A busy August kept me away from home for most of the month, with 2 conventions and a long-overdue vacation. Even when I was home, I had little available free time, and a lot of what I expected to have was taken up with an end-of-month flu-like illness. (Ugh!) That aside, I had a lot of highlights during the month — including seeing old/dear friends and making new friends — and crossed more than a few things off my bucket list. (A list I don’t actually keep, but you get the point.)
The first highlight, and a high point in my life, too, was seeing Paul McCartney at Wrigley Field with my daughter. The show was great — best I’ve ever seen — and was easily worth many times what we paid to be there. (And would have been even if he had not responded to my shouted comment, “We love you, Paul!” from onstage.) If you are a Beatles fan, I cannot urge you enough to see Paul (or Ringo) while you still can.
This show made it easy to see why the Beatles were/are the best band ever. Here’s the setlist from our show (Monday, August 1, 2011).
1. Magical Mystery Tour (Beatles)
2. Junior’s Farm (Wings)
3. All My Loving (Beatles)
4. Jet (Wings)
5. Got To Get You into My Life (Beatles)
6. Sing the Changes (The Fireman)
7. The Night Before (Beatles)
8. Let Me Roll It (Wings)/Foxy Lady (Jimi Hendrix)
9. Paperback Writer (Beatles)
10. The Long and Winding Road (Beatles)
11. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five (Wings)
12. Let ‘Em In (Wings)
13. Maybe I’m Amazed
14. I’m Looking Through You (Beatles)
15. And I Love Her (Beatles)
16. Blackbird (Beatles)
17. Here Today
18. Dance Tonight
19. Mrs Vandebilt (Wings)
20. Eleanor Rigby (Beatles)
21. Something (Beatles)
22. Band on the Run (Wings)
23. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (Beatles)
24. Back in the U.S.S.R. (Beatles)
25. I’ve Got a Feeling (Beatles)
26. A Day in the Life (Beatles)/Give Peace a Chance (John Lennon)
27. Let It Be (Beatles)
28. Live and Let Die (Wings)
29. Hey Jude (Beatles)
Encore:
30. Lady Madonna (Beatles)
31. Birthday (Beatles)
32. I Saw Her Standing There (Beatles)
Encore 2:
33. Yesterday (Beatles)
34. Helter Skelter (Beatles)
35. Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End (Beatles)
Oh, and what did Paul respond to my shout? “I love you, too, Random Citizen!”
Life does not get any better than that. (I hope to find a recording of that moment, when I have time to search online.)
