Yeah, it's really fun. We've got a really good band. We're very happy
with the show, 'cause we've honed it down over the years as to what we
like playing and what we think the audience likes to hear. There's some
stuff the audience doesn't even know – not many, I must admit, but a few
little ones. So the show just seems to run itself now. I'm constantly
amazed at it, actually. I get on there, do the opening things, and then
suddenly I'm changing to electric guitar and I'm going, "Oh, this is
nice" – you know, I always like to plug in an electric guitar. Then I'm
swapping guitars for "Paperback Writer," and I'm thinking, "This is
nice. I love this Epiphone Casino."
Then, just when it could get boring, I move to piano, and I think, "Oh, this is cool!" I swap through instruments quite a lot, which keeps it nice and fresh for me.
 |
| May 4, 2013 @PaulMcCartney tweeted this picture with the caption "Finally Out There!" |
|
You've added a few new Beatles songs to the
set – "Lovely Rita," "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" and "All
Together Now." What's it like playing those live for the first time
ever?
That's challenging. I mean, something like "Being for
the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" is hard to do. Ask a bass player who sings.
It's contrapuntal, man! It really is. I've got to sing a melody
that's going to one place, and then I've got to play this bassline
that's going to other places. It's a concentration thing. But that's
half the fun of the show. I'm still practicing, still trying to figure
it out, particularly on the new numbers. It's like, "How does this one
go again?"
What made you want to revisit those particular songs?
Well,
for instance, "Mr. Kite" is such a crazy, oddball song that I thought
it would freshen up the set. Plus the fact that I'd never done it. None
of us in the Beatles ever did that song [in concert]. And I have great
memories of writing it with John. I read, occasionally, people say, "Oh,
John wrote that one." I say, "Wait a minute, what was that afternoon I
spent with him, then, looking at this poster?" He happened to have a
poster in his living room at home. I was out at his house, and we just
got this idea, because the poster said "Being for the Benefit of Mr
Kite" – and then we put in, you know, "there will be a show tonight,"
and then it was like, "of course," then it had "Henry the Horse dances
the waltz." You know, whatever. "The Hendersons, Pablo Fanques,
somersets…" We said, "What was 'somersets'? It must have been an
old-fashioned way of saying somersaults." The song just wrote itself.
So, yeah, I was happy to kind of reclaim it as partially mine. But like I
said, you've got to look what you're doing when you play that one.
 |
| Brooklyn performance June 8,2013 |
Does it feel like you're coming full circle when you sing those words in front of these huge crowds after all those years?
You
know, it's more a question of what a delight it is to finally play it.
We played it when we recorded it – for instance, "Mr. Kite," when we
recorded it, we laid down the track as a group, and then I put the bass
on afterwards, as I often did in those days. So that gave me the
opportunity to really think about the bassline and make it
melodic. But,
of course, if I'd have thought, like, "Tomorrow you're going to have to
play this live," I don't think I'd have made it so complicated! "Day
Tripper" was another one. I thought, "I just can't do it." It's like
patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time. It's not that
easy to do. You've got to practice up on that. I goofed it a million
times in rehearsal. Then, finally, I just thought, "OK, wait a minute,
I'll do that . . ." And I worked out how I was going to do it. So it's
great for me, reviewing the past, and just thinking, "This is cool."
It's still up-to-date. The combination of all of that makes it quite a
joy to do.
Are there other Beatles songs that you've never played live that you'd like to do some day?
Yeah,
I think there are. What I do is, each tour or each concert we're going
to do, I will go back into the catalog and think, "Wait a minute, we
could do that one," and there are a few little hidden gems. I haven't
actually decided which ones are which yet, but I know there's so much in
there. It's like a little treasure trove, you know? It's really quite a
cool feeling, because as I do the songs, I am made very aware that that
period when we recorded – the 10 years the Beatles were together – was a
particularly rich period for art, anyway, and for us. We just kept
popping it in there! You can think of songs like "Why Don't We Do It In
The Road" – you think, "You know, that could go live." And then I can
think of Wings things. People keep requesting "Uncle Albert." It'd be
great to do, but it's just a little bit of a challenge to learn, 'cause
these are not twelve-bars. But once you get them, and once you do them right, they kind of feel like twelve-bars. That's the trick. [Laughs]
 |
| Boston concert July 9, 2013 |
You played stadiums with the Beatles in the Sixties, obviously. Would you say that playing stadiums today is very different?
Oh,
yeah, hugely different. It's kind of amusingly different. I think the
first big stadium show anyone ever played was Shea Stadium [in 1965],
'cause we were hot enough to have the power to fill a place like that,
and no one had ever dared that with a rock & roll act before. But
when you think that we played through the PA – it was the baseball
system, where the guy played that little organ. I mean, that's what we
played through, and we just had our little amps. God knows how the
audience heard us. I don't think they did. Maybe that's why they were
screaming – to make up for the lack of noise we were making. It's funny
when you think about it. By the time we got to the Wings Over America period
in the Seventies, it had got very much bigger, and it was the birth of
real arena rock & roll. By then, we could actually hear ourselves,
the audience could hear us, and whatever noise they were going make, we
could get above them.
Do you think you'll ever retire from performing live?
I
don't know, man. I can't imagine ever not doing it. It's what I do, and
it's what I've always done, and I love it so much. Of course, there's
got to be some kind of physical limitation. But I haven't found it. I
mean, I did that show last night, and I'm thinking, "Jesus, God, man.
You know, you're not 25." But then, my other side of my head's going,
"Yes, you are! Get on with it!" So I haven't found my physical
limitation yet. If I do, then I'll have a think about the question. 'Til
then, I'm ignoring it.
Read more on the interview with Rolling Stone
here.
Sir Jame Paul McCartney at age 71 still preforms and sounds as he did at the beginning of his career and still shocks his audience by preforming three hour shows with his band including the very talented Brain Ray, Rusty Anderson, Paul Wickens (Winx) and Abe Laboriel, Jr.
Did you see Paul McCartney's Out There Tour? If so I'd love to hear about your experience, feel free to leave a comment.
No comments:
Post a Comment