TOD: When the Beatles invaded, all the girls my age went crazy over them. I was listening to Peter, Paul and Mary and was annoyed by all this fuss and craziness. (Even as a child I was an eliist snob!) I didn't even watch them on Ed Sullivan. I couldn't stand all those screaming girls and thought it was embarrassing!
When I was in Jr. High, I finally became a fan. I think Sgt. Peppers won me over, and the White Album made the biggest impression on me. I loved every song on it. And I became a big fan of John Lennon, particularly, and loved his books and his acting...in fact, his whole pre-Yoko persona. I was devastated when he was murdered.
The song I remember the most is Strawberry Fields Forever. My brother and I listened to the single over and over again after we bought it. After about the 10th playing, we didn't immediately take the needle off the disc and thus discovered the backward track at the very end. We looked at each other and then looked at the record player like it was possessed. How could we have listened to this song over and over and not heard this? It was really kind of scary!
Last month, we went to hear a band from Athens, GA perform "Abbey Road Live". It was a group of musicians who loved the music and played it really well, adding their own tasteful touches. They didn't try to emulate the Beatles' personas, and they had really nice arrangements for their little 6 piece string and horn ensemble. It was wonderful to hear the whole album performed live.
That was their first set. For the second set, they played songs spanning the life of the band. When they launched into Strawberry Fields, I told Greg: I will be REALLY impressed if they do that backwards part at the end".
Needless to say, I was VERY impressed!
