Treasuring Memories of Paul McCartney on ‘One on One’ Tour

As a press release notes, Paul McCartney‘s ‘One on One’ tour, “features dozens of classics from the most beloved catalog in popular music, spanning Paul’s entire career — as a solo artist, member of Wings and of course as a Beatle — and no shortage of surprises”. Well at Madison Square Garden on September 15th, one of eight NYC area shows this month, fans of the famed Beatle got a (double!) surprise near the end of an already outstanding show. (Okay, I am pretending that “FourFiveSeconds” didn’t happen.)

Attendees got to witness Bruce Springsteen and Steven van Zandt perform “I Saw Her Standing There” twice with McCartney. To what seemed like the astonishment of Springsteen, after the first take, McCartney noted, “I reckon we gotta play it one more time” then took another stab at the song.

But this surprise appearance — Springsteen was spotted by the soundboard at the beginning of the show — was just the icing on the cake. McCartney put on a show that lasted well over two hours and included many favorites including “Love Me Do”, “Eleanor Rigby”, and the arena anthem “Hey Jude”. I was most surprised to see McCartney (likely via tour production designer LeRoy Bennett) had brought the pyrotechnics along with “Live and Let Die” into an indoor space. The powerful first round of explosive fire left many on the floor of MSG reeling but no less thrilled.

McCartney’s ‘One on One’ tour is wrapping up soon, but we can only hope he is planning something else. Seeing him perform the timeless classics, interspersed with anecdotes, never gets old (I had caught the tour in 2016). Early in the set, McCartney joked that one fan in the audience, holding a sign noting it was his 120th show (or thereabouts), must have an obsession. Obsession or not, it’s hard to fault that individual’s decisions. These are songs that will continue to inspire and carry generation after generation.