"The Beatles and Me"
Once upon a time: one sweltering summer evening in 1993, before my tastes in music became QUITE
so refined, a man named Paul McCartney decided to broadcast his concert
live on TV, and my parents, being members of his same generation, decided to tape it, and I decided,
for lack of anything better to do, to sit in front of the tube with the remote and pre-zap the
commercials for them.
Little did I know that my life was about to change, irrevokably, forever.
PAUL McCARTNEY. He was so utterly charming. The music was terrific, the guy
could sing and play piano at the same time (which never fails to impress me),
and he had THE most beautiful British voice. Then I went and dug up my parents' Beatles
albums, and found pictures of Paul when he was young...
*sigh* Well anyway!
Seriously, Paul McCartney pre-Fab ("The Hamburg Years")-- this is the Ideal Male, looks-wise.
SIGH! My husband pretends he isn't, but, you know, jealousy and all. If you're wondering, I SUPPOSE this
means that Paul is my favorite, by virtue of crush-dom, but I don't know.... I'm also
inclined to refer to Ringo as the coolest person on the face of the planet. And John was the
funniest, which unfortunately most people tend to forget about when they think of John Lennon, and an awesome word-writer
(as opposed to just a music-writer).
And George, well, there are a lot of things I could say about George. One of which is "Apart from the bit about the monkey..."
which makes absolutely no sense out of context but which I assure you is the funniest thing anyone in the world has
ever said; and another of which is He's Billy 'Arrison's uncle, which is completely fictional but means a lot to me
anyway; but George also wrote my favorite song of all time, which I suppose is the BEST reason why he's in contention
to be my favorite....
Actually, the point is that the Beatles, as a whole, were and are the greatest rock band in
the history of the universe, as I was soon to discover after having fallen for Paul. And that is NOT a matter of opinion.
WHY? Because they revolutionized
(say-you-want-a-revolutionized) rock music! They took some simple dance music,
rock and roll, which according to some people was on the way out, and turned it into
.
They took chances and tried new things in music and recording, and all their songs were unique.
And rock, pop, any kind of music, felt the influence of the
Beatles forever after.
But probably the best thing about the Beatles is that, through it all, they were just four
ordinary guys (albeit incredibly musically gifted).
Four Regular and Funny Guys Trapped in an Insane Fame!
They dealt with the craziness awfully well, you must say. They stayed pretty ordinary after all that, too.
(Except for being Beatles). They could be your friends!
Anyway, that is how I got so into the Classic Rock genre-- from listening to the Beatles
all the time. That's why, also, my favorite classic rock is from the sixties. Because "All You
Need is Love," and all that stuff that most people consider cheesy
(I DON'T).
Here are some more places to learn about the Beatles:
- The Beatles 1
- The only OFFICIAL Beatles site, as run by Apple Records, it's a whole collection of
cool trivia, clips, pictures, etc, organized around the songs of The Beatles' ONE
collection. I recommend, if you're wired for it, the "high tech" version, so you can get the full
effect of all the things there are to do. (I also highly recommend "site help"!)
- The Beatles
Ultimate Experience
- This site is cool because it has a huge database of Beatle interview
transcripts, and the story of the Beatles is told through interview clips--
reading their own words is a blast, because they're funny guys...
- Beatlemania Forum
- This is a forum you ought to join because currently there are only three people registered on it,
and we need more people to blabber about the Beatles with!
- BeatleLink
- If that's not enough, here's a whole annotated list of Beatles sites!
Or you could just ask me, because I am the self-appointed Goddess of Beatles Expertise.
But not really.
to the perfect radio station
go home!
go to the music page home!
created 2001-2004 by Amy, librarian of your dreams