Thanks Louise

I am going to see one quarter of the Beatles today. I suppose 25% and 45 years late is better than nothing.

Louise gave me tickets to see Paul McCartney for my birthday and tonight Paul, Louise and I will be at the Edmonton Coliseum together. Paul will be playing music and Louise and I will be listening and letting the memories flood into us through our ears. We will all be doing what we do best. I am really looking forward to seeing him play. From what I have heard, he is the consummate performer and gives a full three hour concert that just blows you away. It will be so cool.

In recent years, I have pretty much come to the realization that I would never get to see the Beatles or any part of the Beatles other than in video or book form. I was good with that…sort of. When I was young and the Beatles were still together and all of them living, there was no chance that I could afford tickets or even manage to get tickets. You had to know someone and Canada at the time was not a Mecca for touring music groups of any stripe, let alone the Beatles. Then they broke up which took the chance of seeing them to new levels of impossible. Maybe they would get back together if only Yoko would drop out of the picture. I didn’t know then that there were much more complicated reasons for the split than John’s girl friend.

When John was assassinated outside of the Dakota apartment building, we all knew that the golden age of our youth had come to an end. How could anyone want to kill a man that only wanted to give peace a chance? The summer of love and the Age of Aquarius died for good on December 8^th 1980. There was no way that the Beatles could ever get back together again. The eggman fell off the wall and all of the king’s horses and all of the king’s men couldn’t put our lives together again.

In 1999 on the 30^th of December, George Harrison was attacked in his home by an insane Michael Abrams who stabbed George about 40 times. George survived, but this attack more than likely weakened him so that the cancer could finish the job Michael Abrams started. December isn’t a good month for ex Beatles. George died on November 29^th 2001, and more of my hopes of a gentle and perfect world died with him. The only place that the Beatles can reunite now is in heaven.

Tonight I will be able to close my eyes and listen to my youth. Both Paul and I are a little older and neither of us are the men we once were, but both of us seem to be comfortable in our skin. I am looking forwards to one of the best concerts of my life, and I will be listening to this one without the influence of any herbal enhancements like I did in the old days. I am taking earplugs just in case the music is too loud for these old ears.

Thanks Louise…