Oh, darling...
The Beatles | source
I’m asked all the time by friends, family, and strangers on the internet how I, an 18-year-old girl, fell so in love with music that’s half a century old. I wish I had a simple answer, like that I was indoctrinated by my parents’ car radio while buckled into my car seat. That I grew up dancing to Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd rather than Baby Beethoven and Little Einsteins. The music of my childhood, however, was likely no different from that of most 2000s kids - music by The Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, or Leona Lewis. So how does a teenager in the 2010s jump from P!nk to Bob Dylan? It began with The Beatles.
It’s practically impossible to go through life without knowing of The Beatles. Their impact is so intertwined into the fabric of our society that to remove it would cause the whole thing to unravel. As dramatic as that may sound, it’s true - especially in music. The Beatles were musical pioneer who stretched the boundaries beyond their limits and shaped the musical world we know today. Every department store has some shirt with ‘The Beatles’ plastered across the front, every young musician begins with covers of Beatles hits, and everybody knows “Here Comes the Sun” or “Let It Be.”
The first time I met The Beatles, I was 13 years old and in the middle of New York City. It was a friend’s birthday, and we celebrated by spending the day in the city, browsing through stores, strolling through Central Park, and grabbing lunch at The Hard Rock Cafe. The sun beat down on us as we trekked into the Hard Rock, exhausted from the intense summer heat. I remember waiting for our table right in front of a glass wall that separated me and four gray suits with little red backpacks by their feet. On the backpacks were four names, printed in big, bold letters: Paul, Ringo, John, and George.
This display of four otherwise mundane gray suits captivated me. I was awestruck, curiously attached to these four guys that I had no knowledge of. I studied their picture on the wall, attempting to figure out who was who and wondering how anyone could tell them apart. Before long, we were led away from the dazzling display and to our table, where we inhaled burgers and fries while the memory of the gray suits quickly faded away - but, unbeknownst to me, The Beatles had left their mark.
I wouldn’t run into The Beatles again for years.
The suits in question | source
The next time I met The Beatles was around the time I realized how much I truly cherished music. I had discovered the magic of oldies, hits that were hits long before I was born, and I was ravenous for more. I wanted to devour music. I didn’t want to stick my toe in - I wanted to plunge into the deep end, immersing myself in a world saturated with music. I craved a vast, encyclopedic knowledge of music. In what might only be called a stroke of cosmic interference, I suddenly stumbled across the magic of All Things Must Pass, George Harrison’s epochal debut solo album.
The name George Harrison had no significance to me then. All I knew was that this guy knew how to make a good song and, according to my father, was in a religious cult (he was not). It didn’t take long to put together the pieces and recognize that this George was the George, the one whose name had been printed on that little red backpack. George Harrison was a Beatle, and according to my logic, before I could even touch his solo music, I had to get to know the music of The Beatles. So, I dove in.
I sat down and listened to every single Beatles album, front to back, absorbing everything from Please Please Me to Let It Be. I was amazed at how drastically their sound transformed within a few years, at how they would quickly go from teenybopper love songs to explosive masterpieces oozing with color and life. I loved how you could hear a Beatles song and pinpoint precisely when in their career it was released just by the sound.
Every time the needle drops on a Beatles record, it feels like a part of me clicks into place.
Around the time I took The Beatles plunge, I happened to be working in a restaurant that had live entertainment every weekend in the summer. Once a month, a man who went by Beatle Bob would perform, doing Beatles covers while wearing a shirt patterned with The Beatles’ faces. He brought packs of Beatles trading cards to hand out and always slipped me a couple. My boss would roll his eyes and laugh, but I’d bring my cards home and rip into their metallic purple wrapping, pulling out pictures of Paul guzzling milk or the band in the snow on the set of “Help!”
Discovering The Beatles felt like fate - as if they’d been waiting patiently for me to open my eyes and see that they’d been standing right in front of me this whole time. The Beatles opened the door to a world of incredible music that I’d been missing out on. They introduced me to The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane, Bob Dylan, Aerosmith, Jimi Hendrix, CSNY, Bowie, The Runaways, Donovan, Fleetwood Mac, The Who, the list is infinite. The Beatles have allowed me to fall deeply and madly in love with music, to be wrapped up in the glittering world of musicians, and to feel at home.
I proudly inform anyone who will listen that The Beatles are my favorite band of all time. No matter how often I listen to their entire discography on end, I never grow tired of it. Every time a Beatles song comes on the radio in the car or a convenience store, I feel like a kid in a candy store, giddy with excitement. It is almost entirely because of them that I’ve become the person I am today. Their impact on me and my life has been profound, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
So, if you, too, are curious how a teenage girl in the 21st century has become so immersed in the music of the past, the answer begins with The Beatles.
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