Here Today – But Does Paul Feel Like Letting Go?

Paul McCartney – live at Glastonbury festival  25th June 2022

Paul McCartney has always been around. For most of you, that is an absolute. For me, only four years of my life are Beatle-less.

He has been the musical backdrop to my life in seven decades and now at eighty he can turn out a nearly three-hour set of non-stop bangers. The best bit is he is apparently a lovely bloke, who is as natural in real life as he is onstage, unaffected by the adulation poured on him. Few other long-lived rockers can claim that.

McCartney is the most wholesome man in rock music. Probably not the greatest endorsement, but there are plenty of others you can apply to the single most iconic figure in pop music. If you don’t believe me, ask Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters and Nirvana, or Bruce Springsteen, both of whom flew from the USA just to perform two songs with the maestro and spent their entire time onstage looking at Macca with puppy-dog adoration.

Dave Grohl summed it up when Paul thanked him for turning up, “There’s nowhere I’d rather be than right here, right now, onstage with you.”

Meanwhile, The Boss grinned through his entire performance like this was ultimate moment of a great career. In his head he WAS a Beatle, if only for six or seven minutes.

Like any set there were highs and lows, but the highest point for me wasn’t the classic Beatles songs, the great McCartney songs, or even the top-quality Wings songs. It was a quiet acoustic number written in tribute to John Lennon, “Here Today”. Written in the aftermath of Lennon’s murder on the streets of New York, the song worked my heart like a newly lost lover. The lyrics aren’t much, just a heartfelt story of two guys who did something good together and went their own ways, never to return. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but I sensed regret.

“I really loved you and was glad you came along | When you were here today | Ooh ooh ooh, for you were in my song | Ooh ooh ooh, here today.”

The concert seemed like something of a farewell, a valedictory wave, with an understanding that we probably won’t see Paul McCartney on such a big stage again. Can an eighty-year-old still have the appetite to scale the heights? Or does Paul feel like letting go? I wouldn’t blame him, but I’m glad I witnessed it. As bookends go, this could not be better.

If it is The End, Paul, then enjoy your retirement. You gave us lots of love.

Thank you, James Paul McCartney.