Paul McCartney
Allianz Stadium – Sydney
27 October 2023
You forget.
You really do.
You forget how many great songs Paul McCartney has written.
But don’t worry. He reminds you how many songs he has written during the night. He doesn’t just give you hits (although you get plenty of those – Sgt Peppers, Can’t Buy Me Love, Jet, Band On The Run… I could go on …) he also gives you a selection of songs throughout his long and varied career.
It would have been easy to just play a bunch of Beatles songs and a bunch of Wings songs, but he does more than that. What you do get is a proper band playing a set with ebbs and flows. He says that he can tell when we like a song because all our phones come out and it looks like he’s playing to a galaxy of stars. But when he plays a new one it’s like playing into a black hole. He sort of jokes, that he doesn’t care because he’s going to play the new ones anyway. Who is complaining? One of the best songwriters of the 20th century can basically do no wrong. He has written so many great songs in so many different styles that even his new songs are still better than most other artists hits.
You also forget how long he’s been doing this. He started the Beatles with John Lennon when he was 15 (which was 65 years ago). So, he knows what he is doing. He knows how to hold a crowd.
High points? There are so many. The encore opened with a virtual duet of I’ve Got A Feeling between him and John. That’s the closet most of us will ever get to see the Beatles perform. Just hearing their voices together was an emotional moment.
Hey Jude was a communal experience. The song is potentially dulled by familiarity, but it lost none of its power when sung with a chorus of 40,000 people. It felt as fresh as the day it was written. Magical.
Get Back was another highlight. The documentary of the making of the Let it Be album “Get Back” might actually be the best music film of all time. Seeing Paul McCartney seemingly create the song out of thin air right before your eyes is a literal jaw dropping moment. A whole essay could be written about that one scene. So, to see it performed live was incredible.
And then there was the tribute to George Harrison with Something or there was Jet… or Maybe I’m Amazed… or Blackbird… or…, well, you get the idea.
The set ends with the 3 song suite from Abbey Road and you’re reminded “oh yeah, I forgot he wrote those too”. They might not be as high profile as some of the other songs in his catalogue, but they’re all great. Isn’t everything?
I’m left with one final thought. After we’re all long gone and forgotten, Paul McCartney and his songs, definitely won’t be.
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