Paul McCartney

[sadoldgit]

The guy might have turned 80 years old and his voice may be going, but what a show he put on at Glastonbury tonight. I was in tears when he sang Something and in floods when he duetted with Lennon. Throw in Dave Grohl and Bruce Springsteen and some of the greatest music ever written.. what a night. The guy is a legend.

[spyinthesky]

I surprised myself and stayed up to watch the show.

The band and the show were good and it was really the 60 year old songs which generally went down better with the audience than the newer songs.

Macca's voice is failing and his microphone didnt seem to project his voice well at times.

At 80 years old you can overlook Macca's failing voice but, as a comparison, I saw 79 year old George Benson put in a flawless performance at the BICC recently.

Will be interesting to see how Diana Ross performs at Glastonbury this afternoon.

[AlexLaw76]

1 minute ago, spyinthesky said:

Will be interesting to see how Diana Ross performs at Glastonbury this afternoon.

Got to be better than this...

 

[Turkish]

I went to see the eagles on Monday. I’m not a massive fan but Mrs T and some of our friends are. I have to say they were bloody brilliant, they’re in their mid 70s as well. 
 

Compare that to how Phil Collins is now, some friends went to see him and said it was tragically bad, can barely sing now, sat in a chair all the way through. Really sad to see

 

and for once I agree with Soggy, Paul McCartney was great last night. 
 

watched a bit of Noel Gallagher he was good but the version of Whatever they did was awful, a brilliant song that he made sound like a crap school production version 

Edited 26 June, 2022 by Turkish

[Lord Duckhunter]

I’ve seen him a couple of times (and Ringo who does a great show with a great band as well).  I was lucky enough to see him in 79 at The Gaumont. Absolutely fantastic, performance wise the 70’s were his peak, he’d abandoned the silly little Hofner for a Rickenbacker and it was an extraordinary performance. Still in his 30’s and only 9 years after the Beatles split, it remains my greatest musical memory.

 

The bloke is a fucking genius. The  volume of great songs he’s written is unbelievable, but he’s seriously underrated as a musician. Watch McCartney 321 on Disney, where Rick Rubin takes him through various songs and isolates bass tracks etc. if he’d never written a song he’d still be one of our greatest ever musicians. One story from Geoff Emericks book sums it up. George is trying to get the solo on Taxman and can’t get it right. George Martin suggests Paul gives it a go, and he nails it in one take. Having already produced the memorable bass line on that song, he tops it off with a quite superb lead solo. Rubin goes through bass line on Something, day in the life and other songs  he didn’t write, but his musically performance adds so much to those songs. Musically  he was head and shoulders above the other 3. 
 

To me he’s the greatest living Englishman. 

Edited 26 June, 2022 by Lord Duckhunter

[Whitey Grandad]

My wife saw the Beatles in 1963 at their Christmas show at the Finsbury Park Astoria. There was non-stop screaming from all the hysterical girls and she couldn’t hear a thing from the stage. She assures me that she was not one of those who were screaming and I have to believe her. She was fourteen at the time.

[Sheaf Saint]

7 hours ago, spyinthesky said:

Will be interesting to see how Diana Ross performs at Glastonbury this afternoon.

Very well from what I'm watching. She obviously hasn't got quite the vocal range she used to, but still pretty impressive for her age.

That's quite a crowd she has drawn. 

[ecuk268]

7 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Got to be better than this...

 

I've heard better than that in a pub on a Saturday night.

[The Left Back]

Perhaps McCartney's greatest achievement since Hey Jude is his ability to unite @sadoldgit + @Turkish. 

Personally I'm not in favour of old crusties at Glastonbury, no matter how good they are.  I went in 85 and discovered The Men They Couldn't Hang on a side stage while queueing for a burger.  Ended up seeing them a dozen times and absolutely loved them.  I'm a bit out of touch with line ups these days but not sure this sort of experience is still available.

 

[revolution saint]

I bloody love the frog chorus.

[spyinthesky]

2 hours ago, ecuk268 said:

I've heard better than that in a pub on a Saturday night.

I have to say Diana Ross is disappointing from what I hear on the BBC.

V good catalogue to present but a bit like Martha Reeves when I heard her on Jools Holland, her voice has gone.

Not a patch on Gladys Knight (or George Benson) who I have seen recently and they are of a similar age.

Also whereas Macca made reference to John, George and Ringo, Ms Ross (as she likes to be called) no mention of Mary Wilson or Florence Ballard from the Supremes.

Also in the early days Motown artists had the benefit of backing from the Funk Bros and the Andantes.

Still amongst all this it seems that the audience are enjoying themselves and that's what counts.

 

[jawillwill]

He's no Megan the Stallion, that's f'sure.

[badgerx16]

9 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

To me he’s the greatest living Englishman. 

I thought that was Farage.

[Lord Duckhunter]

 

[sadoldgit]

Ok, that’s freaky. Duckie and Delldays/Batman/Alex have finally morphed into one another. No surprise though! I can just imagine them back in the 70’s snuggling up with pints of Watneys watching episodes of Love Thy Neighbour.

Anyway, didn’t get to see The Beatles as I was 12 when they quit touring in 1966. Not disappointed as the screaming was a bit off putting. My first gig though was T.Rex not long after they changed from being a hippy band into teenyboppers so didn’t exactly avoid crowds of screaming hysterical girls.

When The Beatles broke up in 1970 there were so many other great bands emerging that I wasn’t particularly interested in following their solo careers. It wasn’t until 1990 that I finally got to see Paul McCartney on his first major solo tour after Wings at the Wembley Arena. He had a great band and the set list was awesome. Plenty of Beatles stuff and the best from the Wings era and his solo stuff at that point. It was probably the next best thing to seeing The Beatles although the harmonies were never going to be the same. Great gig.

If you are into that stuff The Bootleg Beatles also do an amazing job of recreating that music. They put on a terrific show too which transports you back to the 60’s. Happy days! Mind you, nostalgia ain’t what it used to be 😎

 

 

[Lord Duckhunter]

4 hours ago, sadoldgit said:

 

If you are into that stuff The Bootleg Beatles also do an amazing job of recreating that music. They put on a terrific show too which transports you back to the 60’s. 

 

 

Ringo does a great show that’ll take you back. He has had some fantastic musicians that all do a turn. When I went he had Edgar Winter, Rick Derringer and the mush from Mr Mister, but he’s had some real great talent over the years including Joe Walsh (whose his brother in law), levon Helm, Dr John, Billy Preston, Peter Frampton, Jack Bruce, and Rick Danko. His present line up includes  Hamish Stuart who played with McCartney after he disbanded Wings. Unfortunately, he tends to only tour the States nowadays and he’s even older than McCartney so I doubt I’ll get the chance again, but it’s a real top show. 

[Hamilton Saint]

3 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Ringo does a great show that’ll take you back. He has had some fantastic musicians that all do a turn. When I went he had Edgar Winter, Rick Derringer and the mush from Mr Mister, but he’s had some real great talent over the years including Joe Walsh (whose his brother in law), levon Helm, Dr John, Billy Preston, Peter Frampton, Jack Bruce, and Rick Danko. His present line up includes  Hamish Stuart who played with McCartney after he disbanded Wings. Unfortunately, he tends to only tour the States nowadays and he’s even older than McCartney so I doubt I’ll get the chance again, but it’s a real top show. 

You're forgetting Canada. He plays here during every tour. He has eight concerts booked here in the autumn.

[buctootim]

On 26/06/2022 at 09:41, AlexLaw76 said:

Got to be better than this...

 

That's a really bad sound mix. Normally when you get an aging star whose voice isnt what it was they are carried by good backing singers. She's got four but you can hardly hear them. 

Edited 27 June, 2022 by buctootim

[Lord Duckhunter]

On 26/06/2022 at 01:29, sadoldgit said:

Throw in Dave Grohl and Bruce Springsteen 

Just shows, even greats have heroes. Two of my favourite clips are off John Lennon and Keith Richards meeting theirs. Chuck Berry.

Chuck didn’t seem that impressed with Keith, who looks like he’d willingly chin his hero, and I love the look on Chucks face when Yoko joins in. It’s like WTF. As one of the comments underneath states “3 legends ,John, Chuck, and the bloke who turned Yokos mic off for the second song”. 
 

 

[HedgeEnder]

On 26/06/2022 at 10:44, Turkish said:

I went to see the eagles on Monday. I’m not a massive fan but Mrs T and some of our friends are. I have to say they were bloody brilliant, they’re in their mid 70s as well. 
 

Compare that to how Phil Collins is now, some friends went to see him and said it was tragically bad, can barely sing now, sat in a chair all the way through. Really sad to see

 

and for once I agree with Soggy, Paul McCartney was great last night. 
 

watched a bit of Noel Gallagher he was good but the version of Whatever they did was awful, a brilliant song that he made sound like a crap school production version 

Saw the Eagles yesterday at Hyde Park - absolutely superb. Joe Walsh is a complete nutter but still a brilliant guitarist - came up with a great line "I much preferred being in my 20's in the 70's than being in my 70's in the 20's". John McEnroe came on for the last song as well!

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were great as well.

[Lord Duckhunter]

Fuck me…Friday night in, few beers and watching the remastered Let it be released this week on Disney

If anybody is in any doubt the bloke is a  genius they should watch this.
Two months after The White album, they turn up to write and record another album in 4 weeks, all in front of a film crew. In that short period McCartney gives us Let it Be, Long & Winding road, Get Back  & 2 other really good tracks. All in 4 fucking week. The Peter Jackson Get Back thing was a bit like walking through treacle, even for a fan like me. But this is perfect. Not been shown for 50 odd years, Jackson does the pictures & Giles Martin the sound.

Even if you don’t want to watch it all ,fast forward to the last 25 minutes. The final live performance ever. Recorded on a cold January day on the roof of Apple Studios with barely any serious rehearsal , you can see how good they were. Such a shame they jacked in touring before the sound systems were good enough to enhance the experience…….

 

 

Edited May 10 by Lord Duckhunter

[Tamesaint]

1 hour ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Fuck me…Friday night in, few beers and watching the remastered Let it be released this week on Disney

If anybody is in any doubt the bloke is a  genius they should watch this.
Two months after The White album, they turn up to write and record another album in 4 weeks, all in front of a film crew. In that short period McCartney gives us Let it Be, Long & Winding road, Get Back  & 2 other really good tracks. All in 4 fucking week. The Peter Jackson Get Back thing was a bit like walking through treacle, even for a fan like me. But this is perfect. Not been shown for 50 odd years, Jackson does the pictures & Giles Martin the sound.

Even if you don’t want to watch it all ,fast forward to the last 25 minutes. The final live performance ever. Recorded on a cold January day on the roof of Apple Studios with barely any serious rehearsal , you can see how good they were. Such a shame they jacked in touring before the sound systems were good enough to enhance the experience…….

 

 

Bloody hell. Duckie and Soggy are in agreement (see the OP). There is a first time for everything!! 😁😁

PS I would also agree with them. 

[Lord Duckhunter]

Had to be in France this week for work. Got lucky with the timing and was able to see the great man one last time. 
 

What a showman, 82 and played nearly 3 hours without a break. Classic after classic (only 2 of the 40 odd songs he did were from recent years). Voice was a lot better than I thought it would be, maybe there’s some sort of AI involved. Although it wasn’t as good as his peak, and it does sound aged,  it was only really during “maybe I’m amazed” that I thought “you shouldn’t be doing this one”. 
 

Highlights were “Live & let die”, which I’ve never really liked, “Get back”, and “got to get you into my life”. Surprise was him player a great guitar solo on a cover of “foxy lady”. Played multiple instruments and has some great musicians with him, including a proper brass section. 
 

I thought they’d be a load of oldies there but there really wasn’t, most were 40-50 year olds, with a lot of youngsters and some families. Probably only about 10% of my age range. The French absolutely loved him, and he came across incredibly well. Funny, happy and seemed genuinely pleased to be giving us a show. When he came back on for the final time and started with the “once there was a way, to get back homeward” from “Golden Slumbers”, it got quite emotional, as people knew this would be the end and they’ll probably never him him live again. The reception he got at the end made the hairs on your neck stand up. My colleague, not a fan by any means, said it was the best performance they’d seen from anyone. 
 

He’s in England next week, if anyone gets the chance, go and see him, you will not be disappointed….

Edited Friday at 11:00 by Lord Duckhunter

[Ted Bates Statue]

From what I've seen on youtube of him, he still sings reasonably well, and as you say he doesn't seem to rely on assisted vocals as much as other artists can.

Had a look for tickets at the O2 recently but seems my best chance of catching him live is if he performs at Hyde Park. Think he's done it a few times before so I'm hoping he'll play there again one day. Otherwise, I'll have to console myself with at least having overheard his 'secret' London 2012 soundcheck.

[spyinthesky]

Agree that he is a great musician and song writer with an decent vocal range.
As a 'Soul' fan  it is interesting aside that The Beatles covered a few Motown and a couple of other Black American tracks on their early albums.
Macca also rated James Jamerson (ie 'The Hook') who played bass with the Funk Bros (Motown's House Band) as one of his favourite bass players.

[Divergent]

And 44 years today since John Lennon was shot. 

[Lord Duckhunter]

On 07/12/2024 at 11:19, spyinthesky said:

Macca also rated James Jamerson (ie 'The Hook') who played bass with the Funk Bros (Motown's House Band) as one of his favourite bass players.

Yeah he mentioned it in the Rick Rubin thing on Disney (link earlier in thread), said Jamerson inspired him to play more funky & expand the traditional role of the bassist. Said once he’d heard him he thought anything was possible. 

One thing I’ve come to notice is some of his best bass lines were on others songs. Taxman, Something, Come Together, Hey Bulldog, whilst my guitar gently weeps. Unlike Lennon he appeared desperate to add something special to the songs he didn’t write.