How You Got Into The Beatles | Page 7 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

I really don’t know, to be honest.

Growing up, about 75% of the music I was subjected to was classical music. We did watch a TV show called Top Pop, and my older sister introduced me to rock music when I was young, but I don’t recall hearing much Beatles music. I knew who they were though, I guess it was an inevitable part of the collective DNA in those days (late seventies through early nineties). 

I do recall quite vividly how Imagine was a much played song on the radio, and We All Stand Together is one of my happiest childhood memories. When I went to what we call “continued education” (high school, I guess) at the age of 12, music education became part of the curriculum. It always had been in a fashion, but only very casually. Anyway, music education involved learning to read music, understanding time signatures, hearing the differences between different verses and choruses, learning to play an instrument, et cetera. As it happens, our music teacher was a Beatles fan. So a number of the songs we studied, were Beatles songs. One day, we even recorded Yesterday , with the teacher on piano and the students each singing one or two lines. Around that time, I had also taught myself to play Yesterday on the recorder. By ear, because I don’t really like reading music.

In the 25 years since, I’ve never really been very conscious of the Beatles. I’d hear them now and again, and I loved what I heard, but it was all very casual and coincidental. I honestly have no idea why or how that changed, but it was some time in the last few years or so. It may have something to do with me attempting to learn to play the guitar. I’m rubbish at it, but my tutor is a huge Beatles fan and he’s included many of their songs in his lessons. Coming across those lessons made me realise I had always loved their music very much, and though I hadn’t consciously listened to it that much before, I already knew most of their songs by heart. Not all of the lyrics of course, but most melodies were very familiar. Then, when I started listening to more of their solo work, I realised I already knew quite a few of Paul’s solo and Wings songs too. 

Even though I have now completely brainwashed myself with their music, it must have always been a part of me. I’m not the kind of person to listen to the radio a lot, and being born in 1978, Beatlemania wasn’t around anymore when I grew up. I can’t have been exposed to the music that much during my childhood either, or I’d have remembered. Still, I’ve always been a fan somehow. Funny how that works. Maybe it is in my DNA after all!

I was first exposed to The Beatles at a young age, about 6-7. I had never really listened to their music, but I sang Yellow Submarine in music class, and I loved it. One day, years later, I looked up the song and listened to it. I was so shocked, I loved how it sounded. But, what really got me into them months after that was curiosity. My mom was born in 1970, a few days before Paul left, so she never really listened to them. My dad was born in ’67, but he didn’t listen too much of The Beatles either. Anyways, I looked them up, and I listened to Here Comes The Sun , Hey Jude , Come Together , Help ! and so many others! It slowly became an addiction, and now I have a pile of Beatles songs on my IPod, a Beatles t-shirt, and a CD I rented from a library.

Edit: I also kind of remember looking up random things on Google, and I remember looking up “musicians with alter-egos” or something like that, and the SPLHCB album kept popping up, so that might have sparked something, but I can’t remember too well. Also, I remember taking quite a few months to memorize names. George took the longest, where I couldn’t remember his first name, and Ringo took the shortest amount of time. Another thing was I remember looking up photos of each Beatle, trying to come up with certain features of each of them, just so it would make it easier to memorize.