"Golden Slumbers" indeed, Sir Paul

McCartney's Beatles' finale was the perfect finish in many ways.

The first few notes tickled. The 82-year-old gray-haired guy on the other side of the keyboard on center stage at Studio 8H at 30 Rockefeller Center closing Sunday night’s Saturday Night Live 50th Celebration first started to lay down this track across the pond at 3 Abbey Road Studio on July 2, 1969, some 20,320 days ago.

If you grew up with The Beatles, it was instantly recognizable, surprising and, well, thrilling, a throwback to a moment all those days ago when we knew — and they knew — this was it, they were saying goodbye.

Sir Paul McCartney and the "Golden Slumbers" medley rocked out SNL's 50th

Through the hot angry summer of 1969, they worked on the album they’d call “Abbey Road” when it came out at the end of September. Long fed up with touring, with trying to meet their nearly impossible standard of excellence, with each other, they wound down the record with three separate segments — sort of where they were then — that were expertly woven together in the “Golden Slumbers” medley, a roughly six-and-a-half minutes that brought their recordings to a grandly dramatic conclusion, first, with the lovely melody of “Golden Slumbers” sung sweetly by Paul, then the sing-a-long chorus they always seemed to find, “Carry That Weight” “Boy, you’re going to carry that weight…carry that weight a long time.” (As if they were projecting their own legacy) before wham, Ringo gets a brief, snappy drum solo — last chance to sneak one in — and the garage-band licks, the kind of full-chord, light-up-the-amps kind of thing they hadn’t done in years, SLAM-SLAM, SLAM-SLAM, “Hold you, Love you” the three guitarist taking their turn with mini-solos, again, something they never did.

Then, the benediction: “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” And a soaring, heart-in-your-throat finish, the kind of finale that makes you say, maybe in your own mind, “Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that WAS The Beatles.”

It was a helluva way to wind up a recording career. (“Let It Be” came out a year later but we knew “Abbey Road” was the real finish. And they did, too.

So for Sir Paul McCartney to go all the way back to that to wind it all up Sunday night, that took some brass, a little strain on the ol’ pipes (he’s 82, after all) but man, did it tear the house down, especially when McCartney strapped on a guitar and traded riffs with Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray, like he was Eric Clapton or something, loud, raw, rock and roll the way you do it without autotune or studio trickery or samples from previous greatness.

You turn up your amps, like John Lennon and George Harrison must have done 20,000 days ago inside Abbey Road Studios, the volume ringing in their ears from the wonderful magical noise the Fab Four made together, hearing it now for the last time. You wonder if Paul flashed back to that day so long ago, seeing the entire Studio H audience on their feet, singing along with, you have to say it, almost a holy look on their faces.

John Lennon, of course, got in a lot of trouble with that topic back then and maybe it’s wrong to even suggest such a thing. But geez, wouldn’t it be nice if, amidst all the chaos and tragedies and displaced, disgusted, disillusioned citizens we seem to see and hear from every night on the news, if all those from one coast to the other could find a way to grab a six-and-a-half minute moment of joy and remembrance for themselves. You know, to celebrate — and maybe be grateful — that they lived to hear this, see this, live this.

Maybe there was something special, blessed, if holy is stretching it, well…

Writer Kurt Vonnegut wasn’t known for being much of a rock critic but even he noted “The Beatles made people appreciate being alive.”

Maybe they still do. Their records are still on the charts, they just got a Grammy somehow. If you can spend a week going through a store or having your radio on and not hear a Beatles’ song, it’d be surprising. Experts have been trying to measure their impact with documentaries and specials and books and stories. They were that important.

So, yeah, man, we got to see Beatlemania take over our world for a couple years, to hear the airwaves were filled with songs that, like Ringo would always say — and still does — seemed to be about “peace and love.”

We could think about all that Sunday night, watching Sir Paul rock the joint with that carefully chosen Beatles’ grand finale, which they pulled off brilliantly then and, if you ask me, now, too.

If you didn’t feel a bit of emotion in your throat, hearing those oh-so-familiar melodies and guitar riffs from so long ago, maybe you missed Beatlemania. If so, I’m sorry. You really did miss something. Sunday night just gave you a hint.

HERE IS IS - SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY on SNL