i was nine when my dad started bringing beatles albums home for me. until i was fourteen, not a day went by when i didn't listen to at least one of those albums. i remember one of the college stations in san antonio had a three-hour "best of the beatles" program every sunday. once that was over i'd put in revolver, or beatles for sale, or the white album. this is no exaggeration.
sometime after i started high school i lost interest. i'm not sure why. every once in a while i'd put revolver on my stereo or something, but i didn't feel obligated to listen to them all the time. i didn't have that sense of devotion any longer. instead i got into indie.
not too long ago i was driving with my aunt when "imagine" came on the radio. there was a time when i wouldn't let anyone talk when that came on the radio. it was silent then and i thought back to that time. i felt like i had lost my religion.
don't get me wrong. i like the kinsella brothers as much as the next guy. i've seen the microphones three times and i'd pay to see him again. i have a not-so-secret crush on calvin johnson. but sometimes i just miss the music i listened to when i was younger.
there was one "greatest hits of the 60's" compilation that i remember with particular fondness. "incense and peppermints," "so happy together," "gimme some lovin": it was all there. so were the kinks. i would never have admitted to liking any band more than the beatles, but "you really got me" hit me in a way that no beatles song did. paul revere & the raiders had a song on there too--"just like me"--and i think it's safe to say that my parents would be happy if they never heard that song again. now i realize that this was the rock and roll paul mccartney didn't have the guts for.
so rather than stepping back into the beatles house of worship, i started looking for things that hit me the way the kinks did. the sonics. james chance. the who's first album.
it feels good. if of montreal makes me feel like putting on metallic leggings and a miniskirt, james chance makes me feel like dancing in my underwear. i'd call that a nice change.
3 comments:
I listened to the Beatles a lot in 3rd-5th grade. I'm not sure how it came about. My friend Holly and I would put some album on and draw for hours and she'd tell me when the lyrics were subliminally telling us to do drugs. I had a fondness for them (Beatles, not drugs). And then I really listened to "The Ballad of John and Yoko" my sophomore or junior year of high school and that song about the guy blowing his brains out in his car and I got kind of disillusioned. I still like them, though. "Let It Be" can actually make me cry.
i think we talked about this tonight. so much of the stuff i've found after hearing the beatles would make any beatles record run and hide for fear of being exposed as a fraud. and yes, paul did not have the guts for rocknroll.
you introduced me to a lot of good music. thank you for that. in return, i gave you what? mxpx cds? SORRY!
i would try to make it up to you, but i listen to country music now....hahahahaha. no but seriously, if you ever wanna cry, it'll do ya every time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz2aNifcy20
:)
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