The evening a 72-year old man's energy put me to shame

Paul in Atlanta

"The long and winding road ..."

I didn't think I would ever see Paul McCartney in concert. When the Beatles stopped touring, I was only 16 and had never been to a concert.

In 1976, when Paul was coming to the Capital Centre in Landover, Md., in the "Wings Over America" tour, the date of the concert turned out to be the very day I had to put my first wife on a plane for the start of a two-year tour in Austria.

I was going two months later, but I wasn't about to suggest that I see McCartney without her.

We went to a lot of big concerts in the '70s. I saw the Rolling Stones, Chicago, the Beach Boys, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Loggins and Messina, the Eagles, Billy Joel, Jimmy Buffett, ELO and others.

But never McCartney. The last arena concert I saw was Bruce Springsteen in 1984 in St. Louis, and the last big concert of any kind was in 1989, when I saw Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band at the California State Fair in Sacramento.

I was about to turn 40, and I figured the rock concert part of my life was pretty well finished. In 2010 we moved to Georgia and I didn't think that would change anything. A few more years passed, and all of a sudden I saw that Paul McCartney would be performing in Atlanta in June 2014.

One last chance?

I got two tickets, but before we had a chance to go, McCartney became ill and postponed that part of his tour. The Atlanta concert was changed from June 21st to October 15th. When the time came, my wife wasn't feeling up to going, so I went alone.

I read a review of the concert in Dallas two days earlier, and at least one part of it knocked me for a loop. The 72-year-old McCartney had performed for nearly three hours.

I'm eight years younger and I was pretty certain I couldn't sit through a three-hour concert. As it turned out, he didn't play for three hours. He played for three and a half hours, and I made it through only two thirds of it before I couldn't manage any more.



Of course I missed the wonderful stuff at the end, but it's stuff I have on CDs from other McCartney tours. What I heard was a great mix of the Beatles, Wings and Paul's later solo career. The opening number, "Eight Days a Week," brought a smile to my face, and the third one, "All My Lovin'," brought tears to my eyes.

Jeez, 1964.

Fifty years ago.

Two songs from the classic "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album -- "Lovely Rita" and "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" -- really touched me, because they were songs the Beatles never performed live.

I lasted for about two hours and 15 minutes and I had nothing left. I left right after Paul sang one of my favorite of his songs -- 1975's "Band on the Run." I hummed it all the way to the car and then played a McCartney CD on the way home.

I'm sorry I didn't last for the whole show, but definitely glad I made it at all.

It was well worth the wait.