As much as I love music, there are very few concerts these days that come to town that I really would like to see. If I could put together this show, I would.
One of my favorites is Paul McCartney. In the last ten years or so, he’s kind of falling out of favor with me. I’ve not wanted to go see any of his shows and I don’t think I’ve actually paid for one of his albums in that stretch (although Chaos and Creation in the Backyard and Memory Almost Full are quite good.) I didn’t care to see him play the Super Bowl a few years back and I didn’t have much interest in his recent gig with Ringo in NYC.
After watching some clips of his performances at Coachella, the Concert for George a few years back, and the “Change Begins Within” show, I’ve had something of a change of heart. I’d love see Paul perform live. Here’s what I would change, though.
The shows have all been heavily dependent on backing bands and heavy production. The concert for George, for instance, had sets with multiple guitarists, bassists and drummers. Get rid of all that stuff. It’s too much clutter, too much noise, too slick.
Hand Paul a bass and plug him into a stack. Get Ringo behind the drums. Maybe get somebody like Eric Clapton or David Gilmour to play guitar. Perhaps that’s too ambitious. Find great lead and rhythm guitar players, some young gunslingers if necessary. Put them in a 1,000 to 2,000 seat place, charge a grand per ticket and let ’em rip. They could play old rock tunes, maybe stuff like the Fabs used to play in Hamburg. Of course it should be recorded in hi-def audio and video and packaged for sale.
No overdubs. No synthesizers or keyboards to recreate strings and horns and such. Bare bones production. Just rock out!
I know this will never happen. But “it’s all part of my rock and roll fantasy.”
