Here Today: McCartney "One on One" in Portland

Paul McCartney

Moda Center, Portland

April 15, 2016

In the hierarchy of living rock and roll legends, there's a strong argument that Paul McCartney sits at the top. Ample evidence of the ex-Beatle's primacy was on full display in Portland, as he delivered a spirited, 38-song extravaganza that not only did justice to his career, but also shined a light on the dustier, sometimes eccentric corners of his catalog. 

Channeling Jimi: Sir Paul on guitar (photos by  Mary Layton)

This latest jaunt, officially titled the "One on One" tour, could just be called "Paul Things to Paul People." The setlist was wide-ranging, and the structure of the show was enhanced by a seven-song acoustic segment. Suffice to say, there was something for everyone. Hardcore Beatles fanatic? Well, boom, here's "Hard Day's Night" to open the show, not played in 51 years and never during McCartney's solo era. Fab Four scholar? Here's a reading of The Quarrymen's "In Spite of All the Danger." Dig the weird stuff? How does McCartney II's electronic-pop bleeper "Temporary Secretary" work for you? Avid Wings fan? The bouncy piano escapade "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five" has you covered. You once asked on social media, "Who's Paul McCartney?" Here's the Rihanna-Kanye-McCartney wildin'-out ditty, "FourFiveSeconds." You're just here to sing along to Beatles tunes? Here's 23 of those, from "We Can Work it Out" to "Back in the U.S.S.R." to "Love Me Do." Still want more? Here are three punchy selections from Macca's admirable 2013 album New.

As with the Beatles and Wings, McCartney doesn't do all this alone; he's got a stable foundation in his versatile touring band of the past 14 years, Brian Ray (guitar, bass), Rusty Anderson (guitar), Abe Laboriel Jr. (drums), and Paul "Wix" Wickens (keyboards). They've got it all covered: harmony vocals, switching to bass so Paul can peel off Hendrixian guitar squeals at the end of "Let Me Roll It," or just banging a tambourine. Laboriel Jr. cuts perhaps the most striking figure, perched atop his drum riser as a vortex of swinging arms and drumsticks. While Sir Paul is the default focal point, these other parts of his well-oiled machine also deserve attention, whether it's Anderson tearing up a solo, or Ray strumming the spectral acoustic transition of "Band on the Run." 

Rock icons can often get a pass for just showing up. And McCartney could somewhat phone it in, but there's never any sense of that; his professionalism, respect for his audience, and spare-no-expense production value tactics are irrefutable. And at 73, with a bit of sandpaper in his voice now and again, he has to realize that time is finite. He's out there playing every city he can, whether it's a major market like Seattle, or neglected, smaller locales like Fresno and Cleveland. As gratifying and emotionally impactful as this concert was, as much as it projected vitality, there was a nagging feeling that Portland, which hadn't welcomed Sir Paul in 11 years, was witnessing something akin to a comet. The rareness of this night, you know? The sheer ephemerality of it all. Mortality is tough to bear, yet was noticeably underlined by the moments where McCartney paid tribute to two departed Georges (Harrison and Martin), and dedicated the heartfelt "Here Today" to John Lennon.

"Something" for George

To live, though, is to carry that weight, persevere, and make the most of this thing called life. As Paul sang at the conclusion of this evening, "And in the end the love you take / Is equal to the love you make." On this night, the love felt incalculable.

Setlist (spoilers ahead...)

   A Hard Day's Night
   Save Us
   Can't Buy Me Love
   Letting Go
   Temporary Secretary
   Let Me Roll It
   I've Got a Feeling
   My Valentine
   Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
   Here, There and Everywhere
   Maybe I'm Amazed
     

Acoustic Set:
  We Can Work It Out

  In Spite of All the Danger
  You Won't See Me
  Love Me Do
  And I Love Her
  Blackbird
  Here Today
   
   Queenie Eye

   New
   The Fool on the Hill
   Lady Madonna
   FourFiveSeconds
   Eleanor Rigby
   Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
   Something
   Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
   Band on the Run
   Back in the U.S.S.R.
   Let It Be
   Live and Let Die
   Hey Jude
    
    Encore:
    Yesterday
    Hi, Hi, Hi
    Birthday
    Golden Slumbers
    Carry That Weight
    The End

Public Image, Damaged: The Rock Hall's Public Perception Problem

As the stars converge and the hype builds for the 31st Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Brooklyn tonight, it's important not to lose sight of an inescapable fact: By any measure, the Rock Hall is an American institution with a tarnished public image. Sad to say, but it's lost hearts and minds. When tickets for your annual watershed gala event are going on StubHub for $12, and the simulcast of said event at the museum isn't sold out, well, those are bad omens.

There's an acute public perception problem here, and the reasons go beyond why your favorite band isn't in the hall yet; in fact, let's please put those reflexive, tiresome, moody blues to rest for now. In considering the Rock Hall gestalt, there are two entities that feed off each other. First there's the museum in Cleveland, which opened in 1995 and is an exceptionally-curated music fan pilgrimage. Secondly and most significantly, there is the organization that spearheaded the museum, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, NYC-based and formed in 1983 by the late Ahmet Ertegun, Jann Wenner, Seymour Stein, Jon Landau, and others to recognize achievement in popular music.

That mission sounds simple enough. In fact, the early years, marked by the privately-held induction ceremonies at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City, were a relatively non-controversial, celebratory breeze. Elvis! Chuck Berry! Bob Dylan! Aretha! The Beatles! But as decades have gone on, and as Wenner has dubiously claimed "all the no-brainers" are inducted, it seems that myriad issues have cropped up that threaten to irrevocably damage the very idea of "The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame." These issues include, but are not necessarily limited to, transparency, communication, gender equality, credibility, common sense, and conflicts of interest:

Transparency - Most people that follow the hall closely, as well as casual observers/everyday rock fans, get a sense that most major Rock Hall decisions are being made behind closed doors. This is a non-profit that is driven by donations, but the institution seems to act with impunity and zero accountability. Does anyone on the outside, let alone donors, know what's going on? Sure, financial numbers get disclosed.  But missing is the basic information that would actually matter to the populist masses the Hall is purportedly courting to buy memberships and tickets to the museum/induction ceremonies. The most corrective measure the Hall could take toward transparency would be to disclose the vote counts that decide who gets inducted. A press release is issued, and news outlets and social media are abuzz on announcement day, but it seems no one truly questions the results. (Does anyone truly believe that Steve Miller got more votes than Janet Jackson? That's not to take sides in support of either, but most fan polls outside the Rock Hall's bot-corrupted fan vote had Janet well ahead, and you'd think there would be at least some parallel).

Communication - The fact that most people believed that N.W.A. would perform at the induction ceremony tonight, only to be highly disappointed yesterday when they saw Ice Cube's interview in the New York Times saying they weren't performing due to disagreements with the organizers, is a prime example of the Rock Hall dropping the ball when it comes to communication. How long was this known? It certainly wasn't in the Hall's best interest to disclose that fact. Going broader in terms of the 2016 ceremony, why are there only five performer inductees this year? Previous years have had quite a few more. A sixth slot could have gone to a deserving artist like Yes. Again, there are no real answers from the Hall, just speculation across the board that maybe they're trying to shorten what have been admittedly long ceremonies.

Gender Equality - There's not a single female inductee this year, not even a single announced presenter tonight that is female. Furthermore, per the essential Rock Hall resource Future Rock Legends (futurerocklegends.com), "Of the 547 Rock Hall voters we have on our unofficial list, 9.3% are women." Expanding the voting body to include more women is urgent, crucial, and ridiculously overdue. 

Credibility - The Hall-run, official fan vote for the 2016 induction class was an abject disaster. Overtaken by bots and registering an inhuman 160,905,154 votes, it's exhibit A for the Hall to come up with a more secure, credible fan voting system. (And yes, Chicago fans, the point is taken that you are passionate, and that you voted a bunch. But you didn't vote 37 million times, as the official Rock Hall fan vote would have us believe.) This needs to be fixed before the next set of nominees is announced.

Common Sense - When choosing which band members to induct (or not induct at all, as in tonight's Steve Miller "sans Band" scenario), the committees apparently need to do more research, consult the bands, and use some common sense. In the case of Deep Purple, vocalist Rod Evans is being inducted, but bassist Nick Simper was excluded, which is confounding as they played on the same records and were in the band at the same time. Yet every drummer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers was inducted? Inconsistency at best.

Conflicts of Interest - The late Bert Berns is being given the Ahmet Ertegun Award for Lifetime Achievement tonight, an honor that is apparently determined not by voting but via the unilateral decision of a nomination committee. Steven Van Zandt and Paul Shaffer are producing a Broadway musical about Bert Berns, and they are both on such a committee. The red flags being raised here, justifiably so, are conflicts of interest, and the overarching sense that the Rock Hall insiders are just going to do whatever they want. Berts, a storied '60s producer, record man and songwriter, has accomplishments that have more than earned him this honor, but it's too bad his induction has this shadow of impropriety over it. 

In closing, the Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten, upon learning of his band's induction, fired off a burning missive to the Hall in 1996, calling it a "piss stain." He added, "Your anonymous as judges but your still music industry people (sic)." Maybe Rotten's was among the first hearts and minds lost.

That doesn't mean the Rock Hall can't course-correct and win back those that still believe in a credible, well-executed, and balanced recognition of musical achievement. Fixing these issues isn't just the right thing to do; it may even secure the Rock Hall's long-term future.

Predictions: Song Performances at the 2016 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

Whatever your feelings on the Rock Hall, there's no denying the musical performances are always the highlight. The inducted artists, fresh from coronation and playing in front of peers and rock legends, always bring their "A" game. 

Typically each act gets about 3 songs to perform, but some acts get less. So which tunes will blow the roof off Barclays Center on Friday, April 8? Here are a some predictions (admittedly, many are kind of obvious), assuming 3 numbers per inducted act:

N.W.A. - Not performing, and wow, what a huge letdown. Per Ice Cube in the New York Times: "I guess we really didn't feel like we were supported enough to do the best show we could put on... We wanted to do it on a whole other level, and that just couldn't happen."

Chicago - "25 or 6 to 4" is rumored to be the climactic end of night all-star jam (according to Matt Wardlaw and his interview with Chicago's Robert Lamm - http://ultimateclassicrock.com/robert-lamm-chicago-interview-2016/ ) so if that's true, expect the balance to be 2 out of these 3:

"Saturday in the Park" / "If You Leave Me Now" / "You're the Inspiration"

Cheap Trick - Damn, wouldn't "Surrender" make a terrific end of night jam though? (I am saying this out loud in Mike Damone's voice.) Expect that song in any case, along with "I Want You to Want Me." Then it's probably going to be "Dream Police" but that could be swapped out for "The Flame."

Deep Purple - "Highway Star" / "Hush" / "Smoke on the Water"; however, if there's a shocking change of events and David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes miraculously get to perform, expect "Burn" as a swap-out with "Hush".

Steve Miller - "The Joker" / "Fly Like an Eagle" / "Rock'n Me" or "Abracadabra."

Bert Berns - Probably none for this late record man, unless his co-written 1961 classic "Twist and Shout" (he was credited as "Bert Russell") ends up being the end of night jam. But since that already was part of an all-star jam during 1988's gala, another song he had a hand in could simply be performed after his induction presentation, such as "Piece of My Heart."