Paul McCartney returned to Nashville with a marathon rock show
On Thursday night in Nashville, McCartney brought his Got Back tour to the new The Pinnacle concert hall for a rare, intimate performance that spanned six decades of songs — and then some.
The children sang “Hey Jude”. Middle-aged fans pumped their fists to “Jet.” And the grey-haired onlookers leaned towards “Blackbird”. Like most nights he takes the stage, the performance showed once again that McCartney didn’t write songs for a single generation—he created the soundtrack of his life.
McCartney’s one-day Nashville stop came near the midpoint of a North American run that kicked off earlier this fall in Southern California. The tour continues through the end of November, ending with two nights at the United Center in Chicago. Unlike larger venues on the tour – such as US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis and Coors Field in Denver – The Pinnacle holds a capacity of around 4,500 people, making it one of the smallest ticketed shows McCartney has played in recent memory.
And it was the long-awaited reunion between McCartney and Music City; Thursday marked his first show in Nashville since headlining Bridgestone Arena in 2014.
“Well, hello, Nashville,” McCartney said early in the night. Noting the show’s technology-free policy (concert-goers locked cell phones, smartwatches and other devices in Yondre’s cases at the event), he continued, “I think we’re going to have a little fun in this room tonight. No phones.”
Paul McCartney in Nashville
After taking the stage with a smile and a wave, McCartney and his band launched into the howling opening notes of “Help!”, a song best known to Beatles fans but new to his live show. McCartney introduced “Help!” into his setlist earlier this year and will play it in full on this tour for the first time since 1965.
The show continued as McCartney played the role of a time-traveling conductor, stopping for songs from the 1960s (such as “I’ve Just Seen A Face”), the 1970s (“Let ‘Em In”), the 1980s (“Coming Up”) and into this century (2018 Gramming Award-winning “Come On To Me” and Gramming 20th “Now and Then”).
He played the hits, of course – is it a McCartney show without singing “Maybe I’m Amazed”? – but not without discovering songs from the less traveled corners of his discography. Before “Love Me Do,” he transported the audience back to 1958 for a stripped-down rendition of “In Spite Of All The Danger,” a song recorded by McCartney’s pre-Beatles band with John Lennon and George Harrison called The Quarrymen. Moments later, he nodded to his 1970 solo album McCartney by playing a home-recorded rendition of “Every Night.”
“It’s amazing to be (on) a show like this,” McCartney said, before launching into a kaleidoscopic “Being in favor of Mr. Kite!” He continued, “We’re so in this room together.”
History of the City of Music
By playing Nashville, McCartney returns to a city with a creative history that stretches back five decades. In 1974, McCartney and his family retreated to a 133-acre farm in nearby Wilson County for six weeks, spending time with Wings rehearsing in a garage.
During his stay, McCartney wrote and recorded “Junior’s Farm”, a Wings single released later that year. According to Tennessean archives, his time in Nashville included visits with Johnny Cash and Chet Atkins, watching movies at the local movie theater and bumping into shows by Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner.
(Original Caption) Lebanon, TENN: Paul McCartney and wife Linda, living the life of country gentlemen on a farm outside of Nashville, offer a toast to the other “home people” as they prepare to end their five-week stay. McCartney spent most of his stay rehearsing with his band “Wings” and jamming with other local musicians. 7/18/1974
Bettmann Archive
I’m back to the hits
And while McCartney didn’t kick “Junior’s Farm” Thursday night, he and the band (including longtime members Wix Wickens, Rusty Anderson, Abe Laboriel Jr. and Brian Ray) still carried on the tradition of professional showmanship. The group greeted Harrison with a singalong to “Something”, jammed to Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” after a raucous rendition of “Let Me Roll It”, and channeled a Lennon video-edited voiceover during “I’ve Got A Feeling”.
The show reached its climax when McCartney went through a half hour of songs that few artists could match – “Band On The Run”, “Get Back”, “Let It Be”, “Live and Let Die” and “Hey Jude”. Running between his piano and center stage, he led an extended chant of “na, na, na, na … hey, Jude” while onlookers held up signs quoting the song’s lyrics.
After a brief departure, he and the band returned for another year, waving a pro-LGBTQ flag alongside the Tennessee state flag, the American flag and the UK flag. Encores included the fiery “Helter Skelter”, the confident “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and a medley of Abbey Road which often closes McCartney’s shows: “Golden Slumbers”, “The Weight” and “The End”. The band harmonized the last line of the night, singing, “And in the end, the love you receive is equal to the love you make.”
The best part? After more than 30 songs, he still didn’t seem ready to quit.
Before the encore, he thanked the crowd and said: “You were a fantastic crowd tonight. It was quite hot and sweaty.”