I never got to see the Beatles in concert (my sister saw them twice) but I did see Wings at the Fabulous Forum in LA in 1976 and that was a great concert.  But it was oh so long ago.  I was looking forward to seeing him again after all these years.

___________________

I got my first taste of how big a deal this was going to be in Tulsa when I took a long run around downtown last weekend and saw this street sign near the BOK Center where the concert was going to take place.

The concert actually started with a scrolling montage of photos and video from McCartney’s life.  It made me want to watch this movie, one of my all time favorites, again.

_______________________

Once the concert commenced, Sir Paul did not disappoint. He and his band of 5 guys were incredible for over 2 1/2 hours.

Highlights included a solo Paul with a Ukelele singing ‘Something’ by George Harrison, after telling a funny story of how George and he played it on dueling ukeleles once. He then transitioned half way through the song to the full throated version of it with the band. It really was quite moving.

Courtesy of my friend, Julie Chin

I also really loved ‘Live and Let Die’, ‘Band on the Run’, ‘Paperback Writer’ and ‘And I love Her’. There was only one song through the entire night (and 55 years of recordings) where I didn’t know the lyrics. I had heard the song before, from a later album, but that was it.  The pyrotechnics during ‘Live and Let Die’ were pretty spectacular.

photo courtesy of my friend, Julie Chin

______________________

His odes to his wives, ‘My Valentine’ for his current wife, Nancy and ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ for his late wife, Linda, were very touching and beautiful. I loved ‘Lady Madonna’ with the huge graphics of strong and successful women throughout the song, with scenes of Olympic runners hitting the finish line as the line ‘see how she runs’ was sung.

My own Lovely Linda and myself waiting for Sir Paul to arrive.

We had an amazing time surrounded by a huge diversity of people. Everyone sang along to almost every song but I beat Linda in the ‘know every song’ category for sure.  It was great to meet a very cool couple sitting next to us before the show, hopefully we will meet up with them again.  It was funny watching the long haired blonde (Cousin It) and her very tall, very gaunt BF (Lurch) in front of us think every song should be heard standing up,

and a bit sad watching the boy dragged along by his parents play a video game through the entire concert, non-stop.

____________________

Most unexpected song: Helter Skelter. Very intense visuals and about as hard of a head banging heavy metal song that the Beatles ever did. And the band did it with some serious intensity. Sometimes you forget, due to Paul’s ballads and sweet love songs, what a hard core rocker he was and is. Linda didn’t like Helter Skelter, she had read the book about the Manson murders, and can’t hear it without thinking about that, but I thought it was a pretty amazing heavy metal song.  The Beatles recorded a 17 minute version of the song that never got released while recording the White Album. Read more about here.

________________________

He led up to one song by saying it had not been performed in public in many decades but he brought it out for this tour. It was pretty clear that there was a reason it isn’t brought out often, it was the weakest song of the night in my opinion – Lovely Rita (Meter Maid).

_________________

Favorite song of the night? Hard to beat the second to last song in the encore, ‘Saw Her Standing There’ which he sang in honor of a girl named Charlotte in the audience who had a big sign saying she was turning 17…’she was just 17, you know what I mean’…

The Beatles – I Saw Her Standing There from – Thrive – on Vimeo.

___________________

And the finale, not expected but great, was ‘Golden Slumber’. An amazing composition that had quiet moments, outrageous rock, searing solos on all instruments and a ear splitting finale.  My favorite line?  “… and in the end,  the   love   you   take … is   equal   to   the   love … you make.”

And in the end….we walked out under beautiful humid skies and saw this.

___________________

We loved it and highly recommend going to see Sir Paul if you get the chance. It’s worth the money.

Did you go? What stood out to you?

__________________

© 2013 Marty Coleman and Napkin Dad Publishing

__________________