ON the Beat | Audience with a Minister of Pop Cheer

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Sir Paul McCartney has been all around this world and he’s been to the Washington zoo (to paraphrase the Steely Dan song), as one of the most famed and beloved pop artists and earthlings over his past six decades. But there are still first times in his life, such as when he stood on the Santa Barbara Bowl stage last Friday and uttered the phrase “Well, hello, Santa Barbara!”

In case you’ve been on a media-free retreat or were out of town and out of touch for the past few weeks, Santa Barbara was gripped by Sir Paul fever this month. With only two weeks’ notice, Goldenvoice announced a late booking of McCartney at the Bowl, an add-on date to kick off his current 20-date “Got Back” tour. Given our relatively compact venue (by his arena-sized standards), tickets were extra pricey and flew off the shelf via an admirable lottery system which attempted to circumvent the usual scalper scourge.

The big city press deigned to show up to file reports from our humble burg, along with McCartney superfans far and wide. For example, the man sitting in the next row down from us brandished a sign reading “137,” the number of times he’s caught McCartney, so far.

Needless to say, Sir Paul’s arrival in town created an unprecedented buzz and mini-frenzy in terms of a coveted concert experience. As he arrived in the Bowl compound and then when he exited stage/street left soon after the final chord, he benevolently waved to the onlookers, like some cultural equivalent of the Pope. Except his equivalent of the Pope Mobile was a black SUV and a jumbo white tour bus.

Of course, it has been possible for years to make the two-hour trek to Los Angeles, where McCartney has played many times in vast venues, and even an enlightened few caught his legendary pop-up set in Joshua Tree’s storied-but-compact Pappy and Harriet’s. But to catch this high-winging Beatle up close and in Santa Barbara — a town with no dearth of self-love — felt like some kind of pop cultural anointing ritual.

It may seem hyperbolic to refer to Sir Paul as a sort of religious leader, but he has always maintained status as one of pop music’s ministers of good cheer. That aspect of the McCartney ethos reached its apex at the Bowl with the stand-up and singalong collective performance of “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” (“life goes on, ra?”), which pushes cheer to an almost cheesy elevation. McCartney’s general positive outlook in song, as heard in the Bowl set, can be detected in the bouncy “Getting Better,” (“can’t get no worse”), Wings’ “Let ‘Em In,” and his redemptive gospel-ized classic “Let it Be.” Of course, he also has experimental instincts (the orchestral crescendo at the end of “Day in a Life,” a snippet of which zoomed in the concert prelude, was Paul’s idea) and occasionally aims to prove a tougher persona, as on the raucous “Helter Skelter.” That hypnotic tune appeared in Friday’s encore mini-set, in stark contrast to the preceding sing-songy good spirits of the “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise).”

The last time the McCartney/Santa Barbara connection was in the news was a bittersweet occasion, when he brought his family to stay at the San Ysidro Ranch shortly before his wife Linda’s passing of cancer in 1998. But this was a purely joyous occasion, as the 83-year-old McCartney — in robust shape apart from a few missed high notes and moments of vocal scruff — led his ace band through Beatles and Wings material for two hours. As avid fans intimately know the twists, turns and well-crafted parts of the Beatles catalogue, McCartney wisely chooses to replicate what we know and love — “play it like the record.”

Cleverly, Friday’s show opened and closed with “The End.” The penultimate song from the Abbey Road album was heard in a cover version as the prerecorded preamble before the band filtered onstage, and returned in full, live glory at show’s end, capping off a medley after “Golden Slumbers,” and “Carry That Weight.” McCartney surprised and delighted us by playing said medley on the SNL 50th Anniversary show earlier this year.

The Bowl set’s official opening song was “Help!,” reportedly not played live since 1990 and seeming all too relevant in these troubled, Trump-soiled times.

For lifelong fans/first-time concert goers like myself, the effect of seeing and hearing Sir Paul relive the Beatles legacy in real time (and yes, the Wings songbook in the wings) was a deep and joyous experience. It was also tinged by a surreal burst of reanimated nostalgia, not unlike the mind-tripping experience of watching Peter Jackson’s epic documentary Get Back. Present and past merge as we channel youthful memory lanes with real time, era-looping content in the here and now.

To that end, McCartney’s show freely traveled through history — got back — not only through the music itself, but by footage of the Beatles from the Jackson film and other scrapbook visuals. John Lennon himself transponded his way, in mortal absentia, onto the screen as a singer, trading riffs with Paul on “I’ve Got a Feeling” (filched from their legendary rooftop concert) and on the aptly-named posthumous taste treat “Now and Then.”

Friday’s Bowl show was adorned by a lavish visual scheme, treating each song in a different way and frequently cross-referencing the Beatles in their heyday. There were also pyrotechnical moments, with the optical explosivity of “Live and Let Die,” and the strobe light fever of “Helter Skelter.” And yet one of the most touching moments was also one of the simplest, as McCartney went solo for a guitar-vocal run through his classic “Blackbird.” He nimbly navigated the song’s signature rise and fall of chords in the strategic key of G, but later admitted that he has messed up the guitar part in the past, including at a concert with Meryl Streep in the front row.

From the fresher crop of his songbook, McCartney played “My Valentine,” a sweet if slight ballad dedicated to his wife, Nancy. But mostly, the setlist leaned on the power of his particular musical rearview, dating back to the first Beatles hit, “Love Me Do,” from 1962. Other treats from the not-at-all-dusty annals of Beatles history at the Bowl included “Lady Madonna,” and Let it Be album gems “I’ve Got a Feeling,” “Get Back,” and “Let it Be.” We also were treated to the infectious R&B punch — replete with taut three-piece horn section parts — of “Got to Get You Into My Life.” (also covered by the Isley Brothers, who bequeathed their hit “Twist and Shout” to the fledgling Beatles).

Santa Barbara’s Sir Paul mania was warranted, and validated. He came and he conquered (with kindness). It’s one for the books. On a hopeful note, McCartney made a point of noting “see you next time.” In the 805? One can only hope.

To-Doings:

Santa Barbara’s classical contingency has been fortunate to have regular close contact with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, annually, or more often, for over a century, thanks to its close ties to the longstanding classical music presenting force CAMA. At this point in its upward evolution, the L.A. Phil has been considered by some, including the New Yorker’s Alex Ross — as America’s premiere orchestra. And we’ve got ‘em here, at the Granada.
           
The grand tradition continues when the orchestra kicks off the new season of CAMA’s “International Series” of visiting orchestras, Friday, October 3, at the Granada. One point of important distinction is that this concert will represent the final local appearance of the ensemble as led by outgoing maestro Gustavo Dudamel, the music director for the New York Phil, starting next season.

As an added attraction, Friday’s program is an especially juicy and uncompromising, featuring a double-header of Stravinsky’s modernist masterpiece Rite of Spring and Firebird Suite, along with a new treat from great American composers John Adams, Frenzy, receiving its west coast premiere with the L.A. Phil’s program here and the home base of Disney Hall.

But whatever the scores on its stands, the L.A. Phil is a proven commodity on the current orchestra scene, globally. Make a point to catch them locally.
           
Post-Paul, the Santa Barbara Bowl calms down and resumes its regularly scheduled programming, with the R&B-fueled heat of Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, tonight, October 2.