Wings Over America

Chicago Stadium - May 31, 1976

Imagine seeing a real live Beatle in concert for just $8.50!! Well, I didnít. I bought my ticket second hand, not from a scalper but from a friend of a friend who wasnít gonna part with it unless he picked up a few extra bucks in the deal. So I paid triple the face value, still a bargain compared to todayís ticket prices, and I was going to see Paul McCartney and his band.

Yes, the band. Wings. Just plain Wings, in fact. The "Paul McCartney and" prefix had been dropped in order to sell this tour as a real group effort. This current version of the group, considered to be the classic Wings lineup, consisted of Paul & Linda McCartney, Denny Laine, Jimmy McCulloch and Joe English, plus a horn section that accompanied them on several of the songs.

"Sitting in the stand of the sports arena, waiting for the show to begin." Just like the song says. Then the lights go down, causing the crowd to cheer, and the intro to "Venus & Mars" begins, causing the crowd to cheer some more. And then suddenly there he was! Standing right smack dab in the middle of a bright spotlight was James Paul McCartney, M.B.E. The ticket stub may have said Wings, well my didnít because the goof at the door handed me the wrong half, but everyone in attendance knew in their hearts they were looking at a Beatle.

Our seats werenít terrific, but they werenít awful. Chicago Stadium wasnít nearly as huge as some of the gigantic ass venues bands play today, where you really only "see" them on the Jumbotron if you happen to be in the cheap seats. ("Cheap" referring to the seat location and not the price.) We were in the first balcony, off to the side of the stage, but just a little to the back. Good enough for a nice profile of Paul without looking at the back of his head when he stood at the mike. Ah, but a nice front view when he sat down and tickled the ivories.

The concert itself is well documented on the "Wings Over America" album. Same songs, same order. Even many of the introductions and comments were the same, although John Denverís name wasnít inserted into the rendition of "Richard Cory" we heard. The highlight of the evening came at the end of the acoustic set when Paul sang "Yesterday." At that particular moment in time all was well with the world and any troubles anyone had when they entered the stadium that night had to wait outside in the car until the show was over.

One could nit-pick and say the song list contained too many lesser Wings songs and not enough Beatle tunes (only five) or bemoan the fact the final encore was an obscure unreleased song ("Soily"). Those who occupied Section G of the First Balcony didnít seem to mind any of this. We were all just very happy to have been there. In the same building with a real live Beatle. No matter how many silly love songs he sang.