Too bad THIS wasn’t on the Starbucks album. If you want to know what it was like seeing Paul McCartney at Amoeba, buy THIS! At the iTunes Store. Could it be that after famously retiring from the road, Paul McCartney is our greatest live act? Better than not only Metallica and Al Green, but the STONES?

So I’m sitting here lamenting the death of my KLSX show, my hours having been sold for paid programming/an infomercial, reading "Rolling Stone", thinking that nothing matters anymore, and I see a review of a live McCartney EP. Who knew McCartney had a live EP?

And that was just my point. I was finally inspired to write. Doesn’t matter that the Eagles have a new album, nor Springsteen. It’s not a major event. There’s some supposed song of the summer, entitled "Umbrella", by Rihanna, and I haven’t heard it, and I don’t GIVE A SHIT! Just like I didn’t care about Mariah Carey’s "We Belong Together" or ANYTHING by the bizarrely photographed Maroon 5 adorning the magazine’s cover. But I HAD to hear a live version of "Coming Up"!

The original was a live take too. And it made it all the way to number one back when we’d counted McCartney out, after the brilliance of "Band On The Run" seemed to have evaporated, after we’d given up hope. Maybe our legends can throw the long ball one more time, but I didn’t EXPECT IT THIS TIME!

Paul McCartney’s in the midst of a heinous public divorce. He’s got to get his mind off his troubles. He decides to release an album of tunes Nigel Godrich rejected. There’s incredible publicity, Starbucks pulls out all the stops, but the record is lacking that essence that makes you TELL EVERYBODY YOU KNOW!

Same deal with the Eagles’ "How Long". Oh, it’s GOOD, but it doesn’t make your head explode, it doesn’t make you feel that it’s SO FUCKING GREAT TO BE ALIVE!

And the new Springsteen track has great energy, but none of the charm of "Tunnel Of Love", never mind "Human Touch". But McCartney’s live take of "Coming Up" has got that element that made you go crazy for the Beatles TO BEGIN WITH!

There’s no chick backup singers. Just an incredibly tight band. The kind you tried to be after you bought your Fender and started to rehearse with your buddies in the garage. You grew your hair out, you listened to the records and picked out the notes, you wanted to be rich and famous, but you didn’t have IT!

Paul McCartney has IT!

Oh, he’s 65. He’s less imposing physically than you might expect. But when he starts a pickin’ and a grinnin’, he’s possessed, he’s 23 once again. And so are you.

You can hear the crowd roar. McCartney exalts like Lennon from the Apple rooftop. And then the band starts to COOK! You can hear Liverpool, even Lonnie Donegan skiffle, in the track. Then, that guy who sang "Long Tall Sally", he’s BACK! He’s reaching out from the track to YOU! There’s an energy here absent from ALL of the Top Forty. It makes you want to BE THERE!

Paul is laying down the bass. Abe Laboriel, Jr. is pounding the skins. The guitars are wailing, and then, THEY START PLAYING FELICE’S FATHER’S SONG!

You might only be twenty years old. Your PARENTS might be too young to have experienced Beatlemania, to know why the whole world went music crazy, why the Beatles changed our lives. But, if you listen to THIS, you’ll GET THE IDEA!