Chrissie Hynde: We Wanna Hear The Old Songs
Remember Rick Nelson? In the 70's, he had a song called "Garden Party". It's about being booed at a concert because he was singing his new material. The audience wanted to hear his hits from his teen idol days.
Forty years later and we're still trying to sort out that musical issue.
This is Chrissie Hynde performing in Chicago last Wednesday night. She's currently touring in support of her latest album "Stockholm".
It's a pretty good record and hearing it live rocked but what got the audience really excited was hearing her songs from The Pretenders.
"My City Is Gone" is a great tune but how can you go to a Chrissie Hynde concert and not hear "Brass In Pocket" and "Middle of the Road"? C'MON!! Nobody growls like Chrissie....it makes you more tense.
Let's compare this to a Paul McCartney concert (seen here with Chrissie). Sir Paul put out an album in 2013 called "New". It received rave reviews. McCartney toured supporting the album.
In a three hour show, he played five songs from "New" and the rest were his greatest hits. He knows what the people want to hear...and he gives it to them. Paul's no Fool on the Hill. He wants people happy, coming back and spending lots of money.
However, if you've seen more than one McCartney concert, you know what you're going to get. I've seen five of his shows and they have all ended with the same song, "The End". Could he be edgier? Maybe.
Maybe he does an entire album. That seems to be in vogue now. "Band On The Run" would be great. How about "Abbey Road"? Can you picture Paul singing "Here Comes The Sun" or "Come Together"....Yeah!!
In either case, he'd still have a couple of hours afterwards to do all of your favorites.
So what's the solution....maybe there isn't one. Performers get tired of playing the same songs for fifty years. Fans want to hear those songs. It's a conundrum.
However the fans are paying big concert ticket prices. Sometimes artists forget that the customer is always right.