A Day in the Life

So here I sit in my studio. 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Totally exhausted. My little black Brussels Griffon puppy in my lap. Home again from another one of my wonderful journeys. This one is particularly surreal. Twenty-four hours ago, I was sitting on a plane bound for La Guardia, anxiously staring at my watch. My flight was delayed. I was an hour and a half behind schedule. I was supposed to have started sound check at Shea Stadium at 3 o'clock. This, obviously, was not going to happen on time.



Shea stadium. Boy, my parents would be proud. My father, proud because I was doing what he wanted for me to do with my life. It's hard for me to measure success but through his eyes, this is success. My mother would be proud, particularly because when I go to work I wear a suit and tie. When I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, I wanted to grown my hair long. And my mom said, "When you turn 18, you can grown it as long as you want." Who would've thought that motherly line would have stuck with me for 42 years? She said, "You'll look like a girl." I said, "No, I'll look like a Beatle." What if I would have said, "I wanna bond ions?"



Yesterday is a day that I will never forget. How many musicians dream of performing in front of 50,000 people? And yesterday, there were four. The group that I feel so fortunate to be back performing with, 1964 the Tribute, performed at Shea Stadium on the 40th Anniversary of the Beatles' performance at Shea. We played 30 minutes before the Mets/Cardinals game and played a song between the innings. Naturally, we did "Twist and Shout" for the seventh inning stretch.

I thought that I would be nervous but I was unusually calm, almost detached. Yes, literally, I was beside myself. Caught up in the moment and the scope and magnitude of where I was and what I was doing. Surreal is an understatement. I was surrounded by people that spanned nearly my entire professional career. A roommate from the 70s when I first moved to Cleveland. Photographers that I met in the 80s. There are no words to describe this. Moments after we started our first song, I looked straight ahead in front of me at the scoreboard and saw the advertisement "1964 the Tribute: Live at Carnegie Hall January 27th. Tickets on sale now." Am I rambling? That was yesterday. As I said, today, I'm back at home in the Blue Ridge Mountains, surrounded by my gaggle of dogs wondering if yesterday was just a dream or if it really happened?



The weeks not over. Saturday I perform at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Denver, Colorado. By the end of January, I will have performed at three of the five venues where the Beatles performed that are still in existence. Not bad for a Beatles' tribute.

There were several amusing elements about my day and evening at Shea Stadium. I was very excited about performing and so nonchalant about it at the same time. For instance, my brother knows that I'm playing Carnegie Hall January 27th but I didn't tell him I was playing Shea Stadium. He didn't know until yesterday morning.

I looked up at the Jumbo-Tron (imagine a TV 80 feet wide)projecting our images and it was 15 seconds behind what we were doing. I only did that once. "Don't do that again," I thought to myself. "Nothing good can come of this."

One of the network correspondents covering the game approached us and asked if he could stand onstage in the background holding a guitar while we played a song. Apparently, in New York City, he is famous for this kind of stunt. We thought it would be funny. So as we were playing "Paperback Writer" I glanced over at stage left to see a reporter holding an electric guitar doing a really good Keith Richards impersonation. After he finished the song and the network cut back to the game, we waited for a break so he could interview us. Towards the end of the interview (I've been waiting six months to do this) he asked us to introduce ourselves and the characters we portray. He put the microphone in front of Mark: "I'm Mark Benson and I play John Lennon" then to Tom: "I'm Tom Work, I play George Harrison" then to Gary: "I'm Gary Grimes and I play Paul" then to me: "I'm Terry Manfredi and I play Paul. I do play Paul, don't I?" I asked Paul. Gary replied, "Not today Rings." "I'm Terry Manfredi and I play Ringo." It's funny how you can imagine yourself in a situation and then have it come to pass months later. I was more amused by it than anyone else on the planet. I guess you become attuned to Beatle-ish humor.

At the end of our last song, we called the hotel shuttle to come and pick us up. We left through the press gate but the driver had a difficult time finding us. As the game ended, 50,000 baseball fans streamed from the stadium and there we stood, the four of us in costume with a few photographers and a few friends. People wanted to talk to us, shake our hands, have their pictures made and spread a million kinds of bacteria onto our collective person. Several people wanted to tell me what a great job I did and how much I look like John Lennon. I play Ringo. I politely said, "Thank you" and smiled for the camera.



Well, I'm tired. I'm gonna take a nap with my little black Brussels Griffon puppy.

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