Paul McCartney - The McCartney Years (2007) [3xDVD9] {Warner/MPL}

It's rather incredible to ponder the fact that with the release of The McCartney Years in late 2007, Paul McCartney has now been making recordings in various mediums for the better part of 40 years–and that's not even including the decade he spent as a member of the world's greatest band. And while some may quibble about certain details of the content and presentation, this three-disc set, packed with videos, concert footage, interviews, documentaries, and more, will surely satisfy the vast majority of Sir Paul's loyal subjects. The dozens of videos, occupying the first two discs and spanning the years from 1970 ("Maybe I'm Amazed," ten years before the emergence of MTV) to 2005 ("Fine Line"), can be viewed in either chronological order or as programmed by Macca himself. Ranging from straight lip-synced performances to various conceptual films, they are a decidedly mixed bag.

In some cases (e.g. "London Town"), the songs are superior to the clips, while in others, the reverse is true ("Coming Up," a lightweight tune but a delightful video in which McCartney portrays everyone from Buddy Holly to Sparks keyboardist Ron Mael). Sometimes both the song and the video are terrific ("Take it Away" features Ringo Starr on drums, producer George Martin on piano, and a cameo by actor John Hurt; "Band on the Run," a creative pastiche of photos, film effects, and other media, suggests that the band in question was the Beatles, not Wings), while some fail on both counts (John Lennon might have had the likes of "C-Moon" in mind when he referred to McCartney's '70s output as "all pizza and fairytales"). Of the three concerts included on Volume Three, the best (and shortest) comes from a 1991 Unplugged show and features lovely versions of "Every Night" and "And I Love Her"; Rockshow spotlights Wings on tour in '76, and the 2004 gig in Glastonbury, England features McCartney's excellent current band (a good show, but the playlist isn't nearly as adventurous as, say, 2005's Live in Red Square). Extras include McCartney's commentary on several of the videos; footage from Live Aid in '85 and the Super Bowl in '02; and, accompanying every DVD menu, various raw and unreleased live and studio performances of obscurities like "Blackpool." The late Linda McCartney is featured throughout, of course, and if The McCartney Years is a de facto tribute to his first wife, as one reviewer has suggested, it's a more than fitting one.

Spanning four decades The McCartney Years is a three-volume DVD of more than 40 music videos and over two hours of live performances. Disc 1 & 2 contain the definitive collection of the McCartney music videos all the way from 'Maybe I'm Amazed' in 1970 to 2005's 'Fine Line.' The films can be viewed either in chronological order, in play lists personally arranged by Paul or watched with his own commentaries- recorded exclusively for this DVD. Disc 3 showcases three classic live performances: 1) Rockshow filmed on Wings' 1976 World Tour 2) New edits of Paul's seminal Unplugged: 1991 3) His triumphant, now legendary, headline performance at Glastonbury in 2004. Also included are his Superbowl halftime show and 'Let It Be' from Live Aid.

The McCartney Years is a new anthology set that attempts to sum up four decades of Sir Paul's post-Beatles career on three DVDs.

So what you get here — at least on the first two discs — is all of the short films (many made before they were actually called videos) McCartney made for his solo work, from the McCartney album, through Wings, right on up to 2005's Chaos And Creation In The Backyard.

As such, sitting down to actually watch the first two discs becomes something of a daunting task, simply because so much ground is covered here. When watching the earliest of these short films, for songs like "Maybe I'm Amazed," "Band On The Run," and "Silly Love Songs," it also becomes apparent just how limited the technology was back then.

Although these films are often charming (particularly with the use of the Beatles images for "Band On The Run"), and there is likewise little doubt that Paul was clearly on to the possibilities of the promotional film long before MTV, there is no getting around the simple fact of how dated they look today. However, that is also a big part of their charm.

By the time McCartney was actually making videos specifically with MTV in mind during the eighties, he already had a leg up on the competition in the experience department. Even though these latter promo films look equally dated now, McCartney still comes across as ever the charmer.

The video for "Coming Up" is particularly clever, as Paul plays every member of the fictional "Plastic Band" (so named in tribute to his former partner John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band). His take on the Hitler mustached keyboard player for Sparks is particularly hilarious for those old enough to remember that band. Corny as it may seem today, McCartney's duet with Stevie Wonder for "Ebony And Ivory," where they run across the keys of a piano is also a lot of fun to watch.

The most notable of the extras included on the first two DVDs of this set is probably the documentary "Creating Chaos At Abbey Road." Although it is billed mainly as the story of the making of McCartney's 2005 album Chaos And Creation In The Backyard, you also get to see Sir Paul talk about the songwriting process he used when writing with Lennon. He also plays acoustic versions of Beatles tunes like "I've Got A Feeling" and "Lady Madonna."

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.

tracklist:
DISC 1
1. Tug Of War 2. Say Say Say 3. Silly Love Songs 4. Band On The Run 5. Maybe I'm Amazed 6. Heart Of The Country 7. Mamunia 8. With A Little Luck 9. Goodnight Tonight 10. Waterfalls 11. My Love 12. C-Moon 13. Baby's Request 14. Hi Hi Hi 15. Ebony And Ivory 16. Take It Away 17. Mull Of Kintyre 18. Helen Wheels 19. I've Had Enough 20. Coming Up 21. Wonderful Christmastime Extras 1. Juniors Farm 2. Band On The Run 3. London Town 4. Mull Of Kintyre 2 5. The Southbank Show

DISC 2
1. Pipes Of Peace 2. My Brave Face 3. Beautiful Night 4. Fine Line 5. No More Lonely Nights 6. This One 7. Little Willow 8. Pretty Little Head 9. Birthday 10. Hope Of Deliverance 11. Once Upon A Long Ago 12. All My Trials 13. Brown-Eyed Handsome Man 14. Press 15. No Other Baby 16. Off The Ground 17. Biker Like An Icon 18. Spies Like Us 19. Put It There 20. Figure Of Eight 21. C'Mon People Extras 1. Parkinson 2. So Bad 3. Creating Chaos At Abbey Road

DISC 3 Rock Show
1. Venus And Mars 2. Rock Show 3. Jet 4. Maybe I'm Amazed 5. Lady Madonna 6. Listen To What The Man Said 7. Bluebird MTV Unplugged 8. I Lost My Little Girl 9. Every Night 10. And I Love Her 11. That Would Be Something Glastonbury 12. Jet 13. Flaming Pie 14. Let Me Roll It 15. Blackbird 16. Band On The Run 17. Back In The USSR 18. Live And Let Die 19. Hey Jude 20. Yesterday 21. Helter Skelter 22. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Extras
1. Live Aid 2. The Superbowl XXIV.








All thanks goes to the original releaser!