Let’s start with the undeniable: At eight years older than that fellow who needs to be fed in “When I’m Sixty-Four,” Paul McCartney is not supposed to be able to do what he’s been doing, such as last night at the United Center. There’s little precedent for a 72-year-old rocker putting on almost-three-hour shows that can be evaluated without an asterisk—i.e., some sort of disclaimer that it’s not bad for a senior citizen. It’s true that McCartney no longer boasts the pure, clear tone of his early days, and he can get pinched trying to hit high notes—even as his falsetto, such as on “Here Today,” remains stunning — yet he holds little back. He still screams “Helter Skelter,” the hardest song in his catalog, and gives “Maybe I’m Amazed” a soulful belting, his straining to hit each of those vocal peaks only adding drama and passion. And when he starts to sing “Hey Jude” or the “Once there was a way…” beginning to “Golden Slumbers,” he’s so unmistakably Paul that you may suddenly feel a giant lump in your throat. He is, after all, the living songwriter-performer who has done the most to shape popular music — and in many ways the culture surrounding it. Some guy behind me at the United Center kept shouting, “Thank you! Thank you!” at McCartney, and while one part of me wished he’d put a sock in it, another part completely got it. McCartney’s hospitalization for a viral infection, which prompted him to cancel all five of his Asian concerts in May and to reschedule seven U.S. concerts from June to October, served as a reminder that he, like anyone else, is vulnerable. How long can he keep doing this? When drummer Abe Laboriel, Jr. doubled McCartneys lead vocals on the first two songs, Eight Days a Week and Save Us, I wondered whether McCartneys voice hadnt fully recovered. But after some early shakiness, it found its comfort zone, whether loud (Maybe Im Amazed) or soft (And I Love Her, Blackbird). He told a lot of stories too: Jimi Hendrix playing “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club THE BAND in concert and asking Eric Clapton to come up and tune his guitar; McCartney writing “Blackbird” as a nod to the Civil Rights movement and appreciating people who told him they tried to learn it on guitar; McCartney playing George Harrison a ukulele version of “Something”; He started “Something” on ukulele and finished it on acoustic guitar. The Russian defense minister telling McCartney the first record he ever bought was “Love Me Do”… McCartney made a funny-sharp observation that he can feel when a new song is going over well, yet when you do the old songs, you see all the phones come out. And as has been his practice for the past several years, he performed for about two-and-a-quarter hours before the first encore without appearing to take a sip of water. He’s one of the wonders of the artistic world, a thoroughly joyous presence, and these moments must be savored. The rest is just details. Then again, I like details:
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 14:54:32 +0000