When one of my best friends asked me if I wanted to buy tickets to go see Sir Paul McCartney, my first reaction was, HELL YEAH! My friend was able to buy presale tickets so we ended up getting Club Level tickets. I've never been club level before and when we went, I felt like I was in baseball heaven, except I wasn't there for a Giants game. I was there to see Paul effin-McCartney! Never in a million years would I have thunk that I would be seeing him. A former Beatle. Which is why I jumped at the opportunity. I had to dig deep to pay for the tickets for both my wife and I, but I figured that this is one of those once in a lifetime events. And he hasn't played here since he was a Beatle which was in 1966, which was their last touring concert performance. Hopefully its not another 40+ years.
Paul was always, second in my opinion to John, who was my favorite Beatle. Sometimes I would rank him under George. But you have to give it up, he was 1/2 of the main writing duo and has been responsible for some of their greatest hits. Independently they were great, and sometimes achieved greatness. But together they were the GREATEST, hands down.
But at a youthful age of 68, he still rocked AT&T park and owned the sell out crowd of 40,000 people. There was a lot of electricity in the air. A lot of anticipation. People of all ages and color. All together to roll up on the Magical Mystery Tour. And so we journeyed... We journeyed through his career at got samples of different stages of his musical journey. I was in awe to even be there. I tried to anticipate which songs he would play for the night. But his catalogue is so vast that if he played everything, we would be there all night but the material selected for set list was great. He mixed it up often playing Wings, McCartney, and some solo hits. Some of his new material, through in an occasional Beatles tune but as the show progressed he eventually ended with the songs everyone knew and love... His banter between songs was slick, he was sharp, witty and funny most times. He told a lot of stories. He covered some songs in tribute to old friends.
As he was finishing up a Wings selection, he broke into soloing and the band started jamming to Foxy Lady. I know my Hendrix! When they finished, he told a story about Jimi...
...Sgt. Pepper was released on a Friday and Jimi was in town for the weekend for a show. I went to Jimi to say hello and he asked if he could play a Beatles cover. I said it would ok and during the show he played Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band... His downstroke while strumming was so strong it would make his guitar go out of tune. So he stopped during his set and called Eric to come up on stage to help him. He was referring to Clapton. Clapton tried to hide avoid being seen...
I thought that, that story was amusing. 3 musical legends in one room, casually at a show.
At one point of the show he broke into silence and addressed his relationship to John. His other half of the writing duo when they were Beatles. It was known that their relationship was on a decline towards the end but when he played Here Today, you would know what his true feelings were, despite what anyone else had to say, or whatever ill happenstances occurred between the two. This song was a conversation that never happened between the two. When I heard the lyrics, it made my heart move. It was both sweet and sad. And yes make a manly man cry.
Paul singing John's part in A Day in a Life and ending with Give Peace a Chance.
Another memorable moment was his tribute to George, who also passed away. He played Something on a ukelele and mid song the whole band started to play at the solo portion where George would normally play. Something, in my opinion, is the BEST love song ever written. And it was written by not Lennon or McCartney, but George Harrison. Another beautiful tribute his fellow Beatle.
I always associated social activism more with John and a little with George, but I never knew Paul to write about it. Very subtle and clever of him, now that he explained about the people dealing with apartheid in South Africa was the basis for such a beautiful song. Here's Blackbird.
Band On The Run from the Wings days...
Ode to San Francisco ...
Pyrotechnics during Live and Let Die
Let It Be
He ended his second encore set with a rockin' fashion with Helter Skelter followed by "The End", whose lyrics are me and my wife's quote for our wedding programs. A fitting way to end probably the greatest show I have ever been to. In terms of personal and historical perspective, this has been the most meaningful show to me I have ever attended. To rock this hard 3+ hours straight at Sir Paul's age is a testament to his rock awesomeness. To witness greatness and genius this close is a once in a lifetime thing. This is at Beatlemania as it gets for me and I'm thankful to experience it after the fact. Thanks to Rob for getting the tickets. My wife, for letting us go, Sir Paul and his band for this memorable show I will never forget. Thanks to all for the videos.
Paul McCartney at AT&T Park SF 7/10/10 7:30PM
1. Venus and Mars / Rockshow
2. Jet
3. All My Loving
4. Letting Go
5. Got To Get You Into My Life
6. Highway
7. Let Me Roll It/Foxy Lady
8. The Long And Winding Road
9. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five
10. Let ‘Em In
11. My Love
12. I’m Looking Through You
13. Two Of Us
14. Blackbird
15. Here Today
16. Dance Tonight
17. Mrs Vandebilt
18. Eleanor Rigby
19. Something
20. Sing The Changes
21. Band On The Run
22. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
23. Back In The USSR
24. I’ve Got A Feeling
25. Paperback Writer
26. A Day In The Life / Give Peace A Chance
27. Let It Be
28. Live And Let Die
29. Hey Jude
Encore
30. Day Tripper
31. Lady Madonna
32. Get Back
Second Encore
33. Yesterday
34. Helter Skelter
35. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band / The End
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