Paul McCartney Joins Billy Joel at Shea, Rocks Quebec

Paul McCartney made his first two North American live appearances of the year this weekend, first playing a handful of Beatles songs at Billy Joel's second Shea Stadium concert before heading north to play a free show in Quebec to celebrate the city's 400th anniversary. At the Joel show, McCartney reminisced about when his former band played the New York Mets' home in 1965 before helping the Piano Man perform "I Saw Her Standing There." McCartney also closed out the concert by commandeering Joel's piano for "Let It Be." Over the course of the show, Joel was also joined by the Who's Roger Daltrey (who sang "My Generation") and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler for "Walk This Way."

"C'est ma premiere visite a Quebec, and it's a great place," McCartney told the crowd Sunday before his three-hour anniversary show. Macca opened the show with his solo "Jet" before launching into a set list full of Beatles classics like "Drive My Car" and "Yesterday." Even though McCartney's performance was initially protested by Quebec nationalists, fans reportedly starting lining up for the free concert on Saturday night, with roughly 200,000 people attending the show at Quebec's Plains of Abraham.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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