I just got one of those annoying email alerts from GET ME IN!, the ticket people. They inform me that, among others, Paul McCartney is playing some gigs sometime soon.
So here's the dilemma. I'm not a major Paul fan - controversially I prefer solo efforts by George and Ringo - but should I see Paul before I die? For that matter, should I see Paul before he dies?
Whenever I see him on the telly singing live I think he sounds awful. And lately he's been getting that ukelele out all the time and singing that Dance Tonight song which I have little time for and which he clearly thinks has united a nation. He should have put a cork in it after No More Lonely Nights, because personally I don't think he's done much to write home about since.
So if I were to fork out on tickets, I'd want lots of early solo stuff, lots of Wings (didn't being in Wings look like an enormous amount of fun, even though it probably wasn't?), and a smattering of Beatles - but not Hey Jude or the other ones he always does. I want Norwegian Wood and Eleanor Rigby and Hard Day's Night. I think it might be nice to see him do the hits before he goes the way of John or George or decides never to tour again, and that day might be coming.
I'm minded to think this way because although it's not been officially confirmed anywhere, I've heard David Bowie is quite ill and has retired, so I've missed my chance with that one. There are some legends you should see just because, even if you're not their biggest fan.
Do you agree?
10 comments:
I am with you on McCartney's post-1984 stuff (aside from some of the Flowers In The Dirt album) and I too have never been massively enamoured with him.
But if I had the chance to see him, I'd go. There is absolutely no question.
I wouldn't go and see Paul McCartney perform if he was doing it at the end of my road, I'm afraid. I've got no feelings about him either way, and not many about the Beatles. Nor would I cross the road to see Led Zep, Prince, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Abba, Oasis, or Madonna. If it doesn't touch me personally, I'm not curious. Maybe that makes me a narcissist?
I think you need to imagine the worst case scenario, which is that instead of your ideal Macca set list, he just does Dance Tonight and a load of recent tracks that you haven't heard and never will hear again, followed by a too-fast run-through of his greatest hits, focusing particularly on the ones you've never liked. If this occurred, would you be able to chalk it up to experience in a sanguine fashion, or would you wish to murder him?
If it's the latter, don't go.
I was glad I saw him at the Electric Ballroom, but:
A) It was free
B) He played everything you wanted him to.
Even I wouldn't pay fifty-odd quid to see him.
Oh dear, well I've gone and done it, but perhaps I shouldn't have.
I thought I'd take my brother as he's had a tough year and I didn't buy him a birthday gift and he's a huge Macca fan, so at least he'll enjoy it even he does was Kitten says, which to my mind would be like a living hell.
Be sure to write a review then. Because if this really is one of the last time he plays, we'll have to live it vicariously through you.
I'm going to see Motorhead in three weeks' time. Just thought I'd drop that in...
I would go; go and regret seeing him, rather than never seeing him then have him keeling over and dying and you never seeing him. Member of my family turned down chance to see what turned out to be one of the last Hendrix concerts, and although not a huge fan, regrets it now. Also *stringed instrument loser alert* it's a mandolin, not a ukulele in Dance Tonight.
Thanks for pointing that out Dan, I didn't realise.
So I'm going. Tickets bought, no going back.
Now if only Richard & Linda Thompson would get back together...
Yes, go. I went to see him at Earl's Court in 1993 with my mum. I probably wouldn't have bothered off my own bat, but she couldn't persuade anyone else to go with her. Sitting through any amount of "here's a new one from the [shite] Off the Ground album" was paid for by 'Yesterday'. I thought "Here I am, in the same room as the man who wrote the most covered song in history and he's singing it for me". And, I admit freely, I blubbed. Still could have been better, mind. If he'd done 'Goodnight Tonight', 'Arrow Through Me' or 'Getting Closer', I think I'd have come and shat in my trousers simultaneously. The closest I ever came to that occurrence was seeing Squeeze pull 'Last Time Forever' out of the hat in 1996. Didn't see THAT one coming.
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