Here’s Macca at the recent Desert Trip thing. Admittedly recorded on a fan’s iPhone, but really, that shouldn’t matter – the fact is his singing is pretty awful, out of tune, and you know that he can’t blame the sound mix (by which I mean – if you’re Paul McCartney then you’ll have people who deal with that).
Isn’t it time for him to retire?
And I speak as a major HJH fan, I LOVE him, I was hoping he’d come to Australia again in amongst all his recent world touring. He came in, I don’t know, maybe 1992 or something, when he’d just started accepting he had to do Beatles songs, so he had the technicolour piano and did Magical Mystery Tour etc.
But based on this I think he should retire gracefully.
OOAA of course
What else is he to do? He’s wants to die with his boots on, as far as I can see.
He’s 74 year old. There’s no doubting that the voice is showing the effect of age, three hour live shows, yearly touring and denial. I had to turn off the footage from the second week of the Desert Trip when he sang with Rihanna. As a big fan I would love him to embrace the changes a bit more and maybe do something more nuanced when playing live. The reality is I think he’s going to keep doing these megashows until he can’t. If he announces any Dublin shows, there’s no way I won’t be there (again) and bring my kids along so they can tell their kids that they saw a real live Beatle.
The first story. When he went to camp with his brother and they performed together but Paul eased his brother out of the spotlight on the second day. They came home to a single middle aged widower.
Paul Will go till he drops and he does not care about that because he knows that he has what he has left behind will go on forever.
What would yo do?
You’ve been across the Atlantic too long Bri. It wasn’t Camp in the American sense, but holiday camp – as in Butlins – in the British sense
Not as in “Ooh you are awful…but I like you”…?
I think Paul did say “Look at the muck in here!” at one point.
“Michelle, ma belle. Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble. Tres bien ensemble…. that is yer actual French”
Macca preemptively ripping off DONOVAN there, who (I’m sure we all remember) invented singing in yer actual French on Jennifer Juniper…
I believe he’s earned the right to come out and fart on stage, then leave.
I appreciate OOAA.
To be honest, I am not sure I would want to part with £50 to £100 to see that.
I was exaggerating to prove a point.
He’ll never replace Le Petomane though.
Le Petomane would blow him off the stage.
That I would pay to see.
His voice has gone. The first time I noticed it was during the inevitable Hey Jude singalong at the Diamond Jubilee concert in 2012.
But as others have said, he doesn’t need to sing another note. He’s earned it all.
Unfortunately he doesn’t properly warm up so short sets in front of billions are often pretty gruesome.
I haven’t seen him since 2011, and he was pretty dodgy for the first 30 mins or so, but then got into his stride and was excellent.
I saw him for the fourth time in Liverpool, Summer 2015. He was magnificent. Of the 4 times I have seen him live this was the best concert.
3 hours on stage, no discernable weakening of his voice, and backed by his usual terrific band. He had the whole stadium eating out of his hand.
He can retire when HE wants on his terms as far as I am concerned.
75 is the new 55 but realistically if he retires he will probably feel he has one foot in the grave. He has recording and painting but clearly its the music he does it for – he can’t possibly need the money.
Never seen him and never will, but its up to him when he stops. Thing is are people going to listen to the music or just to share the same air? Probably mostly the latter. So he doesn’t need to stop.
I don’t really get the idea of young people going to see ‘a real live Beatle.’
Even the most new-to-the-genre/eternally optimistic youngster could surely not fail to notice that seeing Paul now might, ever-so-slightly, be a lesser (and yet, bizarrely, a vastly more expensive) experience than seeing The Beatles.
An 18-year-old would be far better served spending a twentieth of that ticket price at the cinema and seeing “Eight Days A Week.”
OOAA.
I was in school with a guy who had been at an Elvis Presley gig in utero. He was proud of the fact and I was impressed!
Going to the pictures or seeing Macca live………Hmmm??
I’ve yet read the above replies, but let the guy enjoy himself, because he don’t need the dough. If fans go to watch/hear the guy they should know that his voice is knackered prior.
Good luck Macca, I’ve not always agreed with what you say but keep on keeping on, yeh, yeh, yeh!
Dont agree with all the sentiment that he has earned the right to carry on. If it was anyone else we wouldn’t all be so forgiving so that argument to my mind is complete drivel.
I love McCartney too but it has been pretty clear for a few years that his voice is shot. So on the basis of the arguments made here it would have been perfectly acceptable for example for an ailing Ali say to step into the ring just because he had earned the right based on his astonishing performances in his prime? A complete joke. These are professionals and shouldn’t expect us to accept sub par performances unless of course they want to reduce the ticket prices in acknowledgement that we ain’t gonna get what they gave us 5,10 years ago in terms of musical quality.
The trouble is, as time goes by, they charge us more. In other news, Leonard Cohen has a new album out. Fortunately, he always had a golden voice. He last sang live at the age of 78. McCartney isn’t far behind.
Len writes songs for his voice and always has done. Macca is still singing stuff he wrote for his 18-year-old-singing-at-the-drunks-in-the-Star-Club voice.
In other news, his last studio album was excellent. So he should not retire.
Whose? Len’s?
Both!
I trust no-one would dare to suggest that the Don’t Go Home With Your Hard-On Hitmaker should retire…
Please can we start calling Len the DGHWYHOH? That’s just the greatest and most Afterwordy in joke I can think of…
Hope I dih die before I get old. Paul has been an embarrassment for a few too many years now. As have most of those bloody baby boomers.
Except, of course, that the best record so far in 2016 belongs to Paul Simon….
Whose voice is still staggeringly beautiful.
With you there. But his songs tend to be gentle or mid tempo and on the more up tempo ones he’s often doing that half in half talk sing thing (note technical musical terms I’m using here)
Word.
Even on a Big Pop Hit like You Can Call Me Al, he’s often just sort of chuntering to himself. More accurately, he’s on the analyst’s couch.
Len has a voice to suit his songs and even 40 years ago was in a register that was still going to be reachable in his dotage.
When I saw Macca at Hyde Park (4 years ago?) his attempt at some of his earlier Beatles stuff was not good. I don’t doubt his back catalogue and I don’t question his place in our hearts but come on guys lets not pretend he can still sing like he used to.
Trouble is, a lot of people are only there for the Fabs’ material it seems. I saw him in Cardiff about 5 years ago and a significant portion of the audience sat arms folded throughout the Wings andsolo material, to rise and dance to anything Fab-related. He’s probably pretty aware of the energy change.
“Do some really really old!”
Quite. You’ve got to be fairly hardcore to sit there, arms folded, through 1985 and Let Me Roll It.
yes, he even did ‘Love Me Do’ and even ‘I Lost My Little Girl’ in Berlin this summer
There’s a similar debate going on amongst Bryan Ferry fans; he seems to be pushing himself harder and harder by following an almost Dylanesque (ha!)-scale schedule of touring, and most people whilst still loving him for it, are aware that his voice isn’t as powerful as it once was and fear for his health in general. Personally, I think the greater fragility of the vocal adds poignancy and vulnerability to his reading of the softer material, and reckon that he’s pretty canny in his song selection and sequencing, so he can attack the more raucous material near the end when (a) the voice has had time to build and expand, and (b) the audience are ready to rip it up and sing along with the backing singers, thereby hiding any shortcomings. I’m not sure Macca has the same kind of self-awareness to acknowledge his waning gifts, or the people around him to speak truth to his power.
Ah! The Billie Holiday argument.
Almost her greatest record is her last – Lady in Satin, on which she sounds broken and absolutely shagged out. The material and the arrangement make the whole thing almost unbearably moving, whether you have anything invested in the BH narrative or not.
It’s like Syd Barrett’s voice going all blank and cold on Jugband Blues – if the performance isn’t technically very good, sometimes the material and the context takes care of it.
My “civilian” sister, not noted for music fandom, very rarely goes to gigs. She told me at the weekend that she’d gone with a Roxy-loving friend to see ol’ Brian some time in the not-too-distant past and that his voice was all over the place. Her friend was very disappointed indeed as the tickets were not cheap and she had paid for them both.
I saw him on the current ‘Hardly- Ever-Ending’ tour last year, and as I said, I think he brings his vocal ‘weaknesses’ off in performance. What other people consider ‘all over the place’ I actually appreciate as the vulnerability suggested earlier – I don’t hear it as being out of tune or anything, just weaker, but to my mind, his delivery accommodates and compensates for this.
I saw him last year too and he was pretty patchy – ‘Lets Stick Together’ I remember was especially wonky. His embarrassed dad-dancing in sensible M&S cords was fun though
But Ferry never had the range of Macca as a vocalist so his material is probably easier to manage at an advanced age.
McCartney keeps on going with a relatively relaxed schedule and I am sure it helps keep him healthy, so he will continue until it’s physically possible.
I heard the Diamond Jubilee performance and it was dire, so went to see Macca in Birmingham last year with some trepidation. To my astonishment and great joy it was just wonderful and Paul’s singing was sweet and in tune. ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ is a test of any singer – he passed, he really did.
Agreed !!
How about if Macca does what Brian Wilson does and just sings the bits he can sing and get others to hit the high notes?
It worked throughout the Brian roadmonster years and Macca had a hell of a lot more stage presence than Brian, so he could still put on a show. Just don’t got for the high notes.
(I can’t watch it, but if anyone has, what does he do for the high F on Hey Jude?)
You mean just before the nananas? One of the guitarists sings it and our Paulie does his white soul wail
“Macca had a hell of a lot more stage presence than Brian” – you mean he looks like a musician as opposed to a hostage.
The first generation of rock stars (yer Beatles, Stones, Who, Dylan etc) – if they survived the 60s – are also the first generation to age while they are still megastars who can fill stadiums and enormodomes. They’re going where nobody else has been yet so rather than demanding they retire why not let them see how far they can take it?.
If you don’t like the results or you’re worried it will taint your memories don’t go and see them or watch the footage – I can’t believe anyone expects him to do what he did 50 years ago.. but you know if Macca feels like rocking on – why stop now? As others have said he’s some way away from where Brian Wilson is (staring into the ether from behind a Piano while Al Jardine & Co do the heavy lifting) or Bob Dylan gargling away while people figure out what it is he’s singing…