Paul McCartney’s Magical “Got Back” Tour Touches Down And Takes Flight At Camden Yards
For the first time since 1964, Paul McCartney played a show in Baltimore. The nearly three-hour set he and his band played on Sunday, June 12th, at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, was filled with more than Beatles/McCartney/Rock and Roll fans could expect. McCartney ties together multiple generations, from very near the birth of Rock and Roll, through his most recent McCartney III, which debuted at number 2 on the Billboard Top 200 in the US and hit number 1 in the UK.
More than chart-topping success brought fans to this show, as young parents stood with children on their shoulders, next to their own parents. McCartney’s music is a thread of history that has touched and connected people in the most sincere and profound way that art can. The music of Paul McCartney is part of the musical fabric of our planet. His music does not belong to a particular time period or generation. His songs are universally known and embraced around the globe and connect people throughout the globe and tie multiple generations together.
A pre-show DJ stood on the stage, spinning Beatles songs and McCartney solo works while a gorgeous collage of historic photos swept past the side stage screens until 8:30 PM. At 8:30 PM, the stage lights went down, and the easily recognizable and exceptional orchestral gliss from the crescendo of “A Day In The Life” boomed from the PA speakers. Then came the exclamation point of the song – the crash of the piano chord from the final moment of the most innovative Rock and Roll work written to that date echoed throughout the stadium, and the anticipation was overwhelming. The band came out at that moment and, to live a long-standing cliche, it sounded like a Beatles concert, screaming at an unknowable decibel.
Opening with “Can’t Buy Me Love,” followed by “Junior’s Farm,” the band shot out of the gate on fire. McCartney worked through a fabulous mix of Beatles songs and solo works, new and old for nearly three hours. The show really started to launch into another world when Sir Paul stepped to the very front of the stage on a separate platform with just his acoustic guitar. He proceeded to play “Blackbird” while that platform rose a couple dozen feet into the air and the screens that adorned so many spots on and along the side of the stage showed beautifully designed visual animations. Completing that song Paul talked about John Lennon, his boyhood best friend and writing partner that changed the world with him. He said back in those days you really didn’t think to tell people just how you felt about them, and he never got the chance to tell that to John in so many words. So he played a song he wrote for John shortly after he died, “Here Today.” This was a truly poignant song that spoke for the deep love that Paul had for John and was all that he wished he could say in person. At this point, the performance started to show heartfelt and raw emotion.
Later on McCartney brought out a ukulele and told the story of how great a ukulele player George Harrison was. Paul had a Gibson ukulele that George had gifted him, and he talked about how they would get together and play together as younger men. One day he told George that he had learned one of George’s songs to George’s delight, and they loved playing it together. He then went into a beautiful and re-imagined version of the Harrison classic, “Something.” Fantastic images of George as well as the two of them as young men played on the center screen behind the band. Just as McCartney showed his deep love for John Lennon, he showed equal love and poignant affection for Harrison. As he performed “Something,” McCartney found an opportunity each time he did not have to sing to turn around and take in the parade of photos projected behind him. This moment, like so many others during this performance, made this vast stadium performance among tens of thousands of fans somehow seem like the most intimate, personal, and touching performance one could possibly take in.
Later the most emotional moment of the night took place, leaving more than a few of the gathered mass wiping tears. Paul said that Peter Jackson, who put together last fall’s three-part documentary film “Get Back,” had rung him up and told him he could isolate John’s vocals and he could sing with them if he wanted. Paul said, “Uh yes, please.” The band then went into “I’ve Got A Feeling.” At the point when John would enter with his vocals, there appeared John Lennon on the screen behind the band from the documentary film, as they were on the rooftop playing their final concert. The clarity and tone of Lennon’s voice was simply amazing as John’s voice echoed in the cavernous stadium, and for just a few minutes, John was truly alive and loud once more deep in the heart of Baltimore. During their virtual duet, Paul spent long periods of time turned to the back of the stage, watching his mate singing again, then got to turn to a mic and sang too. It was really better than I could’ve imagined it, a beautiful moment, again personal, intimate. When the song finished, Paul quietly said, “I got to sing with him again
