I Love Music

I really don't have words to describe how I felt watching Paul McCartney play on Tuesday night. It was so surreal to see an actual living legend in person. When I was young, young, young I remember singing songs from Please Please Me, Sgt Pepper's, Abby Road, & The White Album. My parents had several Beatles records and we loved to play them. When I was older my favorite movies were Help and A Hard Days Night, I had them memorized. I also collected all of The Beatles songs I could find and, as those were the days of the cassette tape, I would listen to Breakfast with The Beatles every Sunday morning and record all the songs. I read books, learned to play their songs on the piano and the guitar, I watched biographies and anthologies, I drew countless portraits of John, Paul, George, & Ringo...I was a fan.

And last night I got to see the one and only Sir Paul McCartney live in concert!

I had heard that he puts on an amazing show, and I believed it, but it was even better than I had expected! This man is 68 years old, but he sings and sounds like he always has, he dances and moves just like he did in those old movies. He was so full of energy! He would bounce from guitar up a few stairs to the piano and after almost every song he would pump his hands up in the air and say "Thank you!" He was silly... classic silly Paul things... just random silly things he would say. He also told stories about other legends, he mentioned Eric Clapton, told a story about Jimi Hendrix, talked about John and George. He played songs from his solo albums, songs from Wings... he did a little Foxy Lady, and of course a whole bunch of Beatles' songs. Hey Jude, Let It Be, Drive My Car, Something (one of my very favorites!), I've Just Seen A Face, Yesterday, Back In The USSR, A Day In The Life, Black Bird, I've Got A Feeling, Day Tripper, Get Back, Helter Skelter, Sgt Peppers, And I Love Her, Lady Madonna, Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, Paperback Writer, The End and a few more. The best thing though? He did not stop! He played a solid 2 hours and 45 minutes without a break! His band left the stage a couple times while he performed by himself, but he played almost 3 straight hours!

During Live and Let Die the front of the stage lit up in flames and fireworks exploded from behind the stage. There were fun moments of story telling and sing alongs, and then amazing all out rocking out. It seemed obvious that he still loves what he does and I love that he came to Salt Lake and did it. This was definately a once in a lifetime sort of thing for me!