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  • Ladies and Gentlemen, Alec Baldwin.

  • ("Live and Let Die" playing)

  • You know, when you think about it, it's kind of a miracle that Paul McCartney has made it this far.

  • (laughter) A big-time solo career wasn't just

  • handed to him like some lucky America's Got Talent contestant.

  • He had to earn it.

  • All those early years slogging through groups

  • like the Quarrymen, Johnny and the Moondogs, the Silver Beatles, and finally

  • the plain old Beatles.

  • (laughter) I can't begin to tell you how awful those early years were.

  • (laughter) With the Beatles, Paul was forced

  • out of the friendly intimacy of clubs and made to perform in ever larger spaces.

  • No, no, wait, you have to see this to believe it.

  • (laughter) Places normally reserved for baseball games, bullfights, papal masses.

  • And then things turned really, really bad.

  • The Beatles were assaulted by throngs of hostile

  • young female gang members.

  • (laughter) The police had to be called in to protect them.

  • (laughter) The National Institutes of Health

  • called the epidemic "Beatlemania." There was no cure.

  • Finally, The Beatles were reduced to performing

  • on The Ed Sullivan Show, sharing the stage with a mouse named Topo Gigio.

  • But let's move on.

  • Paul McCartney is a genius.

  • (applause) Yeah.

  • Paul married rock and roll to beauty and forever

  • raised the bar for composers, musicians, and fans.

  • Paul, we honor you tonight for your career

  • as a Beatle, the leader of Wings, an incredible solo performer, the creator of our favorite songs

  • and, yes, as a Moondog, too.

  • (applause) (piano playing early jazz) PAUL McCARTNEY: My dad used to play piano, and

  • he would play Paul Whiteman-- "Stairway to Paradise," "Chicago," and stuff-- so through

  • him I've always loved that kind of music.

  • For my birthday he once bought me a trumpet, and I went back to the shopand traded it in

  • for a guitar.

  • BALDWIN: Rock and roll was on the radio, and Paul knew every song.

  • A boy named Lennon was playing at a church fair.

  • Paul sang his way right into his band.

  • Paul: John and I used what was the dining

  • room to rehearse and to write songs.

  • We finished off "She Loves You" there and played it to my dad.

  • When he heard "She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah,"

  • yeah," he said to us, "Son," he said, "there's enough of these Americanisms around.

  • Couldn't you just say, 'Yes, yes, yes'?"

  • BALDWIN: They wrote all day and played all

  • night, working the sound, finding the look, becoming The Beatles.

  • ("I Want to Hold Your Hand" playing) They

  • rocked their way from underground clubs to Buckingham Palace.

  • Then, America.

  • ED SULLIVAN: Ladies and Gentlemen, The Beatles!

  • ("I Saw Her Standing There" playing)

  • BALDWIN: The magic was in the melodies.

  • ("Yesterday" playing) Musical alchemy.

  • Songs the entire world was singing

  • at the same time.

  • Every album was richer than the one before.

  • It was the great musical adventure of the 20th century.

  • As they were growing, they were growing apart.

  • They had been his mates, his best friends.

  • They had made history together.

  • Who would he be without them?

  • The man who helped creat a revolution had to reinvent himself.

  • Music was his connection to the world.

  • He missed it, and so did we.

  • 50 years on, and his concerts still send

  • a current through the crowd.

  • Paul was born with the gift of song.

  • He gave the songs to us to keep forever.

  • The Kennedy Center Honors will return with Steven Tyler, James Taylor and Dave Grohl.

  • Ladies and Gentlemen, No Doubt

  • Ladies and Gentlemen, Dave Grohl and Norah Jones.

  • ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen,

  • Ladies and Gentlemen, Steven Tyler.

  • I've never been prouder than I am standing right here

  • at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Abbey Road.

  • DO-IT!

  • Ladies and Gentlemen, James Taylor.

  • Ladies and Gentlemen, Mavis Staples.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Alec Baldwin.

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