Why Does Paul Never Sing His 80's Hits Live?

[daniel9977]

Hi everyone,

Two of my favorite Paul's songs from the 80's are his big hits: "No More Lonely Nights" and "Pipes Of Peace". As far as I know he has never performed these two songs live and I really don't understand why. Does anyone by any chance know the reason?

Thanks!

[pologallagher]

Hi,
on the 89-90 tour he performed some of his songs from flowers in the dirt, and recently he has been performing ebony and ivory on rehearsals.
Perhaps its a matter of priorities, he wants to perform songs that could relate to most people, and since his 80's albums are probably the weakest of his career he sees no point on exploring them too much.
Im just throwing some ideas.
Take care,

polo

[Craigerb]

Could it be because Linda was on the original recordings and can't be now?

[eggman1979]

Tug of war would sound great live.

[daniel9977]

Hi Polo,
If songs like "No more lonely Nights" and "Pipes Of Peace" don't relate to most people then which songs do? I'm talking here about the biggest hits, not only of Paul, but of the decade! Everyone loves these two songs. I totally don't agree that his 80's albums are the weakest of his career. Albums like "Tug Of War", "Pipes Of Peace" and "Give My Regards..." are great albums with beautiful and great songs, some became big hits. Two of these albums reached to number 1 in the U.K. Album Chart and the third one reached number 4, so "weak" is not the right word!

Hi Craigerb,
Linda was on most of the material that Paul performs live today. This is definitely not the reason.

Hi Eggman,
I totally agree with you, "Tug Of War" would sound beautifully live. I really don't understand Paul.

Can somebody think of a reason why a great song like "No More Lonely Nights", that was played million of times in the radio all over the world and there is no doubt that it was and still is a big hit, isn't performed live by Paul?

Thanks.

[chris]

he has so many great ones, he couldn't possibly do them all. so, in spite of whatever set he does, no matter how great, some will be disappointed.

he does/did do coming up forever. he's done here today for a while. and he did an entire tour (as polo said before me) supporting an 80's album. so...he doesn't completely ignore the decade.

i'd love to see tug of war, wanderlust, ballroom dancing and pound is sinking. and he may get around to performing them too. i'm just not holding my breath. he's doing an okay job of introducing a new (or...previously unperformed) song here and there. i don't think he's the guy to completely overhaul his set list.

[mr h atom]

tho...an utterly fantastic setlist could start with everything off TOW...include alot of POP, GMRTB and toss in quite a bit of PTP...and be one fantasic show

he can, furthermore, leave off all the rest that he has been doing for the better part of the last near 30 years, btw....jus' one lowly opinion

[little lamb dragonfly]

As far as I can tell, Paul approaches his setlists this way: he has 8-10 or so Beatles songs he always plays (Hey Jude, etc), another 6-8 that rotate around with a new one or two sprinkled in each tour (All My Loving, I will, Night Before), his big hits off Band on the Run (you know the 3) plus a couple additional Wings songs (recently, its a couple more of Band on the Run or Too Many People, or Listen to What the Man Said). He also includes 2-3 tribute songs; 2-3 songs off the most recent album (or 2 with the Fireman).

The only song that doesn't fit this mold that he's played regularly is Flaming Pie. And Coming Up.

Based on recent interviews with Paul, I don't think he views most of the material he did in the 80s as on par with the rest of his solo stuff. It wouldn't get the response his carefully selected Wings stuff gets and it's not new, and thus he isn't going to play stuff from the 80s to sell product. As a result, the stuff from 82-92 almost entirely falls through the cracks. I'll just add that I think the nadir of Paul's career was from POP to OTG. I never listen to any of those 5 albums.

While I absolutely agree that Paul should vary his setlists by rotating from a much bigger pool of songs (he could easily have 100 songs without dropping in quality), I have no interest in seeing him play more songs from the 82-92 era.

[tristanjblythe]

With so many great tunes some will always get lost...

However, perhaps he'll revisit some of these 80s tracks when these albums are re-released. OK - so he didn't really do this with McCartney and 2 so I may be wrong - but would give him a chance and reason to.

I personally do view the 80s as his weakest period, but there are some classics in there and some great album. Hell, this is Macca - his weakest is better than most's best!

[daniel9977]

You all keep on saying that his albums from 82 to 93 are weak and it drives me crazy! The one and only weak album in this period is "PRESS" from 1986. Let me tell you what a weak album is: "Driving Rain" - All the albums from 82 to 93 (except maybe "Press") are much much better than "Driving rain". "Off The Ground" is a great album and every song in it is a true pearl (sorry, but I can't say the same thing on "Driving Rain").

You all don't get to the bottom of the real thing: "No More Lonely Nights" is a "national anthem" of the 80's like "Let It Be" and "Hey Jude" are the "national anthems" of the 60's. All I'm saying is that Paul can't ignore such a big hit. Imagine Paul start singing NMLN in a middle of a live concert, imagine how the crowd will react - they will applaud and sing along.....