Tripping the Live Fantastic: Highlights!

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Paul McCartney

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Paul McCartney's 1989-90 world tour was an absolute triumph, and this CD is the documentation of that fact. Paul himself hadn't played for a live American audience in 14 years, and it was 10 years before that since the Beatles stopped touring, so this tour was played to a hungrily enthusiastic audience, and that comes across loud and clear on this recording.

Roughly half the tracks here are Beatles tunes, including songs like "Birthday", "Back in the USSR", "Hey Jude", "Get Back", "Let it Be" and the concluding Abbey Road medley, that had never been performed live. This album is an absolute feast for Beatles fans.

Wings material is less well represented, sticking mainly to the mega-hits like "Band on the Run", "Jet" and "Live and Let Die".

The tour also functioned as a pretty good advertisement for the then-new "Flowers in the Dirt" CD; the six tracks presented here are well selected to highlight the strengths of that album. I especially like "Put it There", "We Got Married" and "This One".

The CD does a good job of capturing the band's energy and the crowd's enthusiasm. The setlist is heavier with rock-n-roll numbers like "I Saw Her Standing There", "Can't Buy Me Love", "Birthday", "Get Back" etc. than one might expect at first blush from McCartney, given his reputation for ballads, and the band plays several lengthy jams (see especially "Sgt Pepper").

The sing-along on "Hey Jude" is one of the great concert moments ever; it is representative of a phenomenon that was striking if you had the opportunity to attend one of the concerts from this tour in person - especially on the Beatles tunes, but also several of the others, you heard the band with one ear, and with the other, you heard 20,000 people singing along. The affection between Paul and his audience was palpable, and that comes through very well here.

There is precious little of the Beatles music available in live recording, and this CD helps fill that gap, but really, it stands on its own merit as a wonderful CD, and a great record of a great concert tour.

This two disc set, like Paul's career, has moments of brilliance and moments of banality.

The Good:

Hearing Beatles songs performed live by the man himself made for an incredible live concert. To be a part of an audience of tens of thousands singing every word in unison was an amazing gestalt experience. The same can be said of a few of the popular post-Beatles songs (feeling the explosions during Live and Let Die was just about worth the price of admission alone). In addition, the band Paul assembled for this tour was tight, professional and up to the challenge of reproducing three decades of musical styles. They also knew how to stay out of Paul's way when singing back-up vocals (though this wasn't always necessarily a good thing - see below).

As for the disc itself - the production values are great. You'll feel like you're sitting in the front row, or in some cases right on stage.

The Bad:

Unfortunately, the crowd's excitement was absent during the "Flowers in the Dirt" tracks. While taken from a competent album, they don't have the same resonance as did the great Fab Four classics, and this comes through on the recording as well.

Also, sadly lacking from the album is Paul's wonderful song medley tribute to John Lennon. Hearing Paul take the lead on some his mate's great songs was perhaps the great emotional center of the concert experience, and the decision to leave them off the album is puzzling.

The Ugly:

Two words: Paul's voice. It has simply never recovered from the shredding it experienced during his first great live tour, "Wings Over America." Listen to pre-'76 and post-'76 Paul for evidence. This damage, combined with the effects of aging, has given his voice the rough quality he once wished for when recording "Oh! Darling." Regretfully, it is not a good roughness. Those who are used to hearing his beautiful crystal-clear tones on Beatles recordings will find only a shadow of their previous glory. While this fact was somewhat disguised during the live performance, it is painfully revealed in the unforgiving digital clarity of the compact disc.

The Verdict:

If you attended the concert, and want an audio keepsake of the experience, then definitely buy it. If you are a Beatles and/or Paul fan (as am I), buy it, but keep expectations reasonable. If your interest in Paul or the Beatles is casual, there are better discs to invest in.

(P.S. the above critique applies almost word-for-word to the follow-up "Paul is Live" from his later New World Tour. Of the two, this is the better.)