Magic and love.
That’s what I felt when I discovered The Beatles.
Their music. Their cuteness and strange accents. Their kind of smart-ass sense of humor which scarily reflected mine. I’ve been a fan ever since. I play their music always and have collected their albums. I’ve even seen the Las Vegas Cirque du Soleil Beatle show–twice. I possess a genuine Yellow Submarine lunch box and action figures of The Beatles from their TV cartoon series. I’ve also requested of my children that I want “In my Life” played at my funeral.
The Beatles have played a part of my life. I know it sounds cliché as hell but it’s the truth.
Listening to the music with my best friend. Growing up with Liz, John, Paul, George and Ringo.
Trying to win a contest identifying every figure on the Sgt. Peppers’ album cover.
I didn’t win.
Seeing George Harrison in Concert. Writing an editorial about John Lennon for my college newspaper.
When one of our daughters learned the words to “The One after 909” and sang it with me when I was vacuuming.
One of my saddest memories was the day John was shot. My parents, who weren’t a fan, called me when he died. They knew I had lost what amounted to a good friend.
Years pass.
I recently bought the “Yellow Submarine” DVD. The movie had been released in 1968. I already had a copy of The Beatles’ movies “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help,” not to mention a DVD of their first appearance on the ancient Ed Sullivan TV show. But I was so happy with my latest acquisition.
“Yellow Submarine” is a joy.
For those who don’t know, it’s a full length animated story of the group traveling via yellow submarine to save Pepperland from the dastardly Blue Meanies that sucked out all the color from the colorful place. Worse, they hate music. The Meanies are fluffy blue things with black boots and strange flowing ears. They reminded me of warped Mickey Mouses. The Blue Meanie cohorts included a flying glove with an attitude and tall slender men who dropped apples on people’s heads.
On their way to Pepperland, the Beatles enter strange worlds and encounter weird creatures including Jeremy, who’s smart and lonely. The intrepid group voyages through time and in and out of holes.
The Beatles do save the day with determination and MUSIC!
The movie is all very fun and colorful.
My six and four year old granddaughters love cartoons as most kids do. They saw the DVD cover and wanted to see this “cartoon.”
I thought the movie might be too grown up for them but they loved it!
In fact, they’ve watched the movie several times and already know the words to several songs. One grandkid particularly loves “All you Need is Love.” Her favorite Beatle is John, also my fav.
All in all this is a demonstration of the power of their music and message and charisma to reach over generations.
And when my grandkids discovered The Beatles their magic sparked up inside of me again. Yeah, Yeah. Yeah.