Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.5

Paul McCartney: Live Kisses Blu-ray Movie Review

Maybe we're amazed.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 25, 2012

There’s a sweet moment in The Zen of Bennett where Tony Bennett is chatting with Natalie Cole as the two prepare to record the beautiful Michel Legrand standard “Watch What Happens”, and Tony mentions to Natalie how the iconic round Capitol Records building where the two are ensconced in a dimly lit studio wouldn’t be there if not for her father, Nat King Cole, one of Capitol’s all time best selling artists. Though Natalie does have to slightly correct Tony by reminding him that the actual phrase used by the musical cognoscenti is that Capitol “is the house that Nat built”, it’s a fitting tribute to one of the longest and most lucrative collaborations between an artist and a label. If Nat did indeed build the (then) modern Capitol Records, it could well be argued that The Beatles certainly helped to pay down the mortgage and probably pay all the utility bills as well. Middle of the road artists like Nat King Cole were already beginning to fall out of fashion as the sixties chugged along (though Nat himself managed to have several memorable hits during this era), and many labels which had been built on so called “easy listening” music suddenly found themselves struggling to stay alive in a marketplace that was awash in younger, often more primal, music. In this regard, Capitol was actually more prescient than other labels like Columbia, which came to the rock movement relatively late. Capitol had the good fortune to have two of the biggest rock acts of all time on its roster, The Beach Boys and (via its licensing deal with EMI) The Beatles. There are a couple of notable ironies about Paul McCartney Live Kisses: first, the iconic former Beatle finds himself performing and recording in the legendary Capitol Records studios after years of only having been distributed by the label; and second, this outing finds “the cute one” doing something that defined such artists as Nat King Cole—namely, singing standards rather than original compositions. Paul has always been the Beatle most tuned in to Tin Pan Alley and The Great American Songbook, and he puts that awareness to good use in this often charming set of performances, which also includes such “backup” musicians as Diana Krall and Stevie Wonder.

Part of the iconography of The Beatles, and even Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles career with Wings and then simply under his own name, was his seemingly inerrant capability to fashion his own little pop masterpieces. But even in the glory days of The Beatles, they occasionally ventured into “cover” material, including one of their most unlikely early hits, “Till There Was You” from Meredith Willson’s enduring The Music Man. A lot of Paul’s post-Beatles career seemed awash in frankly knock off material like “Listen to What the Man Said”, but when McCartney was completely on his game, in such beautiful pieces as “Maybe I’m Amazed” or even the early “Another Day”, he proved himself to be as facile a writer as anyone of the lions of twentieth century popular music. His former partner John Lennon, by contrast, often seemed to struggle to find that mainstream pop sensibility, for better or worse.

Paul McCartney Live Kisses finds the legendary musician recreating his album Kisses From the Bottom in the equally legendary Capitol Records studios where it was originally created, interspersed with some really nice talking head segments featuring Sir Paul himself as well as his collaborators and other hangers-on. One of the nicest segments here is a too brief look back at the history of the Capitol studios, including some kind of funny archival footage. Part of the charm of this outing is seeing Paul in such an evocative setting, helped by the use of some vintage microphones which lend an appropriately retro look to the performances.

The most remarkable thing about the actual performance sections and the album itself is Sir Paul’s rather unusual song choices. A lot of artists revisit The Great American Songbook, but few have shown the rather prevalent whimsy that McCartney has in this grouping of songs. While there are evergreens like the absolutely lovely “My One and Only Love” or “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter”, it’s a testament to McCartney’s fecund knowledge of pop music that we also get lesser known gems like “Home (When Shadows Fall)”. As becomes quite evident in some of the interview segments which act as interstitials between the songs, most if not all of the cover tunes included here have had a special place in McCartney's heart for decades for a variety of reasons, and that emotional connection comes through loudly and clearly in the performances. McCartney’s voice may have started to crack a bit with age, but he manages to be a rather credible “crooner”, backed by one of the most elegant assemblages of musical giants imaginable.

The songs performed here are:

• 01. I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter
• 02. Home (When Shadows Fall)
• 03. It’s Only a Paper Moon
• 04. The Glory of Love
• 05. More I Cannot Wish You
• 06. We Three (My Echo, My Shadow and Me)
• 07. Ac-Cent-Tchuate the Positive
• 08. My Valentine
• 09. Always
• 10. My Very Good Friend the Milkman
• 11. Bye Bye Blackbird
• 12. Get Yourself Another Fool
• 13. My One and Only Love

Paul McCartney: Live Kisses Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Paul McCartney Live Kisses is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Vision (an imprint of Eagle Rock Entertainment) with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. By far the largest bulk of this combo documentary – live performance feature is in black and white, and that lends a beautifully retro luster to the proceedings. Blacks are deep and solid and gray scale is extremely well modulated. Occasionally there are some issues with shadow detail in the dark studio setting, especially in the background. There are some intentional techniques employed on some of the footage, including soft focus and actual out of focus elements. There are some brief bursts of color here and there, which are almost disconcerting, but those look fine, with appropriately well saturated color. Fine detail is excellent in the many close-ups, especially in the talking head sequences.

Paul McCartney: Live Kisses Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Paul McCartney Live Kisses features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mix, an uncompressed LPCM 2.0 stereo mix, as well as a standard lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 mix. Both the DTS-HD Master Audio and LPCM mixes offer superior fidelity, with crystalline reproduction of Krall's piano and good support for McCartney's kind of wispy voice. The 5.1 track neatly separates the players in the soundfield without ever placing too much space between them to make the playback sound artificial, especially considering the somewhat cramped space in the studio. There's some fantastic string work as well (conducted by jazz master Alan Broadbent), and that also sounds silvery smooth and resplendent. The talking head segments are expectedly anchored in the front channels and sound just fine.

Paul McCartney: Live Kisses Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• My Valentine Music Video includes:

  Music Video (1080i; 3:16)

  Split Screen (1080i; 3:15)

  Natalie Portman One Take (1080i; 3:14)

  Natalie Portman Edit (1080i; 3:15)

  Johnny Depp One Take (1080i; 3:16)

  Johnny Depp Edit (1080i; 3:16)

  Making My Valentine (1080i; 11:53)

• Kisses on the Bottom includes:

  Photo Shoot Version 1 (1080i; 2:32)

  Photo Shoot Version 2 (1080i; 3:04)

  Interview (1080i; 15:06)

• DigiBook Packaging with a nice conversation between Elvis Costello (Mr. Diana Krall) and McCartney. This is one of the first, if not the first, DigiBooks from Eagle Rock, and they've done a very nice job with it.

Paul McCartney: Live Kisses Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Some of Sir Paul's post-Beatles escapades, notably his forays into classical music, have been met with some bemusement if not outright derision at times, and in fact Kisses On the Bottom wasn't met with universally kind reviews. But this charming and actually quite affecting piece shows Sir Paul to be a very knowledgeable, involved and caring person who really feels a strong connection to this material. His vocal chops aren't quite what they were in his younger years, and some are evidently bothered by his whispery "crooning" style on the album, which he reproduces more or less intact here. But there certainly should be no qualms whatsoever about either the backing band, which is simply aces, or the actual documentary aspect of this often fascinating piece. The talking head segments show that Paul is not just respected by his collaborators, he's loved. And the love he takes is equal to the love he makes. Highly recommended.