"Beatles Week" Unfinished Business

Since I was born in ‘68, I was too young to be a part of Beatlemania. I was never consciously a Beatles fan while I was growing up, even though they were played on the radio or in the car all the time. When I first began recognizing artists as I was getting into music, I’d actually thought of The Beatles as a more serious version of The Monkees, since I’d watched the latters’ tv show religiously, and my mom had several Monkees records sitting in her album stack to mess around with. And the only song of the Fab Four I really knew and liked was "The Beatles Movie Medley” that came out around ‘82. It had a lot going on in it, with many catchy parts. And as bizarre as 'Monkees over Beatles' might sound, as an added bit of irony, my friend Steve L. and I used to buy every John Lennon’s 45 ("[Just Like] Starting Over", "Beautiful Boy [Darling Boy]", "Watching the Wheels", and "Woman") we could get our hands on at the local downtown record store when we had a spare dollar or two. So: The Beatles were ‘too serious’, yet the most serious Beatle of them all had a big place in our record collections! Oh well, what the heck did I know? I wasn’t even a teenager yet… ☺

Once I reached college, my friend Keith B. was a humongous Beatles fan, so I heard a lot of their stuff in his dorm room. However, I was all caught up in the 4AD and Sub Pop record labels, R.E.M., and ‘alternative’ bands with female lead singers, so again, they didn‘t make a very big overt impression on my musical taste or preferences.

Fast-forward to 2009: I spent the last few days listening to the remasters of "Rubber Soul", "Revolver" and "Abbey Road", as well as "Let It Be...Naked" (and the last 3 Wednesday nights watching the "Beatles: Anthology" documentary). Since I'd never really been into The Beatles growing up (as I said above, they were all over the radio, and I enjoyed their songs, but never felt like I needed to own the albums), it was very cool to immerse myself fully into this greatest of rock bands.

I could listen to "Rubber Soul" every day for a long time and not get bored or annoyed. The first three songs are amazing - 8 minutes of nostalgia. However, after several days of repeat listenings, I have had quite enough of "The Word", "Michelle", and "Girl". Perhaps that will change in time, but they are just a little too 'ditty-ish' for me. The rest of the album rocks. I won't bore you with run-downs of the other three discs ("Abbey Road" is my favorite), but to sum up: there are so many great songs scattered throughout that were never released as singles, that I feel like I've discovered an amazing new band, because so much of the music is new to me (over 40 years after they were released!), yet they don't sound dated. Not to mention the fantastic remastering making them fill my home office with a clear and deep sound unmatched by the original cd offerings back in the late 80's. It's been a pleasure spending so much time with The Fab Four this past week or so. I am glad I took the trip. A few of my favorite songs from the four albums I listed above:

• Rubber Soul: "Norwegian Wood" & "Drive My Car"
  
• Revolver: "Tomorrow Never Knows" & "She Said She Said"
  
• Abbey Road: "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" & "Sun King"
• Let It Be...Naked: "Get Back" & "Dig A Pony"
  

Here are some reminisces of other folks my age, children of the Beatlemania generation:

Heather B says: "The Beatles' music is some of the most prominent music I remember from when I was a kid. My parents turned me on to it, and it was music the family could all agree on to listen to in the car. I remember being so excited to get my very own Beatles albums on cassette! I listened to them all the time when I was in grade school. Then I stopped. Of course, I still heard them because they get played all the time. Somehow, whenever I hear a Beatles song, I seem to know all the words - which is saying something because I rarely remember the words to sing along with a song. The Beatles reappeared in my life 3 years ago when my housemate Nan moved in. She had The Beatles on her ipod! We played them really loud when we had chores. Most recently, I listened to their "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album on repeat for the days & days it took my to redo my front hall walls. I would have to say that over time, my favorite Beatles song is "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". "Dear Prudence" would have to be second."

Katie A says: "The best part of this Beatles revival is that my 15 year old is finally listening to some great music. His favorite is "Strawberry Fields". I have to go with "All My Loving", because when my son was little we use to sing it together before he went to sleep. "Revolution" is a close second."

Thanks for the words! The results of the poll (favorite album, song and band member) is coming soon...