Mccartney marks his 80th
Hard to think of a better way for Paul Mccartney to celebrate his 80th birthday than by singing “Glory Days” onstage with Bruce Springsteen or being serenaded by 60,000 well-wishers.
The “cute Beatle” turns 80 on Saturday.
Like several other members of the “hope I die before I get old” generation, including Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and former Beatles mate Ringo Starr, Mccartney keeps working, keeps sharing his music from the stage.
“He has a youthful exuberance that is ageless,” said Bob Spitz ,a Beatles biographer. “There’s still some of that 21-year-old boy that shines through in all of his performances.”
The fragility in his voice was evident while singing “Blackbird” on Thursday night at Metlife Stadium, the final night of a brief U.S. tour. He struggled for the high notes in “Here Today,” his love letter to John Lennon, who was robbed of a long life by an assassin’s bullet.
The skill of a sympathetic band, along with the imagination and voices in the audience, patches over the rough spots.
“Yeah, yeah, right, I’ve got a birthday coming up,” Mccartney said, scanning signs in the audience that reminded him. “I’m not trying to ignore it, but…”
The crowd offered a spontaneous “Happy Birthday” serenade, even before Jersey guy Jon Bon Jovi brought out a fistful of balloons during the encore to lead them in another verse.
That other Jersey guy, Springsteen, joined Mccartney for the duet on “Glory Days” and a version of “I Wanna Be Your Man.” He later popped up to join the guitar duel from “Abbey Road.”
To mark the birthday, Stereogum magazine asked 80 artists to pick their favorite Mccartney
song, and the choices were remarkable in their breadth — from the prebeatles 1958 cut “In Spite of All the Danger” (which Mccartney performed at Metlife) to his 2016 collaboration with Rihanna and Kanye West “Fourfiveseconds.”
On Friday, Mccartney’s team announced that it was packaging “Mccartney II” with his other DIY albums, “Mccartney” of 1970 and 2020’s “Mccartney III,“into a boxed set that will go on sale in August.
Advanced birthday be damned, the irrepressibly cheerful Mccartney left with a promise when he walked offstage. “See you next time.”