I Got Covid-19 for a Beatle,
But it Was Worth it

Paul McCartney Got Back Tour
@ Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington, USA — May 2nd, 2022

In the spring of 2022, Covid-19 pandemic restrictions started to ease after over two years of various shutdowns ordered by governments and medical officials worldwide. Performers were understandably eager to return to the stage, and Paul McCartney is one of few big names to get back to touring as soon as possible—albeit somewhat cautiously, with a modest but respectable US-only tour of 16 dates across 13 cities over 7 weeks. This Got Back tour ended on June 16th, two days before McCartney's 80th birthday. I saw him on May 2nd, the tour's second date, and a few days later I was sicker than I've ever been. I caught Covid-19 at the McCartney show. This is not, however, an article about the pandemic, but rather a document of my experience emerging back into the world during a strange time.

I'd never seen a Beatle perform live before. John Lennon of course died tragically, when I was 3-years-old. George Harrison never toured near me in my lifetime, before his death in 2001. And Ringo is Ringo. Years ago, McCartney came to my city of Vancouver, Canada, but I missed the show. And so when I heard he was touring again, this time I had to go. He was playing Seattle, Washington, about a 3-hour drive from Vancouver. Close enough. So my girlfriend and I bought tickets, even though I was hesitant because of Covid. Infection rates were still high, and I wasn't keen to pack into a venue with thousands of people shouting and sweating around me. It would be the first large-crowd event in over two years that I would attend. But even before hearing about the concert, I'd already been engaged in a several-months-long preoccupation with the Beatles—or as my girlfriend called it, my "obsession".

While I've been a fan since childhood, my interest in the Beatles was reignited by two recent occurrences. The first of these was an exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery entitled Growing Freedom: The Instructions of Yoko Ono / The Art of John and Yoko. My mind was blown by her work, and theirs together, which included happenings, bed-ins, displayed objects, installations, performance, film, song, image, and viewer participation. The exhibit ran for 8 months starting in October 2021; I viewed it twice that fall, and once more in April 2022. The second occurrence which revived my Beatles fascination was the November 2021 release of the nearly 8-hour-long documentary film series The Beatles: Get Back, compiled from footage recorded in January 1969 during the making of the Beatles' album Let It Be, culminating with their legendary rooftop concert. I took it in slowly over several weeks, rewinding and rewatching segments throughout, and savoured every second. The instance of the art exhibit and the docuseries' release coinciding renewed an interest I've long had with the group that many say—to this day, even 50-plus years after their breakup—is the greatest, or at least the most influential, band of all time.

And so began my deep dive into all things Beatles. I read several books about them, watched over a dozen related movies, and revisited the Beatles' 13 official studio albums. I also sought out rare Beatles recordings and brushed up on the solo work of the four members, of which I'd only been largely familiar with Lennon's. So when I heard of McCartney's Seattle show, it seemed fortuitous, a perfect way to wrap up my Beatles' study, and very possibly my last chance to see a Beatle perform live in concert. Today, June 18th—on the day I'm publishing this article—Paul McCartney turns 80-years-old.

Before leaving to Seattle, my girlfriend and I looked up the official cross-border travel criteria and prepared accordingly. We'd both had our vaccine shots last year, but neither on the way there nor the way back did any border guard inquire about our vaccination status. There were no restrictions at the concert venue, nor anywhere we went in Seattle. At the arena, I estimated that about 10% of people in attendance were wearing face masks, and most of them looked to be over 60. I had my mask in my pocket, but didn't wear it.

I knew the risk, but concluded that I'd be all right since a few months earlier my girlfriend and I had been exposed in close quarters to two people who had gotten sick and tested positive for Covid the day after we were with them, and neither she nor I got sick in the least at that time. Nonetheless, two days after we got back from the Got Back concert, I got sick—really sick—and tested positive for Covid. My girlfriend didn’t. I was in relatively good health with no pre-existing medical conditions, but it took me a month to recover. I was unable to work, and lost momentum on two Beatles-related articles I was developing (this one, and another about John and Yoko which I'll soon be finishing, so stay tuned). But it was still worth it to see a Beatle.

Excitement buzzed in the air as we entered the sold-out 17,000-seat Climate Pledge Arena—which no doubt offered a better atmosphere than the 50,000-plus-capacity stadiums McCartney has booked in the past. In line to the merchandise table before the show, I observed the fans walking around, many in Beatles-themed apparel (I wore my Abbey Road T-shirt). Four guys strolled by in Sergeant Pepper regalia, sporting moustaches like the Fab Four in that phase. The boomer in front of me said this was his 23rd McCartney concert. The guy behind me boasted he'd seen him 35 times since the early '70s, and the young woman with him (his daughter) said this was her 11th time. I told her a friend's story of seeing McCartney in Seattle about ten years ago when Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, the two surviving members of Nirvana (who led Seattle's grunge rock scene), appeared and jammed with Paul. Beaming, she said she was at that show. Both parties looked slightly stunned when I said this was my first McCartney concert. My girlfriend—a big grunge fan—speculated, what if Pearl Jam made an appearance? That would be amazing, we agreed. I said that if somehow Ringo Starr showed up, I'd probably cry and faint like those 14-year-old girls during Beatlemania in the '60s. Alas, there were no guest appearances.

And no opening act, but none was needed. As the fans gathered in their seats, recorded music played; exclusively cover versions of Beatles tunes. I Shazammed a couple, especially happy to discover a brilliant rendition of my favourite Beatles song "Don't Let Me Down", by Ghanaian singer Charlotte Dada. And then the lights dimmed and there he was, Sir Paul McCartney, walking onto the stage. Beatles fan or not, it would've been hard to not feel a sense of wonder at being in the same space as someone of that magnitude, of the monumental level of fame and achievement of Paul McCartney. The crowd went nuts as he launched into "Can't Buy Me Love". After this opener, he thanked the audience for being there, saying, "By the looks of things, we're going to have a good time tonight." He carried on with a couple songs by his post-Beatles band Wings, and then back to the Beatles with an amped-up "Got to Get You into My Life".

McCartney fronted an 8-piece band consisting of a drummer, three horn players (trumpet, trombone, saxophone), two guitarists, and a keyboardist, who also occasionally played accordion. Paul himself played a variety of instruments; two different pianos, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin, ukulele, and of course his signature electric bass guitar. As far as I could tell, he didn't miss a lick, nor did his band.

Paul's voice, however, is not what it used to be, which is a bit of a shame considering how good of a singer he was in his younger days. John Lennon had one of the best voices in rock music history, his raw passion eliciting emotional resonance to send shivers down the spine. But Paul was more vocally chameleonlike, arguably edging Lennon out in terms of technical craftsmanship as a singer. His range was impeccable, as he could croon ballads just as well as he could inflect a screechy rock voice. But at this show his diminished vocal quality was noticeable. Artists like Bob Dylan, John Prine, and Leonard Cohen never had this problem, establishing themselves as songwriters whose unconventional voices complemented their poetic lyrics rather than as melodic, pitch-perfect singers, making their increasingly raspy, aging vocals more palatable. But on this night Paul's vocal shortcomings showed. It was less apparent on hard-rocking numbers, but on mellow ones his voice cracked as he sometimes struggled to hit the right notes. This is perhaps to be expected since he was for decades a heavy smoker of cannabis and tobacco, and given his age. Although when I saw Paul Simon—one year older than McCartney—in concert at 76-years-old in 2018, his voice sounded as good as ever.

But Paul McCartney is still the man. At 79, he came across as a good-humoured, charming, and classy aged music man, well-weathered but far from weary. Modestly dressed—in black pants, black vest, and white collared shirt—he frequently talked to the audience, introducing many of the songs with a little story about writing or recording them. He was the epitome of professionalism and showmanship, living up to the identity he established with the Beatles as the "good boy" of rock. Upholding this persona, Paul was a likeable and relaxed gent. Almost too much so, reminding me of the middle-of-the-road, overly nice, even "goody-goody" demeanor he's been criticized for. Nevertheless, he's an icon, a great musician, and a cool guy. To be still rocking at his age after the life he's lived, still writing and recording new material, and still touring, is admirable. The concert clocked in at about 2 hours and 40 minutes.

Of the 37-song setlist, 22 were Beatles tunes—the ones on which Paul had been the primary songwriter and lead vocalist, fittingly. The only Lennon-penned Beatles song he performed was "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite", a curious but great choice as a lesser famous Beatles track. A certain highlight was "I've Got a Feeling". Paul introduced it as something special that filmmaker Peter Jackson, the director of The Beatles: Get Back docuseries, "put together for us"; a kind of virtual duet featuring footage of Lennon from the rooftop concert singing onscreen behind Paul singing live, the two alternating back and forth. It was a touching moment, at the end of which Paul said, "Thank you, Peter. And thank you, John", to uproarious applause. McCartney also honoured his other deceased former bandmate George Harrison with "Something", starting out solo on ukulele (a favourite instrument of George's) before switching to acoustic guitar as the band kicked in to back him for the song's last half. It was the only Harrison Beatles song Paul played that night—and appropriately so, given that he has over a half-century of non-Beatles original material under his belt.

Another highlight was "Blackbird", which Paul performed solo on acoustic guitar as the center part of the stage he was standing on slowly elevated. The front of the column he stood on was a screen showing stunning visuals of a dark blue night sky with a full moon, and a blackbird flying in slow motion across it. Similar images were displayed on the large screen behind him, shifting to a starry night sky as he sang the line, "Blackbird fly, into the light of a dark black night".

The concert's special effects were outstanding—not so over-the-top as to overshadow the performance, but rather tastefully applied to complement and enhance the music. There were fireworks—loud explosions, flames, smoke—around the stage for the Wings classic "Live and Let Die". At the end Paul stood up from his piano, covered his ears with his hands, and half-jokingly said, "Too loud, that was too loud," as a self-mockingly humourous comment on his age and tempered manner. But it was a hell of an impressive pyrotechnic display. The use of multicoloured stage lighting was also a spectacular show in and of itself. Large screens framed each side of the stage, showing closeups of Paul and the band for those sitting far away. And one massive screen behind the stage displayed continuously shifting images, including surreal animation à la Yellow Submarine, old photos of the four Beatles, and other psychedelic imagery that usually corresponded to the music of the moment. It was an excellent aspect to the show that clearly had a lot of work put into it, as Paul commented on near the end of the night when he thanked a few technicians after introducing the band.

At one point McCartney had the camera turn on some hardcore fans in front of the stage, displaying them on the big screens for all to see. Many held signs. There was a Japanese guy in full traditional garb holding up Japan's flag, and Paul told us the Japanese word for "Beatles". He also spelled out the word "saiko", pronounced "psycho", which means "awesome"—something fans would chant at Beatles concerts in Japan, where they were hugely popular. Another sign read "125 times", and Paul commented, "That's very nice. A bit obsessive, but nice." And another read "400 days sober", to which Paul gave a thumbs up, and the crowd roared. All of this was a trip, showing the influence that McCartney and the Beatles had, and still have, and the level of fanaticism that they inspired. It all lent to the air of the evening being not just a concert, but an event that was as much about the music as it was a celebration of the man's enormous impact on so many lives.

McCartney played almost all of his best hits—whether from the Beatles, Wings, or his solo work. He left out early Beatles songs of the teeny bopper variety, such as "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You", but included the great "Love Me Do", and even surprisingly but delightfully played "In Spite of All The Danger", a song by the pre-Beatles incarnation The Quarrymen. And from his post-Beatles repertoire he played renowned hits like "Band on the Run" and "Maybe I'm Amazed". Between songs Paul told the story of attending a Jimi Hendrix concert with George Harrison in London, two days after The Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released, recalling Jimi opening with the title song, and how impressed he'd been that Jimi had learned it that quickly. But Paul didn't play it at this show. Instead he played his one cover song of the evening, an instrumental version of Hendrix's "Foxy Lady".

Other big songs he skipped were "Yesterday" and "Eleanor Rigby", which I didn't miss at the time but in retrospect would've preferred to hear over some of the lesser-known tracks from his solo discography. Paul commented on this at one point, saying, "I can tell when you really like a song because I can see an ocean of lights"—referring to people holding up their phones to take videos and photos—"And when we do one that you don't like as much, it goes completely dark out there. But we don't mind, we're going to play them anyway." The audience laughed and applauded. Of his newer songs he played "My Valentine" from 2012 album Kisses on the Bottom, which he introduced as having written for his wife Nancy Shevell (who he said was in the audience), "New" from the same-titled 2013 album, "Fuh You" and "Come on to Me" from 2018's Egypt Station, and the haunting, soulful piano ballad "Women and Wives" from his most recent album McCartney III (2020). While these songs may be unknown to some fans, they added some welcome variety and texture to the concert. And after all, he's Paul McCartney, he can do whatever he wants.

Paul ended the main set with "Hey Jude", and of course everyone sang along to the epic "Na-na-na" ending, complete with an audience acappella segment of Paul commanding "just the ladies", "just the fellas", "just you at the back", etc. The band returned for a 6-song encore, the last three of which were the last three of Abbey Road, each flowing seamlessly into the next, as on the album: "Golden Slumbers", "Carry That Weight", and "The End", concluding with the lyrics "And in the end, the love you make is equal to the love you take."

There was no political content to the show at all, save for one moment: at the start of the encore, Paul and band danced back onto the stage waving flags. He carried the Ukraine flag while his bandmates held a British, American, and Washington state flag. The crowd stood and cheered wildly for several minutes. This was interesting, illustrating key differences between McCartney and his old comrade John Lennon, who went on to have an intensely politically active career after the Beatles with his legendary antiwar protest antics—so intense, in fact, that the FBI followed him and tapped his phone while he lived in New York City in the '70s. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and President Richard Nixon considered Lennon an enemy of the state because he advocated for peace when they were invested in war, and they unsuccessfully tried to have him and Yoko deported.

McCartney also has a long history of activism and charity work, including contributions to antiwar and antipoverty campaigns, animal rights advocacy, environmental causes, and so on. But he's done it more quietly than Lennon, not wanting to rock the boat, and was said to be the Beatle most concerned with public image—whereas Lennon's innately rebellious spirit shone through in more extreme ways, as was also reflected in the music they made together and separately. Lennon was more controversial, while McCartney often took a lighter approach, lending to his longevity and persona as both an artist of integrity and an entertainer with mass appeal. John Lennon of course was also a man of great integrity, and at one time was arguably the only person in the world more famous than McCartney, but they used their fame in different ways. Considering that in the tumultuous political climate of the 1960s the Beatles were simultaneously pop culture and counterculture icons, I found the decisive lack of any sociopolitical commentary at McCartney's concert—except for the flag-waving—notable and worthy of contemplation.

If I have any substantial complaint about the concert, it's the ticket prices. Our seats were pretty good, directly center from the stage and a little way back from the large floor section. With taxes and service fees, they cost just over a thousand dollars for the pair, in Canadian dollars. It's the most I've ever paid for a concert, and I've seen a lot of big-name acts. Some tickets were selling for over three thousand US bucks apiece. While the show was virtually note-perfect and encapsulated all established elements of a large-scale rock concert—and it's a Beatle—it still seems overpriced for a guy who at one time lived in a housing project in his childhood, who started out as a "working-class bloke from Liverpool".

But it was a first-rate show that felt carefully rehearsed and orchestrated on all fronts, from Paul's audience correspondence, the song selection, and special effects, to the sound quality and the band's musical exactitude. Even the guitar solos of the famous Beatles songs were replicated note for note, with faithful reproductions of the classics almost to a tee. Not every song, but most of them. If anything, this concert was almost too polished. But that resulted in something more than just an entertaining showcase of a certified legend's top-notch talent, with the music registering as some kind of untouchable spirit energy channeled from a timeless realm. It continued to resonate for days after, swirling throughout my fevered consciousness as I lay sick. It was an unforgettable experience, made all the more memorable by the aftermath of my subsequent Covid illness. After the concert, I joked to my girlfriend, "Well, I've finally seen a Beatle. Checked that off the bucket list. Now I can die." But thankfully not of Covid-19.

* * *

The songs Paul played, in order:

1. Can't Buy Me Love (Beatles)
2. Junior's Farm (Wings)
3. Letting Go (Wings)
4. Got to Get You Into My Life (Beatles)
5. Come On To Me (McCartney)
6. Let Me Roll It (Wings)
7. Foxy Lady (Instrumental Jam) (Jimi Hendrix)
8. Getting Better (Beatles)
9. Women and Wives (McCartney)
10. My Valentine (dedicated to his wife Nancy Shevell) (McCartney)
11. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five (Wings)
12. Maybe I'm Amazed (McCartney)
13. I've Just Seen A Face (Beatles)
14. In Spite of All The Danger (The Quarrymen)
15. Love Me Do (Beatles)
16. Dance Tonight (McCartney)
17. Blackbird (Beatles)
18. Here Today (tribute to John Lennon) (McCartney)
19. New (McCartney)
20. Lady Madonna (Beatles)
21. Fuh You (McCartney)
22. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! (Beatles)
23. Something (tribute to George Harrison) (Beatles)
24. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (Beatles)
25. You Never Give Me Your Money (Beatles)
26. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window (Beatles)
27. Get Back (Beatles)
28. Band on the Run (Wings)
29. Let It Be (Beatles)
30. Live and Let Die (Wings)
31. Hey Jude (Beatles)
Encore:
32. I've Got A Feeling ("virtual duet" w/ video of John Lennon from The Beatles 1969 rooftop concert)
33. Birthday (Beatles)
34. Helter Skelter (Beatles)
35. Golden Slumbers (Beatles)
36. Carry That Weight (Beatles)
37. The End (Beatles)

 • Nik Dobrinsky / Boy Drinks Ink
June 18th, 2022