Coach Flip Naumburg's Journal

Wednesday, November 2, 2005

MAYBE I’M AMAZED

Ada and I went to the Paul McCartney show at Pepsi Center in Denver last night. Assistant coach Kale Nelson got me hooked up with the tickets through his family and we went with them. I think it was one of the best shows this old boy here has seen. Paul is awesome and so is his band of five.

The thing that struck me perhaps most of all was that I don’t think I have ever seen someone who is at once so totally aware of the magnitude of his own celebrity, while at the same time so unaffected by all that fame and fortune. After all, who, other than perhaps Muhammad Ali has a face currently more recognized on the planet than Sir Paul McCartney? I don’t know why this humility fact realization surprises me. After all, I have sort of "known" Paul for about 42 years.

He just has fun on stage and it is contagious. The old Beatle (actually he is the youngest of the Fab 4) is not just amazing because he’s 60-something years old and rocks like, well, like a rock star. The jeans and tee shirt have not a spec of glitter. He’s just amazing, period. Ada described him as being still like a kid. She also thinks he has had a face-lift. I didn’t notice. I guess I am more skilled at recognizing "fake" other things.

BACH IN THE USSR

The band played on for most of three hours. They played more songs than I could count that’s for sure, and even at that I know he only scratched the surface of his song book. Who has more great songs at his fingertips than this guy? There were lots of Beatle tunes played. It was like he and they ran from one song and on to the next. It was great energy.

I’m big on group energy these days.

An example of a very cool moment from last night:
The band left him acoustically alone on the stage at one point. As unassuming as one might think he appears by himself and alone, his solo presence easily filled the stage. One of several "Beatle" stories he told last night was about how he stole/borrowed something from J.S. Bach (classical music composer) way back in the early years when they (Beatles) were playing clubs in Liverpool. He started playing this little 200 year-old (?) Bach piece on the acoustic guitar as he talked. The strings were all clean and crisp sounding, too. It was as if the strings themselves were alive, and it was an exciting moment. Then at some point along the melody road he moved his fingers across the bridge of the guitar and the song became a Beatles’ one called "Blackbird" and he began to sing it. I got chills.

LET IT BE

The keyboard player could bring all those fabulous Beatle sounds of horns and strings and things to the arena in a big way. It was as if there was an orchestra. He (McCartney) has two virtuoso guitar guys to rock with. Finally, the drummer is a big man, and Kale referred to him as a thumper because he raises his arms so high and literally beats the hell out of his drums. Only the keyboard/Director is English. The other three are Americans.

In many ways I always felt that not seeing the Beatles live back in the day was something that I would always have to rue or regret. I’m not saying I saw the Beatles last night or anything, but what I did see filled that "generation (2 or 3 maybe) gap" in my life pretty well.

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