For his concert, Paul McCartney achieves an intimate communion in front of 40,000 people

The ex-Beatles gave the first of his two Parisian concerts on Wednesday evening in a giant arena, but touched by the grace of his songs.

HAS what is the intimacy of a concert in an arena of 40,000 people? A few notes strummed on a guitar before starting the song. A hesitation before striking a chord on the piano, a “one, two, three” exchanged, in addition to a look, between musicians who share the stage. There is also an impressive simplicity, a quality that has always seemed as natural to Paul McCartney as his genius for melodies. On Wednesday December 4, the ex-Beatles, 82 years old, with a slender figure and always bouncy steps, gave the first of two French concerts on his Got Back world tour at Paris-La Défense Arena.

It is after 8:40 p.m. when suddenly, the silhouette of its legendary Höfner bass, with its all-feminine shapes, appears like a star on the giant screens. The almost supernatural apparition puts an end to a fun little pre-concert film. We saw parade up to the sky, like Jack and the Beanstalk, an endless building, made of brick, then of stones and finally of very contemporary concrete, the summary of an extraordinary life, from the childhood home in Liverpool, to trips with friends, John, Georges and Ringo, separations and reunions, new departures solo or accompanied by Wings. The faithful foretaste of an evening which gives pride of place to its entire repertoire, from the oldest – In spite of all the dangerthe first song ever recorded by the Beatles in 1958. They were still called The Quarrymen, after John’s band, and had pooled 1 shilling each to pay for the studio – at the most recent – My Valentinea song written in 2012 for his wife Nancy, presents this Wednesday evening to the public.

Thirty-six titles, three hours of concert which pass in the blink of an eye, Paul McCartney does not lack generosity. Would it even be possible to do less when we have composed so many classics? The matter, of course, is well established. The group that accompanies him, united for several years now with guitarists Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray (with the false air of Steven Tyler of Aerosmith), the sturdy drummer Abe Laboriel Jr., Paul “Wix” Wickens on keyboards and the brass trio Hot City Horns. To speak to us in French, Paul McCartney did not forget his cheat sheets stuck to his feet. “Hello France, it’s good to be back” ; the rest of the exchanges will be mainly in English. But the playlist varies, marginally, depending on the evening and the city.

Mexico started with A hard day’s night. In Paris, Can’t buy me loveby the Beatles opens the ball, followed by a Junior’s farm written with the Wings, whose enthusiasm McCartney often said he appreciated at the start of a concert. On the central screen at the back of the stage, animations appear, sometimes without much aesthetic coherence: a rough-lined Fab Four cartoon, moving archive images of John, George, Paul or Ringo captured in the exaltation of their early youth, 3D animations of Paris, its Moulin Rouge to illustrate the romanticism of Michelle, or even flowers growing on ruins and the face of Greta Thunberg, a way of recalling the ecological commitment of this long-time vegetarian.

But that is not the essential thing, which is in the air, in these songs heard a thousand times but which reveal, listening after listening – and this evening again – their beauty, their treasures of ingenuity, of mischief or of grace, such Blackbirdplayed alone on guitar by a suddenly strangely diligent Paul McCartney, his voice fragile in the high notes, but the suspended time of his perfect picking. Or Let Me Roll it and its devastating and languorous riff, linked with that equally legendary of Foxy Ladysigned by a certain Jimi Hendrix.

From small club to mega stadium

The Beatles ended up giving up on stage, simply because they couldn’t get along, in the midst of Beatlemania. Yet they had done their classes there with joy, in the humidity of the Liverpool Cavern or in the slums of Hamburg (Germany). With the Wings or solo, Paul McCartney would rediscover the joy of large gatherings. It is also this story that the Got Back Tour tells, reducing for a few titles (Dance tonight, Lady Madonna or Now and then, the ultimate song restored thanks to artificial intelligence) the stage in a small club, its upright piano, its rudimentary drums. Sometimes even to a simple ukulele, a gift from George Harrison, with which he resumes his sublime Something.

Then returning to the stadium group on Jet, hit by Wings, made for the crowds, or with Let it Be et Hey Judehits among hits repeated in unison, songs of comfort, and therefore of hope, written in the most complete doldrums. Even daring a pyrotechnic delirium on the James Bondian Live and Let Die, unique grandiose moment of a concert based more on the music than on the effects, unlike many current major tours. As if Paul McCartney was reminding us that success, to last, needs nothing other than good songs. This is obviously the hardest to do.

Paul McCartney in concert, Thursday December 5 at Paris-La Défense Arena.