Is Paul McCartney an oldies act

Mrjinks, I acknowledge my oversight, I paid more attention to the actual list of songs and the word never.

I appreciate that you had never heard those songs before, but for me I don't want to shell out my money to hear some deep obscure Beatle song that isn't even one of their best, when there's fantastic #1 hits that have never been performed.

Yes I am picky when it comes to my money, and I'm not spending it to see yet another Beatle heavy show. It's going to have to be much much more balanced for me.

 

Was "Birthday" the first single from the 89/90 tour album?

I could have sworn it was the 2nd single...


I'm probably just thinking "All My Trails" was the first single because
I was completely SHOCKED when he released it at all...

ONE song play ONE night on the 89 European tour (Milan) and it ends up
being a single !!!!!

Anyone ever see an interview where Paul explained that choice ("All
My Trails") ?????

I'm familiar with several versions of "All My Trials" but I have no clue
if Paul considered any of them influential...

I know Elvis Presley used to sing it on stage - but his version is
quite bombastic.

I have a real nice version by The New York Rock and Roll Ensemble
(a late 60s band with Michael Kamen in it) that has an arrangement
fairly similar to Paul's.

I think I also have a version by Peter and Gordon.

I think the song lists "traditional" as the writer's credit.



The more I think about it, I'm in agreement that "Birthday" was the
first single, then "All My Trials"...

Was "All My Trials" on a UK version of the Tripping album ?

I never liked the fact that there were two albums (the regular
two disc version and the "highlights" version) and I seem to
recall there was a 3rd version if you considered other territories.

 

All My Trials appeared on the UK version of the Highlights edition. In a contemporary interview Macca explained that he pulled his original choice - Long and Winding Road - and replaced it with AMT because there was much unrest about changes to the UK National Health Service and he felt that AMT well-expressed his feelings about it. It was put out with a video showing footage of hospitals etc. A political single. From Macca. How unusual.

I think the discussion about how much variety McCartney injects into his set lists still misses the point of this thread: that Macca is relying entirely on 30-40 year old songs rather than populate his sets with new stuff. (Take Paul Weller, for example: he still refuses to play Jam material because he wants to remain a valid contemporary musical force and he'd rather play smaller gigs to a reduced audience that sticks with him because they like what he's doing now. I'm stating a preference, merely pointing out a different approach). McCartney, by dint of his reliance on his Beatles material for the majority of his setlist (regardless of how often he shuffles the material around), is fairly and squarely admitting he's an oldies act. Even adding in more Wings material wouldn't alter that fact.

Now, if he went out on tour playing material from his last four or five albums (something he hasn't done since Wings), I'd say he putting his money where his artistic mouth is.

I just think he accepts that he has two audiences: one that still wants to hear new music from him, and one that doesn't. He makes his money from the one that doesn't.

 

Interesting - I'd never heard that. I just remember the shock when visiting my local import shop and seeing the single - one I didn't even know was coming at the time. "Put it There" took the place of "Trials" on the US edition of that album, though a somewhat more limited vinyl version (record club only?) of Highlights does feature "Trials" on it.

I agree with your point. Early on in this thread I asked how Paul M. would be considered less of an oldies act if he were to focus on his 20 & 30 year old tunes, instead of his 40 year old tunes. I do have to be an argumentative jerk once more though, in regards to your Paul W. point. He started playing some Jam songs again several years ago. My one and only Weller gig was in 2005 and he played "In The Crowd", "Tales From the Riverbank", "That's Entertainment", "Town Called Malice" and even a Style Council number...

They certainly don't dominate the shows the way Macca's Beatle numbers do, but he does play 'em.

 

Mrjinks: point taken about Weller. I'm certainly no fan of his - I only know of his penchant for ignoring Jam songs through a friend who's a big fan (of Weller, not me!).

Toptentwist: you're spot on with your analysis. He seems to just drop his previous album like a hot potato. It's something which, I think, goes to perpetuate the misconception that his solo stuff is rank. I mean, if the man himself drops an album entirely once he's promoted it, it does give the impression that even he thinks it's crap. Of course, it could also be that he just wants to play something else, but it isn't the impression he gives. Even if he just kept a song or two, say if My Brave Face had been kept in in '93, or Fine Line. At least it would be acknowledgement by the man himself that the song (and by association the album) hadn't been entirely dismissed.

It would also, quite naturally, provide a bit more breadth to his set list.

I'll still see him if he tours the UK (because, at this stage in the game, I'd be cutting my nose off to spite my face if I didn't) but it would be despite his setlist not because of it. Put it this way: I travelled to Paris in 04 JUST TO SEE HELTER SKELTER.

 

As I think I've said before in these discussions, it should be pointed out that when it really counted for Paul to stick to his new guns and play new material -- i.e. in the years immediately following the Beatles -- he did it, to a far greater extent than he needed to (just read one of those early Wings setlists).

 

Yes he did need to play more Wings than Beatles in the days right after the break up. He wanted to establish a new identity and go in a new direction and I'm so glad he did.

All the Wings shows were some of the best of his life, not only for the music, but also because technology allowed him to really put on a groundbreaking show! Wings in 76 were just simply awesome!!

 

Problem for Paul is that his show has been on worldwide media many times in the past few years and it's almost exactly the same set of songs whether he's playing in a club to 200 people or in Rome to 250,000.
I think there's no way for him to take out 'Hey Jude' at this stage but he really ought to get creative with everything else about the show ahead of the media-exhaustion he's headed for.

Several shows, at intervals, have shown the way...the guest star involvements could be planned in throughout the forthcoming tour.

Many have suggested playing a whole album live and this could be ideal for the smaller 'secret' gigs strand he does on occasion, when it's an opportunity to test and develop in close contact with an audience.

Lots of things ARE being tried within the Macca live show but they're happening in slo-mo and that may increasingly become a drag whenever it's no longer the hardcore 'every tour' fans who get to see the same show every time. In the past year, all of his small shows made it to TV and we've had Glasto 04, Live 8 and all of his live DVDs broadcast as well.

Perhaps it's the amount of the time the band has together which is the problem. They DO tend to develop and reshape things well on tour and out of that work comes the 'special treats' like 'Too Many People' a couple of years back and 'Helter Skelter' before that.

Anyway, it's going to come to a head soon as I can see the band either expanding/extending into more close and perhaps democratic involvement or splitting if the press start yawning.
I hope he doesn't milk it until the latter becomes inevitable and he then repeats the cycle of 'no gigs/back to roots/live Beatles hits' again.

He has shot through the roof in terms of cred and respect in the past five years and there exists a huge opportunity to add a whole new extension to his 'church' now. What other 'oldies' act has its car parked in the section marked 'Young Turks'? For some people I met at Liverpool Sound, Macca is very much part of the scene that includes Kaiser Chiefs and Zutons and the other younger bands he's regularly been hanging with.

For Paul McCartney of Allerton, Liverpool, opportunity knocks!

 

I had a moment of clarity last night and realised that Paul is actually doing a Beatles with us. Just as The Fabs played almost the same set relentlessly for four years with only the odd change to include the latest hit single, it was still a steady diet of Twist and Shout, I Saw Her Standing There, Long Tall Sally etc.

The Beatles ignored Revolver on their final tour, it seems as though there are two Paul McCartneys. Concert Paul and Studio Paul and perhaps he's happy experimenting on disc but not happy to let people pay $150 and up for an experimental jam.

Basically, he's in "greatest hits" mode in concert, because that's what people expect. Give 'em the hits they know and love. His catalogue is so huge that no matter what he does, someone will have complaint.

However, he's really underselling his legacy by not catering to the fans who know more than Live and Let Die.

 

Guess you're never going to see him again. I'd love a more balanced show, too, but it's just not gonna happen...

 

Spot on, Paolo..
This is pretty much how Paul sees it.
He's very much the gig-goer even now and isn't going to be dissauded from his perception of the gig-punter as 'wanting a good night out with plenty of the hits'.
At the same time, it will make sense to Paul that, perhaps, there can be different strands of operation , just as with recording. It's really a question of how much time he PLANS in advance for live operations. Having become a bit of a tourmeister over the years, from the ground up, I believe that, for Paul, the prospect of a tour coming up is as ignorable these days as the prospect of his next cup of tea. It doesn't need to be prepared for his purposes. It'll ALWAYS be all right on the night because the base-level of his own and his band's skills is so high.

When he does go for 'doing a bit of a special', that also comes easy. He can pull a 'Helter Skelter' in and get ********s of press and acclaim out of it. Small moves in magnified circumstances.

What will get to him is an idea that sticks as something he'd like to try.
Then you'll see him reactivate the parts a tour-proposal for 677 dates would never awaken.
The guy is a complex beast and is likely to be motivated more by a single, well-honed carping sentence or phrase from a review than a torrent of media and fan abuse!!

I'm off to have a go.

lol

 

A few thoughts.... Paul has already done small college gigs (touring unannounced around the UK in 1971 with barely enough material to do so). He has done a secret gig.... The Cavern Show where he premiered his Run Devil Run album. He's gone on several television shows, Wogan and Parkinson in the UK, Unplugged and Up Close in the US to name but a few where he played new songs, oldies, yet-to-be relased songs and yep... Beatles songs. He has a new Fireman track coming out this week, a guitar concerto album later this year AND he'll be playing a huge gig in Kiev in less than 2 weeks.... not to mention a World Tour starting sometime later this year. An oldies act?? Please.

Maccafan makes a telling comment. He considers second rate Beatles material to be far worse than Wings or solo hits. Fair enough, but the majority of his fans obviously don't share this opinion. I think more people would rather hear an Oh Darling or What You're Doing for the first time than With A Little Luck or Pipes Of Peace. Just as adding I Will or Mother Nature's Son will garner more buzz than adding Letting Go or Somebody Who Cares. I understand it's all personal opinion, but there's more than a 30 year concert history to go by. Why would he change this most successful way of touring now? Because some people tire of the same core 10 songs? It's pointless to argue really. In 2005 he added 16 songs he had never played before and 4 that he played once in 1993. That's 20 out 30+ songs. Like I said, he will always play those 10 core songs, oh he might replace a Jet or Blackbird occasionally, but basically he will always play those standards. Ron

Tripping The Live Fantastic Singles:

US
Birthday/Good Day Sunshine Oct. 16 1990
UK
Birthday/Good Day Sunshine/PS Love Me Do/Let 'Em In Oct 8 1990
All My Trials/C Moon/Mull Of Kintyre Nov 26 1990
All My Trials/C Moon/Strawberry Fields Forever/Help/Give Peace A Chance Dec 3 1990

 

I'd hardly call that a "secret gig" considering that was why he did the "Parkinson" show in 1999. He gave the usual bland and pleasant interview with a song or two and then when asked about future plans in the last few minutes, Macca announced he was doing The Cavern, so the whole UK knew about it some time before the gig took place. He also plugged that album heavily on British TV - it was plain bizarre to see Ian Paice and David Gilmour on all manner of shows they'd never play on with their usual bands.

 

I think the problem with Paul's shows, is that at this point in his career, he is a legend. People go to see him, like the Stones, or when Frank Sinatra, was in his 70's. TO SEE a legend before he stops touring.Given The price of tickets, at these shows, they are attended, less by pure Macca, or music fans, then by people who want to say they were there, at the BIG event,
I think also there are many people who want to re-live their Beatle past.
Therefore Paul has to appeal to this type of crowd, that wants to hear the Standards of the past, meaning Paul's Greatest Beatle hits.
I remember seeing the TV show from his 2001 show in the U.S., and it was mainly of people crying over the Beatles.

I would LOVE to hear "Listen To What The Man Said" and "Bluebird "TOO.

 

Well, it was not promoted as Paul McCartney gig until the last second if I remember correctly. If not quite a secret gig, it was a special and unique one. And on Parkinson he did nine songs (not a song or 2); Honey Hush, Twenty Flight Rock, When The Wind Is Blowing, Yesterday, The Long and Winding Road, Chase My Blues Away, A Song To Us, Suicide and All Shook Up. The Parkinson appearance was anything but the typical boring chat show and the reason for doing it was to fulfill a promise (and to promote RDR of course) he had given Parkinson years earlier, it was not to promote the Cavern show of which only 300 tickets were available. He performed solo on guitar and piano and with his RDR band; at times demonstrating playing techniques and telling some really nice stories about some of the tunes. Including a very touching one about writing Chase The Blues Away after Linda had given birth to Mary in 1969. In my opinion, it was a very emotional and insightful show. Perhaps, one of his best-ever televised interviews. Ron

 

Generally yes, but so...?

 

Well I just saw my first and only Macca live show at Liverpool. It was great but I was very tired after being at the front throughout the support bands' sets (both excellent) and I actually left just before the hot tunes (starting with Grohl coming on). I had seen ALL of his TV appearances at things like iTunes Festival, Electric Proms etc etc last year and finding myself there wasn't any more willing to listen to the same intersong routines as I would have been on a DVD.

Yeah...for me it had definitely been 'What? A ticket available? Yeah...gotta do it...see The Man one time.' as I had previously tried to get a ticket for every tour since, I don't know, 1989... to no avail.

But having seen it all throughout 2007 made it a little hard to go through again, I must admit and I'd already had, to my mind, the ticket price covered by the Zutons and The Kaiser Chiefs. So I took my blisters back to the hotel, just in time to pick up the TV coverage from where I'd exited and in the company of dozens who hadn't been so lucky as to be at the show.

It was groovy all round really but I did suddenly have the thought that there are some Wings songs which Macca would really need to strap the heavy Rickenbacker on for...'Silly Love Songs' being one and 'Listen to What The Man Said' being another.
I don't think they'd be doable on the hofner without some energy-revision and wonder if that is a factor in the choices?

Actually I think it's just pure laziness. Won't do his homework. Slacker.

 

How about a mix like this?

4 songs from MAF
3 songs from chaos
4 solo greatest hists
5 wings greatest hits
10 Beatle classics
3-5 Beatles album cuts

Wouldn't this give us a tip of the hat to his new renaissance, a acceptable salute to his solo career wings and otherwise, and still enough Beatles to please most fans?

 

I forgot he played that many songs. Though I know of the "promise" Macca made to Parkinson many many years earlier, I doubt very much he would had appeared had he not had an album to plug. A pity then it was one of his least interesting albums. Just my view of course!

 

To me this has always been a mistake, and he should have almys included around 8 tracks total from his two most recent albums, maybe 5 from the newest one and 3 from the album before that. It has always kind of felt like he has implied to folks, "Try my newest album it's great, or try me greatest hits package, or anything from the Beatles, but pretty much everything else I've done is crap and I'd stay away from that."

 

I've noted before (perhaps here, can't remember) that I think McCartney separates his studio work (which can be experimental) from his live work (which he keeps specifically "straight"). I also think it's telling that he keeps his more extreme experimental work away from his McCartney persona, preferring to use the Fireman moniker.

I wonder how much his MOR reputation would have altered if his Fireman albums had gone out under his own name? It seems that he vacilates between wanting to experiment and wanting people to know that he does without doing it in public...

 

Anyone think he'll ever play "Hippy Hippy Shake" anywhere else ???

I suspect it was a Liverpool thing and I'd be surprised if it becomes
a standard set-opener for a longer tour.

Kind of like when he opened the concert for NYC with "I'm Down".


I know I would have gone crazy if I had been there and got to see
him open up with "Hippy Hippy Shake". I'm not sure that song
has historically been played much during soundchecks. My guess
is someone in the band (Rusty?) requested it.


Anyone think Paul will ever consider releasing a collection of
stuff recorded during the soundcheck? He apparently records
them all (based on what got aired during the Oobu Joobu series).

I think a collection of soundcheck material would be interesting.
But I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for it to show up.

 

You don't. It was well-known that Macca would do that gig for some time in advance. There was an Internet lottery for tickets - I was gonna be in the UK around that time, but I can't recall if I entered. This show wasn't remotely "secret" or not promoted as a McCartney show: everyone knew who would play and what it was about well in advance.

Oh, and it didn't premiere "RDR": the album had been out for almost two months when the show occurred...

 

Well, that's pretty much what he DOES do... except he drops the prior album songs to the one he's promoting. He has ALWAYS done this. He also typically plays more than 3 or 4 NEW songs as well. He already does five Wings Greatest Hits... Band On The Run, Jet, My Love, Live and Let Die and Coming Up, and adds a few Wings tracks like Let Me Roll it, C Moon and Too Many people (well HE calls it a Wings track ) He does a smattering of solo tunes, Maybe I'm Amazed, Every night, Flaming Pie... tribute songs to George and John. So the only changes to your list; he tends to add a few never before played Beatles songs instead of playing songs from his previous studio album, which is probably 3 or 4 years old by the time of the tour. Ron