Closing Candlestick Park

"Thank you, San Francisco, for being so cool now and for being cool back then."- Paul McCartney, 14 August, 2014

Imagine this;

It's late August, the twenty-ninth to be exact, 1966, at 9;27pm. You're surrounded and pressed against sweaty bodies of all ages as your ears ring with the shrill and cries of teenage girls, and boys, when four men take their first step onto freshly cut grass making their way across a beloved baseball field. You find yourself leaning over and narrowing your eyes to get a better look, watching the men gripping onto sunburst guitars, a Höfner bass, or a pair of drumsticks, climb onto the stage. Ear piercing screams and thunderous claps arise from the other 25,000 fans in the stands when one of the men gets his bearings and breaks out into the Chuck Berry classic, "Rock and Roll Music". Screams and cries from yourself and your surrounding neighbors muffle the soft croons and shouts of the band as they continue to play ten more songs, from "She's A Women", "If I Needed Someone", "Day Tripper", "Baby's In Black", "I Feel Fine", "Yesterday", "I Wanna Be Your Man", "Nowhere Man", "Paperback Writer", to a Little Richard cover "Long Tall Sally". Before the band exits the stage, the same member who started the show with "Rock and Roll Music", plays the opening bars to a favorite of his and the audiences, "In My Life".

If you can imagine this, you just imagined yourself in the stands of Candlestick Park for The Beatles last (tour) concert. This post however isn't to take you back to 1966 and go into depth about the Fab Four's performance at the park but to take you just four days in the past (14 August, 2014) when Sir James Paul McCartney returned to Candlestick. This time he wasn't closing his touring days as he did with The Beatles, but he did however honor the park in a night of rock and roll making it the last performance Candlestick Park will see before it closes.

The Beatles at Candlestick Park, 29 August, 1966

Paul McCartney has been on tour since 2013, in promotion for his album, New, which was released in October of that year, accompanied by his band (Brian Ray, Abe Laboriel JR, Rusty Anderson, and Paul Wickens or as other know him by Winx) as they rock stages across the globe on their "Out There" Tour.  While McCartney has been traveling the world, Candlestick affiliates have been making plans for demolition of Candlestick Park, home of the San Francisco Giants and 49ners. Who better to close the park than Sir Paul (who also closed Shea Stadium in 2008 with New York musician, Billy Joel)? 

Paul McCartney emerged onto a stage filled with television screens - which before Macca's appreance showed a photo collage of McCartney's life as well as the many amplifiers blaring Beatles-Wings- McCartney classics and covers- at around nine o'clock in the evening.  The seventy-two year old, paced the stage, his eyes fixed around the stadium  then trailed towards the 50,000 fans (recorded by ABC News Radio) surrounding him,

"It's good to drink it all in. We're saying goodbye to Candlestick."- Paul McCartney, USA Today Paul McCartney is Candlestick Park's Closing Act

To start the night off, Paul crooned a Beatles classic, "Eight Days A Week". The show last about two and  half hours filled with Beatles favorites, Wings hits, Solo wonders, along with tributes to the late, great Jimi Hendrix with a small portion of "Foxy Lady" at the end of "Let Me Roll It". Amongst other tributes were "Here Today", a song McCartney had written after the sudden passing of ex-band mate and close friend, John Lennon, and continuing on with the night to play a ukulele given to him by George Harrison, Paul sang "Something" in remembrance of his ex-band mate and 'Baby- brother'.  
The following is the set-lit of that night (thanks to Setlist.fm );

(L-R): Anderson, McCartney, Laboriel Jr, Ray)

1. Eight Days A Week
2. Save Us
3. All My Loving
4. Listen To What The Man Said
5. Let Me Roll It
6. Paperback Write
7. My Valentine
8. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
9. The Long and Winding Road
10. Maybe I'm Amazed
11. I've Just Seen A Face
12. San Francisco Bay Blues (Jesse Fuller Cover)
13. We Can Work It Out
14. Another Day
15. And I Love Her
16. Blackbird
17. Here Today
18. New
19. Queenie Eye
20. Lady Madonna
21. All Together Now
22. Lovely Rita
23. Everybody Out There
24. Eleanor Rigby
25. Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite
26. Something
27. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
28. Band on The Run
29. Back in the USSR
30. Let It Be
31. Live and Let Die
32. Hey Jude

Encore:

1. Day Tripper
2. Hi, Hi, Hi
3. I Saw Her Standing There

Encore 2:

1. Yesterday
2. Long Tall Sally
3. Golden Slumbers
4. Carry That Weight
5. The End

 No one could of said it better than McCartney himself at the beginning of the show,

"It's sad to see the old place close down. But we are going to close it down in style."

And in style, they did.  Farewell Candlestick Park.

Paul McCartney on Ringo Starr

"Without his drumming, Forget it! It wouldn't be The Beatles"-Paul McCartney

 It's no shock that John Lennon and Paul McCartney are known as "The Leaders" of The Beatles, and it's no shock that George Harrison has made a profound name for himself with his music career in The Beatles, solo work, and with The Traveling Wilbury's but it's unfortunate that Ringo Starr doesn't get the amount of credit he deserves. Maybe it's because Ringo wasn't the original drummer, replacing Pete Best in 1962. Or maybe because he didn't start writing his own material till The Beatles (White Album) with "Don't Pass Me By", or it could be that he was always in the back on stage for the drum positions while John, Paul, and George were in the front. And those people are pure idiots to think of Ringo that way, he was one of the members and is as far as I'm concerned the best drummer in the world. 

On August 16,1962 Beatles manager, Brian Epstein approached Ringo and asked him to join the band. Ringo didn't respond till August 18,1962 when he filled the position of the new Beatles drummer. Firing Pete Best and hiring Ringo, coming from competing band "Rory Storm and the Hurricanes" , didn't start out as well having some of the audience shouting "Pete is Best!" and "Ringo Never, Pete Best forever!". George Harrison recalled one night of playing and the crowd,

"However, after bout half an hour it was getting a bit tiring so I shouted to the audience. when we stepped out of the band room into the dark tunnel, some guy nodded me one, giving me a black eye. The things we have t o do for Ringo!"-George Harrison

 "Ringo was a professional drummer who sang and performed, so his talents would have come out one way or the other. I don't know what he would have ended up- what ever that spark is in Ringo, we all know it but we cant put our finger on it. There's something in him that's projectable and he would have surfaced as an individual."-John Lennon

And after all wasn't it Ringo who came up with the expression "A Hard Days Night"and "8 Days A Week"! Without Ringo Starr there would be no Beatles, it's like George Harrison said once,

"How many Beatles does it take to change a light bulb? four."

Once they got the fourth Beatle it was all history.  Ringo has had an amazing impact on this world in both music and pop culture and will forever be remembered as the greatest drummer of all time. 

During Paul's "Out There" tour he had the chance to talk to Nesta Matthews from Winnipeg where he says;

 "I think Ringo gets that reputation because he wasn’t one of the songwriters, and he was only an occasional singer in the group. It was mainly me and John, and then later George. He got a sort of secondary role. But I say to people: Every single member of the Beatles was just as important as the other. I liken it to four side of a square. Without one of them, it falls apart.”

During the phone interview he continues on his wonderful friend and drummer.

“He was very sort of vocal. He would tell us what he wanted, what he liked, And we always had this rule: If one of us didn’t like a song we were doing, it got chucked out. So we always had a very equal vote. And the whole spirit of Ringo was very important to the Beatles — and let’s not forget his drumming. He’s one of the best drummers in the world, you know? His drummer on the Beatles is very original. It made the group’s sound what it was.”

 Find the rest of the interview here.

Ringo and Paul have worked together on several situations including Ringo's solo work like 1973's Ringo, 1998's Vertical Man, and Ringo's 2010 Y Not. Ringo has also worked on Paul's tracks like 1982's Tug of War, 1997's Flaming Pie, Ringo can be seen on the video for "Wanderlust" and much more. Featured below; Ringo Starr's "When I Walk With You" from Y Not and "The Medley" from Give My Regards To Broad Street.

Paul McCartney's 2013 "Out There" Tour

This past year Paul McCartney has been on his "Out There" tour filling stadiums from Brazil to Boston and Canada and much more! Anybody who attended this tour can easily tell that Macca loves preforming and still sounds better than ever.

Paul with Harold and friends

The tour started on May 4, 2013 when he played Mineirao Stadium in Brazil. He later went on to play two more shows in South America at the following venues; Serra Dourado Stadium and Castelao Stadium. During the Serra Dourado performance on May 6 Paul was accompanied by The Crickets, not Buddy Holly's crickets  but Brazilian grasshoppers. During "Hey Jude" Paul even introduced one as Harold and singing the lines "The movement you need is on your shoulder" with an extra line,  "It certainly is now", looking down at Harold.


Making his way north, Paul and the band played ten shows in North America starting with Amway Center in Orlando and heading to Texas, Tennessee (where he paid tribute to inspiration, Elvis Presley his first visit this tour and returned again to play at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival), Oklahoma, and New York before heading off to Europe.

 In Europe he played three concerts, one in Poland, another in Italy, and one more in Austria. Before heading back to North America to play shows in Ottawa, Boston (where he set the record for the largest crowd in Fenway Parks history), Washington DC, Indiana, Milwaukee Settle (where Nirvana's surviving members were brought onstage), Quebec, San Francisco, Manitoba, and Regina.

But the tour doesn't end there! There are still three more venues McCartney and the Band have yet played, all in Japan. He will play Tokyo Dome for two nights, and Fukuoka Dome this coming November.

The main Set List for the Out There tour (varying on concerts some were not preformed) consisted of song's Paul had never preformed live with Beatles and Wings classics;

• Eight Days A Week
• Junior's Farm
• All My Loving
• Magical Mystery Tour
• Listen To What The Man Said
• Let Me Roll It 
• Foxy Lady
• Paperback Writer
• My Valentine
• Nineteen Hundred and Eighty- Five
•  The Long and Winding Road
• Maybe I'm Amazed
• Hope of Deliverance
• I've Just Seen A Face
• Things We Said Today
• Midnight Special
• San Francisco Bay Blues
• We Can Work It Out
• Another Day
• And I Love Her
• Blackbird
• Here Today
• Your Mother Should Know
• Lady Madonna
• All Together Now
• Michelle
• Lovely Rita
• Mrs Vanderbilt
• Eleanor Rigby
• Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite
• Ram On
• Something
• Obla-Di Obla-Da
• Band On The Run
• Back In The U.S.S.R
• Let It Be
• Live and Let Die
• Hey Jude
• Day Tripper
• Hi, Hi, Hi
• Cut Me Some Slack
• Birthday
• Get Back
• I Saw Her Standing There
•  Yesterday
• Mull Of Kintyre
• Long Tall Sally
• Helter Skelter
• Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/ The End 

On July 25, 2013 Rolling Stone talked to Paul McCartney with the following questions and Answers:
Have you been having a lot of fun on this tour?

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." [Ed. Note: For this song, McCartney plays the same guitar heard on the original 1966 recording.] 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.