I didn't expect it. I was going because he was part of a legendary group whose songs had been the soundtrack of any of our lives. And had another group Wings whose songs were the soundtrack of my college life. And Sir Paul is getting up there, 72 years up there (isn't it interesting how the age gap between some of us fans who were kids when they first burst on the scene has narrowed so. The difference between my age 9 and their age 20 something was enormous. Now it is as if we are contemporaries), and it is possible we won't see public performances much longer.
I don't think I've been in that large a crowd since a Queen concert in Madison Square Garden back in the late seventies when a friend and colleague at 99X FM radio in New York (long since renamed something else) took me along. This was during the time I thought I wanted to go into radio professionally (as opposed to my college on air training) and realized that I'd probably never make it to an on air job without a lot more connections than none.
But I love Dodgers Stadium almost as much as I love the Hollywood Bowl. It is a plain pleasing venue. And that crowd, it was orderly and truly wonderfully mixed, every age up and down. Although I loved some of the music from my dad's generation, there wasn't even a slight chance or moment in which he would have loved the music from mine. But here a 60 something could sit next to a 20 something and be singing the same words while wildly tapping their feet on the ground and gyrating joyously.
The staging was terrific. The history of Paul and the Beatles and Wings and the solo career all playing on these side screens book shelf. I was primed admittedly by the breeze and my first margarita of the night (I had only two).
He was late taking the stage, no doubt to allow folks to buy plenty of souvenirs and drinks and food.at large lines And when he came out, he made me forget that I'd seen him on television recently not looking too spry and sounding pretty hoarse. It almost felt like he'd been in a time machine. He looked a lot like the "cute one" of days gone by; jacket and what at first I thought was a slim tie, but was a tie like stripe down the front of the shirt, revealed when the jacket came off after a couple of songs.
If I wasn't smiling I was crying tears of recognition. Oh, yeah, I remember singing that song in my bedroom in the Bronx ("Yesterday" when Yesterday wasn't really yesterday for me; I was far too young). Len Speaks reminded me of Roger Moore (on whom I had a major crush during his time as James Bond; Oh, Wait, I had a major crush on Pierce Bosnian too!), during the Firework laced Live and Let Die segment.
I felt like the late high school and college kid I used to be, but finally without all the angst!
I even liked the few tunes he did that were from the "new" album.
Whether rehearsed or not, it all felt fresh and only for me, next to all those people who felt it was only for them.
Where has the time gone? And yet it all stood still. I couldn't be happier that I went with Leo, Connie, and Len to this historical fest.
I have heard people say, and maybe I even believe it myself intellectually, that civilization in America began to decline once the Beatles came over the pond. But you know what? I admit it, den if that's true, I didn't care on Sunday. It was a bona fide blast!
Thank you, Sir Paul as we go back on our winding roads separately.
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