So I don’t know about you, but I am ready to go see concerts again. (Honestly, I do know about you. Everybody is ready to do things again.) But while I wait for things to get better, I am waxing nostalgic on the great concerts of my life. And a week ago on Ebay I had the genius notion to see if a couple of the greater live music experiences in my lifetime were on sale. Turns out they are! (FBI Warning: These are “collector-to-collector” releases, also known as bootlegs. Intellectual property used without permission of the copyright holders makes the Baby Jesus cry.) Also, I am likely the 4 billionth person to have this particular brainstorm. I’m a slow mover.
Anyway, I saw a 2-CD set of what I believed to be the Paul McCartney concert I saw in Denver in 2005. I cross-checked the date with my refrigerator, as one does.
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Huzzah! So I ordered the CD. It said it was a “direct from sound board” recording which holds great promise. And hey! It just came in the mail today! So while I listen to it, let’s look at what I wrote on my MySpace blog (memories!) the day after the show.
At the (somewhat) young age of 33, I have seen the greatest concert I may ever see.
I mean, let’s be honest. You can’t beat a Beatle. For me, the only live music experience that could conceivably top this would require a time machine and a ringside table at the Sand’s for a raucous, un-PC evening with the Rat Pack.
First things first: Paul McCartney looked and sounded great. This guy is 63 years old–63!! –and he looks and sings like a man half his age. I won’t say he looks like chubby-cheeked “Beatle Paul”–but he most definitely is a dead ringer for “1982, still on speaking terms with Michael Jackson” Paul.
From my el cheapo seat at Denver’s sold-out Pepsi Center, Mac and his band were little stick figures…but the big screens were there to prove that it really was him. Some highlights:
–“Til There Was You”, a song from the “Music Man” soundtrack that appears on one of the very early Beatle albums–maybe the first. He called it a “smoochy song,” referring to the kinds of tunes the boys had to croon to get gigs in the nicer cabaret clubs before they hit it big. This, and certain other tunes like “Blackbird” and “Yesterday,” were performed as simply as possible: Paul and one instrument, either an acoustic guitar or piano. In rockers like “Drive My Car” Paul’s voice was sometimes hard to spot in the blaring audio mix amongst the backup vocals and instruments…so these acoustic numbers were especially treasured.
–“Hey Jude.” Anyone who has even a passing interest in the Beatles’ music would find themselves totally caught up in the emotion, the magic, the shared experience of hearing this song performed live…and then singing along to that amazing chorus:
Naaaaa..naa-naa na-na-na-naaaaaaaaaaaa
na-na-na-naaaaaaaaaaaa
Hey Ju-u-u-de…….
20,000 voices….unforgettable.
–Live and Let Die. I suppose I should have seen it coming, because I believe he did this song at the superbowl with the same effects. But I didn’t see it coming. “It” was a pyrotechnic boom that came in at just the right time:
“if this everchanging world which we live in….
makes you give in and cry…………………..”
DA-DU-DA-DUMMMMMMM…………..
Say, live and let di–i-eee”
GA-VOOM!
We’re talking a huge orange fireball….and another….then a nonstop barrage of pyrotechnics. Truly awesome.
And really, the whole show was a highlight. My mom was waiting for me to call her on the cellphone when he played “Coming Up”…alas, that number was not in the mix. That’s one thing that I definitely noticed–unlike, say, Huey Lewis and the News, who can do a 2-hour concert in which they play every hit they ever had, Paul McCartney’s body of work is so immense that you don’t know which Beatles-era and Wings-era tunes will make the cut.
Of course, the final words he sang to the packed Pepsi Center arena:
“And in the end…the love you take….is equal to…the love you make.”
This is the kind of thing you tell your grandkids about. Or, in my case, nieces and nephews. At the moment, my niece Kayleigh is more interested in the Dora the Explorer Vamanos Van than in my concertgoing experience. But hey, she’s only 3. Give it a few years.
Before getting to the CD, a couple of thoughts.
I am now 49 and Paul McCartney at the Pepsi Center is now officially tied for the greatest concert I have ever seen. The other “greatest” was also for sale on Ebay so I’ll do a writeup on that too. Here’s a Casey Kasem style tease: This concert featured one of the greatest 60’s pop bands of all time with all original surviving members. To Be Continued!
I’m not sure I would buy bootlegs of any of the other concerts I’ve seen. They have either released really good live albums (Phil Collins, The Monkees “Mike and Micky Show”) or they are older acts where an honest appraisal of the performance is tempered by the nostalgia of seeing them live. (Paul Revere and 4 Guys He Found On Craigslist, Happy Together Tour, Johnny Rivers etc.)
Okay, it’s time to talk about the CD. First, here’s what it looks like. Just sorta seems “bootleg” eh?
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I am happy to report that this thing sounds AMAZING. It really and truly takes me back to seeing the show. In fact, it might be better…because, as the old blog indicates, I was in some suuuuuuuuuper-cruddy seats. I could see Sir Paul’s left ear, and I think that was it (there was a huge screen of course so I could see both ears and his face even!).
Paul was in wonderful voice for this show…I mention in the blog that his voice was hard to spot in the rockers…in listening to the CD that would seem to be more a side effect of the sound system and crowd noise because he’s coming through loud and clear here. “Got To Get You Into My Life”, “Maybe I’m Amazed”, “Magical Mystery Tour”…great setlist and we’re not even through CD 1. I can’t wait for “Hey Jude.”