McCartney’s One on One tour opens
Perhaps the most surprising element of the set list for Paul McCartney’s opening show of his new tour in Fresno last night, was that “A Hard Day’s Night” opened the ball. Primarily known as a John Lennon composition, Paul always sang the middle eight, but now he had a chance to sing the whole song. He also performed Love Me Do, which he dedicated to the late Sir George Martin. Another surprise was that The Long and Winding Road, a mainstay at McCartney’s concerts was not performed. For the rest of the set list, click here. An amateur film from the concert is available at YouTube.
I was hoping to see a bit more of his "solo career", especially with Pure McCartney coming soon.
So sad, he sounds terrible.
The set list is VERY disappointing – I am very tempted to sell the ticket I bought for the Düsseldorf concert.
He needs to stop , but he won't . He's trying to go out like Nelson Eddy did , Mr. Eddy was stricken on stage and died a few hours later in the early hours of March 6, 1967, at the age of 65. McCartney thinks he can outrun Father time , ands in the meantime his reputation is now taking a hit . There is no doubt he was the most talented of the four Beatles , but his voice is truly gone.. He can't sing anymore, he croaks…. And It truly pains me , Paul has been my favorite since the very first time I heard of the Beatles in 1963…
Pretty sure he is simply enjoying himself and has no interest in retiring, even if some weird offshoot group of fans thinks he should silence himself and quit making music. I'm sure he has no regard for Beatles fans that feel he should be silent. His shows still sell up with the biggest and best shows of newer younger artists. If someone finds his older age voice so offensive, one could always stop purposely clicking on things to hear it. That would be better than silencing an artist, yeah? What a bunch of nonsense. There are all kinds of songwriting artists with WAY worse voices than Sir Paul. I think some fans get confused and think their opinion holds more importance than it really does. Go get your own music career, and we'll judge you against McCartney. Maybe there is more to see in him than just that one thing you are focusing on.
Listening to that video… His voice is only getting worse. Such a pity… Just shows you can't keep it your voice forever. But he does what makes him truly happy so I'm not saying for him to stop. I haven't seen him in concert (I was 6 when he last came to Sydney in 93). He still sells and would still be an amazing night. Would rather see him than a Beatles cover band any day of the week.
He's great to see live. I saw him in '93 and his voice was croaky that night too, that long ago, but it was a totally great show and worth it just being in the same room with him. He was in really excellent voice when I saw him in 2002. He probably has vocal nodes from all the rock and roll screaming he's done and doesn't fancy the surgery. The thing you notice about being in the crowd is the incredible connection and how much fun he's having. It's a fun night for sure. I think it's cool he's doing "In Spite Of All The Danger"
I've seen him perform 3 times over the past 8 years. Yeah, his voice is not what it used to be. But I have to say I was shocked at how GOOD his voice was just last year in Stockholm. Others attending the show with me agreed. He often used vibrato and his voice was strong and clear, seemed almost like he's started taking singing lessons. And come on, how many performers, especially his age, can pull off a 2+ hour show without a break?
My one critique about McCartney's shows, as much as I love Let It Be, Hey Jude, Live and Let Die, and the Abbey Road Medley, (and I do realize that some fans would revolt against if he dropped them from the set list) I really think he has a strong enough catalogue that he can easily refresh his climax at the end of the show. I'm sure it's a difficult spot to be in; How can you BE McCartney in concert and not sing Hey Jude. A majority of fans would die of a stroke if he didn't play it. I guess that's just the trappings of being a very popular artist. Expectation cuts both ways. He'd have to cut ties with the majority of fans that WANT the greatest hits every show, and that won't happen. And understandably so. The downside is that there is never an element of surprise in his climax. And it's so funny for me, because there are very few things that I love more than the Abbey Road medley and Hey Jude.
And that being said about his climax, he does play a ton of material in his set list that can hardly be considered just the Greatest Hits. He actually is doing quite well in picking album cuts that were not chart hits, although some will debate endlessly over which other album cuts he might choose from. Considering that he COULD simply be playing the Beatles 1 album and the Wings Greatest collection, his album cut choices are actually a pretty significant part of his set list. I count 14, not counting the new stuff.
Letting Go
Temporary Secretary
Let Me Roll It
I've Got A Feeling
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five
Here There and Everywhere
In Spite Of All The Danger
You Wont See Me
Blackbird
The Fool On The Hill
Here Today
Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite
Obladi Oblada
Birthday
"New" tracks.
Letting Go – single
Temporary Secretary – 12" single
Obladi Oblada – latter day single in some countries, single hit by Marmelade in 1968
Birthday – single by Paul McCartney in 1990
Yeah Roger, you're totally correct. They were released as singles, but they aren't among the casual-listener Greatest Hits (We Can Work It Out, Hey Jude, Jet, Live And Let Die) in any way. That was the only point I was trying to make with that list, that he could be filling a show just with #1s and top 20 singles, but that he does have a significant portion seems to be picks off that easier path.
After some thought, maybe it's not so much about hits and non-hits, and is more about just changing up the show more. He's been doing the same big closers at the end since forever, but if you look at Rock Show in '76, he was not relying on Hey Jude and Let It Be to end performances. It can be done any way he wants to, and fans would adjust. I think the only reason that everyone comes expecting Hey Jude these days is because he's been keeping it in every show for 25+ years, but it wasn't always that way. He has so much material to play with in this regard, it just seems a little stale sometimes that the big finales are always the same tried and tested singalongs, as much as I love those recordings.
I haven't listened to any of the concert yet..but I read alot about how his voice isn't what it used to be…and he should retire…blah blah blah. I heard this during his last concert and the one before that. I don't know if it's a news flash or what, but mccartney got old!! You think he's going to sound like he did in his 20's..30's…or even 40's? I just saw him last year and he sounded great. I've heard some concerts in 89 that sound worse. We can't expect his voice to sound like it did when he recorded maybe I'm amazed compared to now. We can't expect him to sound pristine at every concert.
It always seemed to me that his voice was weaker after John died. I'm sure there's no significance in that, but his voice seemed very strong on Back To The Egg and it's noticeably thinner on Tug Of War. Regardless, in the video linked to in this article, that isn't just a guy who got old, that's a guy with a voice problem who should be resting his voice rather than trying to sing for a couple of hours. I mean, it's not just his singing that's affected – his speaking voice is gone. Maybe that's just a cold or something; maybe it'll be better other nights. All I know is that on that night he shouldn't have been singing. I'm sure he's doing it because he enjoys it. He doesn't need a pension; maybe the long-term welfare of his voice figures low on his priorities. Maybe he's right to see it that way. I don't know. It's certainly not for me to tell him to stop. But for me it's sad to hear him sounding like that. And anyone who thinks I shouldn't click on things I don't like should have all their McCartney recordings confiscated and be forced to listen to just that video for the rest of their lives.
Why should anyone have their CDs confiscated, and how does that apply to you clicking on things you don't like? The only thing I've taken exception to in this entire discussion was an earlier poster who made their opinion clear that Paul McCartney should stop performing, not to rest a sore throat, but instead because he was trying to die of old age on stage like Nelson Eddy, and was trying to outrun father time, which would clearly be an offensive to any artist. If it bothers you, why line up for it? I find that a reasonable question to a pretty unreasonable comment.
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This is rock and roll folks, not Pavarotti. Remember how Luciano was pretty much drummed out of the business after singing one bad note in a show.
I still hear more people saying how overwhelmed they were after seeing one of Paul's shows. How it was the greatest concert they've ever seen.