Back In The U.S.

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Track list

Disc 1

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Disc 2

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About

From Wikipedia:

Back in the U.S. (subtitled Live 2002) is a double live album by Paul McCartney from his spring 2002 Driving USA Tour in the US in support of his 2001 release Driving Rain. It was released with an accompanying DVD to commemorate his first set of concerts in almost ten years.

Band

Using most of the musicians that appeared on Driving Rain, McCartney assembled a new live act composed of Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray on guitar, Abe Laboriel Jr. on drums and keyboardist Paul Wickens, who had been on McCartney’s previous two tours, in 1989–90 and 1993. As of 2017, these four musicians are still members of McCartney’s touring band.

Controversy

Although McCartney was promoting Driving Rain, the majority of the tour setlist celebrated his past, by featuring a sampling of his solo work with and without Wings, and a substantial number of the hits he had written while a member of the Beatles. On Back in the U.S., McCartney reversed the songwriting credits for nineteen Lennon–McCartney compositions to read “Paul McCartney and John Lennon” – a move that author Howard Sounes describes as the live album’s “chief point of interest“. This gesture was a further attempt by McCartney to establish his legacy following Lennon’s death in 1980, having been vetoed from adopting the McCartney–Lennon credit during the Beatles Anthology project in 1995 by his former bandmates George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

The revised credits on Back in the U.S. incensed Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, who threatened to take legal action, while Starr said he found McCartney’s actions “underhanded“. Some commentators observed that McCartney had similarly credited his Beatles songs to “McCartney–Lennon” on the 1976 live album Wings over America and that Lennon had never publicly objected to the reversal; in addition, the compositions in question were written with little or no input from Lennon. When compiling Back in the U.S., McCartney had decided to act in response to Ono’s dropping of his co-writer’s credit for “Give Peace a Chance“, on the 1997 compilation Lennon Legend: The Very Best of John Lennon. Despite their differences on this issue, McCartney and Starr united on stage for the Harrison tribute concert shortly after the release of the live album.

Release

Back in the U.S. was issued in November 2002 as an exclusive North American and Japanese release (an international edition with a slight track listing change, entitled Back in the World, was released a few months later). Back in the U.S. sold well on export and gained sales of over 2 million globally. The album debuted at number 8 on the US charts with sales of 224,000 copies, marking his highest sales during a single week since the introduction of Nielsen SoundScan in 1991. The album was certified double platinum in America, for shipments of over 1 million units. It entered the top five on the Japanese chart, making McCartney one of the Western artists with the most top-ten albums in that country. Its tie-in DVD proved to be a strong seller as well. Back in the U.S. was the first Paul McCartney album not released on vinyl. […]

From the liner notes:

What do I remember? A fantastic tour with fantastic people. The audiences, the magic of my first American tour in years, the bouquets being hurled up from a smiling, thankful audience almost made us not want to go home after our final night at Fort Lauderdale. The hundred-strong crew holding up heart cards as I started the introduction to The Long And Winding Road and got as far as “the long…..” before the notes choked in my throat, an emotion-soaked tour, the nightly runner onto the bus and excited chat from the sweaty band as we recalled the evening’s gig, whilst the bus lurched up the concrete ramp and out of the arena. Nikons flashing, film cameras whirling, cops’ Harley motorcycles roaring past as they escorted us to and from the airport. The people in the audience, the funny faces, the emotional faces, the kids, the mums and dads shaking their hips like it would never go out of style, tears for John, Linda and George and cheers for their memories. The U.S. flags during Freedom, like poppies in a field, the fist-clenched salutes of proud Americans remembering their lost heroes. Abe thwacking his drums and cymbals and breaking a million sticks a night, Rusty and Brian jumping and whirling like demented windmills, Wix’s phenomenal keyboard inventions and his increasingly eccentric introductions, reminding us how much we love to play live, rehearsals where we looked forward to what was to come, planning the pre-show and eventually seeing our friends, Michelle, Geoff, Fiona et al ballooning around the arena in their pierrot costumes. Loving Heather and I sharing the road together making new friends. Singing Getting Better for the first time since I had recorded it, the standing ovations during the acoustic set, Rusty’s giant hands mashing out solos, Brian’s smile telling me “good take”, Wix’s antics during Maybe I’m Amazed, backstage moments before the gig as we hugged and prayed and gave thanks, the ritual of the throat lozenge shared with Scotty, Woody and our backstage mates, the intense wave of energy coming off the audience, happy faces, proud faces, young faces, old, knowing smiles, emotions, that connection, never to be forgotten – that’s what I remember.

Love, Paul

Last updated on May 21, 2017