LeftyBassist.com

It's killin me that I live in NY city and was home all day yesterday. I knew Paul was going to be on Letterman last night. If I had half a brain it would have occured to me that there was a chance he might play outside the theater. If I had given it a thought, I'd have realized it was worth going over there just on a longshot. So I missed this great little mini concert.

But here it is on video anyway. I learned to play by listening to his inventive style. What a master he is, still sounds fantastic on that Hofner, and singing great while he does it!

enjoy.

http://www.cbs.com/late_show/video/mccartney.php

yessir, he ain't slowing down a bit. And he's about the only one from that era who still has 99% of his vocal range.

While not quite the singer Paulie is, I opened for Herman's Hermits a while back and Peter Noone is still in great voice, he did a 20-minute vocal warmup backstage, he's a nice guy.

In August of 2001, NRBQ (one of my all time favorite bands) played a free outdoor afternoon concert in front of the World Trade Center ( Yup, just a couple of weeks before 9/11). Noone sat in with them and he was excellent. They did a few old HH hits and Noone also pitched in on some of the Q's own stuff. It was an amazing afternoon.

I too met Peter waaayyyyy back in 71 on my first trip to England. He was playing with the Hermits on a postage stamp sized stage in front of Windsor castle whilst most of the tourists milling about totally ignored them. As usual he was perfectly coiffed and impeccably dressed in his 2 piece suit. The lead guitarist was dressed way ahead of his time. He was totally glammed-out in a bright blue Spandex outfit and was sporting eyshadow and had scruffy badly dyed long blond hair. Peter kept ribbing him all through the gig about how he went gay on him. After the gig we got to chat with him for a few minutes between sets.

Macca will be pissed when he sees how this thread was hijacked by Peter Noone LOL

Here's Peter before the show, signing my Epi Rivoli(like original Hermit Karl Green's). He said "Oh, an old Ep-ee-phone"!

Macca's certainly been sipping from some fountain of youth in recent years. Around the "Flowers in the Dirt" period I really thought his voice might be done, and it pained me to listen to him. Now, he seems reinvigorated, and he's gotten a lot of his high range back again. Great band backing him too.

I hate to say it, but I actually do think his once-uncanny vocal range has slipped with age. (Roger Daltrey's too now that I think about it.) However, his bass/guitar/piano playing chops are as good as ever. And actually, his 05 tour was his most energetic live show I'd seen of his in years.

I do wish he would stop playing the Hofner for every song though. It just sounds anemic on a lot of the Wings and later Beatles stuff. And I'm saying this as a Hofner-copy owner!

I remember an interview he did when his 1st solo album came out. "I'm, uh, like 27 years old now, and I can't hit the same notes I could when I was 21". his voice is holding up well tho ...
It's really too bad about Daltrey ( and Jon Anderson of Yes ). When I saw the Who at Palm Desert a couple of years ago Roger was totally pissed about his voice. Some of the other regulars in the front row were telling him how good his voice was that night [ it wasn't ] and he replied "What's fookin' left of it". I had to agree. The poor buggar quit smoking pot and generally straightened out around the time Tommy came out, and look what it got him 40 years later [ a damn fine carreer as a rock god ] !

I don't think it's the fault of bad lifestyle choices made by these singers. I think it's because they are simply in the 60s at this point and their voices are really aging on them. In general I'm impressed how active Paul and Roger still are, but there are some things that will simply be the first to disintegrate on you no matter how well you take care of yourself.

Very true. These guys are nearing 70, for crying out loud. There's definitely some weakness in McCartney's voice these days, but I swear he still sounds better live than he did 15 years ago. Maybe he's taking steroids, LOL.

Wasn't trying to imply that at all. What I meant was that the ravages of gravity and time are unavoidable even when you do take impeccable care of yourself. Your voice box and vocal chords change over time as you get older. Just like presbyopia afflicts your vision with age.

I saw Paul in Seattle in '05 at the Omni, and his voice at the time was damn-near perfect! Also, at times he switched off with a Gibson bass, which the older of the guitar players played when he grabbed his guitar. It was a killer concert, I was in the 19th row on the floor, and have always felt it not only was the best $250 I ever spent, period, but it was the best sounding and best mixed concert I can remember seeing at any time in my life.

When the flash-pots went off in "To Live and Let Die", I could feel the heat wave wash over me - even at approximately 40-50 feet from the stage! Plus he was an incredible frontman, waving to and pointing out people in the crowd. Really a great show....

Don't get me wrong - I have nothing but major admiration for Sir Paul; in fact I have a some major hero worship with him!

As I said, his energy and instrumental prowess were as good as ever and his 05 tour was the best since late-70s Wings (which IMHO was the live high water mark for him). I should clarify that I felt bad that his voice isn't what it used to be, but I attribute it to age. His voice is still obviously strong enough to work. But in his younger days, his vocal prowess was almost preternatural.