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[Live in Japan Report] Paul McCartney took on a new challenge in Japan!
In April 2017, Paul McCartney performed in Japan for the first time in two years.
This time, I’ll share why Paul continues to stay active and the major challenges he took on during this tour.
Why does Paul McCartney keep performing?
First, please watch this video.
How about this?
This is a video that was played on the Tokyo Dome monitors, in which Paul McCartney himself talks about why he continues to perform live even now at the age of 74 (as of May 2017).
I think this makes it clear why he’s still active.
First concert in Japan in two years
Paul McCartney, a former member of The Beatles and a legendary figure in popular music who continues to thrive as a solo artist, held a Japan tour in April 2017, his first in two years.
The 25th was at Nippon Budokan, and the 27th, 29th, and 30th were at Tokyo Dome.
After reading this article, some of you might be thinking, “You know, doesn’t Paul McCartney come to Japan all the time?”
In fact, I visited Japan every two years—in 2013, 2015, and 2017—so it might feel that way.
There may be very few overseas superstar artists who visit Japan this frequently.
We previously reported that he is an ardent Japanophile who loves Japan dearly.
However, I took this tour to be a revolutionary event whose significance was completely different from anything before.
However, I would like to begin by noting that this is merely my subjective opinion and nothing more than speculation.
Paul drastically changed his approach to live shows up to now!
On this tour, Paul performed 31 songs including the encore on the 25th, and 39 songs on each of the remaining three days.
And there were 24 pieces that were performed in all four of those concerts with the same program.
Excluding the Budokan—where the setlist was kept modest due to various circumstances—and looking only at the Tokyo Dome, out of a total of 39 songs, only 24 were shared with other shows. Conversely, that means 15 songs were different.
Of course, there are some overlapping songs, so it’s not as if all 15 tracks are completely different.
However, in all four performancessetlistThere is no doubt that it has changed significantly.
Do you feel anything after reading this article?
Especially to his fans, don't you feel that something is off?
That's right.
This is a bold change of course for Paul!
Paul is an artist who doesn’t change the setlist.
Paul hardly changed the setlist on his tours up to now.
It's the first time he's changed the setlist this drastically!
The significance of this is very great.
Because he is the kind of artist who doesn’t change the setlist.
A setlist originally refers to a written document in which musicians list, in order, the songs to be performed at a concert, but nowadays it generally refers to the songs performed at the concert and their order.
Regarding setlists, there are broadly three types of artists.
- The type that doesn’t have a setlist to begin with.
- They have a setlist but are the type to swap out a few songs.
- The type who only does things according to the setlist.
When playing in a band, you generally can’t change the setlist unless the members are extremely in sync.
Because if the band isn’t in sync, the risk of making mistakes increases.
Why didn’t you change the setlist until now?
- A Hard Day’s Night
- Junior’s Farm
- Can’t Buy Me Love
- Jet……
Paul is the type who doesn’t change the setlist, and that hasn’t changed since the old days.
The reason isn’t clear, but even back in the Beatles era he was the type who immersed himself in crafting sound—so much so that recording engineer Geoff Emerick called him a workaholic.
Artists are, to a greater or lesser extent, people with such tendencies, but in Paul’s case it is exceptional.
I don’t know if he ever explained his reasons, but knowing how much of a perfectionist he is, I’d guess it’s because he wants to pour his whole heart and soul into each and every piece he plays.
Therefore, I think that's why they're so reluctant to change the setlist.
This reflects his uncompromising dedication to music and likely stems from the high standards he upholds as a top-tier professional.
He demands perfect quality in his sound and absolutely will not tolerate the slightest deviation from his members.
It’s ironic that in the final days of the Beatles, his very stoicism caused friction with the other three and ultimately became one of the factors that led to their breakup.
Be that as it may, he hardly changed the set list during the tour, at least up to that point.
When we performed in the same city on consecutive dates, we would only change at most one or two songs.
As a concrete example, let’s refer to the setlist from the show at Golden 1 Center in California, USA, which is part of the current one-on-one tour.
It was held on two consecutive days, October 4 and 5, 2016, but he only swapped out the fourth song in the 38-song setlist—Letting Go and Save Us.
In other words, even at the concert held just six months before the Tokyo Dome show, they only changed one song.
At the 2015 Nippon Budokan concert, he performed four songs different from those at the Tokyo Dome, which was an extraordinarily generous treat on his part.
However, because of the policy of not changing the setlist, it was also true that some fans were saying it was boring to have the same setlist all the time.
Passing on the Beatles’ legacy to future generations
Surprisingly, on this Japan tour they not only made major changes to the setlist compared to previous tours, but despite all the shows being at the same venue, they went so far as to use a different setlist for each of the four performances!
Up to this point, these are the facts.
From here on is my speculation.
Hasn't he come to feel a sense of mission that he must pass the Beatles' legacy on to future generations?
Now that both John Lennon and George Harrison are gone, he is the only one who can perform Beatles songs.
Ringo Starr is still around, but he’s a drummer and can only handle vocals on songs where he was the lead vocalist.
In a 2016 interview with The New York Times, Paul said, “Up until now, I didn’t perform songs where I wasn’t the lead vocalist because I lacked confidence. But now I’ve plucked up the courage to practice and perform those songs.”
With John and George gone, I’m now the only one left who can pass down the Beatles’ legacy to future generations.
And I don't have much time left.
If that's the case, I have to do it now.
I think that's why he took on the challenge.
Paul performed a wide range of songs, from those from the Quarrymen era—the Beatles’ predecessor—to his latest tracks.
This likely reflects his desire to trace the Beatles’ history while also showcasing who he is today as a solo artist.
And they chose Japan as the very first place.
Why is that?
I took on a world-first challenge in Japan!
It’s probably because there’s a track record of Japanese fans having welcomed him so warmly up to now.
If we changed the setlist this time and Japanese fans still welcomed us as warmly as before, then we could do it on the rest of the tour as well.
Didn't it make you feel that way?
If that's the case, I would like to express my deep gratitude for choosing Japan, and I feel truly honored.
For artists—and especially for Paul—making major changes to the setlist in the middle of a tour takes a lot of courage.
Moreover, we have never done anything like completely swapping out the setlist at the same venue before.
Thinking about it that way, I don’t think my guess is entirely off.
It’s evident in the refreshing smile on his face as he turns his back to the audience and leaves the stage after concluding his performance on this final day.
Japanese fans warmly accepted my challenge. My decision wasn’t wrong. Now I can continue the upcoming tour with confidence.
To me, his satisfied smile seems to say just that.