At This Halftime, Prudence Will Come Out to Play
By RICHARD SANDOMIR
Published: February 4, 2005
JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Feb. 3 - Paul McCartney, in a peach-colored sweater and faded jeans, sat in a ballroom full of cameras and reporters Thursday, playing a new role 41 years after the Beatles stormed America: the restorer of Super Bowl decency and family values.
So many years ago, the moptops from Liverpool were viewed as sinful corrupters of our youth. But 12 months after Janet Jackson's right breast was revealed by Justin Timberlake for a stunning instant at halftime of the Super Bowl on CBS, McCartney is the N.F.L.'s musical savior who is not expected to soil the conservative league's world showcase with lyrical or garment high jinks.
"They had the idea that I might not have a wardrobe malfunction," McCartney said at a news conference Thursday. "I can tell you I won't."
He later added, "I don't have a wardrobe to malfunction."
But the league's trust in McCartney, the 62-year-old musical icon, went only so far. No one, not even Sir Paul, was going to perform in front of 140 million or so viewers in the United States without undergoing an investigation by league officials of his or her lyrics, clothing and dance steps.
So last fall, after submitting a list of the four or five songs he wanted to perform ("Hey Jude" was among those discussed, but the final play list is secret), a group of six league officials pored over his lyrics.
"Every single word," said Brian McCarthy, a league spokesman, who was one of the judges of what are deemed classic rock lyrics.
Charles Coplin, the league's vice president for entertainment, said it was weird to comb through lyrics that were so familiar and so much a part of people's lives. "Paul McCartney and the Beatles sang about peace and love," he said. "There's nothing in his catalogue that is controversial."
The sextet of vetters even sang the words aloud, McCarthy said. Finally, after a short time, the league's lyric inspectors judged McCartney's songs to be safe for worldwide ears.
"Not a single word was changed," McCarthy, the spokesman, added.
The same word-for-word vetting was done for the songs that will be performed in the pregame show by the Black Eyed Peas, Gretchen Wilson, the Charlie Daniels Band and Earth, Wind and Fire.
In addition, the performers signed contracts that subject them to a possible fine for any untoward, profane, obscene or otherwise embarrassing acts, and exile for them and their record labels from future Super Bowls.
If the close eyeballing of familiar lyrics that long ago became part of the global song book ruffled McCartney, he did not say so.
"I was asked to do it and I was really just told how long I had to play," he said, seated behind a table, holding a white football. "So I just said what I wanted to do, and they said O.K."
Bruce Morrow, the longtime New York disc jockey known as Cousin Brucie, said he was amazed that McCartney's (and presumably some of John Lennon's) lyrics needed the league's inspection.
"Paul McCartney is a sincere, ethical and honest musician, and I'd have no concern about his lyrics," Morrow, a D.J. for WCBS-FM, said in a telephone interview. "If there's anybody I'd trust, it would be Paul. When you talk about Paul, John, George and Ringo, you get a feeling of something warm in your tummy."
Viewers should not expect McCartney to sing "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" or "Get Back" - with their presumed or overt drug and sexual references - to a Super Bowl audience in the post-Jackson era. Given the climate and the league's control of every element of the day's entertainment, McCartney will certainly sing well-known songs that will not offend anyone.
McCartney said he was unaware of the Jackson incident until other people told him about it. When he received the call to sing at halftime - a step up from singing his post-9/11 anthem, "Freedom," in the pregame program three years ago - he said he had a "slight inkling" that the league wanted to use him to fix the tainted halftime that once guaranteed complete safety from outrage by booking acts like Up with People and Carol Channing.
After the Jackson breast-baring, the league and the Federal Communications Commission were flooded with complaints, and the F.C.C. levied a fine of $550,000 apportioned among each of 20 stations that are owned and operated by CBS. The fine has been challenged and not yet paid. Some networks also chose to impose a short delay on their sportscasts, like ABC's "Monday Night Football," to avoid future embarrassment.
Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said he was angry at himself for failing to oversee the halftime show properly and at MTV for producing it.
He told a congressional subcommittee shortly after the Super Bowl that "due to my ineptitude, and the ineptitude of others, the super performances of our athletes, Tom Brady, Jake Delhomme, and others, and maybe the most thrilling Super Bowl game we've ever had, has been totally lost in the wilderness of Hollywood and musical entertainment."
Out of that wilderness comes McCartney with assurances that his clothing will stay on and his songs will please.
AI
