Attending Paul McCartney concert lifts pall over Beatle-fan-mom's death

Jimmy Drummond doesn't care for Paul McCartney. Country tunes about cold beer, southern girls, and pickup trucks, not silly love songs, are more to his liking. He neither dislikes McCartney nor condemns his legions of fans who swear he’s still fab at 80. The former Beatle simply isn’t his cup of tea.

Yet there the Burlington resident was, perched in the upper deck at Camden Yards in Baltimore recently. At the second-last show on McCartney’s “Got Back” tour. An out-of-place snowman in the Sahara. Sitting and melting in the early-summer heat through almost three hours of McCartney-penned Beatles songs, McCartney and Wings songs, and McCartney solo songs, and even a McCartney cover of the George Harrison-authored Beatles classic, “Something.” Drummond was surrounded by McCartney tee shirts and caps, McCartney banners and signs. Surrounded by fans singing along to his solo and Beatles hits blaring from speakers the size of an apartment high rise. As Drummond watched many of the graying Beatles fans leaning out and down from their seats, he wasn’t certain whether they were reaching for a cold drink or preparing to genuflect.

Drummond stayed for all 37 songs sung by McCartney, one for each year of his life. There not for McCartney, but for his own mom, who, as Drummond noted smiling toward the heavens, was watching from the best seat in the house.

“My mom always wanted to see him in person,” Drummond said. “But because she either didn’t have the money to spend on a ticket — they’re kind of expensive — or something else going on in her life, she couldn’t make it to a concert.

“Then she saw a couple months ago he was going on tour this year. She swore she’d see him this time because she wasn’t sure he’d ever tour again after this time because he’s 80 years old. Seeing this guy play live was her lifelong dream. So, she bought two tickets — one for her and one for me to take her.”

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Drummond’s mom Dolly’s dream went with her to that best seat in the house in April. She died from a heart attack in Rhode Island at age 76. After initial shock and grief passed, the country-loving son knew what he had to do. He took his favorite photo of his mom, slid it into his wallet, and told his girlfriend not to make plans for June 12.

“I knew I had to be here for her,” Drummond said. “Like I said, he’s not a favorite of mine. But as I listen to these songs, it’s making me happy that mom’s listening and enjoying them too, up there, somewhere. I know she is.”

Go ahead, dispute that.

Drummond sat listening to music he’d rather not hear, and sat in a place he’d rather not be. Strapped into his seat as securely as if buckled in. While he adores his lady friend, someone else should have been seated beside him, wearing a three-hour, 37-song smile. Singing her heart out. Living her dream.

“She should be here, right here with me, seeing her guy,” Drummond said, wistfully. “She would have been so happy.”

As I chatted with Drummond, I noticed him occasionally lip-syncing to McCartney’s songs. The country kid sipping his mom’s cup of tea, slipping out of his country shoes and slipping on his Beatle soul. What gives?

“I said he wasn’t a favorite of mine,” he explained. “I didn’t say I didn’t know the songs; mom played them all in the house since I was a kid. Her favorite was "Let It Be."

"You know, I thought tonight would be sad. But I don’t know, tonight just feels different. It’s kind of fun. I didn't expect this.”

Mothers possess that blessed gift, of soothing their child's aching soul.

From down here.

And up there. Somewhere.

Phil Gianficaro, a columnist for the USA TODAY Network, can be reached at 215-345-3078, pgianficaro@theintell.com, and @philgianficaro1 on Twitter. 

This article originally appeared on Burlington County Times: For son, McCartney concert lifts pall over Beatle fan mom's death