We Shall Return McCartney Vows (1976 Chicago)

 

We Shall Return McCartney Vows

Lynn Van Matre

Chicago Tribune

June 3, 1976

    "Some people," Paul McCartney was saying, with a look of puzzlement, "seem to think this is some sort of farewell tour. This is our first tour. We'll be back."

     The tour in question, of course, is McCartney and Wings' current extravaganza, marking the first time in 10 years that the ex-Beatle has appeared in the United States. 

    "All I remember about the last time we played Chicago," he recalled, "was seeing the Stockyards." The scene then was the International Amphitheater, and the band he played with was the Beatles. This time around, the scene was the Chicago Stadium, where McCartney and Wings had just wound up the second of three nights of sold-out shows that began Monday. The crowd, blessed out by more than two hours of music, was slowly filing out of the stadium with die-hard McCartney fans hanging around the gates, hoping for a glimpse of their hero.

     Backstage, McCartney and Wings, keyboard player, the woman he calls his "friend and Mrs"., otherwise known as Linda, had exchanged their stage duds for more casual jeans and cowboy boots. Settling down on the couch in their dressing room, the two chatted and bantered briefly about the tour, their music, and the Beatles.

     The rumor had been rampant that there was a possibility of John Lennon showing up to share the stage with Wings at one of their shows. The man who once collaborated with McCartney on some of the Beatles' best songs has yet to materialize. 

    "Well," said McCartney, "we saw John before the tour started in New York. Shared a cup of tea with him in his kitchen."

     "Japanese tea", Linda elaborated, taking her eyes from The Tonight Show in progress on the dressing room color telly. 

    "Yes, Japanese tea," Paul confirmed. "Anyway, we left it that if he feels like turning up any place along the way, fine, but it's no big number. We won't be hurt if he doesn't make it. Actually, anyone could turn up: Ringo, George, Mayor Baba..."

     "Even Jesus," Linda put in.

     "She's just having a bit of fun with you," Paul said. "The thing is, if any of them showed up, it'd just  mean people would start talking again about us reuniting," and as McCartney keeps saying when asked about that very possibility, "You can't reheat a soufflé."

     Actually, he and Wings are doing very nicely on their own, thank you. So far, the band has been snaring deservedly rave reviews for their shows, which amount to bang-up celebrations of rock and roll, and are musically a far cry from their records, which frequently have been marred by too much slick sweetness and vapidity.

     "Yeah, I know a lot of critics haven't liked our records," Paul admitted. "Lightweight music, that's what they've called it. I can tell the difference in our playing live and our playing on the records, though. It's true. The thing is, when you make a record, you're putting the music down on vinyl forever, making a statue, as it were, encasing it in cement. On stage, we're just throwing the music into the air, letting it happen. The pressure's off a little.

     "I don't get overly angry at what the critics have said about our records. Well, sometimes it does bother me a little, but there's nothing I can do about it anyway. At least until the next album. There's nothing to do now but enjoy the tour."

     "And punt," Linda added, lighting a cigarette. "Yeah, punt," McCartney repeated. "They've been giving her a little bit of trouble about her hands," he said with a good-humored glance at his wife. "Some reviewer from Rolling Stone wrote that when Linda stands downstage for the song "My Love", she looks funny standing there with her hands on her hips for the whole number. So, for Monday night's show, she took her hands off her hips for a while, and he wrote that she looked fidgety. Maybe she should just stick her hands in her turnips."

    Turnips? "Turn ups," spelled out McCartney, gesturing toward the rolled-up cuffs on the couple's jeans.

     "I like to fidget," Linda explained. 

    "We're just having some more fun with you," Paul said.

     "I'm really not all that nervous on stage," Linda clarified the burning issue. "Not anymore."

     During their show in Chicago, which wound up Wednesday night,  the McCartneys chose not to stay in a hotel. Instead, they rented a private home for themselves and their children. "I don't know exactly where it is," said Paul. "Someplace outside the city-- in the country, and the fresh air. We haven't really been doing much while we've been in Chicago. We went horseback riding one afternoon with the kids, and that was nice. Mostly, we've just been hanging out."

     Plans call for the McCartneys and Wings to wind up their current tour on June 23 in Los Angeles. Every concert along the way is being recorded with an eye toward a possible live album.

    " As soon as this tour is over," McCartney said, "We'll put on our little tin hats and get to work sorting through all the tapes. If we get enough good stuff, we'll release."