One last bunch of mini-reviews of Paul McCartney’s live albums. I haven’t heard them all, so I’ll stick to the ones I know. In chronological order.
Wings Over America. If you only own one live McCartney album, and you like Wings, it should be this one. Recorded on Paul’s first American tour with the best iteration of Wings, it serves up a solid bunch of Wings and Beatles tunes, originally in three vinyl albums. The acoustic set on Side Three is magnificent. Almost all of the solo tunes are an improvement over the studio originals. A magnificent document of the band. ***** (out of five)
Caveats: Denny’s and Jimmy’s songs are a bit weak, although the former’s Go Now is marvelous. There are only five Beatles songs.
Tripping The Live Fantastic: Another three-album set from his 1990 tour. This is the one if you want as many Beatles songs with Paul in good voice as possible. It also includes some numbers from soundchecks, which is fun. *****
Caveats: Some people may not want the soundcheck numbers. It also has Ebony And Ivory.
Unplugged (The Official Bootleg): From the MTV broadcast. Paul and his band committed to the “no electric” principle (unlike Mr. Springsteen!!) and gave a really nice set with lots of good, mellow versions of rock classics. *****
Paul Is Live!: A single album/CD from the 1993 tour. Fewer songs and not as good as Tripping. But there are some great versions of tunes like Penny Lane. ****
Caveat: Contains a few soundcheck tunes and songs from Off The Ground, not a strong album.
Back In The U.S.A.: A two-record set which contains all the songs from Paul’s 2002 tour. (There is also an album entitled Back In The World, available in other parts of the globe, with four different songs.) This is very good, with Paul still in strong voice, and with a nice acoustic set including his version of Something. ****
Caveat: Contains that horrible 9/11 song Freedom.
iTunes Live From Capitol Studios: From 2012, this is a live in the studio performance of nine of Paul’s tunes from the cover album Kisses On The Bottom. I think they actually improve on the originals. A complete performance can be found on Complete Kisses, along with the original album and a few B-sides. *** 1/2
Good Evening New York City: Avoid at all costs. Paul’s vocal is quite audibly AutoTuned. Sad. *
Amoeba Gig: Recorded live at a record store in 2007. It’s kind of painful to listen to Paul’s voice at this point, but at least they lost the AutoTune. And the performances and songs are solid. ***
One Hand Clapping: Paul and Wings in the studio in 1974. They were on fire. See my review: https://the-avocado.org/2024/09/06/album-spotlight-paul-mccartney-wings-one-hand-clapping/ *****
Coming Soon:
R.E.M.