Paul McCartney, Part 2 — The Show

"Close your eyes and I'll kiss you, tomorrow I'll miss you..."

A Beatle. Living legend. The cute one.

Yep, Paul is still all of that...although I think they were ALL cute as hell, and he wasn't my favorite. Still, it was fun to see him in concert and hear a lot of songs I have loved for so many years. And "All My Loving" is one of my old faves, so when that came shortly into the first set, I was a happy girl.

Jim thought the concert in Denver was truly and totally fantastic, and the greatest show he's ever seen. So I'm sure he'll have an extensive, well-written, more informative, kinder and gentler review than this short, lukewarm thing I'm writing. Just go to to MessinWithTheKid.blogspot.com. If it's not there yet, it will be.

I'm a huge Beatles fan. You have to love the group who changed your life as a teenager! But only John and George had what I consider great solo careers afterward. Mainly John. I'm a die-hard Lennon loyalist. A staunch Lennonist.

So Paul's songs from his Wings days were sorta lost on me, although I recognized many of them from radio airplay. He did a slew of Beatles tunes, though, which was a treat. He also had a streaming video of clips from the Beatles days, his time with Linda, and his kids. Very nice.

He sang a song for Linda and one for John, which made me cry. But a highlight was a long, gorgeous tribute to George Harrison while singing "Something"...terrific stuff. Very generous of him. Although I don't think he mentioned Ringo, and he only said "Beatles" once, commenting that kids in Russia tell him they learned to speak English by listening to Beatles records. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He played well to the crowd and the ubiquitous camera. Shook his mop top in gentle Beatles fashion a couple of times -- not hard enough or blatantly enough to make the girls scream, though heh heh. His band was remarkable; the show well staged.

He tore it up with a searing rendition of "Helter Skelter," a surprising delight. The big show-stopper was a thunder-boomer fireworks-type display during "Live and Let Die." The sounds scared the shit out of me -- twice. The boy can still rock out, that's for sure.

Two long encores, one headed by "Day Tripper" -- which I found ironically appropriate, considering my "day trip" on the way there. He was onstage the entire time, except when he left briefly before the encore sets. Lots of stamina, and you can tell he just loves the crowd.

And he's a charming, energetic performer and masterful musician, still with a great voice. I love him, admire him, respect him, and salute him. After all, he was a Beatle.

But he's no John Lennon.

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