Back in the U.S.


Back in the U.S. is a double live album by Paul McCartney from his spring 2002 Driving USA Tour in the US in support of his 2001 release Driving Rain. It was released with an accompanying DVD to commemorate his first set of concerts in almost ten years.

Band

Using most of the musicians that appeared on Driving Rain, McCartney assembled a new live act composed of Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray on guitar, Abe Laboriel Jr. on drums and keyboardist Paul Wickens, who had been on McCartney's previous two tours, in 1989–90 and 1993. As of 2019, these four musicians are still members of McCartney's touring band.

Controversy

Although McCartney was promoting Driving Rain, the majority of the tour setlist celebrated his past, by featuring a sampling of his solo work with and without Wings, and a substantial number of the hits he had written while a member of the Beatles. On Back in the U.S., McCartney reversed the songwriting credits for 19 Lennon–McCartney compositions to read "Paul McCartney and John Lennon" – a move that author Howard Sounes describes as the live album's "chief point of interest". This gesture was a further attempt by McCartney to establish his legacy following Lennon's death in 1980, having been vetoed from adopting the McCartney–Lennon credit during the Beatles Anthology project in 1995 by his former bandmates George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
The revised credits on Back in the U.S. incensed Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, who threatened to take legal action, while Starr said he found McCartney's actions "underhanded". Some commentators observed that McCartney had similarly credited his Beatles songs to "McCartney–Lennon" on the 1976 live album Wings over America and that Lennon had never publicly objected to the reversal; in addition, the compositions in question were written with little or no input from Lennon. When compiling Back in the U.S., McCartney had decided to act in response to Ono's dropping of his co-writer's credit for "Give Peace a Chance", on the 1997 compilation . Despite their differences on this issue, McCartney and Starr united on stage for the Harrison tribute concert shortly after the release of the live album.

Release

Back in the U.S. was issued in November 2002 as an exclusive North American and Japanese release. Back in the U.S. sold well on export and gained sales of over 2 million globally. The album debuted at number 8 on the US charts with sales of 224,000 copies, marking his highest sales during a single week since the introduction of Nielsen SoundScan in 1991. The album was certified double platinum in America, for shipments of over 2 million units. It entered the top five on the Japanese chart, making McCartney one of the Western artists with the most top-ten albums in that country. Its tie-in DVD proved to be a strong seller as well. Back in the U.S. was the first Paul McCartney album not released on vinyl.

Track listing

All songs written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, except where noted.

CD

Disc one

  1. "Hello, Goodbye" – 3:46
  2. "Jet" – 4:02
  3. "All My Loving" – 2:08
  4. "Getting Better" – 3:10
  5. "Coming Up" – 3:26
  6. "Let Me Roll It" – 4:24
  7. "Lonely Road" – 3:12
  8. "Driving Rain" – 3:11
  9. "Your Loving Flame" – 3:28
  10. "Blackbird" – 2:30
  11. "Every Night" – 2:51
  12. "We Can Work It Out" – 2:29
  13. "Mother Nature's Son" – 2:11
  14. "Vanilla Sky" – 2:29
  15. "Carry That Weight" – 3:05
  16. * From start to 1:58, the song "You Never Give Me Your Money" is played.
  17. "The Fool on the Hill" – 3:09
  18. "Here Today" – 2:28
  19. * McCartney's tribute to John Lennon
  20. "Something" – 2:33
  21. * A tribute cover of one of George Harrison's most famous songs, played on the ukulele – one of Harrison's favourite instruments

    Disc two

  22. "Eleanor Rigby" – 2:17
  23. "Here, There and Everywhere" – 2:26
  24. "Band on the Run" – 5:00
  25. "Back in the U.S.S.R." – 2:55
  26. "Maybe I'm Amazed" – 4:48
  27. "C Moon" – 3:51
  28. "My Love" – 4:03
  29. "Can't Buy Me Love" – 2:09
  30. "Freedom" – 3:18
  31. "Live and Let Die" – 3:05
  32. "Let It Be" – 3:57
  33. "Hey Jude" – 7:01
  34. "The Long and Winding Road" – 3:30
  35. "Lady Madonna" – 2:21
  36. "Yesterday" – 2:08
  37. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band " / "The End" – 4:39

    DVD

  38. "Hello, Goodbye"
  39. "Jet"
  40. "All My Loving"
  41. "Live and Let Die"
  42. "Coming Up"
  43. "Blackbird"
  44. "We Can Work It Out"
  45. "Here, There, and Everywhere"
  46. "Eleanor Rigby"
  47. "Matchbox"
  48. "Your Loving Flame"
  49. "The Fool on the Hill"
  50. "Getting Better"
  51. "Here Today"
  52. "Something"
  53. "Band on the Run"
  54. "Let Me Roll It"
  55. "Back in the USSR"
  56. "My Love"
  57. "Maybe I'm Amazed"
  58. "Freedom"
  59. "Let it Be"
  60. "Hey Jude"
  61. "Can't Buy Me Love"
  62. "Lady Madonna"
  63. "The Long and Winding Road"
  64. "Yesterday"
  65. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" / "The End"
  66. "I Saw Her Standing There"

    Bonus tracks

  67. "Driving Rain"
  68. "Every Night"
  69. "You Never Give Me Your Money"/"Carry That Weight"

    Charts

Weekly charts

;Album
Chart Position
Japanese Oricon Albums Chart4
US Billboard 2008

;DVD
Chart Position
Japanese Oricon DVDs Chart18

Year-end charts

Certifications

;Album
;DVD