Paul McCartney is 69 years old.

Paul McCartney is touring Europe and plays for approx 3 hours every night with a full band.

Paul McCartney is 69 years old!!

We were fortunate enough to catch Macca’s show in Milan last week as part of our International Book Tour (we will be showing you more from that soon). I was blown away by his energy and how he looked.  He definitely looked middle age but I wouldn’t have pegged him as 1 year shy of 70 years old.  The guy played like he was 25!  I couldn’t believe it. He was hitting his high falsetto and he moved around the stage like a boss.  He had this modest child like quality about him too. Unbelievable.

I was hoping for at least 2 hours but wasn’t sure if an old man like him could do that. He did that and more. He played two encores and everyone in that stadium left satisfied, guaranteed. Since he was touring to support his most recent album, the Fireman, I figured he’d play more new songs than old. To my surprise I only think he played one new song, the Coldplayish single from the album.  The rest were pretty much all hits.

That’s what people want to hear when you’re at his level. The hits.

McCartney knew that people paid a good chuck of change to hear the big songs from his long career.  The show was sold out (this in a country that is facing an economic meltdown too).  He delivered the goods big time.  He played Beatles’ classics like “Hello Goodbye”, “Paperback Writer”, “Day in the life”, “Hey Jude”, “Black bird”,” Obla-di-obla-da”, “Let it Be”, “Back in the U.S.S.R”, “Helter, Skelter”, “Golden Slumber”, and “Yesterday”.  He went into the Wings’ catalog and played “Live and Let Die”, “Maybe I’m Amazed”, and “Jet”.  There were many more songs.. just sooo good.

The point is McCartney is thinking about the audience more than pleasing himself by playing mostly new material. Imagine what it must be like playing songs he wrote years ago night after night. He’s doing it for the crowd.  As much as music is an expression of yourself and you do it to please yourself, there is no career without the audience.

Here are some vids I took at the show. Enjoy!

McCartney compilation of tunes from the November 27th gig in Milan, Italy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LrM-9pPzGJg#!

McCartney does Blackbird (full song)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOIL2DZRb3g

McCartney does Yesterday (full song)

Music Consciousness
Hoover