Observations on seeing Paul McCartney

1. Many of the best songs were from his solo or Wings period, especially those designed to be played live, and designed to work without the backing voices of the other Beatles.

2. The first two-thirds of the concert pulled out an impressive number of obscure songs, most of which worked, including a bluesy “Letting Go” (can anyone other than Kelly Jane Torrance place that one without using Google?).  Paul flat out told the crowd he doesn’t care if they like these other songs less.

3. Often the best Beatle song vocals were Paul doing either John or George parts, because you didn’t know exactly what to expect and thus you were let down less by his 74-year-old vocal cords.

4. His stamina was remarkable.  The show was almost three hours long, with little in the way of breaks for him, and he is playing two nights in a row.

5. At the time of its release, “Hi Hi Hi” seemed like a commercial piece of crud, but it has become iconic and satellite radio treats it with respect as well.

6. Paul has been with his current touring band for fifteen years, far longer than he ever was with either Wings or the Beatles.

7. There is a fellow who collects “album covers that are parodies of Beatle album covers,” and he has over 2,000 of them.  How is that for markets in everything?