Paul McCartney, the Ultimate Guitar Gig
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I’ve been “retired” from the road for over 20 years now. When our first daughter was born I decided that being home to be a husband and father was more important than being a road warrior. That daughter is now out of college and more-or-less on her own, but my wife and I have a new little girl who just started kindergarten, so again, I have a pretty good reason for still keeping my little lily white hiney home. But yesterday I was listening to Paul McCartney on Pandora while driving and it hit me; if Paul were to call me out of retirement, I’d say yes without hesitation.
Why? Well, it’s certainly not just because of the opportunity to play with a “living legend” before it’s too late. I assure you the majority of music icons don’t interest me a bit. But McCartney … well … wow. Yes, as regular readers of this blog know, I’m a McCartney fan for sure (read the blog). But from a GUITAR PLAYER standpoint, here are the bullet points:
Varity:Holy crap, McCartney’s catalog of hits, both in and out of the Beatles is more varied in styles and textures than ANY other artist! That’s what hit me as I listened to a smattering of his stuff from many decades. I mean, there isn’t a single guitar tone that he hasn’t used on record. As a certified TONE guy, I can TOTALLY appreciate that. I mean, I might actually be able to come up with a totally genuine answer to my wife’s question of “why on earth do you have so many guitars, amps, and guitar gizmos?” … “Because, sweetie, I need each and every single one of them to cop the tones on Paul’s songs”. How cool is that fellow gear addicts???
The man himself: I learned many years ago that if you are going to squeeze into an aluminum tube with a dozen or so other musicians and call it home for weeks or months at a time, all it takes is one JERK and the experience becomes miserable. I just cannot imagine a jerk ever gaining entrance to McCartney’s band. He’s just too darn nice a guy (he IS a Knight after all).
So there! Sorry to my lovely wife Kim, but if Sir Paul calls me up, I’ll be on the road again. Of course there are better odds that I’ll win the state lottery while being hit by a bus on an ocean cruise …
How about y’all? What artist would be YOUR ultimate gig and why? I’m curious!