Making Musical Memories

Recently my husband, David, me, our daughter, Alicia, 27, and son, Dante, 22, saw Sir Paul McCartney and his band at a concert in San Francisco. Talk about a night to remember! It was all that and more. For my husband and me to experience the former Beatle belting out hits from our youth with our beloved children by our side meant the world to us.

Paul told us stories about his famous songs. He said he wrote “Blackbird” during the civil rights movement to try and create positive change through peace and equality.

As he paid tribute to his slain former band member, John Lennon, he coaxed the crowd to chime in together with, “All we are saying — is give peace a chance.”

Everyone had chills. The message was so clear that even though my children are a generation apart from my husband and me — we all wish for a better world.

During the song “Live and Let Die” the energy of the 40,000 audience members reached momentous peaks as colorful, bursting fireworks exploded that enhanced the driving rhythm of the song.

Alicia and Dante, faces smiling and heads bopping, radiated joy as together we shared this historic rock and roll experience.

After all, The Beatles had so much to do with changing the way music delivered messages of optimism, and elevated the listeners’ palate to want music that reflected them emotionally and socially.

I truly believe that an artist’s pure power of music can allow us to delve deep inside our psyches and reveal something about ourselves.

A part of us yearns to be free to connect with the people in our lives on a higher level. Through this concert many of the feelings David and I experienced in our youth of wishing for a happier life were now shared with the loves of our life.

Paul and his band revved up the desires of Alicia and Dante to appreciate the Baby Boomers’ outlook of making their lives, environment, love, and communities cherished milestones along their paths.

Our children could imagine the innocence and thought behind songs like, “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” “Yesterday,” and “All the Lonely People.”

Thanks to our night to remember the common bond of music shared with our children will provide our family with melodic memories that will last a lifetime.