Fifty Years Ago-The Beatles Enter My Life
by Band on the Run 37 Replies latest jw friends
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Bruja-del-Sol
When I was about six I discovered the Beatles... must have been somewhere in 1974/1975. My dad had the 'Beatles for sale' and the red and blue double albums and I just loved them! I wanted to understand what they were singing, so my dad translated a lot of songs for me (that's actually when and why I started learning English! I've learned it initially from the Beatles lyrics). I can remember very well when my dad told me what 'Norwegian wood' was about, and I thought it was the funniest song I had ever heard
Later when I was thirteen my parents went to London for a weekend and when they returned they brought me the Complete Beatles-book with all their (over 212 official) songs for piano/guitar. After that I've been playing so many Beatles' songs... for hours on end I would be playing my guitar and singing their songs. I still do every now and then, those are my 'Beatles days' (when hubby knows I'm not available for anything... just playing til my fingers bleed, so to speak, haha).
I only learned who the individual Beatles were when I was nine, in 1978, when Wings had a huge hit with 'Mull of Kintyre'. I recorded it and played it over and over again and one time the videoclip was on Toppop (a famous Top40 show in Holland, long gone but everybody watched it back in those days, even my JW parents, although my dad used to complain about hair and the way the artists dressed. By the time KISS had a hit with 'I was made for loving you' it was a forbidding program for us kids), and my dad said it was such a pity the Beatles had split up... and I didn't understand why he said that. So I asked him and he told me: "don't you know? That man on the screen is Paul McCartney, he was one of the Beatles"... I didn't now up until then, but from that moment I was a huge Paul McCartney fan hahaha. My dad also told me the names of the other Beatles, but they weren't half as interesting to me as Paul McCartney.
In 2003 I've finally had the chance to see Sir Paul live in Arnhem, Holland, and in 2009 when he came back to Arnhem I was there too. When the cd-boxes with all the cd's of the Beatles were released in 2009 I bought both the stereo and the mono set. Now I'm saving to buy the vinyl box as well... (I feel soooo stupid that I've thrown everything away when I was seventeen!!! I had scrapbooks, records, singles, cassettes, a special double album with all the recordings that were available at that time from their Hamburg-days... such a loss The only thing I've kept was a book called 'Beatles dagboek' (means: Beatles diary), written by the founder of the first official Dutch Beatles fanclub, Har van Fulpen. I still have it and it shows on what date they did what, or which song was recorded, where did they play or give an interview, things like that... a lovely book to go through and read about my all time favorite band)
For me, growing up as a JW child, the Beatles helped me get through the hardest parts of my life. Their songs were sometimes spot on in relation to the things I was going through and they've been a great influence and inspiration for me on a musical level.
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Violia
Video of John Lennon talking about give peace a chance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vND53ZrQD9M
Give Peace a Chance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkZC7sqImaM
Imagine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVg2EJvvlF8
Cynthia Lennon and Yoko interview separately/ the witch Yoko
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSFk1q-HYIo
Ringo with Barbara Walters talking about John's death
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Violia
George Harrison's last interview on VH1 1997 I find his views interesting but can't totally incorporate it really as my view is solidly Christian. I thought he was the most interesting Beatle. I found his views very comforting.
The attack on his life and his death 2 yrs later were beyond the pale.
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Violia
bttt
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Band on the Run
It was great being a Beatles fan in the NYC area. They were in town frequently. Meanwhile, I decided to shift my career from being a secretary at Bethel to being a secretary at Apple in London. It was difficult b/c my teachers did not find it appropriate. I bought typing and steno books with my part time job money and studied at home. You could turn on the significant FM radio station and John Lennon would stop by unannounced. Once he played dj for the afternoon. George gave an insightful interview.
The public fighting between George and Paul had ebbed. As Ringo said, they were the original two. There never was a time when they did not fight. They also had the deepest bonds. George announced that all his public and private problems could be boiled down to one fact over which he had no control. He stated that Paul was x years, y minutes, and z seconds older than he was. Next, he talked about going to Hamburg and being underage. The Germans arrested him and placed him on a train to Liverpool. It took days to reach home. With every mile the train advanced, the others had fired him. His mind imagined the sexy women they were dating. He had to tell his parents what he was doing home. His life over, he could not move from the sofa. He had an extremely severe depression before depression was understood. His mother ordered him to go to the corner store for some grocery items.. There was an explosive argument with his mom. He found the energy to get up. His movements were slow b/c of the depression. When he entered the store, he thought he was hallucinating. Someone, who looked just like Paul was in the store, purchasing candy. He addressed the apparition. It was Paul who was not depressed. No one was in Hamburg b/c they started a fire with a condom. Germany wanted them out so badly that the government paid for airfare. Paul had been back home a few days.
When John Lennon played dj, the entire NY area was discussing how such an artist could have such bad taste in music. They had to open telephone lines so people could vent. I found out that John was murdered from that radio station. The DJ's voice was nice and comforting. He said that if you went to sleep early, he would have to tell you what horrific thing happened in Manhattan the night before. I thought another bomb went off at the WTC, perhaps the Puerto Ricans exploded another small scale bomb. Normally, it took me an hour to get ready for work. I knew I wanted to be with people on the WTC train. It took me five minutes, including the walk to the train station.
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BluesBrother
Ah....they were happy days. There was brilliant music everywhere and it seemed that the world was rocking to the Merseybeat . It was our generation, our time and we revelled in it.
Personally The Beatle's were not my biggest love but the whole genre , the whole scene was fantastic! I loved it when the bands started to cover the old blues songs and I discovered the root of the music and became a blues fan, still am.....
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Band on the Run
Blues Brother,
Who was your favorite group? The Stones?
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Violia
The CBS 50th anniversary beatles special starts at 6:30 EST.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/category/cbs-news-50-years-later/
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BackseatDevil
I was never a big Beatles fan... but I did thoroughly enjoy the drugs they did.