My general disdain for anything related to the Beatles continued through my high school years and even after I graduated. By this point, more of their tunes had made their way into my general knowledge: Songs like ‘Blackbird,’ ‘Come Together,’ ‘Let it Be,’ ‘Help!’ ‘In My Life’ and many other well-known hits. Right before I left home for my first year at college, a close friend of mine, Ricky, became a massive fan of the group. In the summer leading up to my departure, he would take any and every opportunity to remind me that they were the ‘greatest band of all time.’ It became an indisputable certainty and it started to wear on my nerves. I understood I was in the minority and that the general consensus was the Beatles were the best, but why did everyone just accept it matter-of-factly? Wasn’t it possible that everyone else was wrong and I was the only sane person left in the universe? I became even more firm in my resolve that the Beatles were overrated. It became less about the quality of the band itself and more about proving I was ‘different’ by not being totally enamored with them.
“Give me Talking Heads over the Beatles any day of the week!” I’d declare. “Their songs are waaaaay more unique and interesting!! They’re just one of so many other bands out there that are way better than the Beatles.”
Ricky would counter this feeble argument with: “Well, you haven’t really listened to the Beatles, so how would you know?”
As much as I hated to admit it, I knew he was right. I hadn’t really given them the time of day. But, I didn’t need to, did I? I’d heard all their greatest hits and nothing had really impressed me. What else could there possibly be?
The opportunity to delve a bit more into their music came around the time Julie Taymor’s film Across the Universe came out in fall 2007. There was a resurgence of Beatles love amongst my friends, which only served to irritate me further. They would use the days leading up to the release of the film as an excuse to remind me that I was silly for not liking the band and I would cross my arms and pout that the Beatles didn’t understand me nearly as well as Coldplay did. I felt a little twinge of satisfaction when the film ended up being a critical and financial failure.
“Ha-ha!” I thought to myself. “That’ll show ‘em!!"
But even I had to admit that the visuals in the trailers for the movie were intriguing enough to pique my interest, so I took the girl I was dating at the time to see it. The movie was a colossal bore, chock full of overindulgent, mind numbing imagery, but I heard many, many Beatles songs for the very first time. Songs like ‘Strawberry Fields Forever,’ ‘Dear Prudence,’ ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun’ and even ‘I Am the Walrus’ had escaped my listening grasp prior to this (Crazy, right?) and they impressed me enough that I decided I’d give the Beatles another chance.
So, I downloaded some of the songs I'd heard in the film and a few of their more popular singles and gave it another shot. And this time I really, really tried to get into them. I listened to those 9-10 songs ad nauseum and tried ever so hard to enjoy what I was hearing.
But, it still just wasn’t working for me. The music just didn’t speak to me in any way. I sighed in defeat; at least no one could say I hadn’t tried to embrace the Beatles now. I suppose I’d just have to live the rest of my life never understanding their overwhelming appeal.
Flash forward a few months. It was Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, 2008. I had a three-day weekend and decided to come home to Sterling, Virginia. After being home for a grand total of maybe five hours, my best friend Dewey and I got the grand idea to visit a girl I had an enormous crush on who was currently going to school at Penn State. We would stay with the girl Dewey was dating at the time, who also happened to be taking classes there. We drove through the night up the long and winding roads that spiraled around the mountains leading up to the campus. We arrived at three in the morning and parked in a concrete garage, met up with Dewey’s girlfriend and crashed in her dorm room for a grand total of two or three hours, all piled in the same bed with barely any room to think, let alone sleep.
The majority of our time at Penn State involved me desperately attempting to track down the girl I fancied and failing miserably due to her elusive nature. The plus side was that we got to wander all around the beautiful mountain-top campus while a light snow fell from the perpetually grey sky. Late in the afternoon, the girl I desperately wanted to see finally got in contact with me and invited us to a party at her friend’s place later that night.
Long story short, I got to see her and made a bunch of new friends along the way. When Dewey and I departed after the festivities, I was elated. I’d gotten to see the girl I was hopelessly in love with and I’d gotten another great road trip with my friend! Spirits were high in the car on the drive back home and Dewey, in control of the music as he was the driver, played an album on his iPod that would forever change my life. That album was Rubber Soul and it was the album that would transform me from being totally indifferent to the Beatles to being a wildly obsessive fan, not unlike the millions of screaming teenage girls who showed up to every one of their live performances.
The opening guitar of the song ‘Drive My Car’ blared from the speakers and I was immediately enamored with what I was hearing. About halfway through the song, I asked Dewey, “Who is this band?? They’re great!”
Dewey looked at me, his eyebrow raised to the heavens, and said, “This? This is the Beatles…”
I was flabbergasted. I thought I’d heard everything there was to hear by them! But, boy oh boy, was I wrong.
Song after song played and each one was even better than the last. With the exception of ‘Girl’ and ‘In My Life’ I’d never heard any of the songs and I was totally taken aback by the sheer magnitude of the album’s greatness. I couldn’t believe that even after I’d listened to dozens and dozens of their tunes, there was a whole album full of stuff I’d missed. How many more albums full of songs I’d never heard before had the Beatles made?? (SPOILER ALERT: A lot.)
Dewey turned up the radio and said, “This one’s my favorite.” The song that followed was ‘Nowhere Man’ and that was when I knew: My time had finally come.
I was a Beatles convert.
What followed over the course of the next few months was what I can only describe as my own personal version of Beatlemania. A friend of mine gave me all their music to listen to and I removed all the songs on my dinky 4 GB iPod to make room for every last track of their extensive discography. I listened to nothing but the Beatles for literally two to three months straight; I found the 1964 Richard Lester classic A Hard Day’s Night on YouTube and watched it from beginning to end and then convinced my dad to buy me the movie Help! as a present not too long after. Then, even better than both of these, I found a YouTube channel that had every single episode of the spectacular Beatles Anthology documentary and watched that in the span of a week. Everything in my life was devoted to absorbing their history and their brilliant, brilliant music.
As I studied the Beatles and began to comprehend the enormous effect and influence they had on the music industry – Not only the way it was made, but the way it was packaged and sold – my feeble brain experienced a massive revolution. Suddenly, I began to respect the album as a single artistic statement in a way I never had before. It no longer sufficed to listen to a single song or just a greatest hits album from a classic band. I needed the ENTIRE discography in order to paint a sufficient picture of their talents and understand what they were trying to convey with their music.
I scoured every single ‘Greatest Albums of All Time’ list to discover what other bands and albums I’d been missing out on. This lead me to discovering the brilliance of Bob Dylan, who was a major influence on Beatles and is perhaps the greatest singer/songwriter of all time. From there, I went on to discover the genius of other musicians and bands whose music I’d either ignored in the past or never had the pleasure of really delving into and exploring, bands such as Radiohead, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Joy Division, New Order, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, The Flaming Lips, Television, Marvin Gaye, the Rolling Stones, The Velvet Underground, David Bowie, Tom Petty, Pink Floyd, The Pixies, Simon & Garfunkel, R.E.M., Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young, The Band, and literally hundreds and hundreds of others. In the same way the Beatles had revolutionized what popular music could be, they’d totally revolutionized the way I listened to music and allowed me to appreciate the art form in a whole new way. Listening to music and discovering new bands/musicians whether from the past or present became a massive obsession and I have the Beatles to thank for that.
Everything came full circle one day when I was driving to my friend Ricky’s house. (Ricky being the friend I mentioned early who was totally obsessed with the Beatles) At this point, my Beatles obsession had only just begun, but was already in full swing. I decided to give their seventh album Revolver a spin and was totally blown away by it. I walked into Ricky’s house and told him that I’d just been listening to Revolver in the car.
“And I want you to know were right. The Beatles really are the greatest band of all time."
His brother Adam just looked at me blankly and said, “What took you so long?”
All I could think to say was, "All my life, I was only waiting for this moment to arrive."
So here we are now coming up on the 50th anniversary of the Fab Four's first visit to America (February 7th) and their legendary first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. (February 9th) This also happens to be the 6th anniversary of the year I first fell in love with them. To celebrate, I’ve decided to compile a list ranking their albums from best to worst, though really there isn’t a 'worst' Beatles album. Maybe a better way to describe it would be from ‘best’ to ‘least best.’ Since these ramblings went on far longer than I originally thought they would, I’ll be posting my list as a separate entry on my blog. Keep your eyes peeled!!! It should be up soon.
Until then, sleep, pretty darling, do not cry. And I will sing a lullaby.
Love this! Glad you've realized their greatness!
ReplyDeleteAhh, thank you!!! You and me both :)
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