TV Reviews : A 60-Minute Commercial for Paul McCartney Tour

Didn’t manage to snare tickets for Paul McCartney’s upcoming five-night stand at the Forum? Depending on your penchant for jealousy, then, you may or may not want to watch “Paul McCartney: Put It There,” a special on Showtime that basically plays like a tempting 60-minute commercial for the tour, as if it needed any more help selling tickets. It premiered Saturday and repeats today at 1:05 and 10:05 p.m. (and again Nov. 21, 22 and 26).

This rockumentary, slavishly produced by McCartney’s own company, is definitely for fans only. (And how many people do you know who aren’t?) It’s possible, but not easy, to pull an interesting interview out of McCartney, but whoever is doing the questioning behind the camera here hasn’t pulled much new out of Macca; “John (Lennon) was such a monster--it would certainly be hard to work with anyone better” is the level of personal insight here.

Luckily, the weight of the show is with footage of the ex-Beatle’s feisty new road band, which includes ex-Pretender Robbie McIntosh on guitar, rehearsing for the tour, and it does set the juices flowing. Few complete songs are found, but look and listen for lengthy snippets of favorites ranging from “Lucille” to “The Things We Said Today” to “Let It Be” to the special’s title song, an acoustic choice from his latest solo album, which has the fade-out from the Fab Four’s “Hello Goodbye” playfully tagged on the end.

The most teasing bit is some home-video footage of Elvis Costello in the recording studio with McCartney, singing a rock ‘n’ roll rave-up version of one of the songs they co-wrote for his recent “Flowers in the Dirt” album, “My Brave Face.” If only a bootleg of this complete rendition existed. Wishes, wishes . . . .

A difference between this tour and the Stones’ tour, for example, immediately becomes clear: Unlike Mick and the boys, whose set list you could’ve guessed without even showing up, McCartney wants to play songs from his current album, a heartening thought. And fans who don’t have the “Flowers” LP, which includes some of his best work of the decade, may feel left out as he explains song after song from it. Which, this being a commercial, is part of the idea.