Biden called some guy named Doocy a “stupid son of a bitch.” It was inappropriate and impetuous, and he quickly apologized for his intemperate remark. But what about the Beatles?
Not so many years ago I would park my then-new car outside the front door of coffee shops where I was playing guitar and singing on Long Island, hold up the keys and announce, “If you can stump me on the Fabs, I’ll give you my wheels.” Or if I happened to have a hundred dollar bill, I’d pin it to the wall behind me and offer it to anyone who could name a Beatles song I couldn’t produce in three seconds.
But the game was rigged — you couldn’t beat the house.
We watched some of the new video, serialized as “Get Back,” and saw four guys doing the sort of kid stuff four guys might do, particularly notable for being stuff that four guys wouldn’t be allowed to do today, but was ordinary at the time. And then there was Yoko lurking for no comprehensible reason, but every real Beatles fan hates Yoko even if she didn’t cause the break up.
But the question remains how these fab four still own music, still own our heads, all these years later? Yes, this isn’t a deep question to ponder, and with all the serious things happening in the world, like potential war in Ukraine and some teacher telling her students that there’s nothing wrong with being gay, this is a frivolous Tuesday Talk. But so what?
Were the Beatles that good? How did they manage to own a generation? How is it possible they still do? Nobody walks about humming Smith’s “Baby, It’s You,” but many of us can sing the lyrics to 50 Beatles song off the top of our head. How did that happen, and how has that affected music since then?
*Tuesday Talk rules apply.