Five things you have not seen about Paul McCartney Grand Central Livestream – Variety

Chances are, if you're reading this, you've already seen Paul McCartney's "private" private concert YouTube at the Grand Central Station in New York. ). He found the ex-Beatle in good shape though it was slightly rough, crossing songs from almost every era of his career, from "Love Me Do" to "Blackbird" (what he played on a small stage in the middle of the crowd) and several of his new album "Egypt Station", which, obviously, is the thematic link to hold a concert at "the coolest station we can think of" as the McCartney said.

The show was special even for those of us who had seen him play live several times – not just because he was singing about ten meters away. Obviously, McCartney does not need to tour – he does it because he wants to, and unlike artists such as Neil Young or Prince, his motives seem to please the crowds. We had a lot of hits on Friday night, but also rarely played songs – the 1963 Beatles hit "From Me to You" – and an unusual arrangement of the most recent "Valentine" with Paul singing through a megaphone. 1920 feel.

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But you already know all that. Here are some things you may not have seen on the livestream:

• Celebrities in the crowd. In shows like this, we see the fanboy / girl coming out in all sorts of famous characters. Meryl Streep (who was apparently in the flow of scene, because the horn section that played in the crowd during "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La Da" was in front of her), Jon Bon Jovi, Steve were mixed with the public. Buscemi, Chris Rock, Kendall Jenner, Sean Lennon, Amy Schumer, Jimmy Fallon, Kate Moss, Bobby Cannavale, Greg Kurstin (grammy-winning producer having directed "Egypt Station"), and that's what we saw with our own eyes.
• Paul still wears Beatle boots. They are suede, but otherwise classic, Cuban heels Beatle style, those that the moptops have made synonymous with their name. It's a little adorable.
• He messed up Blackbird's words twice, even if they were printed on a sheet of paper right in front of him. I often wonder how it is possible for singers to forget the lyrics of the songs they have written and / or sung hundreds or thousands of times, but this must be a common affliction because it happens to almost everyone. That night, no one else besides him cared for him – the sight of McCartney walking in the crowd and climbing a small stage six feet in front of you is pretty memorable (and not just because there was a woman leaning on my back and singing loudly in my ear). But our point of view also showed that the lyrics were printed on a sheet of paper stuck on the stage right in front of him – maybe his 76-year-old eyes did not age as well as he did.
• McCartney instructed the crowd before the show on the opening stroke. The presumption for the beginning of the show was that Paul, alone on stage, was testing the acoustics of the play, then singing a phrase of "Hey Jude" and the invisible crowd singing the next line; he would close in the same way by answering the finger. While he was going up on stage and the crowd was raging, he very charmingly explained all the vanity and laughed when everyone continued to sing "Hey Jude" and he had to wave his arms and say "No, no – just a line! "He closed the show with slammed fingers – and when everyone obeyed, he smiled" Brilliant! "
• Elderly and middle-aged people lose their temper in the presence of a Beatle. I saw the black flag. I saw BTS. I saw Prince and Guns N 'Roses and U2 and Nirvana at their peak. There is nothing better than the cries, the babble and the behavior of the people who are pulled by invisible strings when a Beatle is near. When McCartney entered the crowd in search of "Blackbird", it took a long and sleepy football training to hold on. But who is complaining? We will probably not see McCartney perform again at Grand Central Station anytime soon …