I apologize for last night's attempt at a Paul McCartney review, reading it back I see that I told you a lot about the food and drink prices at Dodger Stadium and next to nothing about the concert itself. I had been awake for most of the previous 40 hours when I wrote that blog, so the result was not surprising. I am not sure I'll be able to do any better tonight, though I will try to give you at least a few details. I do have a link for you if you wanna read the review from the Daily News :
https://www.dailynews.com/2019/07/14/paul-mccartney-reunites-with-ringo-starr-at-dodger-stadium-during-career-spanning-show/
You will have to copy and paste it, as Blogger does not post "clickable" links (at least not on my page).
Here are some random thoughts about the show :
Paul and band came onstage at 8:35pm, following a half hour scroll of old Beatles photographs bordered in psychedelic colors that were being projected on the stage screens. The photo scroll was accompanied by Beatles and McCartney music (what else?). It was the only show I've ever been to where the pre-concert music was by the artist himself. But at 8:35, the lights dimmed and there was Paul, dressed in black jeans, a white dress shirt and a modern version of Beatle boots. He also wore a black jacket to begin the show but removed it after a couple of songs as the night was very warm.
They began with "Hard Day's Night" (one of my Top Ten Beatles Songs) and we were off and running. Paul played his signature Hofner "Violin" Bass, and you could hear every note in his basslines. The sound mix was excellent for a baseball stadium and the volume was very loud, not wimpy at all, but was also clear with good separation. I encourage you to Google the setlist to more easily get a feel for the progression of the songs. He played 38 of 'em. That's almost twice as many as you would hear at any other concert.
Eight songs in, Paul switched to guitar, a psychedelic colored Les Paul, for "Let Me Roll It", which turned out to be an early highlight as the band went into an extended jam at the end, based around Jimi's "Foxy Lady" riff, and - would you believe it?! - Paul played some fiery, bluesy leads.
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Paul played lead guitar, but then it must be noted that he began as a guitarist and only switched to bass after George joined The Beatles. But yeah, it was super cool to watch him shred.
They followed that up with "I've Got A Feeling", and Paul was in high gear. His voice was rich and powerful, missing a little bit on the high end, but hey - he's still 85 to 90 % of the singer he always was. How many 77 year olds can say that?
His band is phenomenal, as you would expect, but what might surprise you is their power. They play like a real band instead of simply a collection of studio musicians, and they can recreate anything in Paul's catalogue, Beatles, Wings or solo, note for note and with each song's original dynamic.
"Maybe I'm Amazed" was another highlight, and it was at this point, about one third of the way through, that I realised I was watching the greatest concert I have ever seen (well, tied with Pink Floyd at the Rose Bowl and Cal Jam, which I think I mentioned last night). But yeah, as Paul sang the lyrics, it may as well have been 1970 all over again. It feels like he lives inside his songs, and though he is the most famous and popular songwriter of all time, and the biggest rock star on the planet, onstage he comes across as a guy who just loves to play and entertain, and happens to be very, very good at it. It's weird, almost, in a cool kind of way, that even though he was in The Beatles and achieved an unsurpassed level of fame, and even though his songs are iconic and will be listened to 1000 years from now, that he still seems like James Paul McCartney, the guy from Liverpool whom, if you lived there, you might see around the neighborhood or in the pub. You know, the lively chap, the one with all the songs.
That's what the deal is with him : Paul and his songs.
He did take over The Beatles near the end, after John lost himself in Yoko. "Sgt. Pepper" was Paul's idea, as was "Magical Mystery Tour". Of course John contributed brilliant and legendary music to both albums, but there is no question Paul was giving the band it's direction at that point, and by the time "Abbey Road" was being recorded, it was almost all Paul. "Abbey Road" is close to being a McCartney solo work, when he was at the height of his powers.
As much as I love rock n' roll music, and as much as I revere so many different bands and put certain musicians on pedestals, there has still never been a band in my life like The Beatles. This is true for millions of fans worldwide, from 1963 onward. I never include Beatles in any Top Ten lists or anything like that, because they are beyond. In the history of popular music, there has never been anything like that group, and there never will be. They were life changing, and they changed the whole world.
So, by the time the concert was entering it's final hour, and Paul and band were ripping through "Mr. Kite" and "Birthday", "Back In The U.S.S.R" and "Live And Let Die", I was experiencing a life changing moment of my own. I was finally seeing a Beatle, Sir Paul McCartney, the greatest songwriter of the rock era. The experience is even more than that, like love it's undefinable, and that's why The Beatles were so unbelievably huge, because whatever they had cannot be defined or duplicated.
By the time Paul sat down at his grand piano to play and sing "Let It Be", the entire audience was carried away by everything involved with that particular song - it's history as one of The Beatles last big hits (and their biggest seller), that it came upon their breakup, and that it sounds like a religious hymn, perhaps for the end of an era.
But then here is Paul McCartney, still selling out stadiums 50 years later (think about that for a moment), and still singing and playing the songs with the same urgency, so it couldn't have been the end of an era. The era never ended, because of Paul McCartney's music, and John's and George's.
Just like the classic music era beginning nearly 400 years ago has never ended, because of composers like Bach, the same is now true of the rock era. And so, in closing, I am blown completely off the map that I got to see Paul McCartney of The Beatles, still at the top of his game at 77 years of age!, in concert, and that I got to see him play a show for the ages, joined by Ringo Starr at the end.
Again, please Google and read some professional critical reviews and also go to setlist.com to read the list of 38 songs.
I've been to many, many concerts in my life, and so many have been "off the charts" or whatever superlative I can give them. A few, however - meaning this concert and the two others mentioned - have been life changing.
That's the thing about this Paul McCartney show. I knew it was gonna be really good, excellent even.
I just didn't know it was gonna be next level. But then I was taking for granted, perhaps, that I was going to see a Beatle, and one of the greatest musicians who has ever lived. /////
That's my review, see you in the morning, peace and love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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