PAUL McCARTNEY : BACK IN THE U.S.

PAUL McCARTNEY : BACK IN THE U.S. - LIVE 2002

Disc One (54:41)

Hello Goodbye
Jet
All My Loving
Getting Better
Coming Up
Let Me Roll It
Lonely Road
Driving Rain
Your Loving Flame
Blackbird
Every Night
We Can Work It Out
Mother Nature's Son
Vanilla Sky
Carry That Weight
The Fool On The Hill
Here Today
Something

Disc Two (60:46)

Eleanor Rigby
Here, There And Everywhere
Band On The Run
Back In The USSR
Maybe I'm Amazed
C Moon
My Love
Can't Buy Me Love
Freedom
Live And Let Die
Let It Be
Hey Jude
The Long And Winding Road
Lady Madonna
I Saw Her Standing There
Yesterday
Sgt. Pepper's/The End

Label : Capitol Records

Venue : various venues North America (Chicago, New York, Washington, Cleveland, Detroit, Denver, Dallas & Fort Lauderdale)

Recording Date : April 1, 2002 - May 18, 2002

Release Date : November 11, 2002

Review (AllMusic) : Another album, another tour, another live album souvenir of the tour. Paul McCartney has essentially followed this pattern since his 1989 return to arenas for the supporting tour for Flowers in the Dirt, and each of the records is essentially the same: the big solo hits, some of the big Beatles songs, plus a few tunes from the latest solo album. The repertoire changes slightly over the years, with some Beatles tunes drifting in and out of rotation, but they all play exactly the same -- glossy, professional readings of the songs that you know and love, played in arrangements very close to the original versions. Comprised of highlights from his 2001/2002 tour, the double-disc Back in the U.S. is longer than, say, Paul Is Live, but that's the only difference, and there's really nothing notably different than the equally long Tripping the Live Fantastic. If anything, he's playing for the crowd even more than usual, filling out the set list with sentimental favorites, including a version of "Something" as a tribute to the recently departed George Harrison. There is an unflagging sense of showmanship here, and the musicianship is top-notch, and there's nothing wrong with the music -- but there's nothing interesting about it, either. Given the hot streak that he'd been on since 1998's Flaming Pie, it's a bit of a disappointment that this doesn't live up to those standards, but then again, this is no better or no worse than what you'd expect given his live albums since 1989. Unfortunately, it's exactly what you'd expect, which is certainly not as satisfying as a good live album and somehow more disappointing than a flat-out bad album. [For territories outside the United States, Back in the U.S. was released as Back in the World, with a slightly different track listing, taken from gigs outside of the States. "Vanilla Sky," "C Moon," and, mercifully, "Freedom" are dropped from the album and "Calico Skies," "Michelle," "Let 'Em In," and "She's Leaving Home" take their place, all on the second disc. This results in a slightly stronger album (only "C Moon" is really missed), but the overall feel of the record remains the same.]

Review (Wikipedia) : Back in the U.S. (subtitled Live 2002) is a double live album by Paul McCartney, recorded during the North American concerts of the Driving World Tour. It was released with an accompanying DVD to commemorate his first set of concerts in almost ten years. Using most of the musicians that appeared on Driving Rain, McCartney assembled a new live act composed of Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray on guitar, Abe Laboriel Jr. on drums and keyboardist Paul Wickens, who had been on McCartney's previous two tours, in 1989–90 and 1993. As of 2026, these four musicians are still members of McCartney's touring band. Although McCartney was promoting Driving Rain, the majority of the tour setlist celebrated his past, by featuring a sampling of his solo work with and without Wings, and a substantial number of the hits he had written while a member of the Beatles. On Back in the U.S., McCartney reversed the songwriting credits for 19 Lennon–McCartney compositions to read "Paul McCartney and John Lennon" – a move that author Howard Sounes describes as the live album's "chief point of interest". This gesture was a further attempt by McCartney to establish his legacy following Lennon's death in 1980, having been vetoed from adopting the McCartney–Lennon credit during the Beatles Anthology project in 1995 by his former bandmates George Harrison and Ringo Starr. The revised credits on Back in the U.S. incensed Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, who threatened to take legal action, while Starr said he found McCartney's actions "underhanded". Some commentators observed that McCartney had similarly credited his Beatles songs to "McCartney–Lennon" on the 1976 live album Wings over America and that Lennon had never publicly objected to the reversal; in addition, the compositions in question were written with little or no input from Lennon. When compiling Back in the U.S., McCartney had decided to act in response to Ono's dropping of his co-writer's credit for "Give Peace a Chance", on the 1997 compilation Lennon Legend: The Very Best of John Lennon. Despite their differences on this issue, McCartney and Starr united on stage for the Harrison tribute concert shortly after the release of the live album. Back in the U.S. was issued in November 2002 as an exclusive North American and Japanese release (an international edition with a slight track listing change, entitled Back in the World, was released a few months later). Back in the U.S. sold well on export and gained sales of over 2 million globally. The album debuted at number 8 on the US charts with sales of 224,000 copies, marking his highest sales during a single week since the introduction of Nielsen SoundScan in 1991.[20] The album was certified double platinum in America, for shipments of over 2 million units. It entered the top five on the Japanese chart, making McCartney one of the Western artists with the most top-ten albums in that country. Its tie-in DVD proved to be a strong seller as well. Back in the U.S. was the first Paul McCartney album not released on vinyl. It was also the last Paul McCartney album to be released on cassette in the United States until 2018’s limited release of Egypt Station and a wide release of McCartney III in 2020. Eastern countries such as Indonesia, however got releases on the format for his next two studio albums, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard and Memory Almost Full.