Around the time I was in junior high I fell in love with the Beatles. I had never really been into music and was uncomfortable with the way other adolescents gave it so much importance and evaluated your level of coolness by what bands you listened to. Additionally, because music has so much emotion in it, and I was such a private person, I felt embarassed about enthusing about it whenever it was played or talked about. But--- I stumbled onto the fab four when furtively listening to some oldies stations, and I was really stirred.

I knew that my mom had loved the Beatles when she was a teenager, but I doubt that that was much of an incentive for me to like them. They were the greatest fad in history, but I can honestly say that my delight in them was completely uncoerced. I didn’t know anyone my age who liked the Beatles. In 1991 there was nothing cool about liking them.

I kept it all a secret. I had finally been cast under the spell of music, but could not admit it. I used to flip the radio dial from station to station (the volume turned low) until I was able to find a Beatles song. "She Loves You", "Yesterday", "Here Comes the Sun", "Hey Jude"; when I happened upon one of these tunes-- such joy!

At my Grandma’s house I took my Mom’s old albums out of the closet, poring over them, wondering what the songs were like which I had never heard, wishing that I had a record player to play them. One day I secretly walked several miles to the nearest mall and bought my first Beatles tape; it was of their greatest hits. I quietly listened to it every night. No one knew. I guess you could say I was a pretty weird kid, but I look back on those days with affection.

Eventually I made a friend who liked the Beatles. I slowly came out of the closet. Later in High School the Beatles were being re-marketed to my generation in a big way. There was the whole Beatles Anthology thing, etc, etc. I had a circle of friends who liked the fab four and I began to play their music loudly, with pride and not shame (and that's the conclusion of the musical/emotional saga).

What attracted me to the Beatles in the first place? I don't know, it was magic, I was ripe for them. For some reason my nephew loved elephants when he was two. Why? "The heart has reasons which reason does not know". As a cooly analytical 23 year old I can say this: a Beatles song is a basic song, but a basic good song. They have harmony and melody; they are great to listen to. They had a sort of formula, I guess, but no two of their songs "sound the same". The Beatles were always creative and experimental, but their quality never seemed to flag. The rapid evolution of their style, beginning with its energetic simplicity in the early sixties to its vibrant sophistication later in the decade, is historically remarkable. It would take ten thousand more paragraphs to exhaust the topic of the fab four, and I'll opt not to attempt the task. I think I'll just leave you with perhaps the two most precious gems of Beatle wisdom, one from John, and the other from Paul. "All you need is love", says John. But remember, says Paul, "the love you take is equal to the love you make."

THE BEATLES WEBSITE

BAGISM