Ellie von Wellsheim is our guest writer here. Married nearly half a century, I’ve found her to be the most capable person I know; founder and executive director of the MoonCatcher Project. http://www.mooncatcher.org. She once fell asleep with her head on my shoulder in the sixth row of a Bruce Springsteen show at Albany’s Palace Theatre. Here’s her take on a Montreal road trip to see Paul McCartney.

I turned down a front row seat to see Paul McCartney. 

“Are you crazy?” was my son Zak’s response. 

When I told my husband Michael (this is his blog you’re reading) about the offer and my turning it down, he said, “Are you crazy?” And when Linda my board president reacted the same way, I thought perhaps I should revisit my decision. 

My college friend Leila (O’Brien Raymond) got two tickets from her son Peter, and when he couldn’t go with her he asked me to please take his seat and go with his Mom. Finally, I said yes. I rearranged meetings and presentations and concentrated on travel plans instead. 

Montreal, here we come.

The concert was the second of a two night run. Peter says second night shows are the best because all the bugs are worked out the first night. So Leila and I made our way to Row A seats 41 and 42, night two, of the Paul McCartney: Got Back Tour.

Ellie von Wellsheim photo

I had laughingly told Michael that I’d write a review for this blog. He’s been writing music reviews for over 50 years and this would be my first. He joked with me about paying attention to when the show started (8:12 p.m., by the way). He said you have to write down all the songs and what tempo each has. He said think terms like largo, adagio or allegro, and I said OK: tortoise, hare and galloping horse. He laughed. ‘Pay attention to the crowd and the vibe of the place, and have fun,’ he said. “Paul has amazing energy. You’ll love it.”

So I folded up a piece of paper and found a pen to carry in my pocket and off we went. 19,000 people were there (in Montreal’s Bell Centre). Every seat was filled and everyone was ready for a good time. It was noisy and the stage was right in front of our front-row faces. I turned around and gasped at the crowd. All these people there to see Paul, there to relive something about our idols the Beatles.

As we waited for the show to start, there was recorded music playing and I watched the man who was making that happen. He knew every word to “Come Together,” “Why Can’t We Do It in the Road,” “Lucy in the Sky (with Diamonds),”  and endless other songs. We all knew those words. Pictures of the Beatles scrolled the screens behind and at each side of the stage.

They started with “Help” and I wrote “#1 HELP tempo: galloping horses!” We were off to a good start. Everyone jumped to their feet and in the end I don’t think my ass touched that chair for more than about seven minutes that whole night.

The place smelled of popcorn and fried food and everyone was singing along and just plain feeling good. The tunes all had video and stills of the Beatles on the screens behind the band. Sooo many pictures of Paul, John, George and Ringo. Pictures of them young and silly and growing more serious as their hair grew longer and they grew up. I knew most of the music and sang my heart out because not even I could hear me with all the screaming and singing and all around good cheer surrounding me. 

Leila Raymond photo

The show ebbed and flowed taking us from gentle to ferocious waves of emotion, truly making us laugh and cry. The photos and videos were visual reminders of the Beatles, and the songs jerked us back to how it all felt. You know how music does that? That touching something about your past that brings feeling rushing into your soul was racing into the souls of 19,000 people that night.

I loved it all but there were highlights.

Paul sang to John; a song that made me cry, it was so filled with love and longing and proclaimed “If you were here today I’d say ‘I love you.’” He sang with John too: The screen showed John singing “Get Back;” and on stage Paul sang with him, ending saying “it’s good to sing with John again.”

And there was a shout out and thank you to George too. With ukulele in hand, Paul told a story of going to George’s house to play a song that George had written and Paul had just learned to play. He quietly started to strum “Something” and soon the whole band joined in and we swayed and were missing this Beatle, too. Leila leaned over and told me she walked down the isle to this. These songs have marked our happy occasions and the sad ones too, like “Blackbird,” a melancholy protest song written during the civil rights movement in the US south.

Ellie von Wellsheim photo

“My Valentine,” a beautiful tortoise tempo-ed love song for Nancy, Paul’s wife, was silently ASL hand signed on screen by Johnny Depp and Natalie Portman’s as Paul sang, out loud, to his sweetheart. Paul told us his wife was there and he hands-formed a heart for her.

We jumped out of our skins and covered our ears when “Live and Let Die” was paired with cannon sounds and leaping flames of hot fire, six feet in front of us and too hot for comfort. But with all the smoke and lights, it was thrilling. I noticed Paul taking out earplugs after the song ended.

Leila Raymond photo

The set ended with “Hey Jude.” The audience went crazy and people held up NaNaNaNa signs as we all sang the chorus together. 

We stood there amazed, wondering if there would be an encore when a man came up to me and asked what I was writing. I explained that my husband was a music reviewer and couldn’t be there, so I was writing down the song titles for him. I was a little nervous as I wondered if I was doing something illegal but he simply smiled and said “I can help you with that” and handed me the set list. I kissed his cheek knowing Michael would love to have that piece of paper. 

I listened to the three encores and thought to myself “You got to experience this; you’re not crazy!”

Leila Raymond photo