The Beatles provide me with many blog titles. I don't know that I really have anything to write that relates to the title of this blog, but that line from "Helter Skelter" came to mind after I watched the video about the Beatles' Apple Corps and their recently-settled lawsuit with Apple, Inc. According to what I heard, everybody wins, including Michael Jackson, who owns an interest in Sony, which owns the rights to a chunk of the Beatles' catalogue. According to the news story, this will make much of the Beatles' catalogue available on iTunes, and, thus, the consumer (that's me, obviously) will have greater access to it.
Well, that might be good news to others, but I already, pretty much, own a huge chunk of the Beatles' catalog. I started collecting the Beatles' albums when they first came out on vinyl, though my copies aren't worth much, since I played the hell out of them. But I did manage to replace my albums with cds, as soon as those were available, and I have a few of them loaded on my iPod. If I could point to the band that pretty much defines my life, I'd have to point to the Beatles.
When the Beatles first appeared on Ed Sullivan back in the day, I remember making everyone in my family be quiet so I could hear them. Of course, I couldn't hear the band because the young women in the audience were screaming too loudly. Sullivan had to shush them several times. It didn't help. The only thing I wanted for Christmas that year was their latest album and that's all that I received (big family, not much money). I didn't complain. My sisters did, though, because I played that album incessantly. They couldn't wait for me to get another Beatles' album so they could hear something different.
My feelings for the Beatles run deep; when my husband and I divorced, the only thing he did that angered me was to sell my copy of the White Album in a garage sale. I can forgive my ex everything but that! I managed to replace it (on cd), but that particular album is probably worth more now than he got for it. I might have been able to retire on it.
The Beatles and their music span nearly every decade of my life (except for the '5os--that decade belonged to Elvis). They didn't last as long as The Rolling Stones, but they sure did age better!
John Lennon died soon after my son was born in 1980. When I heard the news, I sat in a rocking chair, holding my son while I cried. George Harrison's death saddened me, too. His contribution to music, while not as familiar to most people as John and Paul's, is profound; he should be remembered for all of his work, but people who don't agree that "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something" are two of the most beautiful songs ever written are not my friends. The tribute concert, performed exactly one year to the day of his death, is one of the most moving concerts I've ever experienced. And his son, Dhani, could be Harrison's clone.
I'm hard pressed to think of one important point in my life where the Beatles don't figure in. I feel as though their music is part of my DNA. I don't care who owns what--legally. As far as I'm concerned, their music belongs to anyone who grew up with it.
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