Credit: Goalhanger
Paul McCartney has opened up in a new podcast appearance about his issue with seeing Bob Dylan live.
McCartney and Dylan’s history dates back to when they first met each other in a New York hotel in 1964, which saw the singer-songwriter introduce the Fab Four to marijuana for the first time.
The Liverpudlian’s respect for Dylan as a songwriter knows no bounds, previously saying in 2020, “I always like what he does. Sometimes I wish I was a bit more like Bob. He’s legendary… and doesn’t give a shit! But I’m not like that.”
Above is where the main difference lies between Dylan, who only cares about his own opinion and McCartney, a self-proclaimed people pleaser.
During a new interview on The Rest Is Entertainment, McCartney highlighted the difference between his approach to performing live with Dylan.
Firstly, he explained why he wants to play the hits, “I think we could do songs they don’t know and have a lot of ‘black holes’. But they’ve paid a lot of money. I remember as a kid, I used to go to shows and save up. I went to a Bill Haley concert. There’s a name to conjure with.”
He added, “But I’d saved for months and done a paper round and done everything. And I knew what I wanted. I wanted him to do his hits. And if he got all clever on me, I would be like, oh, OK. I’d let him indulge himself.”
McCartney then said of Dylan, who plays whatever he pleases, “In fact, talking about Mr Dylan – I’ve been to see a couple of Bob’s shows, and honestly, I couldn’t tell what song he was doing. Now, that’s a bit much, because I know his stuff.”
The Beatle admitted that he does understand “if he doesn’t want to do ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ – maybe he’s fed up with it”, but speaking from a fan’s perspective, he added, “But I would like to hear it. And I paid.”
Poignantly, elsewhere in the conversation, McCartney discussed how he enjoys unifying audiences across the political divide, particularly in the US, through ‘Hey Jude’.
The musical legend shared, “And particularly these days – you do something like ‘Hey Jude’, and you see the whole audience singing together. In Trump’s America, where Republicans and Democrats are at each other’s throats – when we do that song, they’re not. They’re all loving it.”
Macca added of the power of music to bring people together, “And it’s like, wow. Suddenly, this room has forgotten all of that. We’re not going to argue; we’re just going to sing together. Those kinds of things, I think, are valuable.”
Watch or listen to The Rest Is Entertainment wherever you get your podcasts
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