I became a big Beatles fan when I was young, about 5 or 7 years old. My mom was the one who introduced me to their music. She would sing or hum these Lennon/McCartney songs while washing the dishes, doing the laundry, or doing any household chores. I don’t know these tunes but I learned them and began singing them myself. We didn’t have any records of the Beatles back then, we didn’t even own a working record or cassette player. “Records”, my dear children, were those round discs made of vinyl which is used to record music. While “Cassettes” are those rectangular thingies that used to house these long “magnetic tapes” which also records and plays music. Ang galing ‘no? Parang iPod!When I was about 9 or 10 years old, Channel 13 (it was called IBC 13 back then - oh shit I’m old!) started playing these music videos of The Beatles during their concerts and television appearances. And I was like “Oh my gash, those are the songs my mom used to sing!” So I would watch out for these videos on our 8 inch-channel dial-black & white TV and it was amazing!
During high school, we were able to afford to buy a cassette player and purchase compact audio cassettes. So we started to have these Beatles music in the house which made my fanaticism stronger. We then upgraded to compact discs when the CD player came along - came more Lennon/McCartney and George Harrison tunes. Then the MP3s music format blasted thru the scene while I was in college. I began downloading Beatles songs on the internet using Napster on our dial up modem. Good times – two weeks to download a 2MB song. It then surprised me one day when I was singing a Beatles song and my mom asked me “who sang that?” Cool, I knew more Beatles songs than my Nanay. I caught a major case of Beatlemania.
I would read and research about the Fab Four every time I could. I remember during college, I would stay at National Bookstore Cubao after school hours and read books about the band from 3:00pm to 7:00pm without realizing what time it is. I think I finished 13 books overall about the band during my visits to the “National Bookstore Cubao Library”. This one security guard got wise with my act and in one occasion, almost literally dragged me outside the store because I opened a plastic sealed hard bound book about John Lennon. I miss the old Cubao, which used to smell like urine and gook and had dirt everywhere, now it’s all “clean and sosy”. Eww!
Yup, The Beatles music has been a big part of my life. Not a single day goes by that I don’t listen to one Lennon/McCartney hit or hum a George Harrison song. Their music inspires me, moves me, and helps me thru trying times. “Yesterday” is my favorite song by the way (no surprise there).
I’d like to go on and on about how great these four men from England are but I have no time. Just Google “Beatles” and see their awesomeness! My co-workers and I went to Liverpool when we were in the UK, I had the best time of my life. I was like “my god, I’m in Liverpool! I’m at Albert Docks!” Spent £110 on The Beatles Story Museum gift shop – didn’t care. Great day!
About the “father message to son” spam mail, I would like to agree with the dad. I believe (or want to believe) that being exposed to The Beatles music at an early age really did made my mind open to all song types and genres. I like almost all kinds of music; classical, OPM, reggae, rock, soul, jazz, R&B, pop, heavy metal, love songs, hip-hop, theater, rap, etc… love and enjoy them all.
I would also like to send a message to those idiotic parents blaming music for how terrible kids are turning out these days. Please, don’t use music to cover up how lousy you are at raising children. My parents let us listen to all kinds of music, my bros, sis and I turned out OK (well, my siblings did, heheh). Tatay ko nga bumili ng Guns and Roses at Live cassettes ko n’un eh.
The Beatles Rule!!!
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