Paul McCartney, 15 months after closing out Saturday Night Live‘s 50th anniversary special with a memorable Abbey Road medley, returned to the late night show with a performance of the lead single from his upcoming album, as well as a Wings classic. When the show seemed all but wrapped up, McCartney then had a surprise encore.
McCartney opened with the mellow “Days We Left Behind” from The Boys of Dungeon Lane, which draws on his childhood memories in and around Liverpool.
“I was thinking just that, about the days I left behind and I do often wonder if I’m just writing about the past, but then I think how can you write about anything else?” McCartney, 83, said in a statement earlier this year. “It’s just a lot of memories of Liverpool. It involves a bit in the middle about John [Lennon] and Forthlin Road, which is the street I used to live in. Dungeon Lane is near there. I used to live in a place called Speke, which is quite working class. We didn’t have much at all, but it didn’t matter because all the people were great and you didn’t notice you didn’t have much.”
The Boys of Dungeon Lane is McCartney’s 18th solo album, and first since 2020’s McCartney III. The former Beatle worked on it with producer Andrew Watt in between touring dates for his acclaimed Got Back tour. Additional tracks include “Salesman Saint” and “Home to Us,” his first duet with Ringo Starr.
McCartney’s second performance was of “Band on the Run,” the Grammy-winning title track of Wings’ 1973 album. Like in “Days We Left Behind,” Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers was on drums.
The subject of the Wings documentary Man on the Run, McCartney debuted on SNL in 1980, a year before that group disbanded. During SNL‘s 40th anniversary special in 2015, McCartney played “Maybe I’m Amazed” from his debut solo album and sang a condensed version of the Beatles’ “I’ve Just Seen a Face” with Paul Simon.
On Saturday, as the credits rolled on SNL‘s 51st season, McCartney quickly rejoined the band and performed “Coming Up,” from 1980’s McCartney II.