I got an early Christmas present this year―seeing Sir James Paul McCartney live in my home city of New Orleans; it has been over 60 years since he made his first appearance here. Then, Paul was performing with some guys named John, George, and Ringo; they played for about half an hour at City Park.
On October 29, 2025, the 83-year-old artist formerly known as “the cute Beatle” played for 2 hours and 40 minutes, backed by musicians he’s played with for almost a quarter century, at this stop on his “Got Back” tour.
Paul McCartney’s name has been a household word pretty much my entire life.
And, as much as my musical heritage is Louisianian, my tastes are eclectic―plus, who’s to say our musical tastes aren’t shaped by every great musician and band we heard during childhood’s so-receptive years?
It was an epic concert. The music flooded me with double-vision, sometimes triple―what these iconic melodies and lyrics meant to me when I first heard them, what they mean hearing them now, and, inevitably, milestones in my life when I heard, or thought of, one of them.
Yes, Paul McCartney has played with his current band about twice as long as the Beatles existed (even counting the period before they named the band―I think their first incarnation was as The Quarrymen). Yes, he and the Wings had some fantastic hits, and yes, he’s written some very good stuff since that band, too.
Why not? Paul McCartney is one of the most superbly gifted songwriters of his generation or any other.
But he will always be a Beatle (and my wife, Jennifer, assures me he’s still very cute). The Beatles’ music will, I believe, live a very, very long time.
A friend of mine has told me about her father coming home with the Beatles’ albums from their first two films, A Hard Day’s Night, and Help! He had heard the title song from the latter on his way out of a movie theatre, having seen the James Bond film on the double bill.
He went back to see the Beatles film, as “no piece of music had ever had such a profound impact” on him. This was a man who loved classical and old-style jazz and would maintain until his dying day 40+ years later that most rock and roll was garbage.
Hearing that very track, Help!, sung not by a 24-year-old John Lennon, but by an 83-year-old Paul McCartney, was truly awesome, in all senses of the word.
What do the lyrics mean now, to Paul, to me? What did they mean then? A man speaks of having been confident once, but now he’s less so―he admits he needs others. And that’s oddly liberating to him.
What does it mean for the musical knight to sing his old friend’s lyric? John Lennon, so horribly murdered in New York City by a deranged and obsessed man who thought to appropriate greatness by destroying it.
When I was younger, so much younger than today
I never needed anybody’s help in any way
But now these days are gone
I’m not so self-assured
Now I find I’ve changed my mind
I’ve opened up the doors
It’s there, starkly, isn’t it? It’s great and timeless. I bet there isn’t one of us who can’t hear it all, start to finish, in our heads just from those few lines.
Suitable for all ages, too.
But there was so much great music, so many great songs, on offer.
Lots of Beatles. Maybe I’m Amazed. The best of the Wings-and-later music.
Great moment when Sir Paul took his jacket off, announcing it as his “wardrobe change for the evening,” poking a little fun at those performers whose sets require multiple costumes.
Iconic, epic, yes, I need words like that to speak of Paul McCartney. So do we all, if we’re aiming for accuracy.
Do you have a sharp and sweet memory of a Paul McCartney concert? Another concert?
Please click here to email me directly – I’d love to hear about it!
Until next Wednesday –
Peace,
Eric
