Music DVD Review: Paul McCartney - Live Kisses

Paul McCartney has gotten a lot of mileage out of his one-off performance at Capitol Studios. The February 9, 2012 concert was originally streamed live for free on iTunes, a promotional event for McCartney’s album of Great American Songbook standards, Kisses on the Bottom. In March, the performance was released as a download-only live album called iTunes Live from Capitol Studios. It was next aired as part of the PBS series, Great Performances. Now, Live Kisses is available as a DVD release from Eagle Rock Entertainment.

For McCartney fans, this is a fantastic release. Having watched the live iTunes webcast, I must admit to some skepticism about how well it would translate to a standalone release. The black-and-white presentation was simple yet elegant, with McCartney backed by an ace jazz combo and 20-piece orchestra let by Marcy Vaj. Repeating her role on Kisses on the Bottom was pianist Diana Krall. Joe Walsh filled in for Eric Clapton as featured guitarist on a pair of songs, “Get Yourself Another Fool” and McCartney’s own “My Valentine.” The most interesting aspect of the performance is how genuinely out of his element McCartney seems. This isn’t quite the confident stadium performer we’re so accustomed to seeing. It adds a layer of occasional awkwardness, especially easy to spot by anyone with a good working familiarity with this style of music. The webcast didn’t come off as his finest hour in front of an audience.

For the DVD, the baker’s dozen tunes have been augmented by interviews with McCartney, Krall, Walsh, Clapton, and other participants from the album and concert. We get a little insight into why McCartney chose these songs. Hearing from the musicians who worked on the project allows us to better understand the approach McCartney took with material, obviously an artistic stretch for him. These aren’t the same old Beatles stories fans have heard again and again. If anyone doubts that McCartney is still seeking out new challenges in the autumn of his career, Live Kisses should put them to rest. With past rock concert video releases (Back in the U.S. and The Space Within US being the primary culprits), documentary and interview footage has been extremely obtrusive. Here it creates a really intimate environment and enriches the individual song performances.

Article Author: The Other Chad

My name is Chaz. A former co-worker (Dave) always misheard my name as "Chad." Complicating matters was a third co-worker, who was in fact named Chad. So Dave habitually called me the "other Chad."

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