She Loves Them Yeah, Yeah, Yeah....

 

I'm not going to pretend to you that as a precocious one year old I have any recollection of the Beatles playing Ed Sullivan.

Nope.  The Beatles didn't really hit my radar until I was about 3 years old, when every car ride involving a radio involved the Beatles.

When I was five years old, my sister, who was then all of seven, bought her first 45 - Get Back.  Which I think is probably the coolest first 45 purchase ever.  Much better than my Bellamy Brothers 45 a few years later...

We would sit on her bed and watch that apple go around and around the turntable, laughing hysterically about JoJo.  You know - he was a man who thought he was a woman - what up with that?  Really, the Beatles were hysterical to me then, and every TV interview I saw only cemented that perspective.  They were great musicians, but they were side-splittingly funny, too.  It was infectious, joyous fun in the beginning.

I remember the day it was announced they'd split.  No one thought the split would stick, that somehow, at some later date, they'd get back together.

Oh, and they blamed it on the wives.  How misogynistic that seems now...

By the time I got into high school in the late 1970s, the Beatles were long split up, but we followed their music, poured over the meaning of the lyrics, as if we were the first to discover them.  Other generations of angst-ridden and musically obsessed teenagers have done so every decade since.

We all had our favourites.  Most of my friends were Team John or Team Paul, but my friend Dawn and I were Team George all the way...

And then the unthinkable.  I woke up to the news on the radio.  They were already playing his music, the tributes were pouring in and I was devastated.  I remember that I had an exam that day, and as we all waited for it to begin, we huddled in masses, our hearts broken.

There would be no reunions. 

Fast forward twenty years to the fall of 2001.  The twin towers go down.  My mother dies on November 11th and two weeks later, George is gone.  A VERY bad fall.

So you will forgive me if I cling to Paul and Ringo like I used to cling to my dad after my mom died.

Last week at the Grammys, they played together, but they pointedly did not play Beatles music.

That music has been kept for, to quote Ed Sullivan, "The Really Big Shew" this coming Sunday night on CBS.  When those of us who love The Beatles, or those of us who simply love history, will stop and pay homage to four lads who just wanted to play music and have fun.

There is a rumour of an appearance later that night with David Letterman at the Old Ed Sullivan Theatre.  And I for one am hoping that this is true and that they will play together again, perhaps backed by some of their kids and especially John's boys Julian and Sean and George's son Dhani.  These crazy boys who look so much like their dads and who are forever in their shadows, whether they wish to be or not...


 

Of course that is the rampant sentimentalist in me.

And I recognize that not everyone is a Beatles fan.  Music speaks to a person, or it does not.

But the profound impact that the Fab Four had on their contemporaries and on those who followed, cannot be overstated.

Can there be a spring without Here Comes the Sun?  A broken heart without  Eleanor Rigby or Let it Be? A cooler song than Come Together? A better sing-along than Yellow Submarine?  We all want to put our arms around Julian Lennon when we hear Hey Jude.

As I age, the song that returns to me again and again is Lennon's In My Life:

There are places I remember

All my life, though some have changed

Some forever not for better

Some have gone and some remain

 

All these places had their moments
With lovers and friends
I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I've loved them all

 

But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new

 

Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more

 

Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more
In my life I love you more

For me the Beatles are Dawn and Susan and Heather and Frances and Anne and Maureen and Joyce.  They are James, who looked just like John, and Mark and David and Ian, who were inconsolable that morning.  They are the parties we threw, the songs we sang, the hearts we broke.  They are Brian and Greg and Rob and Glenn and Teddy and Spaghetti Soirees.  Wings, Bond Movies, Travelling Wilburys, beloved ones lost to cancer.  You can find a song that speaks to all of your loves and life moments.

And it all began, in earnest, 50 years ago.  And I apologize for the length of this post, but it is only a smidgen of what these men have meant to me in my life.  I've loved them all.






I would love to hear your Beatles Memories!
 

Random Saturday Musings

This is a quiet weekend, Chez WMM - after a busy couple of weeks of entertaining and travelling, we are planning on burrowing into our little Hobbit Hole and relaxing and reading and watching a movie or two.  But of course, I do have some jumbly thoughts rumbling around in my head. 

1) Voyager 1 and 2 Leave the Solar System Forever
(and then we find out they are just out on the highway...)

 

This story reminds me of when my brother once threatened to run away from home, but it turns out no one would give him a drive to really do so.  The big story this week was that after 33 years, these spacecrafts had finally left our solar system.  Frankly, I was excited; it's not every day that humanity slips the ties that bind us to our sun.  In fact, this was the first day.  Only then it wasn't.  It turns out they are hanging about on the magentic highway, a special place right on the edge of our solar system and interstellar space, filled with highly charged particles.  Oh they'll leave for deeper space all right, they just haven't left yet.  I assume if the magnetic highway is anything like the highway on the way out of the small town that I lived in growing up, they could be there for awhile...Damn those intergalactic drinking holes - Voyager 1 and 2 probably stopped in for a bathroom break and a Tim Hortons run and are now finding themselves gambling and drinking cheap beer..

2) Talbots

Earlier this week, I did a mini review of things I have liked (or not) from various retailers' spring releases.  As you know from my earlier posts, this spring's releases have left me a little cold, due in part perhaps that I am unsure as to whether or not I need dressy outfits or no outfits or very casual outfits..Or it could just be one of those years..  We all have them!

However, the lovely Paula suggested that I go back and take a look at Talbots.  I must make a confession:  I had forgotten all about Talbots.  A few years ago, Talbots made a bold move and attempted to broaden their clientele with more streamlined and trendy cuts.  There were some very nice pieces, but it seemed they could satisfy no one: the streamlining wasn't streamlined enough and were accused of being matronly, the trendy cuts were accused of moving outside the typical Talbots customer's comfort zone.

However, the universe being what it is, within one hour of reading Paula's comments, my husband arrived home with the mail, which included a Talbots catalogue.  There were the regular suspects, but there were some nice pieces and I would be remiss not to point them out for those like me who are looking for simple cotton dresses.  They also have a 25% off sale going on right now.

The very simple fit and flare dress and it comes in many colours, including navy, which I would really like.  It is $149, less the 25%.

The Silk d0upioni dress is very similar in print to the Elie Tahari skirt I liked:

For those who like critters, there is a charm bracelet:

And a very pretty dragonfly scarf.  I love dragonflies - we have them all over our property in the summer.

In general however, I think Talbots would be my go-to spot for finding a tasteful mother or grandmother of the bride dress.  I know that sounds worse than I mean it to sound!  There are some really lovely things, but I still do find the cuts a bit matronly.  But I know that there are many who like that looser fit, and even my beloved Ralph Lauren's Lauren label veers in that direction from time to time.  So I will not forget Talbots in the future, as that dress above in navy would be the perfect little dress for running errands this summer!

3) Someone else is 50 too...

I forgot during all of the shenanigans going on in my own life that someone else had a very big 50th this year as well! The Beatles released their first record, Please Please Me in 1963.  I am sure i was listening to that in my cradle!

The soundtrack of the first 50 years of my life would have the Beatles on it for sure and though there is the ongoing (and to me tedious) debate as to whether the Beatles or the Stones were the greatest band of the 1960s (I happen to love them both and refuse to be drawn into this - and I am talking to my son here!  Oh wait, he doesn't read my blog - good thing).  This album stands the test of time.  Everyone has a favourite Beatles song (or maybe not?) and I have a list as long as my arm but Get Back has a special place in my heart, as I remember listening to it on a 45 in my bedroom on our little yellow record player when I was 6 years old with my 8 year old sister.  I still giggle when I hear the line "JoJo was a man who thought he was a woman" because we NO idea what that meant at the time!  We played it over and over again and then flipped it over and played the B side, Don't Bring me Down, over and over again!  What Beatles songs do you love?

And I don't care what you say, this man is one of the sexiest men ever:  I would take him and the car!

 So those are my random musings of things I heard about this week.  How about you?  Anything exciting going on?  I have decided that next year, I am going to tag along with some of you on your warm winter vacations - the winters are too long!!!

Have a great Saturday!!!  Stay Safe Out There!