Back in the World by Paul McCartney
Back in the World (subtitled Live) is a live album by Paul McCartney composed of highlights from his spring 2002 "Driving USA" tour in the United States in support of McCartney's 2001 release Driving Rain. It was released internationally in 2003, save for North America - where Back in the U.S. saw issue four months earlier in 2002 - to commemorate his first set of concerts in almost ten years. 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 last two tours in 1989-1990 and 1993. Although McCartney was promoting Driving Rain, the majority of his shows would be celebrations of his past, with a substantial sampling of his solo work with and without Wings, but in particular his Beatles hits, and it was the release of those particular songs on Back in the U.S. that sparked one of McCartney's biggest controversies in ages. Despite keeping the famous Lennon–McCartney credit intact on Tripping the Live Fantastic, Unplugged (The Official Bootleg) and Paul is Live, McCartney decided to reverse the credits to "Paul McCartney and John Lennon" much to Yoko Ono's public annoyance. Reportedly, McCartney had decided to act in response to Ono's recent dropping of his credit from "Give Peace a Chance" on Lennon Legend: The Very Best of John Lennon in 1997. While there continues to be division among critics and fans over McCartney's move, John Lennon never publicly objected to the original credit reversal that appeared on 1976's Wings over America, four years before Lennon's death. Undeterred by Ono's anger, McCartney swapped the credits again on Back in the World in 2003.
The fourth album in the American Recordings series that comprised Johnny Cash’s comeback was the last released during his lifetime. It’s no coincidence that <i>The Man Comes Around</i> is the most poignantly elegiac of those releases, with the rumble-toned troubadour transforming such unlikely source material as Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” from an angst-filled alt-rock stomp into a hushed acoustic requiem for all he holds dear. These stripped-down statements from deep within Cash’s indomitable soul are impossible to shake off—not that anyone would want to.
