09. Paul McCartney Big Ups PUSSY RIOT

Here’s the thing about Paul McCartney trotting out “Hey Jude” in front of 80,000 people and asking “everybody” to sing along: Theoretically everybody could actually sing along. No other artist in existence can measure up to Macca when it comes to performing a tune while being absolutely certain that literally every person within earshot has not just heard it before, but knows the melody. It’s weird! But that tune, and the endless string of canonical pop hits that surrounded it, weren’t the thing that gave Sir Paul’s headlining set its mooring in 2013. (He’s been a career retrospective festival presence for the better part of this millennium.) Instead it was when the septuagenarian paid his props to Russian political protest-punk martyr outfit Pussy Riot, and when during “Back In The U.S.S.R.” the screen behind him flashed the words FREE PUSSY RIOT. (Also, a fun game is to imagine Paul saying those very words five years ago.) Paul, Russia’s put you on blast, again. This time let’s call it “Putin on the hitz.”