My memory of this isn't completely clear, but I believe it was around Year 6, or 1994, when I listened to a cassette my Mum had recorded from the radio…
I don't recall quite what kind of cassette it was (whether it was Beatles live performances or something?),
but the one song I really remember from this cassette is "And I Love Her"…
I'm pretty sure that this was my favourite song for the whole of Year 6!
(As an interesting aside, when Paul McCartney sings "…and tenderly", it always sounded the world to me like it was "and tender leaves”"!)
Another key moment relating to my starting to like the Beatles in 1994 was when, in my choir Gaudeamus, we sang a four-part SATB version of "Hey Jude".
My main memory associated with this is thinking, when we hit the note "take a sad song",
that that was "a real Lennon-McCartney harmony" (although I realise now that may have been more because of the arrangement than the actual song)!
Finally, in 1995 (Year 7), a class-mate alerted me to the fact that 1053 2CA was running a "Beatles A-Z weekend",
which was a good opportunity for me to get much better acquainted with the Beatles and their songs.
I discovered many favourites from this radio broadcast which I really loved, including "Drive My Car", "Dear Prudence" and
"Strawberry Fields Forever"!
Why I like them
It's difficult to put an exact finger on what I like about the Beatles, but probably it’s the same as with all the other music I really love:
it makes me feel good, and acts as a real salve.
That said, I’ll try and identify some more specific things I like about the Beatles’ music:
one thing I guess I like is that although they were a rock band, the music they made was pretty poppy…
so, in my opinion, there isn’t a really "rocky" feel to most of the music they made.
Also, some of the rhymes in their music were astonishing – things like "when I wake up early in the morning
, lift my head I’m still yawning" (in "I’m Only Sleeping") or rhyming "Life is very
short" with "I have always thought" in "We Can Work it Out".
Above all, I guess I just like how singable their songs are! I’ve been listening to quite a lot Australian acts and bands on Triple J Unearthed,
and while there are some great Aussie bands there, a lot of whose music I really like and appreciate, there is something about the Beatles’ tunes,
definitely Paul McCartney’s, but also to a large extent John Lennon’s as well, that is really immortal.
My favourite albums of theirs
I used to say that Abbey Road and Sgt Pepper’s were my favourite Beatles albums,
but now I would say my favourite albums of theirs are the White Album and Rubber Soul.
There is a sort of refreshing brilliance about the songs on the White Album, and Rubber Soul
has brilliant songs like "Michelle", "I’m Looking Through You", "Nowhere Man" and "Norwegian Wood".
