Musical fads seem to come and go, and yet Sir Paul McCartney is always in style. There won’t be a more historic concert in Seattle this year than his show on a brilliant and beautiful evening, July 19th. That was a given even before McCartney came on stage, as it was Safeco’s first-ever concert. But McCartney made it a night for the ages by playing an inspired set of mostly Beatles songs, and ending with a Nirvana reunion of sorts. It was a Seattle music lover’s dream-come-true, and the 47,000 in the sold-out stadium will be talking about it for years. The show became legendary one song into the first encore when the remaining members of Nirvana — Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, and Pat Smear — came onstage for “Cut Me Some Slack.” They wrote this tune together, and played it once before at this year’s Grammy Awards. Paul urged the Nirvana guys to stay, so they joined his band for most of the concert.
By a truly odd series of circumstances I found myself at this concert, as it was all but sold out by the time I genuinely thought of going. They turned out to be fantastic. I took the photo below when I was returning from buying a $40 t-shirt.
On a related note, at a recent Universal Music Group (UMG) Music Presentation we got to hear a quick snippet of a track from his latest album being described as “his best since the late 70’s”. The songs are being compared to his work on “Penny Lane”, “Come and Get It”, and even “Free As a Bird.” McCartney has 21 songs recorded between Abbey Road, his home studio, and the Hell’s Kitchen studio that could go on the album. The album, to be released in October according to sources will be the product of a quartet of producers – Paul Epworth, Mark Ronson, Ethan Johns, and Giles Martin.
– Submitted by Jim Fisher, Music Design