NEW YORK — Even the Boss bows down before Sir Paul.
Bruce Springsteen joined Paul McCartney during McCartney’s show at MetLife Stadium Thursday, adding an extra layer of “wow” to a show already packed with it.
McCartney turns 80 on Saturday but put on a show that men half his age would envy. Late in the show, he said a “local boy” would be joining him.
“Bruuuce,” the crowd began saying.
McCartney introduced the New Jersey icon, as the “Bruce” chant got even louder.
“Happy Birthday, Paul,” Springsteen said. “Here’s to 80 more years of glory days.”
Springsteen, McCartney and the band then launched into the Boss’ smash hit of that name, with the crowd going wild.
After that, McCartney asked Springsteen to do one more, and he sang lead on “I Wanna Be Your Man,” sung by Ringo Starr for the Beatles and a hit for The Rolling Stones.
Springsteen wasn’t the only New Jersey guest at the party. Jon Bon Jovi came out during the encore to lead the crowd in singing “Happy Birthday” to the ageless star. Fans had spontaneously sung it earlier in the night, a show filled with amazing music.
The home of the New York Jets and Giants was packed to see one of the all-time giants of music play “some old ones, some new ones and some in-between ones.”
He opened with one of the old ones, “Can’t Buy Me Love,” and had the crowd in the palm of his hand from the start. McCartney joked that during Beatles songs he sees all the lights of tons of phones recording video, and when he does recent songs, “It’s like a black hole.”
The tour was McCartney’s first since 2019. European dates planned for 2020 were canceled due to COVID. The “Got Back” tour began April 28 in Spokane, Wash., before working its way to the East Coast and finally the Meadowlands.
McCartney is scheduled to perform June 25 in England at the Glastonbury Festival, a gig that was one of his 2020 canceled dates.
“Something,” with McCartney playing George Harrison’s Beatles classic on Harrison’s favorite instrument, the ukulele, has been a staple on McCartney tours, and resonated again on Thursday.
But the new feature for 2022 was McCartney doing a duet with John Lennon on “I’ve Got a Feeling.” When the time comes for Lennon to sing his “everybody had a hard year” section, footage of Lennon singing it from the Beatles’ 1969 rooftop concert came on the screen.
That bit of magic was made possible when director Peter Jackson isolated Lennon’s 1969 performance for the 2021 “Get Back” documentary and was a huge hit on Thursday, with a roar of applause as the late Beatle’s voice and image came in.
McCartney played more than two-and-a-half hours, a remarkable display of stamina from a soon-to be octogenarian.
And on a night full of highlights, McCartney closed with the “Abbey Road” medley of “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight” and “The End.”
He then closed with a promise.
“There’s only one thing that remains to be said,” he said. “We’ll see you next time!”
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