Set List critique
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audi:
The task at hand is to make 'em appreciate the more obscure songs. Clapton does that. Prince did it. Tina Turner almost always closed her concerts with a new song from her latest album at the time, which always went over well. Therefore, are we supposed to accept a false notion that Paul McCartney's audiences are, comparatively, less musically intelligent? Not this fan.
But that task needs some kind of ... altruist/indie whatever the word attitude Paul don't have now. Well, he's having it now a bit more than some years before, cause Temporary Secretary would be kind of a impossible, science fiction thing some years ago. It's not the audiences but the artist. In my last Elton show he just played a couple of songs written after... 1985. lol, now that's going back through the mist of time... But I see your point, will Paul sell less tickets if he plays less hits???? I don't know cause I'm not a marketing expert (in spite of having a degree!). But I don't think people checks much the setlists before going to see an artist... Springsteen has changed recently from doing shows of kind of 80% random obscure 20% hits to mostly hits, and from what I know the audience size is kind of the same. Do most of the people really care of what they play as the long as the star is there on the stage??? Maybe some things as appearing on the news because of getting married/divorced, into hospital, etc have way bigger more importance at ticket sales than setlists. ... To make it more complicated.... Paul has HUGE hits that he almosts never plays live anyway!. Hope Of Deliverance is like the biggest single ever in Germany or so and Mull Of Kyntire is kind of the same in the UK. Yet he does way most of the shows in Germany and UK with no signs of those songs. Now... only Paul CAN DO THAT. Being the writer, singer of the biggest hits in some country, doing a concert there, and not playing it. Maybe he just wants to make them appreciate the more obscure songs like Eleanor Rigby, Golden Slumbers, etc.
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Let's look at the songs that do NOT appeal to the so called "Beatles/Seeing a Legend" crowd. Current set list Save Us Temporary Secretary My Valentine 1985 Here Today Queenie Eye New FourFiveSeconds If you could the Golden Slumbers Melody as one song, then that makes 8/36 (22%) songs geared towards Solo Macca fans. I would even argue that songs like "Letting Go, Let Me Roll It, Hi Hi Hi, and In Spite of All the Danger" are also songs that the "Beatle/seeing A Legend" audience doesn't really care about as well. So, you could say 22-33% of the show is directed at fans of solo Paul. Is that enough? My first instinct is to say no, but then I looked at it this way What if Paul changed all 12 of those songs and replaced them with songs like these I Can Bet, Appreciate, Early Days, Fine Line, The World Tonight, Take It Away, etc? Would that satisfy most fans?
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To play Silly Love Songs, With A Little Luck, My Brave Face, Hope Of Deliverance, Take It Away is not "playing less hits." Those WERE hit songs.
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Macca84:
Let's look at the songs that do NOT appeal to the so called "Beatles/Seeing a Legend" crowd. Current set list: Save Us Temporary Secretary My Valentine 1985 Here Today Queenie Eye New FourFiveSeconds If you could the Golden Slumbers Melody as one song, then that makes 8/36 (22%) songs geared towards Solo Macca fans. I would even argue that songs like "Letting Go, Let Me Roll It, Hi Hi Hi, and In Spite of All the Danger" are also songs that the "Beatle/seeing A Legend" audience doesn't really care about as well. So, you could say 22-33% of the show is directed at fans of solo Paul. Is that enough? My first instinct is to say no, but then I looked at it this way: What if Paul changed all 12 of those songs and replaced them with songs like these: I Can Bet, Appreciate, Early Days, Fine Line, The World Tonight, Take It Away, etc? Would that satisfy most fans?
It's more an attitude thing as well. All these songs you mention are sandwiched in between huge Beatles songs in the early set. 'Save Us', 'Queenie Eye' and 'New' are there only because it's his "gotta force myself to play something of the latest release"-believes. 'My Valentine', while I love it, is there because he can sing it for his wife. 'Here Today' is only there because of the Lennon-connection. It's all part of the earlier mentioned structure of his current tours. Now, 'Temporary Secretary' counts, but he introduces it as some black sheep he's sorry for playing ("it might get a little bit dark"). 'FourFiveSeconds' was one of the biggest songs of 2015 and is hardly throwing the fans a bone. The only "bold" thing in his current set is 'Temporary Secretary', regardless of the place in the set and the introduction, and 'Hi Hi Hi' in the encore. That would've been impossible before 2010. And it's a blessing that 'Nineteen Hundred And Eighty-Five' stuck around for 6 full years now, that's an absolute blessing. So that are 3 songs in an almost 3 hour long set. I must have posted this 50 times in the past years, but really... We all know his shows are targeted at the general Beatles audience. I never ever heard anyone from that target audience complain about 'Mrs. Vandebilt' ("Kiev"), or him telling about why he's playing that, or about 'Letting Go'. Or about 'Nineteen Hundred And Eighty-Five', or about 'New', and so on. His crowd doesn't need to be spoon-fed, ffs. For the same reason that I also never heard anyone from that crowd complain he didn't play 'Get Back'/'I Saw Her Standing There', 'Penny Lane', and so on. We aren't saying he should have a 45-minute 'Rushes'-block. He could easily tell a similar story - if you have to "sell" the songs like he tries to - about a deeper cut from 'Ram'. Some people in the crowd will like it, some people won't. And onto the next song. It's a gig. He could have the general audience just as happy as now, and his fans ecstatic that way. edit: "Kiev" belongs to 'Vandebilt', not 'Letting Go', of course.
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nobodytoldme:
Macca84:
Let's look at the songs that do NOT appeal to the so called "Beatles/Seeing a Legend" crowd. Current set list: Save Us Temporary Secretary My Valentine 1985 Here Today Queenie Eye New FourFiveSeconds If you could the Golden Slumbers Melody as one song, then that makes 8/36 (22%) songs geared towards Solo Macca fans. I would even argue that songs like "Letting Go, Let Me Roll It, Hi Hi Hi, and In Spite of All the Danger" are also songs that the "Beatle/seeing A Legend" audience doesn't really care about as well. So, you could say 22-33% of the show is directed at fans of solo Paul. Is that enough? My first instinct is to say no, but then I looked at it this way: What if Paul changed all 12 of those songs and replaced them with songs like these: I Can Bet, Appreciate, Early Days, Fine Line, The World Tonight, Take It Away, etc? Would that satisfy most fans?
It's more an attitude thing as well. All these songs you mention are sandwiched in between huge Beatles songs in the early set. 'Save Us', 'Queenie Eye' and 'New' are there only because it's his "gotta force myself to play something of the latest release"-believes. 'My Valentine', while I love it, is there because he can sing it for his wife. 'Here Today' is only there because of the Lennon-connection. It's all part of the earlier mentioned structure of his current tours. Now, 'Temporary Secretary' counts, but he introduces it as some black sheep he's sorry for playing ("it might get a little bit dark"). 'FourFiveSeconds' was one of the biggest songs of 2015 and is hardly throwing the fans a bone. The only "bold" thing in his current set is 'Temporary Secretary', regardless of the place in the set and the introduction, and 'Hi Hi Hi' in the encore. That would've been impossible before 2010. And it's a blessing that 'Nineteen Hundred And Eighty-Five' stuck around for 6 full years now, that's an absolute blessing. So that are 3 songs in an almost 3 hour long set. I must have posted this 50 times in the past years, but really... We all know his shows are targeted at the general Beatles audience. I never ever heard anyone from that target audience complain about 'Mrs. Vandebilt', or him telling about why he's playing that, or about 'Letting Go' ('Kiev'). Or about 'Nineteen Hundred And Eighty-Five', or about 'New', and so on. His crowd doesn't need to be spoon-fed, ffs. For the same reason that I also never heard anyone from that crowd complain he didn't play 'Get Back'/'I Saw Her Standing There', 'Penny Lane', and so on. We aren't saying he should have a 45-minute 'Rushes'-block. He could easily tell a similar story - if you have to "sell" the songs like he tries to - about a deeper cut from 'Ram'. Some people in the crowd will like it, some people won't. And onto the next song. It's a gig. He could have the general audience just as happy as now, and his fans ecstatic that way.
Good points.
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Surprised to see "Jet" in the encore for Night #2 in Argentina.
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Macca84:
Let's look at the songs that do NOT appeal to the so called "Beatles/Seeing a Legend" crowd. Current set list: Save Us Temporary Secretary My Valentine 1985 Here Today Queenie Eye New FourFiveSeconds If you could the Golden Slumbers Melody as one song, then that makes 8/36 (22%) songs geared towards Solo Macca fans. I would even argue that songs like "Letting Go, Let Me Roll It, Hi Hi Hi, and In Spite of All the Danger" are also songs that the "Beatle/seeing A Legend" audience doesn't really care about as well. So, you could say 22-33% of the show is directed at fans of solo Paul. Is that enough? My first instinct is to say no, but then I looked at it this way: What if Paul changed all 12 of those songs and replaced them with songs like these: I Can Bet, Appreciate, Early Days, Fine Line, The World Tonight, Take It Away, etc? Would that satisfy most fans?
You've touched on a key point. Instead of replacing expendable songs with previously used expendable songs, he should put more songs like "Take It Away," "I Can Bet," "About You," "Beautiful Night" and "That Was Me" in those slots. We really didn't need a revival of "In Spite Of All The Danger."
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audi:
Macca84:
Let's look at the songs that do NOT appeal to the so called "Beatles/Seeing a Legend" crowd. Current set list: Save Us Temporary Secretary My Valentine 1985 Here Today Queenie Eye New FourFiveSeconds If you could the Golden Slumbers Melody as one song, then that makes 8/36 (22%) songs geared towards Solo Macca fans. I would even argue that songs like "Letting Go, Let Me Roll It, Hi Hi Hi, and In Spite of All the Danger" are also songs that the "Beatle/seeing A Legend" audience doesn't really care about as well. So, you could say 22-33% of the show is directed at fans of solo Paul. Is that enough? My first instinct is to say no, but then I looked at it this way: What if Paul changed all 12 of those songs and replaced them with songs like these: I Can Bet, Appreciate, Early Days, Fine Line, The World Tonight, Take It Away, etc? Would that satisfy most fans?
You've touched on a key point. Instead of replacing expendable songs with previously used expendable songs, he should put more songs like "Take It Away," "I Can Bet," "About You," "Beautiful Night" and "That Was Me" in those slots. We really didn't need a revival of "In Spite Of All The Danger."
It works fantastic though. Such a key point in his career, not played in 11 years, he's doing the solo himself for the first time, brilliant. But... you can have that AND cutting out 'Mr. Kite', 'Save Us', 'Let Me Roll It' for earlier mentioned songs.
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Oy vey... :
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"In Spite" is a boring dirge. Anything but that. He revives it to let us all fathom the gravity of him playing the first recording the prefabs made...Wow! Objectively it's tripe.
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RMartinez:
To play Silly Love Songs, With A Little Luck, My Brave Face, Hope Of Deliverance, Take It Away is not "playing less hits." Those WERE hit songs.
that was kind of one of my points... those are biggest hits than many Beatle songs he plays. Or even bigger than most of the Beatle songs he plays.
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21st Century Paul:
RMartinez:
To play Silly Love Songs, With A Little Luck, My Brave Face, Hope Of Deliverance, Take It Away is not "playing less hits." Those WERE hit songs.
that was kind of one of my points... those are biggest hits than many Beatle songs he plays. Or even bigger than most of the Beatle songs he plays.
Muy bien!
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RMartinez:
21st Century Paul:
RMartinez:
To play Silly Love Songs, With A Little Luck, My Brave Face, Hope Of Deliverance, Take It Away is not "playing less hits." Those WERE hit songs.
that was kind of one of my points... those are biggest hits than many Beatle songs he plays. Or even bigger than most of the Beatle songs he plays.
Muy bien!
Mr Kite is anything but a hit ,
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audi:
The key of A is Macca's sweet spot.
Paul said the A chord is his fav one. You know that the hardest notes for a singer are the transition ones. And the key of the songs kind of makes a song harder or easier by avoiding those notes or not. (Ask the opera guys about this!) People think that the higher the notes, the harder. That's only true until a singer is really great. Then it's all the notes where your voice naturally can break, and they stay there no matter how good a singer is. I can't remember those notes for Paul now, but it's the d4-g4 zone. I think f4 is the hardest note for Paul and the A key avoids it. If u listen to "isolated vocals" tracks you can notice Paul voice breaks in the studio in Beatle and solo tracks. They're little breaks/cracks, unlike this: Jose Carreras "the most technical opera singer"
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21st Century Paul:
RMartinez:
21st Century Paul:
RMartinez:
To play Silly Love Songs, With A Little Luck, My Brave Face, Hope Of Deliverance, Take It Away is not "playing less hits." Those WERE hit songs.
that was kind of one of my points... those are biggest hits than many Beatle songs he plays. Or even bigger than most of the Beatle songs he plays.
Muy bien!
Mr Kite is anything but a hit ,
Yeah. I get it, hombre, you love Paul no matter what he does. I don't share your devotion.
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RMartinez:
21st Century Paul:
RMartinez:
21st Century Paul:
RMartinez:
To play Silly Love Songs, With A Little Luck, My Brave Face, Hope Of Deliverance, Take It Away is not "playing less hits." Those WERE hit songs.
that was kind of one of my points... those are biggest hits than many Beatle songs he plays. Or even bigger than most of the Beatle songs he plays.
Muy bien!
Mr Kite is anything but a hit ,
Yeah. I get it, hombre, you love Paul no matter what he does. I don't share your devotion.
Then why are you here? The man is living history, not just a 73 year old rock star selling out stadiums. He and three other guys from Liverpool changed the world. That is why he still does this. Because it matters to people, that's why!
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Actually, Elvis was the one who changed the world. The Beatles took it to the next level.
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beatlesfanrandy:
RMartinez:
21st Century Paul:
RMartinez:
21st Century Paul:
RMartinez:
To play Silly Love Songs, With A Little Luck, My Brave Face, Hope Of Deliverance, Take It Away is not "playing less hits." Those WERE hit songs.
that was kind of one of my points... those are biggest hits than many Beatle songs he plays. Or even bigger than most of the Beatle songs he plays.
Muy bien!
Mr Kite is anything but a hit ,
Yeah. I get it, hombre, you love Paul no matter what he does. I don't share your devotion.
Then why are you here? The man is living history, not just a 73 year old rock star selling out stadiums. He and three other guys from Liverpool changed the world. That is why he still does this. Because it matters to people, that's why!
Because I feel like it. That's why.
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RMartinez:
21st Century Paul:
RMartinez:
21st Century Paul:
RMartinez:
To play Silly Love Songs, With A Little Luck, My Brave Face, Hope Of Deliverance, Take It Away is not "playing less hits." Those WERE hit songs.
that was kind of one of my points... those are biggest hits than many Beatle songs he plays. Or even bigger than most of the Beatle songs he plays.
Muy bien!
Mr Kite is anything but a hit ,
Yeah. I get it, hombre, you love Paul no matter what he does. I don't share your devotion.
No, not true, I don't like the New album at all, for instance. After having writing like 16000 posts here, my points of view about Paul should be proved enough... Right now, I'm going to his Madrid show in June 2nd and I'm quite upset of how hard has been to know the hour the concert starts!.
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audi:
Actually, Elvis was the one who changed the world. The Beatles took it to the next level.
Well, the world has been changed since it begun to exist. The Beatles caused the best change of them all. And Elvis was pretty much about changing the USA, and believe it or not, the USA is not the world, not even close!.