The Beatles

I had a rare Thursday off today and my daughter wanted me to make her a mix CD from my iTunes. So I made her a few. Younger brother also wants his own CD ... only he wants it to be all-Beatles.

I made him a CD that encompassed their entire output, at least one song per album from Hard Days Night on. We decided to play it while we ate dinner.

I was telling my kids that the Beatles are considered the greatest rock band of all-time and how they've influenced music since. They seemed genuinely taken and started singing the songs when they came on, particularly Yellow Submarine, a favorite of mine when I was their age too.

I told them that there were four Beatles and they all sang to varying degrees. Through dinner, I let them try to guess who the singer was and they had a lot of fun with it. They asked where the Beatles were now and Mrs. Bubbler and I explained that two of them have passed away, but that Paul and Ringo were still around.

They seemed to like all of the music, the slower, more contemplative songs as well as the up-tempo pop songs and rockers. They even dug Revolution #9.

It was a lot of fun to watch them discover the Beatles before my eyes. It also was one more reminder to me just how great the Beatles were, even if I don't think about consciously very often.

We all have our pet bands, Lord knows I have mine, and because of that, it's easy to take the Beatles for granted. I can't remember the last time I played Revolver end-to-end, for example, even though I consider it one of the best albums I own.

It was nice to re-appreciate the Beatles through my kids. Their music is undeniable and when you see your young children appreciating the songs on a basic level, while you might be appreciating for more complex reasons, it drives home just how great the Beatles were and how universal their music remains.

I know I'm not breaking any new ground in saying that, but like I said, sometimes it's easy to forget how great they were.

 

Loved the Beatles, "Hard Day's Night" in the afternoon was cool. Had a Yellow Submarine lunchbox.

My kids are not into my music, except Back in Black and Hells Bells.

 

I had a similar experience last year when I bought Beatles Rockband for my two kids (then 11 & 15). They didn't seem too pumped when I pulled it out of the bag, but as we played it, they were shocked by all the different songs the Beatles created. "They sing this song TOO!" my daughter said many times. It was great to experience the music through them. They liked the game enough to take it home. By the next weekend, my son had finished the game's vocals, drums and guitar.

 

Really, the Beatles are an excellent -- perhaps the ideal -- starting point for any young kid interested in popular music.

It gives them an understanding of what came before and because the band covered so much ground stylistically, likely will mean they'll appreciate forms of music they otherwise wouldn't have given a second listen.

Well, at least that is what happened with me.

 

After hearing Sgt. Pepper's, I was hooked.

 

My wife decided to learn English as a child because . . .

"I loved The Beatles and wanted to know what they were singing about."

That is influence.

 

I gave my niece the "1" album a couple of years ago for Christmas.

She was just old enough to be getting into pop music & I figured she needed a counterbalance to most of the crap on the radio now.

So many great songs.

And, as much as I love Lennon/McCartney, I think George is one of the most underrated songwriters.

 

You might have said it before, but is your wife Russian?

Have you seen the History Channel (or maybe it was A&E) special about McCartney's concert in Red Square?

The visuals are incredible & it's pretty cool to here about the lengths kids went to to listen to the Beatles during communist rule.

 

We studied them in our fifth-grade music class. A few years later, when I really started getting into music, they became my favorites, and have remained so ever since.

This might sound like hyperbole, but I really think they stand as one of the very highest peaks in the history of human achievement, at least in the context of art.

 

Phony Beatlemania...has bitten the dust...

Start the youngins' on the Beach Boys.

 

Echo on Beatles Rock Band turning my kids on (dead man) to the band. My 7-year-old went through a phase in which he incessantly watched the old Beatles caroon series posted to YouTube. My oldest son favors the earlier, rawer stuff, in particular the Please Please Me album. A poster of the Abbey Road cover hangs in my boys' bedroom. My girls love them, too, particularly my 5-year-old, who takes my iPod to listen. She named one of her Webkinz after George Harrison. On the way to church, the soundtrack is Breakfast with the Beatles on WXRT.

Watching them get excited about the Beatles is the closest I'll come to understanding how crazy kids went for them in the early 60s.

 

Phony Beatlemania bit it about 40 years ago, but the real thing lives on.

Last year, when the Remastered Box came out, I dubbed copies for virtually everyone in my extended family. (After buying the original at full retail price, of course.)

The process of dubbing forced me to actually sit down and sit through all 14 albums from beginning to end, something I had never done before, and definitely unearthed dozens of dusty gems I hadn't listened to for 20 years or more.

I think we had a thread going on it somewhere, in which I actually did somewhat of a capsule review (the early pop-rock stuff was better than we ever remembered, SOME of the early albums had some throwaway filler, and the later more advanced stuff leapt into new clarity with the new mixes).

The sets were definitely a big hit at Christmas. My 11-year-old nephew and 9-year-old niece play their copies all the time.

And now their 5-year-old twin sisters want their own sets too. So I guess I'll have to get going on another few sets.