago show since 2005 — quite chatty and loose, telling stories about Jimi Hendrix and Russian politicians and reacting to a lot of signs held up by adoring fans (including one seeking a job: “I’m a Priest! I’d Love to Do Your Wedding!”).
 
“Is that you screaming?” he asked, looming over either side of the stage on two video screens with remarkable resolution. “It’s like the first time we came here. You couldn’t hear anything for all the screaming.” So, of course, more screaming. “I always say that, ‘cause I really love to hear it.”
 
Backed by four strong players, including powerful and personable drummer Abe Laboriel Jr., McCartney added extra muscle to several songs, especially “Jet,” the bluesy lurch of “Let Me Roll It” (concluding in a wild, tortured solo by Mac himself), the great “Sing the Changes” and the full-bore blast of “Back in the U.S.S.R.” (yet another institution he’s outlived).
 
McCartney is so engaged in his music, no wonder he loves it so. Especially at the piano, he seems utterly in the moment, conscious of the words during even a trifle like “Let ’Em In” and selling the song’s subtle humor with careful timing.
 
As infectious as his joy may be, though, it’s also pretty exhausting. In that same Mojo interview, McCartney said something else: “People say to me, ‘You work so hard.’ We don’t work hard, we play music — we don’t work music. It sounds simplistic but it’s really true. It’s not like going into an office.”
 
On that point, I might quibble. Because as great as McCartney is and as worthy as his catalog remains — his whole catalog, even the often unjustly bypassed recent solo albums — a marathon McCartney concert occasionally does feel like a bit of work. The to-do list is very long. It’s quickly apparent, as it was Sunday, that we’re not going home until we’ve ticked off every Beatles and Wings highlight, and until we’ve blasted the inevitable pyro for “Live and Let Die” and nah-nah’d our way through the entirety of “Hey Jude.” Tributes to each of his late mates are also mandatory (Sunday it was “Here Today” for John Lennon, “Something” on ukulele for George Harrison), as are several unexpected cuts (he’s doing “The Night Before” for the first time). At nearly three hours a night, you do feel the need to punch a clock when filing out.
 
But McCartney’s a pretty good boss — a chef, really, preparing a long, stuffing menu every night, and most of his songs are treats. Even if we’re left a little woozy after gorging on the entire dessert case.

SET LIST

“Hello Goodbye”
“Junior’s Farm”
“All My Loving”
“Jet”
“Drive My Car”
“Sing the Changes”
“The Night Before”
“Let Me Roll It”
“Paperback Writer”
“Long and Winding Road”
“Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five”
“Let ’Em In”
“Maybe I’m Amazed”
“I’ve Just Seen a Face”
“I Will”
“Blackbird”
“Here Today”
“Dance Tonight”
“Mrs. Vandebilt”
“Eleanor Rigby”
“Something”
“Band on the Run”
“Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”
“Back in the U.S.S.R.”
“I’ve Got a Feeling”
“A Day in the Life” / “Give Peace A Chance”
“Let It Be”
“Live and Let Die”
“Hey Jude”
ENCORE
“Lady Madonna”
“Day Tripper”
“Get Back”
“Yesterday”
“Helter Skelter”
“Golden Slumbers”/”Carry That Weight”/”The End”

[chris]

chicago tribune review august 1. 2011

Concert review: Paul McCartney at Wrigley Field
Paul McCartney could not just let it be Sunday in the first of two concerts at Wrigley Field. He played for nearly three hours and broke into a James Brown-worthy sweat, wringing new rivers of passion from songs he’s played hundreds of times.

The takeaway moment for this concertgoer was “Maybe I’m Amazed,” with McCartney at the grand piano, bringing the song to a simmer and then taking it higher and harder, with some improbable falsetto notes. The beat at times suggested the sunniness of reggae, with rhythm guitar chopping against the melody, before a flourish of drums and McCartney's fevered vocal nearly tore the song loose from its foundation.

John Lennon It was indicative of the sure, confident rapport McCartney has developed with his touring band over the last decade, and the quintet ranged across five decades of songs like a really good bar band on a hot July night. There weren’t many gimmicks, and when there were McCartney made fun of them. A Guns N' Roses concert broke out in the middle of “Live and Let Die” with pyro and fireworks, prompting the bassist to crack jokes at the excess while waving away smoke like an annoyed landlord putting out a grease fire in an apartment.

It was a steamy night, but McCartney didn’t take any breaks, his bandmates pushing him hard. Drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. was, as usual, the key. In 2002 at the United Center he was jacking up the tempos and McCartney put on one of his best shows in recent memory. In 2005 at the same venue, things had settled into an easy cruise. But on Sunday, Laboriel was again making his larger-than-life presence felt, his giddy-up fills putting an atomic bounce in “Back in the U.S.S.R.,” “Day Tripper” and “Helter Skelter.”

McCartney switched among his trademark violin-shaped Hofner bass, acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, ukulele and piano. His band mutated around him into whatever shape the song needed: a ska beat in “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” a triple-guitar British Invasion attack in “All My Loving,” a soul slow-burn in “Let Me Roll It.” The vocal interplay of Laboriel, keyboardist Paul “Wix” Wickens, and guitarists Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray closely approximated the intricate Beatles counterpoint harmonies in songs such as “Paperback Writer,” “I Will” and “Hello, Goodbye.”

McCartney leaned heavily on decades-old classics, both from his most famous band (you know who) and the runner-up, Wings, whose 1973 album, “Band on the Run,” was showcased. Even "Mrs. Vandebilt" was rolled out, its pogo-inducing beat ratcheted up into a twice-as-fast coda.

The bassist played only a smattering of more recent material, bypassing some of his strongest work in decades perhaps because it wasn’t widely played on commercial radio. But what he did single out – particularly the anthemic “Sing the Changes” from his Fireman side project with the producer Youth and the buoyant mandolin-driven “Dance Tonight” – went over well enough to suggest he should include more from such recent albums as “Memory Almost Full” and “Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard.”

McCartney didn’t just settle for easy nostalgia, though. He could’ve played audience sing-alongs such as “Hey Jude” all night. But instead the moments of a totally engaged rocker in top form kept piling up: a Jimi Hendrix tribute on “Foxy Lady,” including a string-bending McCartney guitar solo; a scrappy and raucous “I’ve Got a Feeling,” which evoked the Beatles’ earliest garage-band days; and a thundering triptych of songs from “Abbey Road” to close things down, with three guitarists, including McCartney, swapping solos after Laboriel’s Ringo-esque drum fill.

In what has become a standard piece of his concerts in recent years, McCartney also paid tribute to his late Beatles bandmates John Lennon (in “Here Today”) and George Harrison (performing Harrison’s “Something” on ukulele). McCartney reminded himself as much as his audience to say “something nice” to those you love while they’re still around to appreciate it. There’s a second part to that advice, though. To receive the compliment, it needs to be earned. On Sunday, McCartney played like he wasn’t taking anything, including his place in rock history, for granted.

greg@gregkot.com

[2 of 3]

Chris....any time you want a career change, give rolling stone a call....that was the best review I've read in years. 

[Kylenz]

he spoke of jimi hendrix playing sgt pepper two days after it was released.

He told some Hendrix stories at Hyde Park when I saw him last year. I agree, his voice was really strong, on key, and he and the band ROCKED. I still remember 'Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five' had just as compelling a rockin' funky groove as Jamiroquai who held the stage the night before. 'Live and Let Die' out-rocked Guns n Roses' version, well they say you can't beat the original!

It's hard to believe he's going to be 70 next year, he's got so much energy, he's really showing up these other guys similar to his age who can't even be bothered singing songs in the same key anymore (Elton John, Robert Plant). The dude can still rock. 

[chris]

he's really showing up these other guys similar to his age who can't even be bothered singing songs in the same key anymore (Elton John, Robert Plant). The dude can still rock. 

it's crazy. i was expecting him to sound hoarse. expecting him to not even try to hit the high notes. but he excelled each time he tried. my daughter asked me if i thought he would sing maybe i'm amazed. and i replied honestly, i doubt it. too hard of a song to sing. he did sing it, and he nailed it. i think i actually gasped when i realized he started playing it.

[chris]

one more thing about this (and maybe all) concerts...and this goes back to another thread that 2 has started not that long ago...please, please enjoy the moment and put down your $#@&*?!% cell phones! what ever happened to just plain old remembering what you saw and heard? does everything have to be posted to facebook as proof?

[Kylenz]

one more thing about this (and maybe all) concerts...and this goes back to another thread that 2 has started not that long ago...please, please enjoy the moment and put down your $#@&*?!% cell phones! what ever happened to just plain old remembering what you saw and heard? does everything have to be posted to facebook as proof?

Well I'm not saying I disagree with you, but I think many of us in this age of portable recording devices, feel entitled to come away from the concert with a permanent record of it, not just a fading memory. I wrote a piece on this very subject on Facebook not long ago, I will copy and paste it here-

An idea to save the music industry - LIVE CONCERT VIDEOS FOR FANS!

Watching the Lady Gaga live in 'Sydney Monster Hall' show on tv now, and seeing all the people holding cameras up, I have a massive moneymaking idea for the music industry. My brother suggested this when we went to Pearl Jam a couple of years ago. The concert was beautifully filmed and edited on the fly with multiple cameras and put on the twin big screens, so the people in the back could get just as immersive an experience as the people in the front. He said to me "why not make a dvd of the show so we all have the option of going away buying a copy, so we have a permanent memento".

It makes perfect sense. For an industry in trouble, the tens of thousands that attend concerts, to rapidly make available the concert in full, with full soundboard audio and in high definition - at a price of course - it would ultimately save the industry. Think of when you visit a theme park, and you can buy a photograph of yourself on the rides, along with vouchers to download the digital copy online. What if you could walk away from a concert with a full high definition disc in your hand? Or you could go online the next day with a prepaid code and download the concert directly onto your hard drive, say as a 1080p mp4 file.

Let's face it, people take their cameras to the concert because they want to come away with a lasting memory that they've already paid good money for. It can get tiring holding up a camera the whole time, the audio can get distorted, imagine if you could simply go to the concert and enjoy the occasion and simply rock out to it and boogie down, knowing that you will have the option of having the entire concert on video later on. Imagine the millions of dollars the industry could make - way beyond the potential profits of a cd. This is an age where we want to capture all those good times. We carry so many portable devices with us for doing just that.

Unfortunately, the greed of the record companies will continue to be their downfall. It's 'their way or the highway'. It's the wrong way. People are still prepared to pay for music, but it's time the industry thought outside the box - which will never happen. There are money-making opportunities with insanely huge potential rewards. The potential to revolutionise and reinvigorate the industry. However their fear of losing control will never allow them to relinquish that proverbial grip. Pearl Jam were already in trouble with their record company for allowing their fans to obtain audio recordings of each concert they attended. They had the right idea. But of course, they soon put a stop to it.

I had my camera with me when I saw Paul in Hyde Park. It records in HD. I had a 32GB SD card and a 16GB SD card for backup, plenty of spare lithium ion batteries fully-charged - more than enough to film the entire show. I didn't know what I was going to do. If you record it, you put all your effort into trying to film it properly and miss the experience of the concert itself. You also get a very tired arm from holding it high above everyone else in the crowd. I ended up filming a couple of songs in full, 'Ram On/'Something' and 'Dance Tonight', also took a couple of reasonably good pics (I was close to the front of the stage) and decided to simply soak up the rest of the concert with my camera in my pocket. Every time I got the camera out, I felt like I missed a part of my once in a lifetime opportunity to see Paul. Yet, to not film it is also a missed opportunity to keep those memories forever. I'm glad that plenty of other people put the concert up on YouTube though.. very grateful.

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails enourages his fans to bring their cameras and cellphones etc with them. A concert video up on YouTube gives the artist the maximum exposure possible. The reason record companies forbid this sort of thing has nothing to do with copyright violation. It's more about control. Greed and control.

[2 of 3]

Something new-ish(live anyway)

[2 of 3]

The Word



Come and Get It

[chris]

i've been on a monster rubber soul trip lately...(matter of fact, i believe at least one phase of the beatles career is always in fashion...i am currently digging on the middle beatles)...anywho, been listening to the word over and over in my car. love that bassline.

haven't done that since i was in high school...pressing repeat again and again.

[2 of 3]

I always assumed The Word was a Lennon song..mostly. Good to hear it 

[Kylenz]

I always assumed The Word was a Lennon song..mostly. Good to hear it 

Thanks for posting it, I loved it. Dare I say it, even better than the Rubber Soul version with John on lead vocal!

Amazing to hear Come And Get It too. Sounded just the same as when Paul recorded his demo for Badfinger. Though I think Abe didn't play the drum fills as well as Paul did on that original demo! But Abe did a great job on those fills in The Word.

[mervap]

This is from Wikipedia, but Paul said something similar in his autobiography "Many Years From Now".


The song was co-written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. According to Lennon, it was written together but it was "mostly mine". They wrote it after smoking marijuana, something they hadn't done before in a composing session, which from McCartney's perspective (opposite to Lennon's), "got in the way of songwriting". Paul on the subject:

“ We smoked a bit of pot, then we wrote out a multicolored lyric sheet, the first time we'd ever done that. We normally didn't smoke when we were working. It got in the way of songwriting because it would just cloud your mind up — "Oh, shit, what are we doing?" It's better to be straight. But we did this multicolor thing.

I don't mind Paul doing tunes John wrote, or mostly wrote...they are great tunes and a part of history. They need to be played live...

[2 of 3]

Thanks for all the info my friends.    I've been Karaoke nuts the last few weeks(I don't know why!)and poor lampie has had to suffer through listening to me(along with the neighbourhood dogs) Anyway, I found this guy...pretty neat.