Paul McCartney at ease singing John Lennon's Beatles' songs
40 years ago when Paul McCartney first returned to North America for his Wings Over America comeback tour, he performed a scant five Beatles tunes. Today, his three-hour concerts average about 25 of them. McCartney, who sings a tribute song to John Lennon as well as tackling George Harrison's Abbey Road classic, "Something," has also started performing songs originally sung by Lennon.
McCartney spoke to The New York Times and shed light on embracing material that had long been associated with his partner, explaining, "I never used to do anything unless it was something that I had done the main vocal on. Which is still true, most of the songs, but now I’ve started to do things like 'A Hard Day's Night,' which was mainly John’s vocal. That I would have called a John song, but you know, I helped write it, and it’s a similar thing for a song called 'Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!" In the end, it’s just down to whether it’s a good song to do. I had always said I could never do that song because it’s got such a complicated bass part that it’s almost impossible to sing the melody, which is kind of contrapuntal. But in the end, I thought, stop being a wimp, let’s try and see if you can do it. And I manned up and learned it."
When asked if there are any "Fab Four" songs he can't or won't play, McCartney admitted, "There’s a lot that I probably won’t play, just because there are other songs that I would rather play. I don’t have a sort of hatred for any of them. I’m pretty much a fan of everything the Beatles did. A man of good taste!" McCartney went on to say that these days he doesn't look at his Beatles songs much differently than he did when he wrote and recorded them: "You know, strangely it hasn’t changed that much. I always expect to reach a point where I’m really jaded, and I’ll think, 'Oh, not again!' But as I start it up, I’m reviewing this young guy’s work. And maybe a line or a phrase will strike me, and I’ll think, the kid was good!"
Source: KSHE-95
