I made it to bedtime last night. I had a funny encounter with, who else, Doug. I was set up in bed with a book and a mindless movie on. He tried to bargain for having a sleepover in our room. I told him it wasn't a good idea because he had school today.
He walked out of the room, whining a bit (kind of a fake crying). Then he walked back in, pleading his case some more. I sent him away again. He came back and announced to me that I was, and I quote, "breaking his 7-year-old heart. You should be ashamed of yourself."
I couldn't even disguise the laughter as I texted Brian what he said. Sometimes I am able to keep a straight face, but last night I couldn't even muster it.
I swear the man has a cadre of writers working tirelessly somewhere. I don't know where he comes up with these things.
Today I had a rare treat. I got to see a movie with my dad. It's very seldom that he and I get to do things on our own. I usually have at least one child with me, or I'm needed somewhere, or I have to drop a kid off somewhere. I love my dad, as I have stated on numerous occasions. He and I have a number of common interests. (As it happens, we also have an uncanny knack to lose our keys. I currently have no idea where mine are. I even resorted to straightening the kitchen counters. No luck.)
There is a movie out right now called Yesterday. It's a British film. The premise is that the main character, a struggling musician, is struck by a bus during a freak global blackout. When he comes to, he realizes that there has been a selective deletion of things. For example, there is no more Coca Cola. He asks his mom for a Coca Cola and she doesn't know what he is talking about. (He uses Google to search for things, this is how he finds out that they have never existed.)
At a small gathering of his friends after his accident, his friend (and eventual love interest) Ellie (played by the radiant Lily James) gives him a guitar to replace the one destroyed in his accident. They ask him to play a song. He chooses to play the song Yesterday, by the Beatles.
When he is done, they are blown away. They compliment him on his songwriting prowess. He believes them to be giving him a hard time. He gives credit to the Beatles. His friends look at him with blank faces. "Like the bugs?" his one friend asks.
Upon arriving home, he googles the Beatles only to find not one single reference to the band. The only reference he can find is to the bug.
It seems like a silly premise, but I loved every minute.
I started listening to the Beatles when I was about 11 or 12, on the insistence of my dad. He gave me an education, starting with With the Beatles and all the way through The White Album.
I saw Paul McCartney in concert once, before kids. I remembered seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. When I saw the girls in the audience, it prompted eye rolls. I thought the Beatles were nifty, but I felt like their reaction was over-the-top.
I remember, though, seeing Paul McCartney come out on stage. Hearing him play the songs I had grown up hearing was a feeling I can't quite describe. I understood, finally, a little of what those girls felt. I was ebullient hearing him sing. I had played Blackbird so many times on rough days. (In fact, when I was in the OR getting prepped for my emergency c-section, I tried to get Brian to play that song for me. He was too flustered to make it happen.)
Hearing Paul McCartney sing it, live, was an amazing experience (even from the nosebleed section).
The movie today highlighted what an extraordinary catalogue of music the Beatles produced. Jack, the main character, kept remembering different songs, though he sometimes struggled to remember all of the lyrics. Every time he played a new song, the crowds went wild for it.
At my wedding, Brian and I walked out of the chapel to All You Need is Love. We had our wedding party dance to Maybe I'm Amazed (while not the Beatles, still a McCartney tune).
The tremendous thing is the staying power of the Beatles' music. It holds up, even after all these years. There are lots of universal themes in what they wrote. Hey, Jude remains one of my most favorite. At the end of the movie, they played Hey, Jude as the credits rolled. I was sitting next to a total stranger (my dad was sitting in the row ahead of me) and we sang the entire song together. I know all the lyrics.
Brian and I went to see American English perform last year at the performing arts center in downtown Crystal Lake. I was probably about 15-20 years younger than the average age, but I knew all the lyrics to the songs. The range of ages in the audience was diverse.
Toward the end of the movie, two random people show up at one of Jack's concerts. They tell him that they, too, remember the Beatles. The woman presses a piece of paper into Jack's hand and tells him that she did some digging.
There is a cameo in the movie that also caused me to start crying. I won't divulge it, but suffice it to say, the casting and/or makeup was so spot-on it was eery. Even as I described it to Brian when I got home, I got chills.
I drove home from the movie playing Hey, Jude and All You Need is Love. I love listening to Lady Madonna when I'm feeling particularly motherly and also rushed. I Will, a little gem toward the end of the first part of the White Album, never ceases to put a smile on my face. Any time I stay in a hotel, I look for the requisite Bible and start humming Rocky Raccoon.
I am not sure why I got so emotional as I was watching the movie, except we've been over this--I'm an emotional being. Hearing the songs in that setting was emotional.
It's funny because every time a new boy band explodes onto the scene, reporters want to draw parallels to the Beatles and Beatlemania. This happened for New Kids on the Block, Backstreet Boys, and I've seen it happening now for BTS.
I always shake my head when they try to compare anyone to the Beatles. In my mind, anyone else pales in comparison. Now I feel like I need to expose my kids to their music, so someday *they* can shake their head when someone tries to make a comparison.
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