TV: "Paul McCartney: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song" on PBS

Dave Grohl and Jack White provide the most stirring renditions of Paul McCartney [ tickets ] songs in Wednesday's (7/28) 90-minute PBS show from a White House concert staged on June 2. Oddly enough, they were the only guests to dip into Sir Paul's solo career.

The program, with a mouthful of a title (officially "Paul McCartney: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song In Performance at the White House") that essentially means McCartney received a lifetime achievement trophy from President Obama, is mostly polite performances of songs credited to Lennon-McCartney in front of an overly polite audience. It's a crowd that gave one of its biggest ovations to one of McCartney's weakest works, "Ebony and Ivory," which he performed with Stevie Wonder, and probably had never heard of those Grohl and White fellows.

Grohl and McCartney's group tore through "Band on the Run" with an authoritative approach to each element of the song, especially the vocals, much like McCartney's band has done in recent performances. White, who backs himself with just an acoustic guitar, segues from "Mother Nature's Son" into "That Would Be Something" and wrests a Led Zeppelin element out of the tune that few others would attempt to find.

Related Links

Paul McCartney

Ticketmaster

news

Amazon

 

Share

 

McCartney himself is in fine form, opening the evening with "Got to Get You Into My Life" and closing with "Michelle," "Eleanor Rigby," "Let it Be" and "Hey Jude," the na-na-na's being sung by all the guest performers.

Here's rundown of the show with a few quick comments:

Paul McCartney - "Got to Get You Into My Life." The horns are spot on but nowhere to be seen. Can the synthesizer be that sonically accurate? The crowd shots reveal that it's the older folks who will be swaying and singing along while the younger attendees will be standing still and emotionless.

Stevie Wonder - "We Can Work It Out." Fine version that no one in the East Room enjoyed more than Michelle Obama.

Jonas Brothers - "Drive My Car." Thankfully McCartney's band backs them and keeps the performance from veering off the road and crashing.

Jerry Seinfeld. The comedian jokes about the concept of "prize," the evolution of Beatles song titles in relationship to aging, and questions McCartney's intentions in "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Getting Better."

Jack White. "Mother Nature's Son">"That Would Be Something." Playing two lesser-known tunes yields the weakest response and the best performances.

Faith Hill - "Long and Winding Road." Shaky beginning but a nice vocal recovery on a tune that is so often oversung.

Herbie Hancock and Corinne Bailey Rae - "Blackbird." Great non-linear solo from Herbie, and gentle accompaniment while Bailey Rae prosaically sings.

Elvis Costello - "Penny Lane." He opens with a story about his mother's Liverpool roots and does a masterful job with the song, aided by a trumpeter from the Marine Band.

Emmylou Harris - "For No One." Emotionally rich, heartbreaking rendition.

Lang Lang - "Celebration." The classical pianist plays a portion of McCartney's orchestral work "Standing Stone" and it sounds mighty similar to the Perry Como hit "More."

Dave Grohl - "Band on the Run." Before doing the song justice, Grohl says "Paul, you're definitely my hero. Mr. President, you're my other hero."

Wonder & McCartney - "Ebony and Ivory." Guess we should be thankful "Say Say Say" was not an option.

President Obama - presentation of the Gershwin Prize. He notes that 200 of McCartney's songs have charted and that collectively they spent 32 years on the charts. That's amazing.

Paul McCartney - "Michelle," "Eleanor Rigby," "Let it Be" and "Hey Jude." From the power of the vocal and the tension in the band's performance, "Eleanor Rigby" is the strongest of this batch of well-worn favorites. The show closes the same as it opens -- with black and white footage from the day before the event, when the musicians rehearsed and performed at a recital where McCartney explained the origins of "Yesterday."

"Paul McCartney: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song In Performance at the White House" debuts Wednesday at 8 p.m. PT/ET on many PBS stations. Check local listings.