Emily's Albums A to Z

Listened: Monday, May 17

It is only fitting that the first album I listened to is a Beatles album. I consider the Beatles to be the band that blew my musical horizons wide open.

I was woefully ignorant of the Beatles from age 0-16. I am sure my parents listened to them back in the day before I was alive but for some reason my parents did not play music that held nostalgic value for them after I came around. Or maybe music isn’t especially nostalgic for them. It was always newer music like jazz, classical, or world music that I remember hearing, aside from Sesame Street, Raffi, and the like.

So, in typical kid fashion, I just figured the Beatles were in the category of “old people music” and I ignorantly dismissed them. Until I saw A Hard Day’s Night on PBS when I was 16. Upon seeing that film, I immediately understood so much that I had previously ignored. The Beatles’ music was great, sure, but they were also funny, intelligent, intriguing, and exciting people and I wanted to know everything about them.

I immediately went to the library and ripped every one of their CDs to tape (that’s what you did back when I was 16 when there was no Napster) and became a total Beatles nut. I knew everything there was to know. I am positive I know more than my parents know about the Beatles.

But I think that is the way history works sometimes – you are too busy living your life to follow along when things are happening, but some whippersnapper that wasn’t alive yet can read up on every single bit of commentary and analysis that has been done over the years. I wonder if my kids will lecture me on minute details of The White Stripes’ career?

(Yeah, maybe that isn’t the best example, but really, is there a modern example of someone like the Beatles that I could have used? I don’t think so!)