The Beatles Forever

It happened over forty years ago, in the early sixties. It was a scene, a revival in the spirit of youth. The phrase Beatlemania was coined. Many people remember it. But what if you don't? Are the Beatles too outdated to enjoy? The most celebrated band in rock and roll history continues to touch each new generation differently than the last. We're drawing farther away from the days of Sgt. Pepper. Fans who weren't around to experience the sixties are far removed from everything that made Beatlemania the obsession of that time. As a current fan, who grew up in the eighties, I embody this group.

I want to know, what made The Beatles so great?

They were young, witty, and foreign. Teenage girls flocked to them like they were the last men on earth. Perhaps it's not difficult to understand why the female half of the population enjoyed these English Sensations. What isn't often focused on was the strong male following the group had. Why were so many young boys interested in "Day Tripper" and mop tops when their girlfriends were all swooning over Paul McCartney? Why does this rock band have so many more male fans today.

Could it be that The Beatles were actually as good as the youth in the sixties believed them to be?

In the nineties the remaining Beatles released their Anthology. It was a ten-hour documentary, a look at the world in the sixties as the four mop tops saw it. The Beatles Anthology is available on DVD today. Their music enjoys strong circulation in CD format. Why does "A Hard Day's Night" still sell? What fan hasn't bought every Beatles album by now?

Well I can only answer these questions for myself. Before I was a year old, John Lennon was shot and killed. December 08, 1980 would not become a significant date for me until almost twenty years later. By the time I was born, the second child of four, my father had long since left behind live performances and crowds of thousands. We didn't quite live in a ghetto, but we weren't so far away from it as we were from high-class society. The names John, Paul, George, and Ringo were shadows that I didn't relate to in the least.

To me, the Beatles were old, black and white TV personalities that could sing "Twist and Shout". I wasn't into it. They were funny looking, and surprisingly - I wasn't interested in music. In the early nineties, after our full family of six had finally gotten a piece of the pie, my siblings became interested in rap and hip-hop. I couldn't sing or dance, and most of all, I couldn't remember the words to a single song.

In short, I think someone stole my soul, and I wasn't the least bit happy about it.

By this time "The Beatles Anthology" was just a TV commercial that I saw way too often. Eventually I graduated high school, and went to work for my father. My father was a vendor, and had been since I could remember. He drove a truck all day, delivering products to stores. Usually he was away from home eleven hours a day. By this time I was stuck sitting next to him for eleven hours a day.

However, he did enjoy his old classic rock. Being that I was a rather silent person, and he was a former professional musician, the radio was always on. I didn't care. Most of the time I ignored it. I didn't hate music, but there wasn't anything out there I enjoyed enough to buy. I knew my father thought highly of The Beatles, and Hendrix, but I didn't see the appeal. That's why at some point I absolutely found myself shocked.

There is one song that I will never forget if I never remember another thing. I didn't know the title until I bought the CD. It started off quite soft, but nothing like I was used to hearing. Suddenly the soft shell dropped away. A rumbling orchestra took over for a good half a minute. I calmly set my pen down, and looked at the radio as though I could watch it all happen right before me.

I think my dad noticed the look on my face. I couldn't believe it, and was completely caught off guard. This couldn't be the Beatles. My dad went on to explain a whole decade of history to me. I suddenly liked music. I wanted to sing. I liked The Beatles. It took one song to completely turn me around.

Sometime that month I went to my local K Mart and found "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" on CD. Now, I wasn't positive, but I had a hunch that "A Day In The Life" was the song I was looking for. I was eighteen years old. For the first time I found something that interested me the way novels did when I discovered them four years earlier.

Now my voice wasn't anything to brag over, but I learned every song on that album. I played it continually in the privacy of my little room. In the years to come I collected, and learned every Beatle song I could get my hands on. It drove my family crazy.

At twenty, a few years after I quit working for my father, I found the courage to pick up his bass for the first time. I wanted to learn every Lennon/McCartney song right away. though I was learning bass, it was John Lennon's voice that really had me hanging on his every word. After about five years, I could actually carry a tune. I was able to write and record my own music. Though my father was a professional musician, the Beatles were my true inspiration.

Regarding the break up of the band, and the passing of John Lennon, and George Harrison, I am saddened right down to this day. When I listen to Strawberry Fields Forever, I feel like I'm being transported to different times and places. The Beatles inspired people in the sixties to carry their art in all new directions.

That was their greatest strength.

Even after almost a decade in the limelight, the release of "Abbey Road" was something new and different. The Beatles were always new and different. They didn't put out the same album three times with similar sounds. The Beatles weren't trying to speak to a generation of people, but to all who were willing to give them a chance.

Over forty-five years later, are The Beatles still the greatest rock band of all time? I don't know. I don't think that matters anymore. They did what they did as good as anyone ever has. Their music survives. I think John, Paul, George, and Ringo are names that will survive for a hundred years. I think they will be spoken of with the same esteem as Mozart.

Four decades of fans may get older in time, but they will always be fans, and I will always remember the Beatles.