Paul McCartney – Good Evening New York City Review

Following on from his previous live album, Back in the U.S, there must have been a belief in Paul McCartney’s camp that he does his best music in the United States. Hauling McCartney onto the stage, which replaced Shea Stadium, is the equivalent of rubbing him in Vaseline and sliding him down the corridor of a haunted house. Here is where the screams and shouts were before. We have seen The Beatles and Wings legend revisit old haunts in the past, be it the studio where he, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison performed on The Ed Sullivan Show, or dragging him, kicking and screaming, back to Abbey Road Studios to play songs from The Boys of Dungeon Lane. Whatever the occasion, there is a place and time to mark for McCartney. An excuse to release quality material never appears far off. Good Evening New York City is just that. A live album that celebrates the music and his career to date, and with strong sincerity the whole way through.  

McCartney has spent the last two decades throwing piano instrumentals at his greatest hits. He shows the effects with Drive My Car, a song that has its light tempo intact but is filled with instrumental excess. It’s a wonderful occasion to start the show as the electric guitar and piano evolve the song from car insurance advert filler to quality crowd pleaser. This is the first time you can notice the ageing of McCartney’s voice. It comes through on Jet, slightly deeper and slower compared to those earlier performances of the song. Back in the U.S. becomes the constant contrast to this one. Did fans need another US stadium blowout? Yes, absolutely. But there’s a lot of overlap between the two albums and it makes the listening experience, at times, a little redundant. Why listen to inferior versions of these live spectacles? The occasion is meant to carry us through Good Evening New York City, but such context never appears, not until he hits a run of Beatles hits towards the end of the show.  

Even then, those songs are not the highlight of this performance. Magical it may be to hear the likes of Helter Skelter, I Saw Her Standing There, and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band performed live, the best bits are the Wings hits. Let Me Roll It and Mrs. Vandebilt are well-placed and provide some decent buffer between strong deep cut inclusions like Highway and Calico Skies. Beatles hits a-plenty too, though never the highlight of the set. Good Evening New York City is a great example of taking McCartney’s talents for granted. It’s never the most moving or excitable set, but it’s a collection of his hits, performed well for a paying crowd. He’s offered that for decades and this is no different. But Back in the U.S. was different. Having such an overlap of hits makes it quite difficult to separate the two, especially since they’re on after another when it comes to live albums. He sounds as though he’s struggling with a cold at times, though that could just be the recording quality.  

There are moments throughout Good Evening New York City that’re worth hearing. That delicate performance of Here Today is a heartbreaker. This live album is a stretch better than anything McCartney’s team released before this. A poor crowd is what pulls at the momentum of this album. Not even a mention of New York City on Sing the Changes, an already weak song, can win them over. Band on the Run is a weak occasion here too, the all-time great track just not offering much. Between McCartney’s vocal struggle and the strangely light instrumental work, it’s a washout for the latter half of Good Evening New York City. A shame, too, but that’s just how it falls for live shows from time to time. Not a reflection on McCartney as a live artist, just the night itself.