Paul McCartney 2022 Set List

[LC]

I'm taking my two daughters to see Sir Paul this week. So naturally, I wanted to see what he's playing. This seems to be the regular set list on his "Got Back" tour: 

1. Can't Buy Me Love (Beatles)

2. Junior's Farm (Wings)

3. Letting Go (Wings)

4. Got to Get You Into My Life (Beatoes)

5. Come on to Me

6. Let Me Roll It (Wings)

7. Getting Better (Beatles)

8. Let 'em In (Wings)

9. My Valentine

10. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-FIve (Wings)

11. Maybe I'm Amazed

12. I've Just Seen a Face (Beatles)

13. In Spite of All the Danger (Quarrymen)

14. Love Me Do (Beatles)

15. Dance Tonight

16. Blackbird (Beatles)

17. Here Today

18. New

19. Lady Madonna (Beatles)

20. Fuh You

21. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite (Beatles)

22. Something (Beatles)

23. Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da (Beatles)

24. You Never Give Me Your Money (Beatles)

25. She Came In Through the Bathroom Window (Beatles)

26. Get Back (Beatles)

27. Band on the Run (Wings)

28. Let It Be (Beatles)

29. Live and Let Die (Wings)

30. Hey Jude (Beatles)

ENCORES

31. I've Got a Feeling (Beatles)

32. Birthday (Beatles)

33. Helter Skelter (Beatles)

34. Golden Slumbers (Beatles)

35. Carry That Weight (Beatles)

36. The End (Beatles)

 

[LC]

I love it, yet I can't help but add my two cents. If Paul were to call me and ask me to edit his set list, I would say: 

For starters, Paul, the first song you should have inked on your list is "Yesterday." I know you've played it a million times, but it brings tears to thousands of people who hear you play it. So that should have been a gimme. (He didn't play it on his "Freshen Up" tour, either.) 

"The Long and Winding Road" should have been the second song you inked on your set list. More tears and emotion from all of us who've been on such a road.

I also feel like "All My Loving" and "Eleanor Rigby" need to be here. So does "Penny Lane." And where there's "Penny Lane," I like hearing "Fool on the Hill."  

And I would kill to hear you do "Mull of Kintyre" live. Ditto for "Too Many People." A couple of nice curveballs would be "Martha My Dear" and "Driving Rain." And from Revolver, I loved when you used to play "Here There and Everywhere." And I think "For No One" should have had a place.

Going way back, how about "I Saw Her Standing There" and "I'm Down." And "Baby's in Black." 

Also, "Sing the Changes" plays really well live. "Queenie Eye," too. And "The Song We Were Singing." 

And how could you omit "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"? 

Shoot, that's 20 additional songs. I don't know if I could cut 20 from the list above. But I would start with "Love Me Do," "Fuh You," "New" "Dance Tonight," "Ob-La-Di," and "Come On to Me." And maybe cut three of the four "let" songs. Keep "Let It Be," but omit "Letting Go," "Let Me Roll It," and "Let 'em In." (I'd say cut "Valentine," too, but I know that's a keeper because it's dedicated to your wife.)

Well, that's nine cuts. So you'll just have to increase the set list from 36 songs to 47. Doable? 

[James]

Impressive he has the stamina to put on a show that long, Wow.

I love Junior's Farm at #2.

My additions would be "Beware My Love", "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" and "Venus & Mars / Rock Show".

Have a blast LC!

[LC]

Thanks, James. Good calls on your three additions—especially "Beware My Love." That's an often-overlooked gem within the McC catalog. 

[Raspbernie]

I'm sure you and your kids will have a blast, LC. I mean, it's Paul, right? But with that said, the show does have several integrated "grab a cold one"/bathroom breaks:

Come on to Me
My Valentine
Dance Tonight
Fuh You

 

[Lew Bundles]

I’m going next week to NJ…(Bernie, have you changed your mind?)…
LC…Queenie Eye was in the initial set list for earlier performances, but I don’t know what happened to it…I‘ve Just Seen A Face occasionally gets replaced with We Can Work It Out while Let Em In has become a permanent replacement for Woman and Wives.,,

Yesterday is out(possible vocal struggles)? And Back In The USSR was scratched because of the Ukraine situation…

[LC]

Good stuff, Sweet Lew! I thought I remembered seeing "Queenie Eye" in a set list at the very start....

Are you offering to bring Bernie as your guest? (Good strategy toward moderator mission....)

[Raspbernie]

Saw him plenty of times when he was great, including once in second row center. I was so close, the “Live and Let Die” flame throwers singed my eyebrows.

[LC]

I'm expecting more deterioration in the vocal ability but... I'm allowing for it because this living legend is 79 years old. I know he won't sound like the Shea Stadium,  "Wings Over America," or even "Driving Rain" Paul. But he's got amazing energy, a timeless catalog, and a killer band, all of which keep the quality level high. So the one question will be: How will the voice hold up? When he does "Maybe I'm Amazed," he won't be hitting those high notes he always nailed, and on things like "Let It Be," we'll hear the years. But... it'll still be something to see the man live.  🙂

[Raspbernie]

It will certainly be cool to see him duet with John on "I've Got A Feeling." But it's just not enough for me to spring for (high-priced) tickets.

[Vinnie B Trask]

On 6/6/2022 at 10:44 PM, LC said:

I love it, yet I can't help but add my two cents. If Paul were to call me and ask me to edit his set list, I would say: 

For starters, Paul, the first song you should have inked on your list is "Yesterday." I know you've played it a million times, but it brings tears to thousands of people who hear you play it. 

Paul can't do Yesterday anymore. It relies too much on lead vocals which he has lost 4 or 5 years ago and is at its worst here at age 80.

Paul is compelled to do at least some newer non Beatle stuff so it is hard to please everyone with the set list so he pleases himself.

I love Paul but his voice is no more so his shows are weak(vocally speaking)

[Vinnie B Trask]

Paul is not worth seeing at these prices.

Cheating his audience,

[Raspbernie]

Ouch.

[Vinnie B Trask]

LC,

Enjoy the show the music is great, the songs are classic, and Paul will go down as the greatest pop rock artist of all time. I do not think Paul will tour again.

[Rhonda B]

13 hours ago, LC said:

I'm expecting more deterioration in the vocal ability but... I'm allowing for it because this living legend is 79 years old. I know he won't sound like the Shea Stadium,  "Wings Over America," or even "Driving Rain" Paul. But he's got amazing energy, a timeless catalog, and a killer band, all of which keep the quality level high. So the one question will be: How will the voice hold up? When he does "Maybe I'm Amazed," he won't be hitting those high notes he always nailed, and on things like "Let It Be," we'll hear the years. But... it'll still be something to see the man live.  🙂

This will be awesome for you and your daughters ...just the experience alone. Can't wait to hear the reviews. Enjoy!!

[Kirk]

That actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Would it hurt him to use an autotune mic?

[Raspbernie]

Was wondering that myself, Kirk. There's a whole lot of options to help him sound great, but I guess Paul's from a different generation. Plus he actually *had* talent, which might make him less interested in augmenting his performance artificially.

Just read an article that once again suggests that nearly ALL of Paul Stanley's vocals for KISS live shows are pre-recorded. He just shouts the obligatory, "How ya doin', Cleveland?" Once the songs starts he's just mouthing the words.

Here's a video from a recent show where the drummer plays an extra couple of beats, which puts Paul's vocal track off sync. If happens around the :15 second mark. You can hear Paul Stanley's vocals and he's not singing at the microphone. Haha.

 

[James]

I like Kiss, but that´s gonna make me think again. Kinda fraudulent. Though I guess when we created the slippery slope of lip syncing on tv, and then "producing" live albums via additions and subtractions to/from the actual show....this Paul Stanley type of thing is almost to be expected.

Also if the video of Paul McCartney singing "Maybe I´m Amazed" last month live is representative of how he´s singing on this tour, if he were my friend and asked my advice, I´d have told him not to tour anymore.

[Vinnie B Trask]

Paul has earned the right to play anytime and anywhere he wants to play because he is the great and mighty Paul Mccartney. He will know when to hang it up when the fans do not pay to seem him. That may never happen,

It has been clear for some time that Paul is not continuing his career for money anyway!

 

 

[Lew Bundles]

Just shy of 80, Paul McCartney goes back — all the way back

The Beatle's first of a two-show stint at Fenway traced his career from his earliest days, but with no hint of slowing down.

By Christopher Gavin

June 8, 2022

Paul McCartney may be feeling nostalgic, if not sentimental.

For one of rock’s remaining forebears though, this can be hard to gauge.

McCartney, who turns 80 on June 18, has been performing for well over three-quarters of his life in front of audiences in sweaty — and sometimes outright makeshift — venues in his native Liverpool and stadiums and arenas the world over.

And despite his revered musical acumen that helped raise and push the second wave of rock ‘n’ roll to become a lasting and liberated art form, rather than a culture-shock blip fueled by teenage fantasy, too often overlooked in today’s rearview is McCartney’s sheer prowess for performance.

Simply put, the guy knew — and still knows — what the fans want. Whether it’s what the man himself wants to play is altogether a different matter.

Yet, there could be something a bit more personal, a bit more tender than just playing the hits behind Macca’s latest run — aptly named the “Got Back” tour, which pulled into Fenway Park on Tuesday and returns Wednesday night.

Beatle buzz is common anytime McCartney or Ringo Starr hit the road. But this latest slate of shows — yes, they’re both currently on tour (Ringo just played the Boch Center last week) — comes on the heels of “Get Back,” the Peter Jackson-directed film released on Disney+ late last year, offering fans a fuller-picture of the band’s previously notorious sessions that would culminate in Let It Be.

At Fenway on Tuesday night, McCartney rolled through a 36-song, career-spanning set, book-ended with Beatle classics “Can’t Buy Me Love” and the encore-closing “The End,” which capped off the medley fading out 1969’s Abbey Road.

In between was a musical mosaic reminding us why McCartney remains one of the genre’s most colorful pioneers, laced with plenty of his distorted treble shouts and punctuated with his tactful “Yeahs” — outbursts forever reminiscent of an idol, Little Richard.

When the band cracked open “Let Me Roll It,” from his Wings-backed 1973 release “Band on the Run,” McCartney strapped on a Les Paul to play the cutting guitar riff as if to prove he’s no octogenarian. And bolstered by his longtime and formidable backing band, McCartney can still hit those Everly Brothers-seasoned harmonies ever-present in his cataolog.

When a sign by a fan wishing him an early happy 80th birthday caught his eye, he quipped, “Who’s that?”

Indeed McCartney’s current setlist, stacked with a handful of more recent works — including “Fuh You,” off of 2018’s Egypt Station — shows he has no interest in being penned into the 1960s and ’70s. (Still globe trotting, McCartney is no Elvis in Vegas). 

And he’s well aware of what his audience thinks about that.

“We can tell what songs you like,” he told the crowd late into his set, which ran just over two-and-a-half hours long.

When Beatles hits fired through the speakers, out came a sea of phones from the audience, McCartney explained. He likened the view to a “galaxy of stars.”

When the newer songs came out, though, there was a “black hole,” he said.

“But we don’t care,” he continued. “We’ll do them anyway.”

Paul McCartney in concert at Fenway Park. (Barry Chin/Globe Staff ) 

But it’s hard to shake a feeling that McCartney, now late in his life, is more acutely aware of his career’s glorious arc, or maybe just accentuating it a tad more. 

An undeniable living legend, McCartney has likely had to reckon with his public perception as an untouchable artist the likes of a modern Beethoven, rather than a boy who struck gold in a dreary, working-class city on England’s outer shores.

“In that little port, there were these four guys who got together, formed a band, and ended up doing quite well for themselves,” McCartney told the crowd Tuesday.

Next month marks the 65th anniversary of when a 15-year-old McCartney met John Lennon, joining the latter’s folksy, thorny, and completely homespun musical group, The Quarry Men.

The following year, as McCartney explained, the five-member group that would someday shrink and evolve into the Beatles scraped together £5 to cut their first record, a lone 78 rpm disc the boys passed around by the week. (John “Duff” Lowe kept the pressing for some 20-odd years before McCartney bought it off of him, with Lowe making “quite a considerable profit,” McCartney quipped.)

With a Martin acoustic guitar, McCartney brought back his boyhood as he played that track. Written with George Harrison, “In Spite of All the Danger” is an Elvis-heavy, adolescent plea to take on life’s toughest challenges — “anything you want me to” — for the sake of a relationship.

McCartney’s mighty back-up band joined him downstage for the toned-down performance. Behind them stood a backdrop of a tin-roofed shack plucked out of 1950s southern America, suggesting a juke joint or front-porch affair that birthed the music that would roll into one large lump the Brits called “skiffle,” and hand the Beatles the match to set the world on fire with rock ‘n’ roll.

At other times, McCartney, standing in Beatle boots, vest, and drainpipe pants, told stories about landing the group’s first recording contract and putting “Love Me Do” to tape, admitting he can still hear the nerves in his voice on the song’s solo refrain to this day.

His late bandmates got nods with a ukulele-led cover of Harrison’s “Something” and a rendition of “Here Today,” the letter-in-song McCartney wrote to Lennon after the latter was killed in 1980.

Offering some advice, McCartney told the audience to never pass up a moment to tell someone you love them.

When he wrapped “Maybe I’m Amazed” from McCartney, his first solo venture in 1970, McCartney pointed out an image of him and his then-infant daughter, Mary, that flashed above him on a giant monitor, taken from the album’s back cover.

Mary, he said, now has four kids of her own.

“How time flies,” he said with an air of disbelief not lost on the legions of grandparents that packed the house. “Maybe I’m amazed!”

Living a lifetime in showbiz, McCartney is beginning to — finally — look a bit more his age, after all.

His eyes are a bit more tired, though in year three of the COVID-19 pandemic, he’s certainly not alone. He’s embraced his grays more in recent years. He wears them well and they’re still a bit moppy. In the breeze at Fenway, it’s hard to not conjure a squint-and-you-may-see-it vision of the much-younger man who stood in the January chilly air on a London rooftop all those winters ago.

Of course, with the Jackson film this past year, songs like “Get Back” have a renewed flair and remain dumbfoundedly accessible across the generations assembled in McCartney’s audience. And a late-set run of Beatles hits, from “You Never Give Me Your Money” to “Let It Be,” cranked up an electric jolt needed for the rather sleepy mid-week crowd that welcomed McCartney back to Boston on Tuesday. (Notably, however, signs spelling out “We love you Paul” wrapped the grandstand earlier in the night, causing the rocker to stop to “drink it all in for myself.”)

Abundantly clear is that the beating heart of McCartney’s career will forever be that storied collaboration with Lennon — two friends whose ambitions and humor carried them into the stratosphere of stardom and have now shaped more than half a century of popular culture.

Like the quintessential core of the “Get Back” sessions — intended to capture the band in a rootsy-er, less glammed-out version — it’s clear McCartney is not interested in myth making, but rather something more pure, more innocent, as the Beatles at their best will always be.

His encore opener plays it straight. Using isolated vocals and video from the rooftop concert produced by Jackson, McCartney duets, virtually at least, with Lennon for the first time in decades on Let It Be’s “I’ve Got A Feeling,” with Lennon’s line “Everybody had a hard year” ringing a bit more true during this pandemic.

“That’s beautiful for me,” McCartney said, summing it up afterwards. “Together again.”

Perhaps even more fitting is McCartney’s full-throated bridge:

All these years, I’ve been wanderin’ around

Wonderin’ how come nobody told me

All that I been lookin’ for was somebody who looked like you

For a few minutes, together, the two boys from Liverpool sang across the ages, one on a screen high above and immortalized in long-haired youth, uncertain where that wild ride would take them all next.

Below him stood McCartney, wearing all the life Lennon never got to embrace, but still left pondering about £5 recording sessions, a high school band, and the music he made with his friend.

All these years, indeed.

Setlist:

1. Can’t Buy Me Love
2. Junior’s Farm
3. Letting Go
4. Got to Get You into My Life
5. Come on to Me
6. Let Me Roll It (with Jimi Hendrix, Foxy Lady tribute)
7. Getting Better
8. Let ‘Em In
9. My Valentine
10. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
11. Maybe I’m Amazed
12. I’ve Just Seen a Face
13. In Spite of All the Danger
14. Love Me Do
15. Dance Tonight
16. Blackbird
17. Here Today
18. New
19. Lady Madonna
20. Fuh You
21. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite
22. Something
23. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
24. You Never Give Me Your Money
25. She Came in Through the Bathroom Window
26. Get Back
27. Band on the Run
28. Let It Be
29. Live and Let Die
30. Hey Jude

Encore
1. I’ve Got a Feeling (virtual duet with John Lennon)
2. Birthday
3. Helter Skelter
4. Golden Slumbers
5. Carry That Weight
6. The End

Paul McCartney plays his second night at Fenway Park on Wednesday, June 8.

https://www.boston.com/culture/concerts/2022/06/08/review-setlist-just-shy-of-80-paul-mccartney-goes-back-all-the-way-back

[LC]

I went to Paul McCartney's second Boston show last week (June 8), and I have a huge regret: I'm sorry I didn't go to the first show, too.

It's one of my three or four favorite concerts ever—a beautiful night, the company of my younger daughter, a set list that didn't quit, and a performer who ain't gonna quit, thankfully. Begrudge Paul the fact that his voice isn't what it used to be, and it's your loss. He has one show left, tonight in New Jersey. If you're anywhere near, get a ticket and go! You won't regret it. 

On the other hand, if your criteria for a concert is that the performer has to retain the voice he/she had in the prime of his/her life, don't go. But you'd be missing quite a beautiful thing. There's something about hearing Paul perform all those great songs in the "September of his years." Personally, I admire the heck out of a 79-year-old (just about 80!) who can play with such energy and zest. I make an allowance for vocal shortcomings. Because along with those, you also get many songs where his voice is ageless. 

Ultimately, this concert moved me as much as (or more than) every Paul performance I've ever seen, from the early 1990s to the early 2000s to the mid-2010s. It was a powerful, uplifting, nostalgic, impressive three hours. The man played 37 songs—one more than the previous night—and all without a break.

There were more than just a few moments that choked me up. By the end, my younger daughter and I were scheming about how to get to another Paul concert. Alas, reality, work, logistics, and life in general get in the way. 

The highlights were too many to mention. But I'll bullet a bunch here:

• Among the memorable moments were surprises like "In Spite of All the Danger," maybe the earliest Beatles song (recorded when they were John, Paul, George, and Pete Best as the Quarrymen) and "Love Me Do." I've seen Paul do both before, but on this night, there was such a nice spirit and vibe during those old songs. They were prefaced by a strength we'd enjoy all night: Paul's story-telling in between songs. He did a LOT of that. And he's quite funny, as always.

• "Jet" and "We Can Work It Out" were also nice surprises. He didn't play them the night before, so we got a treat. "Jet" was especially cool—always a concert favorite. 

• "Hey Jude" was so beautifully anthemic. I said to my daughter as he played it, "I feel like we should put a hand over our heart, like the Pledge of a Allegiance." I looked beyond her, and there was a guy doing just that! My daughter took a picture of him.

• "Let It Be" had a gospel-like vibe that came from a spiritual place.

•"Blackbird" was so cool in the night air, and Paul sounded great, playing acoustic as the crowd came to a still quiet. 

• "Here Today" and "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" were songs that could choke you up, as many others did.

• "Helter Skelter" and "Birthday" showed any young rock'n'll band how it should be done.

• "Live and Let Die" lit up the night sky in the best possible way.

• The virtual duet with John Lennon... whew! I saw clips of "I've Got a Feeling" ahead of time, but seeing it live was otherworldly. 

• Maybe the most moving moment was "Something," during which the entire crowd sang along—every word. Whew again. 

The three-hour, high-energy performance was better than I expected. In fact, I couldn't have been more pleased with (or proud of!) McCartney.

You can write him off because time is doing what time tends to do to one's voice. But you're missing the bigger picture. And that is: This 79-year-old living legend can win over an audience of tens of thousands in any number of ways. HIs songs, first and foremost. He's the best songwriter we've ever known (I put John Lennon, John Stewart, and Brian Wilson up at his level). His playing is spot on—and how the heck does he switch so seamlessly from bass to lead guitar to acoustic guitar to piano to ukulele all night? 

And... that band. Man, they are in such a groove. Rusty Anderson (lead guitar), Brian Ray (rhythm and lead guitars, bass), Wix Wickens (keyboards), and Abe Laboriel (drums) have got Paul's back, and you can't help but appreciate it.

Last show is tonight. If you're anywhere near... 

 

[LC]

PS No. 1: Bernie, my tickets cost $99 each. So... not a bad deal. I bought them directly from Fenway Park. So I can't complain about the high price.

PS No. 2: The first night in Boston, Paul played 36 songs. The second night, it was 37. He dropped "I've Just Seen a Face" and "New"... and added "We Can Work It Out," "Queenie Eye," and "Jet." 

PS No. 3: According to SetList.fm.com, in Baltimore on June 12, Paul again played 37 songs. He kept "Jet" in the set, but restored "I've Just Seen a Face" and "New" in place of "We Can Work It Out" and "Queenie Eye." I much prefer "Queenie Eye" to "New." But I love "I've Just Seen a Face," so I'd rather have seen that than "We Can Work It Out." A tiny little quibble.... 

[Raspbernie]

Sounds like a great night, LC! I took my daughter to see Sir Paul in 2011. Wonderful to share music that's important to you with your kids.

[LC]

Lew Bundles, you'll be there tonight? 

[Lew Bundles]

Yes…I will be there…Going with my youngest son…A special thrill…
Great review and endorsement, LC…

We will never see the likes of this kind of talent again…