So, the indefatigable Troy over at kinde words and I have been talking set lists. Every McCartney tour has a pretty much unchanging set list, which is a mark of either consummate professionalism or control freakishness, take your pick. So his current set list has already been spoiled. The list has high points and not-as-high points, but I won't get into those here. The question now is, what is the set list that would make for the PERFECT McCartney show? Troy made his list, which you can check out here, and challenged me to make mine. Fair enough. Here's mine, with copious notes following.
Maybe I’m Amazed
Waterfalls
Sing the Changes
Daytime Nighttime Suffering
Daytime Nighttime Suffering
Jet
The World Tonight
Every Night
Bring It on Home to Me
Call Me Back Again
Live and Let Die
Back Seat of My Car
Encore I
Encore II
Let Me Roll It
I think my list is little farther out than Troy's. Like him, I discounted songs that are too much Lennon songs, as McCartney does himself most of the time. (There's an extremely, extremely interesting exception to that on the current tour, though, so I'll have that to breathlessly await.) Collaborative songs that are truly half-and-half or lean in Paul's favor are fair game-- hence I allowed "All My Loving" but ended up not including "Please Please Me" despite being sorely tempted. However, while Troy allows for "Baby You're a Rich Man," that one goes too far for my tastes. After all, the verses are John's, and that's where the meat is, and in the end it doesn't feel Paul-ish enough for me.
After that, though, I just started daydreaming. I did try to include songs that Paul ALWAYS does live, and that would be sorely missed, but I indulged my personal tastes all over the place. So we get Paul opening with an oldie, treating us to the deepest of deep cut covers of early rock and roll, like "Clarabella," which you can hear on Live at the BBC, and "Bring It on Home to Me," which can be found on the Russian album of 1988. Here, too, is "Long Tall Sally," because of course I want to hear him sing that. After the old rock and roll stuff, we get a couple of my favorite Wings and solo tracks because this is my list, darn it, and did you know that Paul has NEVER done "Daytime Nighttime Suffering" live, EVER?
A couple other notes:
- I want so badly to lay into Troy for including "Rocky Raccoon," but as long as he refrains from laying into ME for including "Every Night," I'll call a truce. We all have the right to enjoy our silly little McCartney ditties.
- I sort of wanted to just end the whole thing on "Back Seat of My Car," but ended up with that playing into "Hey Jude" for the finale. It's really really hard to end any other way. I see that Troy agrees with me.
- I didn't belabor the order TOO much, but I'm pleased with a few of my transitions here, especially "Waterfalls" into "Sing the Changes," "Daytime Nighttime Suffering" into "Paperback Writer," "Bring It on Home to Me" into "Call Me Back Again," and "Every Night" into "Yesterday" launching right into "Clarabella" and then those couple soul-centric numbers. Oh, and my impulse to follow "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" with "I Will," which is how it goes on the White Album, was too strong to resist.
- Despite the fact that I have been subjected to f*cking "My Love" on at least three tours, I have NEVER heard Paul do the vastly superior "Here, There, and Everywhere" live. Paul! Explain yourself!
- If I were awesome, I would have taken key relationships and Paul's movement in between a guitar and piano into consideration in planning the order. But I didn't.
Thoughts, anyone who might still be reading this for some reason?
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