McCartney Still Inspires

By Melinda Newman - ReZoom's Music Columnist

Here’s what I believe about music. I believe music can save your soul. At those times when absolutely nothing else can reach you, music can. When it feels like all hope is lost, a note, a voice, a melody can bring you back to safety. Brian Wilson called “Smile,” his legendary unfinished album (until 2004, at least) “a teenage symphony to God.” I believe the reverse: that through artists like Wilson and Springsteen and, of course, some of the world’s greatest classical composers, God is writing symphonies to us as a way to comfort us, soothe us and make his presence known. Everything I believe about music I felt on June 27 when Paul McCartney played at Amoeba Records in Hollywood. Incredibly, it was his first time ever playing at a record store.After the announcement of the surprise free show 48 hours in advance, folks began camping out in front of Amoeba for the 400 or so wristbands that would allow entry. Online reports claimed that at times 3,000 people were in line. The crowd was made up of ages from three to 70. A number of dads brought their little sons in what will surely be a bonding moment, even if the tots don't actually remember the concert.Among the 350 or so VIPs, who were lined up between the record store's CD bins like cattle in a chute, were Ringo Starr (who, sadly, did not join McCartney on stage), Olivia Harrison (George Harrison’s widow), the Eagles’ Joe Walsh, Alanis Morissette, Cybil Shepherd, former Disney head honcho Michael Eisner, Twiggy, Woody Harrelson and producer Rick Rubin. A little after 8 p.m., the star of the show appeared on stage and launched into the peppy “Drive My Car.” McCartney was effortlessly engaging and charming throughout the 75-minute performance whether rocking out with his touring band or playing “Blackbird” solo. There was a tacit, unspoken agreement between McCartney and the audience: He was going to play songs from his new CD, “Memory Almost Full.” All of these were well received -- the woman beside me sang along to every tune -- but he was also going to play what he knew we were all there to hear, the classic Beatles songs that make up the soundtrack to our lives. Given the hyper-ecstasy displayed by the crowd at this opportunity to see their musical hero in such an intimate setting, it pushes credulity to say McCartney was enjoying the evening as much as the audience, but he clearly was. Unlike so many acts who are mere shells of their former selves and who perform their hits by rote, McCartney delivered 40-year-old songs with the gusto of someone performing them for the 10th time instead of the 1,000th and managed never to seem like an oldies act. He innately seems to understand what these songs mean to people and has enough respect for his audience to not toss off a tune that may, in all likelihood, be someone’s favorite of all time.“Hey Jude,” written for Julian Lennon, is one of those songs for me. As first recorded for the 1968 album of the same name, it is a masterpiece. But it is as the world’s most famous sing-along that it has earned its place as something much more: an expression of our collective consciousness coming together through its hypnotically repeating “na-na-na” ending. It is as uplifting as any hymn. Speaking of hymns, McCartney also performed “Let It Be,” as a beautiful benediction for the evening. McCartney turned 65 in June, but he remains eternally youthful in a boundlessly energetic way that can only be brought about by following one’s passion. None of his new songs, as good as they may be, will ever have the iconic appeal of his Beatles classics, but that’s OK. No one, not even McCartney, should be forced to compete with that past.