What The Beatles Mean To Me

This year is a monumental Beatles year. It's the 50th anniversary of the release of the Beatles final album, Let It Be. It's also the 50th anniversary of the release of George Harrison's opus, All Things Must Pass. And later on in the year, hopefully, we'll see the release of Peter Jacksons renovated Let It Be Film and some anniversary releases on a par with the recent White Album and Abbey Road anniversary specials. That is, of course, if life ever gets back to normal.

My late father was a Beatle addict so they have always been the background music throughout my life. As young as five or six I can recall my father playing their records when he had a rare day off. But it wasn't till I was about twelve that I fell hook, line and sinker for the Fab Four. Down came the Jason Donovan posters and up went posters of the boys.

But what do they mean to me exactly? It's a question that I've often asked myself and have been asked by other people. Are they simply a good band that I pop on the iPod on the way to work? Are they something that I can listen to whilst I have a few spare moments?

The answer to those questions is no. The Beatles are so ingrained into my very being that they could never simply be just a band. Quite frankly they are my everything. If you cut me I bleed Beatles.

But why is this so and how deep an affect do they have on my life?

I don't know when they became more than a band. I don't remember the precise occasion when they became so important, it was many many years ago, but they did, and have remained so.

I suffer from anxiety and at times that battle is extreme. When I'm sat on the bus, so nervous about going into work and yet not knowing why, I find that they calm me down, help me focus on something other than what is making me nervous. Which is why my iPod is my little friend that is always charged and ready to go.

I can get lost totally in their music. The desperate pleading in a song such as Long, Long, Long makes my heart break. The composition of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds is dreamy and makes my mind wonder, it takes me on a journey in my head. The comedic aspects of You Know My Name makes me giggle. The whole point of music is to make you feel. Whether that is a positive or negative emotion it doesn't matter. As long as you feel something.

In my dreams I often hear complete Beatles songs. Only recently I had a dream where Hey Bulldog was playing somewhere in the dream and I heard it in its entirity from start to finish over and over on a loop. I know these songs so well, I know every inch of them in a way that means I can even dream them and not miss a single note.

The Beatles appeal is not only universal its ageless. I know people who were original fans in the sixties and I know people whose children, barely four or five, are avid fans already. It reminds me of something Brian Epstein said. That young people in 2020 will be listening to the Beatles. And how true that is. They have this ability to draw people in, no matter their age, and to hold their interest. And that is because they were ever changing, ever pushing boundaries, Nothing stood still with The Beatles. They continued to break barriers and push music to its very edge. And that is what is interesting and why they appeal to so many.

I can barely imagine a life without The Beatles. I couldn't imagine how dull life would be without them, which is partly why I can't watch the movie, Yesterday. The thought of life without the Beatles is incomprehensible to me. And I could not figure a world where the Beatles did not exist.

The Beatles have stood the test of time. I once saw a very early interview with George in which he said he hoped he could get three or four years out of the Beatles to earn some money. I wonder what he would of said if he knew then that over fifty years later their records are still selling, interest has never been higher, and people are eagerly awaiting new releases and remixes.

I think the most important thing for me is The Beatles give me hope. No matter how shitty life gets, and let's be honest, it's pretty bad at the moment, I can always see the light at the end of the tunnel when I hear their music. There are a great many Beatles songs where positivity runs though the song, like a thread. There is no mountain I cannot climb as long as I can hear something by the boys.

I will admit I'm not the sort of fan who knows which guitar was used on which song. I can't recall off the top of my head the date every song was recorded on. So I guess some people would consider me a lesser fan. But I know how the Beatles make me feel when I hear them. And I think, for me, that is what being a fan is all about. It's how you feel when you hear them. And nearly thirty years after I first took the Beatles seriously, I still get excited when I hear them. I can't wait to get out of work so I can put my iPod on and listen to them on the long bus ride home.

So, the Beatles are everything to me and I am certainly not ashamed of that. They, quite simply, bring colour to my black and white world. And I can only thank them for that.