The Beatles

What's there to say about the greatest band ever? Probably more than I can begin to fathom.

I can't remember if The Beatles were my first love or if it was The Monkees. Either way, the two bands were like one for me for the longest time. When everyone was listening to Michael Jackson's Thriller, I was listening to Beatles 65, the album I stole from my brother. (It still plays, even though my 5 year old grubby paws played it on the crappiest kids turntable ever made)

In 1987 when I bought my first CD player with the quarter rolls I saved for months and months and months. (with help of my father the quarter fairy) My first albums were The Monkees Then And Now and 2 Beatles CDs that were just being remastered for the wonderful new music format.

It seems so odd that a band that was gone 4 years before I was born should shape my life so much. All my life I've had a fascination with the 1960's, not just the music but the fashion and the culture of the time. I attribute that to the Beatles.

I've devoured so many books about the band and about John Lennon, that sometimes it feels like I lived through it too. I think that it was because of this, that when a little video for a song that showed a bunch of people dancing around in the gorgeous mod fashions, that I had to fall in love with that song too. I'm sure you know what song that was; Your Wildest Dreams by the Moody Blues.

It had nothing to do with the handsomeness of Justin Hayward...or even the song itself, which I do love more than I can express, it has to do with the Beatles.

At every point on my musical journey, to borrow words used much to often, by John Lodge, the Beatles have been there. Even now, as I'm trying to make a mix CD, I find myself going through my Beatles songs, and each of them hold a special meaning to me.

Yet so many people say they are the most overrated band ever. HA! Sure the time was ripe in the early 60's for a band from Britain to make it big, but only one could break through in a huge way and that was the Beatles. Maybe it could have been another one, maybe not.

I'd hate to think of what music would be like if they hadn't crossed the Atlantic. They made some of the best pure pop songs ever, songs that every age can enjoy. There's not much of that around now and I think that's a shame. There's no innocence to music. The Beatles had that and even now years later the music they created still has it.

In the late 80's Paul McCartney started to write with someone new. I remember hearing about it on Mtv then, and wondering who the f*ck this Elvis Costello was, that Paul was will to write songs with him. Thanks to Paul and the album Flowers In The Dirt, I bought the album Spike.

But back to Flowers In The Dirt. The first time I heard the song You Want Her Too. I envisioned Elvis and Paul vying for Linda's hand. Don't ask. It was my visual. A few of that albums songs, that were collaborations with EC disturbed me, simply because when I think of Paul singing a love song...I think of Linda. Weird. I know.

But do you see now, how this band has touched my life in so many ways. I can't call them insignificant or overrated, because if it weren't for their special mystique, I wouldn't have discovered other things. The Beatles, to me, were the cornerstone that music was built on.

And it all started with I'll Follow The Sun.

Thanks for the music guys...



Mere words can't describe how much the songs have meant to me.