From the Vaults - 2003 - I just heard this band...

Originally posted at Ye Olde Blog on 24 August 2003

I just heard this band...

 


...called the Beatles. They were pretty good. In fact, they were so good that I was reminded of something:

All the tight jeans, long hair, caterwauling and 20 minute drum solos cannot possibly compare to the might of the Beatles. A few days ago on this very blog I went on about how seeing the Doors and Led Zeppelin videos on VH1 makes my heart skip beats.

This is nothing compared to the effect the Beatles have on me.

They make me feel like I am home. They make me feel as if nothing could possibly go wrong in the world just as long as they exist. They make me believe that love really is all you need. They make me want to weep with joy that they exist. They make me want to sob that two of them have already been wrenched away from me in two of the cruellest ways possible. They make me want to achieve the same kind of perfection while knowing I never can. At the same time, they make me feel that that's all right.

You see, I've never been able to understand the Beatles Vs. Elvis or Beatles Vs. Rolling Stones questions. I mean, I like the Stones and I like Elvis - liked him a lot when I was very small. But there's never been any question for me as to who really rule the world. I love the Doors and I love Led Zep. I love Dean Martin and Thin Lizzy and David Bowie. I love all the people I mention whenever I open my mouth... but there will never be any question as to who rules all. I may take three days to compile a list of my top ten albums, and I still won't be satisfied. But ask me who the greatest band in the history of the universe were/are, ask me who I really couldn't live without and you will have your answer within a Noo Yawk minute.

It sounds terribly corny and trite, but when I was 14, I opened my ears up to the Beatles properly for the first time and found my destiny. When I found the Beatles, I found a reason to care about the world again, because a world that produced the Beatles can never totally suck.

You see, I'll go on and on an on about the wonder that is Robert Plant. I'll talk your ear off about how 'What Is And What Should Never Be' is one of the greatest songs ever and if you're really unlucky you'll get my extended opinion of Jimmy Page bowing his guitar. But my true love was, is and ever will be four blokes from Liverpool and made it very, very big.

I don't listen to them as much as I used to, partly because I played myself out on some of it and partly because I do adore the Doors etc. I don't claim that they were perfect musicians or perfect people. I am not a member of the Church of St. John of Menlove Avenue because I know that he was a human being with a few big flaws. I know that George Harrison spent part of the 80s in a coke haze and I know that he could be a grumpy old sod. Doesn't make me love them any less- it makes me love them all the more for their humanity.