Thursday night at MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey, home base of three (New Yorkers!) American Football Clubs: New York Giants, New York Jets, New York Guardians. In the 1970s, the legendary Cosmos New York soccer team, with Pele and Frank Beckenbauer, played in the previous facility on the same site. Today one of the largest multifunctional stadiums in US sports. So legendary place.
Just right for Sir Paul McCartney, who stopped by on the other side of the Hudson River as part of his US tour. Local media reports on a routine Macca show with various Beatles classics such as “Can’t Buy Me Love”, “Love Me Do”, “Blackbird” and “Get Back”. In addition, Wings songs like “Jet” and the James Bond film anthem “Live and Let Die”, finely seasoned with solo numbers from more recent productions, such as “New”.
After “Band on the Run”, the chroniclers noted the 27th song of the evening, a prominent colleague suddenly appeared on stage. This didn’t take too long to get there, after all it was New Jersey heavyweight Bruce Springsteen.
“I have a special surprise for you,” McCartney said to a full house. “There’s a friend of mine. He’s a local guy,” to which the crowd responded with thunderous shouts of “Bruuuce.” The original Liverpool player had to grin: “I think you guessed it. I said, dude, you gotta stop by and sing with us for a little bit, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, it’s Bruce Springsteen!’
The boss entered the stage and agreed to a duet, more precisely the two songs: “Glory Days” and “I Wanna Be Your Man”. He later returned for the night’s bouncer – playing guitar on The Beatles’ “The End.”
Just Bon Jovi singing happy birthday to Paul McCartney no big deal pic.twitter.com/KRXSRLsbhx
— Jeffrey Wuhl (@jeffreywuhl) June 17, 2022
Springsteen wasn’t the only prominent New Jerseyan on the McCartney show. For the encore, Jon Bon Jovi came on stage with a large bouquet of balloons. “There are 60,000 people here who want to sing you a birthday song,” announced JBJ’s 80th birthday tomorrow, Saturday, June 18, 2022.
He ushered in an exuberant “Happy Birthday” from Stevie Wonder.
The New Jersey bash marked the final date of McCartney’s North American “Got Back” tour. His next performance: June 24th at the Glastonbury Festival in his home country.