A Beatles Blast From the Past

Wow!  Was it really 50 years ago that the Beatles debuted on the Ed Sullivan show?  Realizing that I’d just turned ten years old when they hit the scene makes me understand why I’ve always loved them.  They broke up in 1970, meaning their music was there for me through my junior year of high school.  My husband, on the other hand, is eight years older than I and truly believes that the music died the day Buddy Holly’s plane went down.  Oh, he’ll listen to the Beatles, but he always disses ‘em.

The Sunday television ritual when we were kids was Walter Cronkite’s The Twentieth Century, Walt Disney and then Ed Sullivan, and we were all parked in front of the TV set for the duration. I suspect I didn’t get all that fired up about that first night of the Beatles, but they grew on me. I recall an older cousin giving me three Beatles’ albums for Christmas one year: Introducing the Beatles, Beatles ’65 and Something New.  That must have been a year later, and that’s when I got hooked. I played those records nonstop—on the red vinyl Victrola my Mom had.

Everyone had a favorite Beatle, and mine was Paul McCartney. I’ve continued to enjoy his music through the years and even went to see his 2009 concert in Piedmont Park in Atlanta. We were on a girls’ trip watching McCartney television special when one of my girlfriends said she’d like to see him live one time before she died! We all agreed we’d be on the lookout for concert announcements.  Picture me driving down the road one day and hearing that Paul McCartney tickets were going on sale. As soon as I hit the house, I quickly lined up all my girlfriends and got the tickets. 

One husband accompanied us.  My husband, of course, did not. Paul put on a high energy show, opening with Drive My Car.  That concert rates as an experience of a lifetime for me.  The February 9th special commemorating the 50^th anniversary of the Beatles’ appearance on Ed Sullivan brought it all back. We were out that evening, and I’m typically in bed by 9 or 9:30 anyway, so I set up TIVO to capture the concert.  When we got home around 8:30, I turned the TV on, got hooked and stayed up until the end, singing along all the way.

Paul and Ringo were both in the audience along with Yoko Ono and George Harrison’s wife and son.    Ringo got his turn on stage as did George’s son, and Paul closed out the evening.  I’d have to agree with the reviewer who said Annie Lennox butchered Fool on the Hill. Other than cringing at her performance, I enjoyed all the artists, especially McCartney, at age 71, rocking out on Magical Mystery Tour, Birthday, Get Back, I Saw Her Standing There, and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. I agree with Billboard’s take:

“No one plays a Beatles song quite like a Beatle. That lesson was learned … when a reunion of Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr concluded a tribute to the Beatles … on Feb. 9, the 50th anniversary of their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. They still can't be topped.”

I see a DVD of this concert in my future.