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McCartney dedicates songs to wives during US festiival

Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney paid tribute to both his late wife and his current spouse as he performed at the Desert Trip music festival in the US.

The former Beatle also referenced his late bandmate George Harrison, the late singer/guitarist Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones during his two-and-a-half hour headlining set.

He sang Maybe I'm Amazed for his late wife Linda and dedicated My Valentine to his current wife Nancy, with the pair celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary on Sunday.

McCartney, now 74, brought out a ukulele to perform Harrison's Something, but stopped the song almost as soon as he started. He said: "I'm out of tune. I'm going to get another one."

A stagehand brought him another ukulele and the singer began to play again. He added: "At least it proves we're live, right?"

Backed by a five-piece band, McCartney played a few bars of Foxey Lady to honour Hendrix, and recognised the Stones with I Wanna Be Your Man, which he and fellow Beatle John Lennon wrote for the rockers in the early 1960s.

It follows the Stones' performance on the opening night of the festival in California, where they covered the Beatles' hit Come Together. Mick Jagger introduced it by saying: "We're going to do a cover song of some unknown beat group."

Besides the ukulele, McCartney played bass, guitar and piano. He performed his earliest pre-Beatles recording In Spite Of All The Danger, from 1958, and his most recent track FourFiveSeconds, which he made last year with Kanye West and Rihanna.

Neil Young, who was also a headliner at the event, joined McCartney on stage to perform A Day In The Life, which morphed into John Lennon's Give Peace A Chance.

Young also played lead guitar to duet on Why Don't We Do It In The Road?

Here's McCartney and Wings (including his late wife Linda) playing Maybe I'm Amazed back in 1976 - a full 40 years ago:

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