Paul McCartney reacted to fans being disrespectful of his new material from Egypt Station live at a recent show, WRAL reports.
“We can tell what songs you like,” he said at one point. “When we do a Beatles song, the phones come out and it’s like a galaxy of stars. Then we do a new one and it’s like a black hole. But we don’t care!”
That was the lead-in to a new song called “Fuh You,” which quite honestly wasn’t much. Far more entertaining was the running between-song dialogue McCartney carried on with various signs that people in the crowd held up.
“’Sign my butt,’” he read at one point, peering out into the audience. And after first shaking his head no, he quipped, “Go on, then, let’s have a look at it.”
While post-Beatles Wings songs dominated the early part of the set, the closing stretch was pretty much one Beatles classic after another, hit after hit after hit – “Hey Jude,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “Helter Skelter.” And what did he close the show with? The album-ending “Abbey Road” suite concluding with “The End,” of course, and it could not have been more perfect.
“We’ll see you next time,” McCartney said, taking a bow and waving to the crowd.
Kentucky.com wrote about an upcoming show:
But presenting at least a sampling of new songs indicates Sir Paul still feels some impulse to create. He couldn’t possibly need the money nor would an album of new music offer him much in contrast to a repackaging of past material or a concert retrospective record. To be fair, McCartney will do both in July when he reissues four live albums initially released between 1976 and 2007 (“Wings Over America,” “Choba B CCCP,” “Paul is Live” and “Amoeba Gig”). But the point is, for an artist so enshrined for his past work (and, no doubt financially compensated to a more-than-generous degree as a result), the only reason to make new music must be because the creative urge to do so still exists.
Given that likelihood, it’s fair to suggest that urge also fuels the drive to keep performing. Yes, McCartney’s paychecks for a concert tour have to be enormous. Ticket prices for Saturday’s Rupp return bear that out. The few seats that have remained available for the performance since going on sale last September are $254. So-called “verified resale tickets” on TicketMaster’s website (essentially purchased tickets resold by fans) are running, in some instances, into the thousands.
