So you've probably noticed I've held back talking about the third disc here — and that is because I've saved the best part of this set for last. Disc three is what takes The McCartney Years from being a self-congratulatory retrospective, into something that any McCartney fan must own. It includes large chunks of three McCartney concerts, from three different eras. There's the 1976 performance with Wings that became the long since hard to find film Rockshow, as well as McCartney's 1991 MTV Unplugged performance, and the 2004 tour closer at Glastonbury.
Of these three concerts, the 1976 performance with Wings holds the most personal significance for me, given the fact that it is from a show at Seattle's gargantuan Kingdome that I actually attended as a then twenty-year-old fan. Although the quality of the film is grainy, I am absolutely amazed at how good it sounds, as the Kingdome was this huge stadium built out of cement for NFL football that was an acoustical nightmare.
When Jeff Beck played there that same summer in 1976 opening for Aerosmith, he even referred to it onstage as the "Kingdome echo chamber." When it eventually became obvious that the cement building wasn't even any good for the Seattle Seahawks football games, they finally just blew the damn thing up.
The 2004 Glastonbury performance included here is also a great one. When McCartney released his Space Within US DVD documenting his 2005 tour last year — as good, and visually dazzling as it was — I was frustrated with the way they totally chopped up the song "Hey Jude." Here, we get the song uncut in a performance that actually brought a tear to my eye watching all those Brits sing along. Although McCartney's band is on the last night of their tour, they seem particularly energized by the huge crowd.
Mainly because of this third disc, The McCartney Years gets a mild thumbs up here.
As nostalgic a trip down memory lane as some of these videos were, I still found that it was a lot to sit through in one viewing (I actually had to spend two nights watching it). But with the concert footage comes the real payoff.
Article comments
1 - Stanz Man
think this is a great effort to finally get some of these gems out there...oh and I am not sure they were meant to be watched all at once...the pleasure of this vast set is that you can put it aside and look forward to seeing the rest of it or watch it one disc at a time as I did..
enjoy the master of melody !
2 - Tom Johnson
Oh, all right, this convinced me. I just added it to my Christmas list. Happy now, Glen? ;-)
3 - Glen Boyd
Yeah, its just a whole lot to take in on a single viewing Stanz, but I can definitely see where by scanning your favorite songs, this DVD set can probably be best enjoyed. Definitely a trip down Memory Lane. But the Wings concert footage for me is just priceless.
Tom, I think this set would make a fine stocking stuffer -- not only for yourself, but for anyone else close to you. Oops...looks like I just cost ya a few more bucks.
-Glen
4 - Paul
I don't understand. The review speaks glowingly of the disc, and then he concludes with a "mild thumbs up" essentially because it was too much to watch in one sitting? That's a negative? I'm more inclined to agree with other's whose complaints are centered around their frustration that McCartney doesn't release the concert footage in it's entirety. That's valid.
5 - Sam
Lost to the reviewer is that EVERYTHING is in DTS 5.1 Surround---the new mixes alone makes this set worth owning. The sound is amazing.
6 - Connie Phillips
Congrats! This article has been forwarded to the Advance.net websites and Boston.com.
7 - 52 stations
just to clarify - not ALL of Macca's videos are included - i've also read some have actually been altered in some ways - and all concerts on disc 3 are only excerts... i assume the COMPLETE videos and concerts
will be available at some point in the future "buy" popular demand :-)
8 - R.J.
Did anyone else
A) have HUGE problems getting these all to download and
B) download them all just to find that the names of the .rar files aren't sequenced correctly?
This set has been a huge hassle for me, and I was quite looking forward to it. Guess I'll be adding it to the rental list.
9 - R.J.
Disregard previous comment....wrong site. My mistake.
10 - Paul
First, I don't believe any reviewer could do this fairly massive collection justice after only two days of viewing. Second, this is, unfortunately, not all of McCartney's videos. Third, this definite collection of McCartney videos is unquestionably essential for fans. Fourth, there was no mention of all the fabulous extras, rare videos and TV performances, which should attract even remote Macca fans. The live performances are great, but most true fans would prefer Rock Show and Unplugged in their entirety.