REFLECTIONS - The Cultute of Pop, DVD, Movie, TV, Pop Culture Review

REFLECTIONS

Posted: Mon, 7 Feb 2011 17:00:49 PST

Why The Beatles Still Matter..

If I cast my mind back, I can almost see the scenario so clearly...

Within the confines of my big brother Kenny's room at my grandmother's house, he was listening to music on his medium sized, box shaped record player. You baby boomer readers of mine remember the kind; One sole monophonic speaker up front and center, the companion lid with the buckle on it where you could close it back up to keep the dust away, which you never did anyway due to almost non-stop use between homework and household chores.

Anyway, just like a typically curious 2 to 3 year old child fascinated by moving objects, I suddenly found myself in front of the burst of sound emerging from this magical electronic box by the side of my brother's bed. Drawing in closer, I'm fascinated by the spinning black circle. Not only that, but at the center, there was a black label surrounded by multicolored dots spinning round and round, like an unusual Fischer Price toy.

Okay, my eyes were satisfied, but oh, that didn't compare to what was coming out of that speaker I referred to earlier: A bopping tune featuring what sounded like two guys singing the same melody completely in sync at full lung power supported by a rock solid beat, and a wonderfully sloppy sequence of musicality midway thru making me go, what is that...and this that I'm experiencing, here?

A short time later after gaining the abilities to read, remember and so on, I heard this piece of music yet again...and it was then that I realized that it was during that previous point and time in my young life, that I fell under the spell of The Beatles, courtesy of Can't Buy Me Love from the United Artists soundtrack album for A Hard Day's Night.

This week marks the 47^th anniversary of the legendary band's first visit to America, an event that means more to me than my own birthday, for the music they gave to me and millions of other kindred spirits around the world were like presents minus wrapper and companion boxes to tear off. It was hard enough getting the shrink wrap off, taking the vinyl out of the paper, putting it on a record player, and either manually or electronically putting the needle on...and before you knew it, you were entranced by the likes of Roll Over Beethoven, Kansas City, Help, Magical Mystery Tour, Back In The USSR, Taxman, and all those other out of the gate masterpieces that opened up many a Beatles album.

Even singles/45's were a treat, particularly for overseas fans who had to wait for months or sometimes years, for non-album tracks to appear on vinyl and/or CD's.

But beyond the bang for your buck entertainment these four Liverpool boys provided, they also exuded personality, charm, sincerity, humor, bemusement and regular guys next door appeal. Yet, they seemed unattainable, unreachable amidst the mass chaos that greeted their every move. But I don't think the phenomenon would have occurred the way it did without the quality of their music, through which we've all had an intimate relationship with. John, Paul, George and Ringo aren't just talented singer/songwriters and musicians, they're like family members from distant shores whom we've never had quality time with in the flesh..but they're always just a record, CD (and now, MP3 download away).

Such is the reason they still matter to me nearly 5 decades on.

Back to the family aspect of all this....due to the fact that I was a sheltered child by an overprotective but dearly sweet, loving Mother, I couldn't bond with my big brother through sports or running around in my early years..but boy, did we mesh over those Capitol Records and 45's during not frequent enough visits to my grandmother's house. So cemented was our relationship that one time during my pre Beatle-ology days I asked him, “Are John and Paul brothers like you and me?"

“Oh, no”, came the quick reply. But after a brief reflectional moment, he said, “But in a way, they could be”

My brother and his eventual wife loved The Beatles so much, they (like a lot of people of their generation) named their children after the names of characters or song titles, including my nieces Michelle and Anna...Unfortunately, my nephew Kenny wasn't as lucky as they...for you have to have brave parents to name your kid Mustard or Bungalow (Bill). Now, I don't wanna come down as mean to recent groups and artists, but when was the last time you heard your friends go, we named him after so and so in New Kids On The Block or my daughter's name is Gerri, Mel or Sporty,

Another reason why the legacy of the Beatles has continued making new converts from generation to generation? Timelessness is certainly a factor, but as Paul McCartney explained in The Beatles Anthology, they didn't sing songs about killing your parents and such, but they sang songs about love, peace, understanding, romance, having fun and life's joys....universal themes that will continue to outlast every fad until the earth stops spinning.

Although my musical pallet has expanded since the days of Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road taking me from country to jazz to dance pop to musical theater, I always come back home to the 200 plus selections comprising the Beatles canon. At times, they evoke happy memories of days gone by, heartbreak of love gone wrong or irreplaceable figures in my life departing far too soon at others. But mostly I go, man, that still sounds good as it did yesterday.

For like the last word of the previous paragraph that served at the title to one of the band's most beloved songs, every time I put on a Beatles record, “All my troubles (are) so far away.”

-J.R.

Jeffrey Rosado is a writer, pop culture historian, performer, and all around nice guy..unless you get fingerprints on any of his Beatles-related items upon which Maxwell's Silver Hammer will come down upon your head.

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