Why Paul McCartney stopped playing one song live, and the ‘bad thing’ it was associated with

Freedom, a song featured on the Paul McCartney album Driving Rain, was dropped from his setlist because of the “bad thing” associated with it.

True to his word, McCartney has not played the song since 2002, though it did become a staple of his set. Just three performances of the track in 2001 would increase to fifty-two in 2002. The last-ever performance of the song came on November 5, 2002, in Mexico City, Mexico. A few months later and McCartney explained why he no longer performs the song because of the “bad thing” associated with it, and the changing message of the track. Speaking to The Guardian, McCartney would say 9/11 affected his use of the song, and the decision to ultimately drop the song from his set was a matter of taste. McCartney’s read on the public mood meant Freedom was ditched, as he worried it became a “license to torture”.

The song had initially been written as a response to the tragedy. McCartney would even perform the song at a Nobel Peace Prize Concer that same year, dedicating a performance of Your Loving Flame to Beatles bandmate George Harrison too. A rendition of Let It Be was also performed.

McCartney said: “After 9/11, I felt there had to be some sort of response. Some people were just saying, ‘No, no – peace at all costs. Nothing must happen.’ And my argument was, ‘But peace is not what we’re talking about. Two very big buildings have been taken out, in a place that’s never had that kind of an attack before, with an unseen enemy.’

“I felt for the Americans, ‘cos I was there, living with them. It wasn’t like I was living in Muswell Hill thinking, ‘We shouldn’t do anything.’ Something had to be done.” McCartney would go on to drop the song from his set, and has never performed the Driving Rain song since.

He added: “It becomes a licence to torture, and that’s not what that song’s about. It’s really a We Shall Overcome thing. And at that time, playing it in America was helpful, healing, for some Americans.

“Now it’s all got completely ugly – the whole Iraq thing, rushing in without the second resolution. It’s all gone very wrong … It is crazy that they haven’t found any weapons. I think the whole world is just puzzled by that. So it’s ugly. It’s now Vietnam.”

Asked whether the song would make a return in future, McCartney remained clear. It wouldn’t be back, because Freedom now remains too “ambiguous” for members of the public.

He said: “No, it’s not. It’s more ambiguous now. It probably has become identified with the war effort. And I think that’s a bad thing.”