One of the Beatles tunes Charles Rosenay selected to get us in the mood for his "lecture" at the Derby Public Library last week (Nov. 10) was "When I'm 64."
This prompted me to reflect that we Beatlemaniacs are getting closer and closer to that figure. And so I asked Rosenay, "How old are you, Charles?"
He wouldn't tell me. He said he never answers that question.
But beyond that gap, Rosenay was very candid and confessional in his talk, which he entitled "In My Life: A Beatles Fan's Odyssey." (I wrote a column about this for the NH Register, which appeared Nov. 15; this blog contains some nuggets I didn't have room for in the column).
Among the 40 or so middle-aged Beatles fans in the audience was Joseph Zgola of Ansonia, who had come to the library clutching a photo he had asked Paul McCartney to autograph for him. Unlike Rosenay, Zgola had never before met a Beatle.
Zgola had waited patiently outside Yale's Sterling Library before the ceremony began for commencement day in that wondrous spring day of 2008. McCartney was being given an honorary degree by Yale and was standing in the line of dignataries, preparing to march in with them.
"I got sunburned standing outside that library," Zgola told me. "I didn't care."
He reported McCartney was very polite and gracious as he signed the photo.
Of course Rosenay, now living in Orange with a wife and three kids, had many stories to tell us about meeting the Beatles during the decades he has organized Beatles conventions, published a fan magazine and coordinated tours of Liverpool (home of the fab four).
Those of you who have missed Rosenay's hiatus from these events are undoubtedly pleased by the news that he is reviving the tradition Nov. 28-29 at the Downtown Stamford Holiday Inn. (See https://beatexpo.ticketleap.com/BEATexpo).
Perhaps Rosenay's biggest coup was luring the band's original drummer, Pete Best, to one or more of his conventions during the 1980s. Still, Rosenay stunned us with the revelation that Best is his favorite Beatle. He explained he got to be good friends with the guy during their convention experiences.
"Of the fab four, it's Paul," Rosenay told me later. "That's who I wanted to be. That's why I grew my hair like him."
The Beatle Rosenay never met was John Lennon. You have to believe that if Lennon hadn't been shot to death in 1980, Rosenay eventually would have found a way to meet him; he is that persistent.
Talking about Lennon's death still gets Rosenay choked up. He recalled hearing "Starting Over" come over his car radio shortly after the assassination. "I had to pull over; I couldn't see."
When he met McCartney, Rosenay recalled, it was backstage at a show in Birmingham, England in 1989.
"My mouth is doing crazy things and my fingers are numb," he told us, recalling that magic moment when McCartney walked into the room. "My heart is palpitating."
When promoter Sam Leach introduced Rosenay to McCartney, Rosenay told him, "You have no idea what you've meant to me and how you've affected my life."
That night, Rosenay said, marked "the second time I cried for a Beatle; it was when Paul sang 'Yesterday.'"
Eventually Rosenay got to meet Ringo Starr too; he was at a press conference and called out the first question. "I asked him how his grandchildren were."
Meeting George Harrison was tougher. Rosenay organized a tour of Japan to coincide with Harrison's Japanese tour. This was Harrison's final tour before his death.
Through serendipity, Rosenay and his tour group were at the airport in Japan when guess-who came strolling past them. "I saw this long-haired guy with his guitar and I shouted, 'People! There's George!' Everyone was freaking out."
Rosenay called out, "George! Can we take your picture?"
Harrison replied, "Yes, but I'm not going to stop." Yet Harrison started walking in place so they had plenty of time to take their pictures.
Harrison asked, "Will that do?" and Rosenay replied, breathlessly, "Yes! Thank you!"
Yes, you Beatles. Thank you, boys.