Beatlemania

Today as I was waiting to see the podiatrist, I heard one of the most disturbing things ever to slam into my cilia...a MUSAC version of "Penny Lane" by the Beatles. K, it was so bad that I almost had tears in my eyes (it didn't help that my foot was being ripped off of my leg)...they also played a murdered version of "We can work it out" 30 minutes later..."no you CAN'T work it out!" was my silent protest to this unasked-for cacophony.
I have been obsessed with the Beatles of late. Obsession is a very soft word here actually, I think. Were it back in 1964, I would have been one of those fans that you would have been afraid of...yeah, one of those girls that they had to drag out of the gigs passed out...(heh-heh).
I have had the "Beatles Number 1" CD for almost six years now (I picked it up right before moving to Las Vegas, thinking that it would help me be a better contributing member of society) but it has only been in the last three months that I have actually started listening to it. It makes me feel better somehow, when nothing else will, and I have now procured "Let it Be" and "HELP!" for my collection as well.
I just never knew.
And I think that I had to be ready, you know...? It is strange to think that they actually existed for real...and that there are still two of them alive still.
I read about them on their website, their AMAZING website, and feel like I missed out on one of the greatest periods in history of all time.
I lament that.

Here is a list of my 15 favorite Beatles songs:
15. Yellow Submarine
14. All you need is love
13. We can work it out
12. Come together
11. Penny Lane
10. Paperback Writer
9. Hello Goodbye
8. Oh-blah-dee-oh-blah-dah
7. You've got to hide your love away
6. Something
5. Michelle (Both of my Parent's favorite)
4. Yesterday
3. Hey Jude
2. Across the Universe
1. Let it Be

My obsession has led me to have impassioned conversations with my parents about the band. My Mom remembers the first time she ever heard the song "Hey Jude" on the radio, it was the night of New Year's Eve 1968, and she and my Gramma were driving back from having just played a dance in Las Vegas. "I had never heard anything like it" she said. And when I talked to my Father about them, and especially about the infamous Ed Sullivan Show appearance, he said (with a look that I have never seen in his face before, a look of wistfulness and gentle pride...) "I saw it." "WHAT?!?!?!" I exclaimed, "you never told me that!" "Yep...'THE BEEEEEATLES!!!!'" he loudly mimicked in his best impersonation of Ed Sullivan, it sounded just like the original. I stared at him in wonder. "What did you think?" I asked. "Well, I sure hadn't heard anything like it before" he said...almost as if he were remembering the first time he had ever heard music at all...I longed to be there with him...where ever that place was that he was drawing those memories from...that place where dreams and memories have married and live together in love...I often wish I could go there with him.
And one night, not too long ago...as I played "Across the Universe" for the first time (as done by the Beatles on the "Let it Be" CD), I imagined the literal MILLIONS of people that have listened to that very song over the years...from Vilnius to Thimphu to Kingston, Jamaica...listening to the outcome of a needle spinning across a world of swirling black vinyl glass...I began to weep uncontrollably... "nothings gonna change my world...nothings gonna change my world."
I understood. I finally understood why.

It's never too late to fall in love.