November 7, 2005
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The Daily News
The Beatles' last concert ever
Ringo and Paul, 1966, Candlestick Park
Getting off the plane in SFO, San Bruno, CA
1 You'd think that people would have had enough of silly love songs.
2 Well I look around me and I see it isn't so.
3 Oh no.
4 Paul McCartney, legend. Now appearing at the Tank.
5 The Beatles' very last concert took place in the Bay Area at the immortal Candlestick Park, San Francisco, where I was born.
6 San Francisco. I was born in San Francisco. I was raised at Candlestick Park.
7 By a toothless, bearded hag.
8 I recall a Rolling Stones' concert at Candlestick Park, years later, as always, a packed house, and I recall the wily Mick Jagger, after his opening two songs, prancing to the mic and, and sayin' "So how ya doin'? Ya know, this is where the Beatles plyed theh lahst consutt." you know, with the British rocker accent and all.
9 Over 60,000 people rose, yelled, shouted, tweaked, and applauded, for almost an entire minute. Awesome moment, being part of rock history. Mick Jagger, paying homage to the real British Royalty, the venerable Beatles.
10 Jagger then swaggered back to the mic and said briskly, "Useless fahking informytion." To which people stood up, and the Stones launched into the opening licks to Let's Spend the Night Together. Instantly, the entire place stood up and applauded, and the party was on.
11 The Beatles' last concert was before my time. As big a fan as I am, I never saw the entire band. I did see Paul McCartney, and I did get to see George. I've seen Sir Paul twice now.
12 And tonight, I will again see a Beatle. No matter how you look at it, Paul McCartney is rock royalty. I never saw Elvis; I never saw Sinatra. I HAVE seen the Stones, a million times now.
13 But it isn't often you see a real Beatle. They just don't get out much.
14 In August of '66, nobody knew they were going to stop touring after the Candlestick show. There's footage, and even a DVD. But they did Shea Stadium in New York, and then finished with good ol' Candlestick Park, where I was this past Sunday.
15 Useless fahking imformytion. Here's their set, on the back of an obscure album called Shea/Candlestick, which I JUST discovered online last night!
Now, I have to guess that Spank records was not on the up-and-up. This was clearly a bootleg album, and what a fun find!
16 The songs I would love to have heard would have been If I Needed Someone, from Yesterday and Today album, Yesterday, because I'm pretty sure Paul played it acoustically, and Nowhere Man, of course, because it is THE quintessential Lennon tune.
17 And NOBODY could do Long Tall Sally like Paul. The Chuck Berryesque lyrics still rock to this day:
I saw Uncle John
with Long Tall Sally;
he saw Aunt Mary coming' and he ducked back in the alley
oh, baby!
18 For years, I thought Chuck Berry wrote that song, which has been performed by no less than Elvis Presley, Little Richard, AND the Beatles. Great rocker. Pure fun!
19 For the record, Long Tall Sally was penned by Enortis Johnson, Robert Blackwell, Richard Penniman, and a few others who changed lyrics at will, including Chuck Berry AND Paul McCartney.
20 I always loved Little Richard saying HE saw Uncle John with BALD-headed Sally, he saw Aunt Mary comin' and he ducked back in the alley..
21 Pure rock. Bald-headed Sally. Ya gotta love it.
22 An interesting side-note is that I Wanna Be Your Man, which was written by Lennon/McCartney in 1963, was covered by the Rolling Stones and was their third single released, also in 1963. The "B" side is an unknown song called Stoned. Useless? Yeah, I imagine, I imagine...
23 Just pretty exciting times when a Beatle comes to town. For the record, SFO is listed as San Francisco, but the airport itself clearly sits in San Bruno, my old hunting grounds.
24 WAY useless fahking informytion.
25 Anyway...Paul McCartney. Legend. Can't wait.
25 We're gonna have some fun tonight!
26 Peace.
~h~
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