Giving Audiences What They Want (Boston 1976)

 

Giving Audiences What They Want

By Ernie Stantosuosso

The Boston Globe

May 24, 1976

    Linda McCartney yawned backstage, an obvious indication that the long and winding tour was taking its toll. Husband Paul, however, was relatively ebullient, intermittently puckish, and pleased with the reception given him and Wings by a capacity crowd of 15,509 Saturday night in Boston Garden.

     "There's a thing about being in journalism," he said, "and that is to assume people going to our concerts to hear just Paul McCartney and Beatles songs. However, you find out the day after, the crowd is talking about Wings, Denny, and Jimmy playing, and so on. Denny's the nut who got me to do the Beatles songs on the tour."

        The currently 31 concert, 20-city swing ending June 22 marks the first of any consequence for McCartney in the United States since he last performed with the Beatles in 1966. The left-handed bassist had previously made a handful of sotta voice appearances to try out the Wings. The consequences, it turned out, were disconcerting to local police. 

    "We used to turn up on campuses and ask the officials, 'Do you want us to play?'" Continued McCartney, "But it really proved to be a drawback, and the police would come up to us and point out that it wasn't safe to play to a small group when 20,000 others outside were trying to get in."

     The Wings Over America concert is a collage of Paul's boogie-rock and romantic balladry the latter often indicated as being too treacly. McCartney has incorporated into this format a light show and flashing smoke bombs. Yes, he was aware he wasn't pioneering these extra flourishes, but he wasn't constrained to apologies, either. 

    "The basis of our show," he continued, "was a Led Zeppelin concert we saw in London. So we felt we had to take it to the United States level."

     Paul can be counted as one of the minority who liked the George Harrison concert in December 1974. ("He had to contend with several problems, and he also lost his voice before the tour started.")

     The Wings' chief replying to a question concerning the identities of the first names in the song "Let 'Em In" from the group's latest Capitol album: Wings at the Speed of Sound, confirmed in passing that the long-standing rift between himself and former collaborator John Lennon has been healed.

    "Why 'sister Susie' is what Linda is called in Jamaica," he began. "John is Linda's brother, and I also have a friend John Lennon. Michael is my brother. Don and Phil are the Everly Brothers, and Uncle Ernie is from Tommy."

     Throughout the interview, Linda and Paul were to make frequent sportive references to the interviewer as 'Uncle Ernie'. ("Liza Minnelli's favorite song by me is 'Maybe I'm Amazed'. Get that down Uncle Ernie"). 

     One of the songs performed from the John, Paul, and Ringo era was "Lady Madonna". It was inserted early in the 29 selection show that continued for two and 1/4 hours on Saturday. "It's really the first song of the evening for me," said McCartney. "I'm giving the audience what they want. "

    Aside from the often pallid, pseudo-cryptic lyrics affecting much of Paul's writing, he apparently did give them what they wanted. They screamed for five minutes as Wings tuned up upon the darkened stage, and when McCartney commenced the vocal to the concert overture, "Venus and Mars", the cataclysm erupted anew, lit matches, a few wantonly hurled firecrackers, and the thunderous din of humanity compromised the welcome. Then came the throbbing tempo of "Rock Show" segued into "Jet".  "Let Me Roll It" with its looping stride was enhanced by the catchy riffing of Laine and McCulloch.

     Dedicating the song to his family in the audience, his wife, Joanne, hails from Salem, Denny sang "Spirits of Ancient Egypt", after which McCulloch articulated the caveat of "Medicine Jar." The evening's visual highlight came during "Live and Let Die", punctuated by flashing smoke bombs and fusillades of laser lights that turned the stage into a no-man 's-land. The acoustic set included "Picasso's Last Words", "Richard Cory", and the nostalgia-evoking "Yesterday." The group's latest hit single, " "Silly Love Songs," was included along with McCartney's ricky ticky dedication to Fred Astaire, "You Gave Me the Answer."

     The song list was of marathon length: "Time to Hide", "Beware My Love," "Must Do Something About It (sung by Joe), "Magneto and Titanium Man", "Letting Go," "Band on the Run" and after the crowd had chanted, "We want Paul!" for 10 minutes, the frantically accelerated encore, "Hi, Hi, Hi".

     It was a concert where no one was shortchanged, although the going rate outside for scalped tickets was $20. One could purchase a Wings t-shirt on the sidewalk for $3 before the show. College student Betsy Tormay observed, "Though the Beatles were not as good as Wings, I'd still like to see them get back together."

     As the Garden emptied following the concert, McCartney crystallized the reason his band is appearing in public. "We're in it to keep doing it," he said.