Well, yesterday I decided to return to my hometown of Quebec City - to see Paul McCartney's free show on the Plains of Abraham - with around 200,000 other people similarly inclined.
Just some thoughts on that amazing experience to share with all of you.
Woke up, got out of bed
Dragged a comb across my head
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup
And looking up, i noticed i was late
Found my coat and grabbed my hat
Made the bus in seconds flat
Sunday morning, I was a little late in leaving. My original intention had been to take the earliest bus possible, and spend some time sightseeing around the city. I haven't been back for around twenty years or so, so I was looking forward to seeing how both Quebec City and I had changed.
Get back, get back.
Get back to where you once belonged
I'd spent twenty one years there growing up, and had left there thirty years ago - knowing no one in Montreal.
It's about a two and a half hour bus ride there, and it's one I'd taken many times as a young man. The route there hasn't changed much, but Quebec City and I certainly both have.
There's this point where one sees the two bridges , the old and the new, that cross the mighty St. Lawrence river. If you grew up there, that's the moment you know you are home....or are leaving it.
And so crossing that bridge, at least in my case, is always a special moment. As a twenty one year old, it was like knowing it was not just a bridge to other places - it was also a bridge to a (what seemed at the time) a very uncertain future in front of me. In a deep recession (at the time), I was heading to a city where I knew no one.
So that bridge was one across a river of water, and river of time. The physical and metaphysical join into one, as it were.
Now, thirty one years later,it was a poignant moment for me.
There are places i'll remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends i still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life i've loved them all
Now the situation was reversed, and there was no one I knew there anymore. Thank's to Quebec's past political situation, everyone I'd grown up with had left to find their fortune elsewhere. A once thriving small English community, it's now vanished to almost zero.
So I watched with great interest as the bus started to wind it's way into the city, and it had changed quite a bit physically. Quebec's celebrating it's 400th birthday, and this was perhaps one of the highlights of that celebration.
It's a bit like meeting your first girlfriend again, three decades later, and you find out she looks different.....but she's still got it.
It's streets were PACKED with people, and all sorts of exhibits and shows are going on there. It was also the start of the annual construction holiday vacation,adding even more people. Now Quebec's a tourist town, and summers always a time to see it's streets fill as more people discover it's history, incredible history, and European charm.
I highly recommend a visit there to anyone who wants to go to Europe, while remaining in North America. Cobblestone streets, the French language and culture, it's all there to discover. I've traveled both coasts of North America, and it's still the most beautiful city I've come across - but then again I'm a bit biased in the matter as a hometown boy.
I'd planned to do a "stations of the cross" type of visit, and return to some of those special places in my life. I wanted to walk with those ghosts one last time, and embrace what they'd meant to me.
Seeing those crowds, I decided to leave that for another time.
Now Quebec City will never be confused with a pool table. One quickly discovers that one is seldom on a level piece of ground, it seems. One spends a lot of time walking either uphill or downhill, and (after my return) I'd say one needs a special set of muscles to live there.
One's that I no longer had, I might add.
So after scaling those hills, like some Edmund Hillary at fifty one, I found another of those iconic images that Quebec offers.
Dufferin Terrace and the Chateau Frontenac :
The Terrace runs along the river, and the view from there is one of those place that (to me) is always awe inspiring. It didn't disappoint me, and it never has. I spent a few moments just standing there, taking it all in.
That walk (right to left in that picture) along Dufferin Terrace leads one to the Plains Of Abraham, and that was where I was headed. As I started walking, I had another one of those strange meetings that can sometimes change your direction - in this case a very important one.
Normally, one finds street artists selling their artwork in one central area of the city, but I came across a solitary one set up selling a few of his works for a rather good price. I liked his original artwork, and had wanted to pick up a souvenir to bring home anyway.
I bought some of his work, talked with him a while, and then he revealed what was to be an important fact to me that perhaps changed my entire trip there. There were no signs posted there, but he warned me that they had blocked off the exit much further up - and that saved me a lot of time. He also warned me that the closest gate area was already filling up fast.
Knowing that, I cut across the Citadel area of Quebec, right behind us - and just in time to hear a sound check going on from the stage area that was hidden from my view.
Knowing the city, and that area well, I was able to take a shortcut that brought me right to the gate.....and tens of thousands of people. There we remained, in Quebec's July heat, jammed like sardines.
For roughly three hours.... Woodstock, on a cobblestoned street.
Then, at five PM, the gates opened, and we all started to head to the stage area. I'd like to say I walked, but it was far more like being caught in a river and surging forward in the current.
Just as we arrived at the second gate area, the line stopped for about fifteen minutes. Rumors started going around that they'd already reached capacity....
Not a good time to be a lifelong Beatle fan, and seeing yourself literally inches away from NOT completing this Lord Of The Rings type of quest. I think they did slightly less walking in Lord Of The Rings actually, but don't quote me.
And then, the crowd started up again....and my heart started to beat again.
It seemed they just wanted to get people in place , before allowing others.
I actually found myself in a pretty good position for the show. Not front row, but I hadn't been expecting that. I was to the right of the stage, roughly equal with the light/sound towers.
More than acceptable...
Soon after that, the Stills opened and were followed by The Pascal Picard band. Both good in their own right, and they provided a good start to get everyone into the mood.
And then, as the sun set, and darkness fell upon us....the main act.
So may I introduce to you,
The act you've known for all these years,
I'd first seen the Beatles, strangely enough, on Ed Sullivan while living in an apartment in Quebec City roughly a couple of miles away from that stage. Now, forty-five years later, our paths had crossed.
We share a few things, McCartney and I.
Were both left handed, born on the same day (not year) , and we both play guitar. That's pretty much it, in terms of sharing things, I might add.
He walks out, and suddenly.....
It's Paul McCartney, he's got THE HOFNER strapped on, and he's dressed in a suit.
Thanks, God, I now owe you one. Contact me and provide any details necessary.....
(By the way Paul, this more than makes up for the time I ought tickets from a scalper ,third row center, for that Montreal Olympic Stadium concert you canceled shortly afterwards. You are now officially forgiven, and I apologize for all those nasty things I said shortly after that. I was young stupid....and out about sixty dollars. The scalper wasn't nearly as willing to refund his part of the ticket as you were.)
It seems I wasn't the only one with some ghosts to revisit.
"My Love" was dedicated to Linda, "Something" (begun on a ukulele given to McCartney by Harrison) was dedicated to George, and "Day in the Life/ Give Peace a Chance" was dedicated to John.
Quite the show, and it was one of those special moments in my life, and it was....free.
He seems to have come face to face with those demons of the Beatle years, and made peace with them. He threw in some of his newer songs unapologetically, and they held up fairly well. I didn't see it as resignation, but as more acceptance of just how things are if you are Paul McCartney. Maybe the loss of Lennon and Harrison were reminders of what was missing, and that's somehow revitalized him as seeing their legacy together as some eternal flame that still flickers in the hearts of many of us. They are no longer "competitors" , and I'd frankly have considered you mad had you suggested that McCartney would someday sing "A Day In The Life" , or "Something" in one of his sets (outside of appearing in a tribute show for either of them) not so long ago.
A view from the crowd, during "Live and Let Die":
And then, the last of three encores.....
Every song a good Beatle fan could possibly expect - and more. A chance to see one of my musical idols, and also the chance to participate in one of the largest outdoor shows in this province's history - in my hometown on it's 400th birthday.
In McCartney's case, I'll have to admit that there was a certain aspect of being like a kid on Christmas Eve, sneaking downstairs and seeing Santa eating those cookies and drinking that milk - and only this time..... he's not your Dad.
Santa ?
Ho-Ho-Ho...
I mean I can now claim to have sung "Hey Jude", live with Paul McCartney, and just how cool is that.... man ?
Naaaaa-naaaa-naaa, NA-NA-NA, na-na-na, Hey Jude !
(waves arms in the air....)
All for free, did I mention that part yet ?
Merci beaucoup, Paul.
From me to you...... for yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
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And by the way, a special thanks to my co-worker Jerry (JRZ) , who filled in for me at work and allowed me to get to go and see the show.
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