The Denver Gazette’s John Moore and Kyla Pearce agree that Sir Paul is getting better all the time.

There are 30 years between Denver Gazette reporter Kyla Pearce and Senior Arts Journalist John Moore. But on Saturday, they were side by side, just two of 50,000 of all ages being treated to what will likely be Paul McCartney’s final concert appearance in Denver. Afterward, they got together to chat about the historic show. It went a little something like this:

John Moore: Hi, Kyla. Let’s start with your overall impressions of the show.

Kyla Pearce: Hey, John! I was blown away. While I can’t claim to be Paul’s No. 1 fan, it was pretty surreal to hear songs like “Hey Jude,” “Blackbird” and ‘Let it Be” – songs that I’ve heard my entire life – live from their creator. It was a really special experience. What about you?

JM: What struck me most was that, for three hours, there was no rancor, no hostages, no bombs falling. Just 50,000 people having fun. It was all about the love. I swear, If McCartney were a preacher, I would join his church. For a jaded old journalist, I have to admit: He got to me, dammit. You’d have to be a cranky old rolling stone not to have loved this night. What was your take on the overall vibe?

KP: Oh, I completely agree! I hate to compare Paul McCartney to a Taylor Swift concert but, hear me out on this. Just like the Eras Tour, everyone in the crowd was just so happy to be there, and so full of love for the music and their fellow concertgoers.

JM: Get back. I was going to ask you to compare this to the Taylor Swift concert!

KP: Oh good, I thought you’d never ask! One of my favorite things about being a Taylor Swift fan is the community. Everybody is swapping bracelets and making new friends and singing and dancing, and that’s the same energy I felt at McCartney – albeit with less glitter in the crowd, and a wider age range.

JM: (Yes, take note, Paul: More glitter!) Tell me more of your thoughts on that crowd.

For me, it was that there were at least five generations represented, including three babies within 20 seats of us. And yet, it is entirely possible that Paul was the oldest person there.

KP: I agree. A few rows in front of us, I saw some siblings who looked to be between 11 and 15, both singing along to every song and absolutely enthused to be there. I was expecting the average age to be a few gens older than mine, but the mix of ages made it really special.

JM: I was barely born when the Beatles landed in America, and there are more than 30 years between us – 

KP: I wasn’t born then either – Are you shocked?

JM: Whippersnapper! I am really curious what your first and probably last first-hand experience with Beatlemania was like.

KP: Well, I still feel like I grew up with the Beatles, because my parents were both around for that era of music. I had a lot of takeaways. First off, how was Paul shredding like that at 83? I was impressed, to say the least.

JM: That’s why he’s been called the greatest living bass player, maybe of all time. Rick Rubin says so, anyway. Please continue.

KP: It felt pretty surreal to me to be there. As a 20-something, I never expected to hear any of the Beatles live. I know that Paul is still alive, of course, but in my head, all the Beatles are long-gone remnants of a generation way before me. Throughout the show, I kept pinching myself wondering if I’d wake up and discover I’d dreamed it all.

JM: So what would your dear mom in Arizona have thought of that show? Did you send her 30 Marco Polos?

KP: Before the show, I called my parents to tell them I was seeing McCartney. They were jealous, and I wish they could’ve been there. My mom is always singing “Jet” and “Live and Let Die” to me over the phone to remind me of what they sounded like.

JM: I felt like the theme of the entire night was that of authentic and insistent inclusivity, almost as a statement of common-sense resistance. A call for decency. I thought playing the Wings song “Let ‘Em In” while video played of a marching band from an HBCU school was incredibly powerful. Their sashes read “Diversity.” 

KP: Yes, and at one point, the band waved four Pride flags on stage: An American Flag, a Colorado flag, a British flag and a Pride Flag. It was awesome.

JM: Then, before playing “Blackbird,” McCartney stood on that elevated platform like it was a  pulpit and told a largely forgotten story about how the Beatles refused to play at a segregated concert in Jacksonville. Here’s what he told the crowd about what happened on Sept. 11, 1964:

“I’m very proud of having written that song (‘Blackbird’). I wrote it back in the ’60s when there were a lot of troubles going on in the southern states of America, particularly over civil rights. We would get the news from America back in England, and we couldn’t believe what was going on. So I wanted to write a song that, if it ever got back to any of the people going through that, it might just give them a little bit of hope. So, eventually we went down to do a concert in Jacksonville. And just before we were about to do it, the promoter said, ‘You understand, don’t you – it’s segregated?’ We said, ‘What’s that?’ because we’ve never had any of that in England. The guy said, ‘Well, all the Black people are going to sit on one side, and the White people are going to sit on the other side.’ We said, ‘Well, that’s stupid. OK, well, then we don’t play.’ Eventually, I think the guy realized he was going to lose so much money that he integrated it. So it was the first integrated concert (in Jacksonville). It was beautiful because years later I met a Black lady who’d been a kid at the show, and she said, ‘It was amazing because I’d never sat with White people before. It didn’t matter what color we were because we were all just Beatles fans.’ We had it written into our contracts: No segregated concerts.”

Kyla, What did you think of that moment?

KP: That gave me chills, actually. Paul described the hope he wanted to share with the world through that song, and that sentiment felt really important to me, especially now, when we are no strangers to ongoing injustice in the world.

JM: What fan signs stuck with you?

KP: I love fun concert signs, and I laughed pretty hard at all of the signs that came out during “Hey Jude.” Someone behind us had a sign that said endless “na-na-nas,” and a group of people to our left each had a sign that said “Na.” A teenager near us had a sign that said: “I’m 14 years old, and my only wish is to hug Sir Paul McCartney.” What were your favorites?

JM: I chuckled when Paul noticed the woman holding a sign saying this was her 186th McCartney concert. “That’s a little bit obsessive, isn’t it?” he said in his self-effacing way. I liked “You Just Keep Getting Better and Better.” I have to admit I was puzzled by one that read “Long Live Bernard Webb.” I’m not enough of a superfan to know who that is, so I looked it up. Turns out, “Bernard Webb” was a pseudonym McCartney used when he wrote a song called  “Woman” and decided to give it to a British pop duo called Peter and Gordon. Apparently, McCartney wanted to see if a song he wrote could be a hit without the Lennon/McCartney mark on it.

KP: Feel free to laugh at me for being young, but I have no idea who that is.

JM: No laughing, I didn’t, either! Tell me a song or two that particularly affected you.

KP: One was “Hey Jude,” mostly because it’s a song I’ve heard my whole life and actually performed with a jazz band in high school. “Let it Be” was really special for me, given the context of the world right now.

JM: During “Let it Be,” I noticed an older man in the aisle next to us fell to his knees, raised his arms as if in prayer and sang out with tears running down his cheeks. 

KP: I think that would’ve made me cry, too.

JM: I’ll mention two: McCartney performed a “virtual duet” with John Lennon on “I’ve Got a Feeling” with Lennon singing his parts on archival video and Paul singing live. That video comes from The Beatles’ famous rooftop concert in 1969. Kind of creepy, but also kind of wonderful. (Side note: That distinctive guitar strap Paul sported on Saturday was reportedly the same strap he used for that rooftop concert.) I felt all the feels whenever McCartney sang for others – for his son, and for all his late bandmates. But when he sang “My Valentine” for his wife, Nancy, while she was with us in the Coors Field audience, while Natalie Portman and Johnny Depp performed videotaped American Sign Language on the big screen? Come on!

KP: That was something.

JM: So, tell me your thoughts on this: There were eight amazing musicians on stage, including the guitar player who looks just like Ty Burrell from “Modern Family.” (Actually, that was Rusty Anderson, who has been touring with McCartney since 2001). But there were no women, which I thought was incongruous to the overall inclusive theme of the evening. Did that strike you?

KP: I did notice that, actually. I won’t say it struck me, necessarily, because that’s a common theme in my life, being in male-dominated spaces. But it certainly would’ve been nice to see some women up there.

JM: What did you think of the thundering pyro, specifically during “Live and Let Die?” I thought it put the Rockies’ fireworks nights to shame. I also thought that, as a nation, we might have been under attack.

KP: Admittedly, the sudden pyro startled me, too! We were close enough to the stage to feel the heat from the fire, and I jumped. I was also standing there wondering how Paul lived through the pyro. It was loud and hot and intense, and he’s so old. I hope his hearing is OK. It was pretty awesome, though.

JM: As we wrap up, I have to ask: What was your experience outside of the stadium? I live 4 miles from Coors Field. I left the house at 5 p.m. and barely got to my seat in time for the historic opening song (McCartney playing Lennon’s “Help!” live for the first time since 1965). I’m glad they started 20 minutes late to give the crowd more time to settle in, but with a three-hour show, that made for a late night.

KP: The experience outside the stadium was nuts. Finding parking was overwhelming. I gave myself plenty of time to arrive and park before the show started, and still barely made it to my seat for the first song.

JM: My first thought was, “Man, it’s been a long time since Coors Field has had a sellout,” because they seemed to have no idea how to handle a capacity crowd. I think part of that was expectable because there was no opening act, so the crowd was really all descending on Coors Field at the same time. But man, that was rough. Long lines for parking, at the gate, at the bathrooms. I was reminded of the famous David Sedaris quote: “Standing in a two-hour line makes people worry that they’re not living in a democratic nation.”

KP:  Chaos. Again, though, not to compare a Paul McCartney concert to a Taylor Swift concert, but I’ve dealt with my fair share of stadium chaos.

JM: I’m ashamed to ask, but I am going to anyway: If you were a teenager in 1965, which Beatle would you be crushing on?

KP: Not to be basic, but … John Lennon. Who’s your Beatles crush?

JM: Yoko, duh.

KP: Good answer.

JM: Final thoughts?

KP: I didn’t expect to love that show as much as I did. I knew it would be fun to be there in the presence of a legend, but I didn’t expect to get emotional hearing some of those songs. I think part of the emotion was feeling connected to my parents and my younger self. It was nostalgic, and it felt really special to be there. You?

JM: How about what kind of physical shape McCartney is in? I thought he was strikingly affable, witty, quick with a quip and in full control of his power – miraculous for 83, really, even if the voice shows signs of being, well, 83. I must admit, though, that on the screaming songs like “Jet,” I thought he might bust a clot.

KP: I agree! For being 83, he looks, sounds and acts a heck of a lot younger. Having experienced dementia in my family, I was pretty blown away by his cognitive with-it-ness. It was definitely intentional to have him sitting at the piano for a good portion of the show, but he was also up and moving around the stage more than I’d expect. Impressive. I also have to wonder if writing and performing music for as long as he has kept him young. Music is a powerful therapy.

JM: Last question: As he left the stage, he told the crowd: “See you next time!” Do you believe him?

KP: Absolutely not.

John Moore and Kyle Pearce took inspiration for this essay format from a no-longer-published column called the He Said/She Said Critiques developed by Kateri and David Kates.

SET LIST

1. Help!
2. Coming Up
3. Got to Get You Into My Life
4. Drive My Car
5. Letting Go
6. Come On to Me
7. Let Me Roll It (with “Foxy Lady” by The Jimi Hendrix Experience coda)
8. Getting Better
9. Let ‘Em In
10. My Valentine
11. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
12. Maybe I’m Amazed
13. I’ve Just Seen a Face
14. In Spite of All the Danger
15. Love Me Do
16. Dance Tonight
17. Blackbird
18. Here Today
19. Now and Then
20. Lady Madonna
21. Jet
22. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
23. Something (The Beatles song)
24. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
25. Band on the Run
26. Get Back
27. Let It Be
28. Live and Let Die
29. Hey Jude

ENCORE:

30. I’ve Got a Feeling
31. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise)
32.  Helter Skelter
33. Golden Slumbers
34. Carry That Weight
35. The End