Long live Sir James Paul McCartney!

Paul McCartney holds a Korean national flag during his performance at Jamsil Sports Complex, Saturday night. / Taken from Paul McCartney’s twitter account

By Oh Young-jin

“Let me have what he had.”

I was thinking that to myself as I watched Paul McCartney perform at the Jamsil Sports Complex in southern Seoul, Saturday night.

For more than two hours, he sang 40 songs from his days with The Beatles, Wings and his solo career.

It was like listening to nonstop music playing on the best jukebox around, but only better.

McCartney is supposed to be ancient at age 72.

After all, he was born in 1942, when Winston Churchill was Britain’s Prime Minister, hobnobbing with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt over what should be the new world order after World War II.

Hours before, tens of thousands of spectators made their way into the stadium that dates back to the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

It was jam-packed well before the 8 p.m. starting time.

As expected, the living legend let the people wait awhile, and he only appeared just when they started to get tired of a pre-show video.

He immediately started in on his repertoire, interruptions being made only when he changed guitars and or struck his trademark pose at his piano.

Shortly after the show began, it stated to drizzle. Soon, the stadium looked like a field of white mushrooms as spectators donned plastic raincoats that had been provided just in case.

I saw a middle-aged couple, who held their hands together and bobbed their heads to the rhythms of the songs. Maybe, they were recalling their tender days of first love.

Sitting next to me was a young man who was too transfixed to feel the raindrops making their way into the collar of his T-shirt.

He might, like me, wonder how the old man on stage was energetic or, more philosophically, he might appreciate the beauty of McCartney’s songs many of which he was probably hearing for the first time.

A teenage girl twirled a fluorescent wand, and flashed a card with a love sign on it.

I was jolted out of my reverie when McCartney tried a couple of Korean phrases, when he introduced a song in memory of his late Beatles mate, John Lennon.

Midway through the gig, I left the stadium, yielding to the worry about my return trip home.

On my way out, I heard two young men on their way out as well. “Now I can tell my future kids that I saw Paul McCartney,” one said. The other suggested, “Let’s stay then. You will never see him again, live.”

I felt tempted to go back for fear that it would be my first and last time to see McCartney.

However, hearing the strong riffs of his guitar, I came to disagree with the young man _ I was assured that McCartney will be with us for some time. Long live the Beatles! Long live Sir James Paul McCartney MBE!