Paul McCartney is pulling out all the stops on his ongoing One on One tour. Last week the musician revisited a pair of Beatles classics that he hadnât performed live in more than a half-century. Then, last night in Seattle, the Beatle played one of the Fab Foursâ heaviest tracks: âHelter Skelterââa pre-cursor to the music that made Seattle a grunge haven back in the late â80s.
Fittingly, Nirvana bassist and Seattle icon Krist Novoselic joined McCartney for the track, playing bass while McCartney ripped through demanding vocal passagesâan impressive feat considering the singerâs 73-year-old vocal cords.
McCartney and Novoselic previously worked together on the track, âCut Me Some Slack,â which they performed together at a benefit concert on 12/12/12 and later recorded.
Following that collaborationâas NME writesâfellow Nirvana dude Dave Grohl had this to say: “We walked in; we jammed the song. It just came out of nowhere. The best songs happen that way. We recorded it live and put a vocal over it and that was it. It was three hours and it was perfect.”
Over the weekend, it was also reported that McCartney would be included on the historic âOldchellaâ bill, joining Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Neil Young, The Who, and Roger Waters as part of an unprecedented lineup. The new music festival will take place on October 7-9 at the Empire Polo Field in Indio, California, (the same location as Coachella) and marks the first time Dylan and McCartney have ever shared a bill. This will probably be your only chance to see this groupâthe veritable firmament of rock musicâperform in such close proximity, so keep your eyes peeled for more info in the coming months. In the meantime, go âHelter Skelter.â
Let us know what you think of the McCartney/Novoselic rendition in the comments.
Image:Â Mary McCartney