Remembering the Beatles

Photo by Carlos Jaimes.

As a younger Boomer, I have always been a little bit late to the party.  I was only two years old when the Beatles made their first trip to the US on February 7, 1964--fifty years ago this week.

So it was about a dozen years after their British invasion that I started buying their albums and spending hours learning the lyrics to all of their songs.

This post is part of a Midlife Boulevard blog hop, kicked off with a lyrics quiz by Roz aka @WriterRozWarren.  

Since the thumbnails below will disappear, here are a couple posts I'm saving along with Roz's. Check out @over50feeling40 aka Pam's post on being a screamer. And read what @Claudoo aka Claudia shares about the Ed Sullivan show and about John's death. 

I was lucky to have another Beatle fan as a friend. Kim was a year older than I and attended my same high school and was a member of my same congregation.

Kim & Karen at the Seal Beach pier 1980. 

She favored John, and I favored Paul.  Yes, John wrote great lyrics, but Paul's work had a great dance beat. And he had dreamy eyes.

Kim and I would dance to their songs from the Beatles' early albums and puzzle over lyrics from their late albums.  "Who IS the walrus?"

At one point, we were doing research at our local library on the Beatles so that we could write a book about them. I remember hoarding dimes so that I could copy pages from the Cypress City Library's magazine collection.

L to R: Joey, Rick, Jerry and Pat 1980

I also discovered that a kid in my neighborhood was a member of a Beatles look-alike garage band called The Snowmen.

Rick and his band mates were two years behind me in school, but that didn't stop me from playing the role of adoring fan.

I would walk around the corner and listen to them play songs like "8 Days a Week" and "I Wanna Hold Your Hand."

I remember that Rick was the level-headed one, Joey was the dreamer, Pat was the shy one, and Jerry was the tortured soul like John, but Jerry played left-handed bass guitar like Paul. I remember that they did a credible version of "If I Fell."

Jerry, Pat and Joey of the Snowmen 1980

My more salient memories are about listening to Beatles songs with Kim at her house or singing into a hairbrush in my own room.

My favorites from my teen years include the following:

• Back in the USSR
• Birthday
• Can't Buy Me Love
• Day Tripper
• Eleanor Rigby
• Here, There and Everywhere
• One after 909
• Paperback Writer
• She's Leaving Home
• Two of Us

But if I forced to identify my all-time favorite Beatle song, it's actually one written by George Harrison. The desire conveyed in this quiet little ballad still makes me feel dizzy when I listen to it.  George didn't write many songs for the group, but when he did, they were really "Something." 

While I don't crush as hard on the Beatles (or look-alike bands) as I did as a teen, I still have a soft spot in my heart for the Fab Four. In fact, my cell phone is set to play a specific ring tone depending on the caller. My husband's tone is "Paperback Writer" given that he's an author, calls from elder care services ring "When I'm Sixty Four,"  and calls from my daughter ring "I've Just Seen a Face."

So whatever your level of affection for the Beatles and wherever you live across the universe, here's wishing you a good day sunshine! 

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