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Saturday, May 26, 2012
Good Evening New York City
by   |  November 24, 2009  |  

Nearly 45 years after the culturally indelible Beatles concert that christened Shea Stadium in New York City, Paul McCartney returned for the inaugural concert at the new stadium right next door to Shea’s former home.

His three-night extravaganza in July at the Mets’ new Citi Field is documented in “Good Evening New York City,” a 2-CD, 1-DVD is out now from Hear Music.

Ever the entertainer, McCartney is often at his rollicking best in this collection of 33 songs, even if most of the interpretations don’t stray too far from the expected.

Disc one features McCartney spreading the wealth around, as the disc is split evenly between songs from the Beatles, Wings and his solo work. Two tracks from his brilliant 2008 album, “Electric Arguments,” a co-effort with noted producer Youth under the nom de plume The Fireman, are also given the live treatment.

All five Beatles songs on the first disc are McCartney-composed, with the beautifully stirring “Blackbird” and the experimental “Eleanor Rigby” standing out as highlights.

It’s McCartney’s work with Wings that really sells disc one though, and he concentrates on the band’s strongest output — all but one of the Wings songs are from its greatest success, “Band on the Run.”

Disc two abandons the solo work and features all Beatles songs, save for a short detour to the undeniably awesome “Live and Let Die” from the undeniably cheesy James Bond film of the same name.

McCartney focuses here on a number of songs written with John Lennon, including “Hey Jude,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “Paperback Writer” and “A Day in the Life.” He also performs George Harrison’s “Something.”

“Good Evening New York City” also comes with a DVD of the 33 songs performed on both discs.

Impeccably recorded, the album doesn’t capture the raw energy of a live concert very well, but it does showcase one of the greatest songwriters and performers still living masterfully pulling together an impressive career-spanning retrospective.

Lennon is almost universally regarded as the premier songwriting talent behind the Beatles, but McCartney’s got more than 40 years worth of material here to prove he’s no slouch either.

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