Meet the Beatles

One of the first record albums I bought was Meet The Beatles. I went to the local record store and plopped down $2.99 of my allowance. It was one of the best investments I made in my young life. I played the record over and over. Every song spoke to my youthful ears.

When I listened to the record, I never imagined that one day I would "Meet the Beatle" and get to sit down and spend twenty minutes in conversation.

It happened on November 4, 2005. Paul McCartney and his band were in Portland at the Rose Garden Arena on their American tour. My radio station KINK was selected to be the official radio station of the concert, and we would get to have an exclusive interview with Paul.

The Rose Garden Arena has all sorts of tunnels and private areas underneath the seats. Paul's crew was assigned the Trailblazers locker room as their headquarters. Pipe-and-drape covered the lockers. A line of tables on both sides of the room held computers where Paul's staff took care of all of the financial business of the tour. At the end of this room was a living room setup. A huge vegetarian kitchen was set up in a big open space, where Paul's personal chef was preparing a vegan feast for the crew.

KINK's morning man Les Sarnoff and I were the two people invited to be part of this special moment. We were asked to wait in the living room area.

I had prearranged an ISDN connection between the Rose Garden and KINK. ISDN allows for a studio quality connection from a remote location. The link was up and KINK was playing Beatles songs anticipating the live on-air interview with Paul.

There was lots of activity all through the evening, and things really started to get busy on the walkie-talkies as Paul's limo approached the Rose Garden. Then suddenly, as if on cue, the entire staff of a dozen or so workers all got up and filed out of the room, leaving only me and Les. Moments later, Sir Paul McCartney walked in by himself.

He came and sat between us. We exchanged pleasantries and we told him we'd be going live in just a few moments. He put on a pair of headphones to hear the station, and what was playing was the Beatles "The End" from Abbey Road. He started singing along with his own vocals from over 35 years earlier - "And in the end... the love you take... is equal to the love... you make." The song ended and the interview began.

Paul was a gracious interview. Les was prepared and had no problem with taking up twenty minutes of air time talking to Paul. I mean, he's a freaking Beatle. How much bigger can you get than that? Paul told some amazing stories on the air. He also was very much up-to-speed on new technology. He explained how EMI Parlophone was so meticulous about getting a high quality recording. The tapes have been kept in great shape over the years.

The process of transferring all of the Beatles recordings to digital was underway under the direction of George Martin and his son Giles. Paul explained that most of the original Beatles songs were recorded onto 4 tracks. To allow for all of the effects, the individual instruments were combined. For example, the drums and bass were mixed down to one track.

In the digital world, the engineers at Abbey Road studios are using notch filters and pulling out the cymbals, the kick drum, the snare, the bass and making individual tracks for each of those for remixing. Some of these remixes have been released on various compilations (most notably LOVE), but ultimately, the entire Beatles collection will be reissued with a more balanced mix and higher fidelity. Paul said that with today's digital technology, you can actually improve the quality of recordings, instead of letting them degrade as they did when tape transfers were done.

It was a wonderful time spent with Paul. There were no distractions in the room and his focus and complete attention was on us and the interview. When it was done, he recorded some personal station IDs and then it was off to the show. First song of the set: "Magical Mystery Tour!"

Yes, it was a magical mystery moment, to be sure!