A friend who saw the amount of time and work that was going into this site asked me, “Why?” The answer is simple. Because Beatles!
I once read a quote* that talked about the death of a celebrity and why we grieve as a collective when they’re gone. Their reasoning was simple. And direct. (Paraphrasing) “We grieve not because we knew them, but because they helped us know ourselves.”
For those of us of a certain age, the Beatles have helped us ‘know ourselves’ for over 50 years. Songs trigger memories. Songs trigger emotions. Songs take us to a different, much simpler time in our lives. And for many of us, no song does any of these things like a Beatles’ song.
Think about some of your Beatles’ memories. For me…
In high school, I had an unrequited crush on a girl named Martha. For a time ‘Martha My Dear’ was worn out on that gawd awful 8 track player. (My Martha never new and it wasn’t until many years later I discovered the song was about Paul’s dog.)
In ’76, I thought I’d impress a young lady by telling her I had just attended the ‘Wings Over America’ Cincinnati concert. Her response of “I saw the Beatles three times!” ended that tactic in the future. (As a side, driving to Cincinnati for that concert I was stopped for speeding. As soon as I told the driver I was going to see Paul, he told me to get on with it. Not even a warning. Thanks you random Kentucky State Trooper 1976!)
Like many of you, I happened to be watching ‘Monday Night Football’ when Howard Cosell broke in to tell us of the death of John Lennon. It’s ‘one of those moments’ you never forget where you were. Like JFK. The Challenger. 911. And for me, the death of Elvis.
Throughout births, deaths, marriages, divorces. Happy times, sad times. Music is always with us. And no music like that of The Beatles. And over the years I realized when I would see calendar dates, when music would come on the radio, all these things would trigger in me. Hence this site. A daily reminder to trigger thoughts. Memories. Happy times. To help us ‘know ourselves’ all over again.
Enjoy.
Ed Owen
January, 2020
PS.. The day before writing this I conducted a tour of Nashville for a bus load of 8th graders visiting from Georgia. During the conversation I asked them various things, including their music choices. One boy let me know rather quickly that country music wasn’t his thing. He liked rock!! Knowing that covers a lot of area I asked him to narrow it down. He proudly said ‘Beatles.. Stones…’ He’s in middle school. There’s hope for us yet.
*If anyone knows the originator of this quote, I’ll gladly give them credit. It’s awesome.