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Paul McCartney Memory Almost Full

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by Marcus Kagler
Some screamed adulations. Others danced with religious fervor. Hundreds waved peace signs in the air with eternal devotion. Many wept at the sight of him. Outside the unfortunate were forced to stand and peer through windows just to get a glimpse of a living icon. Sir Paul McCartney was singing “Drive My Car”...inside a record store. Amoeba Music Hollywood was chosen as McCartney's next stop on a promotional “mini tour” for his new album Memory Almost Full.

Only an hour after the official announcement on Monday the tried and true McCartney fans began to line up outside the store with lawn chairs and McCartney memorabilia in hand. By Wednesday night a lucky seven hundred fans, some coming all the way from Japan, were let into the show. Beatlemania descended upon Amoeba for the biggest show in the store's history.

Fans camped out on the street for days for this once in a lifetime chance to get up close and personal with one of the most famous, beloved, and enduring musical icons of the last fifty years. Celebrities like Woody Harrelson and Alanis Morrisette could be found in the crowd but none could compare to the arrival of Ringo Starr. Although only coming to lend support to a friend the former Beatle drummer was practically mobbed as he stood in the crowd to watch the show.

Saying this night was something special would be an understatement. The last two remaining Beatles were under the same roof. The energy was palpable. When McCartney took the stage it was almost a giant sigh of relief. It really was happening. McCartney and his band launched right into “Drive My Car” the first of twenty songs spanning his forty plus year career. The peculiarity of playing a record store was not lost on the former Beatle. After tearing through “Only Mama Knows” from his latest album he greeted the audience with, “Hello Amoeba. This has to be the most surreal gig ever. No shoplifting please.”

At the age of sixty-five McCartney appeared to be as exuberant and youthful as a teenager. He flawlessly shouted and screamed his way through rocking classics like “Back in the U.S.S.R.” and “I Saw Her Standing There” along with epic renditions of “The Long and Winding Road” and “Let It Be”. The show also carried more moving somber moments. Before playing a solo acoustic version of “Here Today” McCartney addressed the crowd saying, “I'd like to do a song about people who we miss tonight. I wrote this song for John. It's for George and Linda as well.” At the mere mention of late Beatles and former wife the crowd erupted into momentous applause and a few tears flowed.

It's hard not to feel the infectious exuberance Paul McCartney brings to a performance. The man's very presence seems to bind people from all walks of life. The audience at Wednesday night's show ranged from young children to grandparents all of whom knew and sang every word to every song. That's what makes Paul McCartney such a huge presence. His music seamlessly crosses over from generation to generation with each making his songs their own. He makes music to remind us of our humanity and the goodness we all can achieve in this life.
Many have called him corny and Paul McCartney wears that tag like a badge of honor. After all, life is too short to be serious and misunderstood all the time. Few things in this world can bring total strangers together like “Hey Jude”. On Wednesday night at a record store in Hollywood over seven hundred people stood tall and sang “Hey Jude” with Paul McCartney and for a few minutes everything was good in the world. The man is living proof that a single person can use their gift to make a difference.

Those of us who spent this intimate evening with Paul McCartney all walked away that night with the same thought: thank God I was there. You got the feeling even Paul was feeling the same way. After a moving rendition of “The Long and Winding Road” he even said it. “I'd like to take a little moment to take this all in. I was there. I was there at Amoeba.”
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Thu, 16 Aug 2007

PAUL MCCARTNEY
Memory Almost Full
Nils van der Linden

Paul McCartney named his latest album for an error message he kept getting on his cellphone. But the title ‘Memory Almost Full’ does much more than imply the 64-year-old musician is still with the times, or — like the rest of us — trying to keep up with the overload of modern life.

It’s the phrase a former Beatle might use to describe his current state of mind, at an age where he’s taking stock of his life, with a head packed full of memories — many of which must seem like those of a completely different person.

The Fab Four cast a long shadow, and on ‘Ever Present Past’ he’s “searching for the time that has gone so fast, The time that I thought would last”, unable (and no doubt a little unwilling) to escape the legacy he helped create over 40 years ago.

The retrospection is at its most vivid during the rose-tinted ‘That Was Me’, one of five songs in a ‘Sgt Pepper’-style medley, that finds Macca remembering himself with spade and bucket by the sea, playing conkers by the bus stop, Merseybeatin with the band, on TV. “And when I think that all this stuff/ Can make a life, It’s pretty hard to take it in/ That was me,” he admits, almost carefree.

The stirring ‘House of Wax’ lowers the mood a little with its images of thunder, trumpet blasts, and poets spilling in the street, McCartney delivering his almost primal vocal over the musical equivalent of a brewing storm. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any darker, he moves onto his own funeral.

Yet ‘The End Of The End’ is anything but somber.

“On the day that I die/ I’d like jokes to be told / And stories of old/ To be rolled out like carpets/ That children have played on,” he sings without a trace of regret, even whistling before launching into the chorus: “At the end of the end/ It’s the start of a journey/ To a much better place/ And a much better place/ Would have to be special/ No reason to cry/ No need to be sad.”

Despite all the turmoil going on in his personal life, he sounds like a man at peace.

He also sounds like a man comfortable with his strengths as a musician. While the excellent mood piece ‘Chaos and Creation in the Backyard’ felt a little restrained under the iron fist of producer Nigel Godrich, its immediate successor is an unabashed McCartney album.

Again playing most of the instruments himself, he now performs the songs with a playful enthusiasm, recreating Chuck Berry rock ‘n roll and ‘Come Together’ on ‘Nod Your Head’, hauling out the mandolin on the deceptively simple ‘Dance Tonight’, nonchalantly revisiting ‘Eleanor Rigby’ on ‘Mr Bellamy’, and with the thundering ‘Only Mama Knows’ proving he can still throw shapes like he did on ‘Helter Skelter’.

Only falling short are the weepy ‘You Tell Me’ and equally saccharine ‘See Your Sunshine’ that find him biting into the giant candyfloss of his early ‘80s career. But short of these lapses in judgment, 'Memory Almost Full' is certainly a memory worth clinging to.

Source: http://entertainment.iafrica.com/music/latest/406060.htm