Paul McCartney pays tribute to his fellow Beatles in his Got Back tour opener. We take you inside the first official show.
Beatles bandmates McCartney, Starr perform classics during UK show
Paul McCartney brought out Beatles bandmate Ringo Starr during his Got Back tour stop in London.
- Paul McCartney opened his new round of Got Back tour dates with a surprising John Lennon song.
- The setlist dug deep into McCartney’s Beatles, Wings and solo catalog with wistful selections honoring his bandmates.
- Paul McCartney played to a sold-out crowd of 11,000 in Palm Desert, California, one of the tour’s smaller shows.
PALM DESERT, Calif. – Let’s get this out of the way.
Paul McCartney has zero financial motivation to tour. He doesn’t need the hassle of schlepping around venues nor the headaches of travel.
Sure, he lives for the applause – wouldn’t you? – but even that isn’t the reason he’s still leading live singalongs of “Hey Jude” at 83.
Music, simply, is his lifeblood. McCartney is a legend among a dwindling pack who commands a stage for nearly three hours and 33 songs with the enthusiasm of a teen, albeit one adept at bass, guitar, piano, mandolin and ukulele.
Maybe the hint of ash-colored stubble lining his face and the huskier vocal tone sanded by age are blatant reminders that even heroes aren’t immune to the passing of time.
But, as McCartney showcased at the intimate Acrisure Arena on Monday, Sept. 29, in the kickoff of a new leg of his Got Back tour, music is an equalizer and a much-needed elixir.
Paul McCartney wows with a historic performance of ‘Help!’
The Palm Desert concert was the first he’s played – excluding a pre-tour underplay in Santa Barbara on Sept. 26 – since inciting Beatles ’64-level mania with a handful of impromptu club shows in New York in February.
It also came with a historical opening – the first time “Help!,” John Lennon’s anthem of uncertainty, was played live in its entirety during an official tour since 1965 and also with McCartney plucking his original 1961 Höfner violin bass.
Looking trim in a fitted navy jacket and dark jeans, McCartney leaned into the song’s plea before swinging into a spirited “Coming Up” and a horn-flecked “Got to Get You Into My Life,” complemented by an animation of The Beatles rolling on the video screen behind him.
Backed by his longtime musical comrades Wix Wickens (keyboards), Abe Laboriel Jr. (drums), Rusty Anderson (guitar) and Brian Ray (guitar), as well as the Hot City Horns adding richness to the band’s sound, McCartney wasn’t so jaded as to let a moment pass.
He told the sold-out crowd of about 11,000 that he “wanted to take a minute to take it all in” as he stood with his hands crossed at the wrist atop his bass, surveying a smitten crowd filled with signs begging for a favorite song to be played.
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What songs does Paul McCartney play on tour?
McCartney has always deftly crafted equal opportunity setlists, pulling from every stylistic period of The Beatles (“Love Me Do” sounded sweet, if trite, while “Get Back” still offered an acidic snap), Wings (“Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five” is perhaps the best hit that never was) and solo (“Dance Tonight” fills the fun ditty slot).
But with every passing tour, watching McCartney’s fingers saunter the bass fretboard during “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” and still land the trickier note sequences in “Band on the Run” becomes a more precious sight.
Even though he’ll cheerfully guide the nursery rhyme fun of “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” behind a kaleidoscopic upright piano and hold his ears in amusing mock disapproval of the thunderous pyro during “Live and Let Die,” there is a notable melancholy between the lines.
How are The Beatles represented in Paul McCartney’s concert?
The presence of Lennon and George Harrison are frequent, both in song and in McCartney’s reminisces.
He’s often prefaced “Here Today,” written following Lennon’s 1980 murder, with an open-hearted admission that he never said “I love you” to his beloved bandmate and tried to rectify it in the touching acoustic ballad.
McCartney’s voice caught for a moment while remembering his friend and partner in penning some of the greatest songs in music history.
Lennon also factored into McCartney’s introduction of “I’ve Got a Feeling,” as he told the crowd they’d soon see why it’s one of his favorite songs. The answer was apparent when Lennon popped up on video to sing his stinging lyrics.
For his past several tours, McCartney has unfurled a gorgeous rendition of Harrison’s “Something,” starting off quietly on ukulele before the band kicks in for a sunburst of sound. The arrangement, as delivered with precision Monday, has not lost its appeal.
But as bittersweet as it was watching video of young Lennon and McCartney during several songs, one of the most poignant moments came with the U.S. tour debut of “Now and Then,” the ostensible final Beatles recording released in 2023.
“Thank you for writing that beautiful song, John,” McCartney shouted after playing the piano-filled tune, which shimmered with wistfulness that was amplified by more video of The Beatles clowning in the studio.
Time has a way of eradicating many a hurt.
What’s next for Paul McCartney?
This Got Back tour travels North America through November, and after that, who knows what the seemingly always busy McCartney will decide to do.
Considering his newfound affection for pop-up shows, it’s possible he’ll continue to book small venues in random cities with a few hours’ notice and happily lead a singalong of “Let It Be” for a few hundred fans instead of tens of thousands.
As long as he’s playing, as long as there is a bass or piano or guitar nearby or a sentiment to be expressed, a song will erupt from McCartney’s heart.
And lucky us.
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‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.usatoday.com ’
