Becca says, “Oh and apparently I witnessed the world’s biggest hora”

I’m on a train from Edinburgh (that’s Edin-burrah for all you non-Brits) to London and should be telling you all about my weekend in Scotland, including the bits about the horrid ghost tour woman, sheep hearts, and pizza-flavored scotch, but that will just have to wait. Because I’ve more pressing matters to talk about. Namely, Paul McCartney.

Last night I watched his concert telecast live from Liverpool. I’ve always been a fan of The Beatles. It started when I was only allowed to listen to Oldies 103 in the car with my mom (I’m proud to say I knew many more Beatles songs than New Kids on the Block songs in the 80’s) and only continued to grow as I surrounded myself in high school with friends whose lives revolved around classic rock. But it’s always a different experience watching a musician or band in concert. I know it’s from Wayne’s World and I know they were talking about a television sound stage, but a concert is “where the magic happens.” To watch one of The Beatles perform their songs written when the world was so drastically different than it is today (even if it was on a 13” Panasonic) was an amazing experience. To watch him give peace signs to the audience between songs, strum out the chords to Something on a ukele given to him by George, and, like 60-something year old men tend to do, forget a line to A Day in the Life, it was no surprise that I secretly cried thinking about the profound effect this man and his three friends had on millions of people across the world.

(At one point, my friend Alex walked in the room and said “To think, Michael Jackson is making money right now.” I was also informed that ever since Ringo Starr claimed that there was nothing good about the city of Liverpool, people keep chopping the head off his topiary in town. I think maybe they were just upset he quit Shining Time Station.)

Could we ever have a band like The Beatles again? Could there ever be another group of four musicians known in every country around the world as the four men who just wanted to give peace a chance? The world today seems so negative and cynical that I would think we would pooh-pooh a band who sings about love, peace, and walruses before they even take the stage. Paul represents a group of people (i.e. hippies) from a time past. A time when people were hopeful about the future. Hopeful that peace wasn’t a futile idea. And I guess that’s why I cried (other than the fact that I’m an emotional person); it was inspiring to see a stadium packed full of people who were/are a part of that and still believe in peace. And tie-dye.