Paul McCartney performed “I’ve Got A Feeling” alongside footage of John Lennon last night
McCartney played the Beatles track with video of Lennon taken from the group's famous rooftop concert
Music Features John Lennon
For about a decade now, we’ve seen dead celebrities returned to life as holographic performers. There was, most famously and eerily, that Tupac hologram at 2012's Coachella. And, spurred on by the remarkable weirdness of that show, there have been efforts to revive Freddie Mercury, Selena, Amy Winehouse, and Marilyn Monroe as techno-ghosts. At best, these holograms have been a slightly disconcerting tribute to the departed. At worst, they’re blasphemies of nature that glossily allow for corporate exploitation of the departed from beyond the grave.
With the latter in mind, we now report that Paul McCartney performed alongside his late Beatles bandmate John Lennon last night. But, by using regular old video footage and isolated audio instead of a hologram, it was somehow, incredibly, not actually all that creepy.
At last night’s Spokane Arena show—the first date of McCartney’s current U.S. tour—the musician played a bunch of Beatles tracks, from “Blackbird” and “Can’t Buy Me Love” to “You Never Give Me Your Money,” “Getting Better,” “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window,” and “Hey Jude.” (The full setlist and a few extra phone-shot videos are available at Stereogum.)
To kick off the encore, comprised entirely of late-period Beatles songs, McCartney performed “I’ve Got A Feeling.” Partway through, the giant screen behind him shifted from a swirl of colors to footage of John Lennon playing the song during the The Beatles’ 1969 Apple rooftop concert. There was also an isolated vocal track that let McCartney sing alongside his late bandmate.
It’s certainly strange to watch and listen to the performance, but far less so than any hologram version of Lennon would’ve been. And, if nothing else, McCartney explained how it all came to be with a kind of nonchalance that suggests he found the concept more interesting than morbid.
“So, Peter Jackson, the director of the Get Back film, he texts me one day,” McCartney says after finishing the song. “And he says, ‘we can extract John’s voice. He can sing with you live.’”
Rather than be put off by the idea, McCartney shrugs and finishes his story by saying he responded to Jackson by simply stating: “And I thought, well …”
[via Stereogum]
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41 Comments
I don’t get the snarky take here. This isn’t some random cash grab – it’s a legend whose onetime best friend was killed coming as close as he can to sharing a stage with his friend one more time. It’s not “see John as if he were alive” or something creepy.
It’s the fucking AV Club. They had all feelings except outrage boners extracted years ago.
It’s not even as interesting as “outrage boners” – if this article had been FULL RAGE about how digitally resurrecting dead performers is morally wrong and represents everything disgusting about postmodern media culture, it would have at least been an interesting take. They just have “snark half-masts”
I would tend to be snarky about it but he’s Paul McCartney- dude can do whatever he wants
And he does. He does.
Forget it, Harpo87, it’s modern AV Club.
“I don’t get the snarky take here” might as well be the tagline for 2022 AV Club.
Welllll, shiiit. Made me cry.
Seeing the two of them rehearsing The Two of Us in Get Back had me tearing up – so much so that it has jumped into my top 10 Beatles songs.
I always ignored and sneered at Let It Be a little bit, and I bought the new version initially mainly for completion’s sake. But the very second I played “Two of Us” for the first time on that remaster it went straight into my Top 10 as well.
Seems like it’s making you slur as well.
Black Eyed Peas cover is better.
What ever. As a John Lennon fan Thanks Sir Paul it was a great feeling
That’s pretty amazing. Has this been done before at Paul’s concerts?
My favourite part about the new av club is the ads that start playing further down the page when you try to watch one of the embedded videos.
Wu-Tang has been doing this with ODB vocals for like 20 years.
True but as much as I love the Wu (see my username), hip hop in general has been sampling the works of folks who have been dead for almost a century. It hits a little different when a dude who very significantly shaped what music is today gets to kinda perform on stage again with his friend who has been dead for over 40 years.
And? It’s not a contest. Lots of bands have done this kind of thing for folks like Carl Wilson, etc.
I think the comment was meant more as a dig on ODB than anything else. YMMV.
Paul’s the best. Too bad he’s dead.
William Campbell’s the second-best.
Pete Best is the first best, runner-up!
I thought Pete was the best
They say that youth is believing the “Paul is Dead” theory, young adulthood is sneering at the people who believe the “Paul is Dead” theory, and maturity is realising that even if the theory is true, the Fake Paul has somehow ended up equalling if not surpassing the Real Paul even if only his post-death Beatles contributions are considered, so it doesn’t even really matter that much*.* That is, to anyone who isn’t the Real Paul McCartney or his loved ones, to whom it would presumably matter a great deal.
Paul’s sounding a little…rough.
HE IS 80 YEARS OLD.
True, but John is dead and he sounded fine.
Thank you
Who’s the Quiet Beatle now??(It’s George, and John.)
Billy Preston
Stu Sutcliffe?
I hope the star was worth it, you terrible wonderful bastard you.
Klosterman had the best What If?
Lennon doesn’t get killed. They probably reunite for Live Aid.Boggles the mind.
That was downright sweet.*remembers I’m on the AV Club*…but it would’ve been better if they had Lennon dancing with a vacuum cleaner.
Maybe we could get the ghost of Natalie Cole to sing with the ghost of Nat King Cole.
Did you know she’s his daughter?!?!??!
She’s also friend to Maltese children everywhere-io. So?
Whelp, that was surprisingly emotional. But did the crowd even know who that hippie up on the screen was? I mean, barely any reaction to a legend joined by another legend who we were all robbed of 42 years ago. I would have lost my shit, much like I did here and I knew it was coming!
I think it’s just the crappy phone mic; they do make a bit of noise when the old hippy shows up for some reason.
Oh man. His voice is rough these days.
I’m fine with this, they worked on the song together and John has that bit with “everyone had a good year…” If they had John sing with some new artist, then I’d question it.