When Paul McCartney played Glastonbury back in 2022, he was ‘only’ 80. I watched it, all dewy-eyed, and saw a legend, the greatest music composer of the 20th century, arguably (not arguably in my eyes) the greatest songwriter of all time. The setlist was incredible, 38 songs over two hours and 50 minutes. I gave it an A star, 10 out of 10, a performance of sheer greatness. Not everyone agreed. The sheer pettiness, jealousy and loathing that has permeated our culture in recent decades quickly came to the surface and Macca’s show was not that of a genius, an enduring superstar, but a fading rock star who really should retire because his voice doesn’t sound like it did in the 1960s anymore. That was not how I saw it at all.
Of course, Macca’s voice has changed over the years. So, no doubt, has yours and mine and we’re not even rock singers belting out tunes in the same key as they always have, like Macca. Very few acts do that as they get older, dropping the odd octave or two, like Elton John and any number of rock stars I could mention. Yet they do not seem to attract the opprobrium Paul McCartney does.
This morning, I watched the highlights of his show from Saturday night in Buenos Aires and was mesmerised. It was a very similar setlist from the Glastonbury show but he had trimmed the show from 38 songs to a mere 37, a sure sign of advancing old age, don’t you think? Not only that, the great man played a full set on Sunday night too. I am slightly younger and infinitely less talented than him and I reckon I’d struggle to stand on stage for the best part of three hours, never mind sing for all of it.
McCartney doesn’t hide from the voice wreckers, either, ending his show each night with a run of songs including Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the heavy metal monster Helter Skelter and Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight. I challenge you to sing at a karaoke show for all that time and then sing Helter Skelter at full volume – and still be able to speak for the next week.
He doesn’t have to do this stuff. He’s a billionaire. He plays because he wants to. And so far as I am concerned he can play for as long as he likes because he’s a Beatle, as close to a musical saint as it’s possible to be. My old friend and legendary drummer Joe Vitale, who has played with the likes of Joe Walsh, The Eagles and Crosby, Stills and Nash and many more superstars, once told me deep in the bowels of the Royal Albert Hall, after a CSN gig, that “without Paul McCartney none of us would be here”. Macca literally changed the world and how we thought about music and what music could be.
Doubtless, the hate will carry on because, well, that’s what we do in this country. We find some reason to knock the greats, aided, abetted and encouraged by a pernicious media. Luckily, Paul McCartney can and does rise above this. Not for him petty scores to settle. Why should he, given his stellar back catalogue of music?
Just be grateful he’s still with us, showing us that all we need is love, even though he doesn’t actually play All You Need Is Love.
If anything, Paul McCartney and the Beatles were and are underrated, something I realise more and more as I accumulate more of their music as a band and as solo performers. It’s true that you don’t have to love or even like The Beatles, but if you doubt their genius and their enduring influence on popular music, I am not listening to you.
I tried and failed to get tickets for Macca’s UK tour later this year and I suspect that is part of my bucket list that will never be fulfilled. Ah well, there’s always the music to fall back. And what music it is, too.
