In My Life

Who knows what John Lennon would have with these thirty years past?  I can’t imagine him going the stadium route like Paul McCartney.  Somehow, “She So Heavy” done with a pick-up band at Gillette seems ... well, obscene.

Watching a two-week old Glee on the DVR last night (yes, and happy to defend that), a commercial for Beatles’ music on iTunes came on.  I didn’t fast forward.

As with any Apple advertising, it was impeccably done.  Simple, clean, on message.  It ends with a black and white picture of Paul and John, smiling, looking down at what appears to be a lyric sheet.  

This is, of course, distance lending enchantment to the past.  The picture is from the White Album sessions — at which point, the forward slash was the only thing holding Lennon/McCartney together.  It was over by then.

Lennon would go on to write “Imagine” and “Instant Karma” and “Whatever Gets You Through The Night.”   But if you were in front of a fuzzy black and white TV on February 9, 1964, it is hard to get those songs out of the tar pit of the 70s.  The electro-magnetic shock which shot through those TV sets is impossible to describe.  For me, it was literally life-altering.   As an eight grader, I had already had an interview for seminary with the Passionist Fathers.

That idea went out the window in exactly the amount of time it takes to say, in your best Ed Sullivan imitation, “Ladies and gentleman ... the Beatles.”   Over.  Done.  Finis.  Paul (Tarsus, not McCartney) falling off his horse — a little stumble compared to this. 

We all have our musical tastes, and so much of our likes and dislikes are tied in with our hormones and/or limbic brain.  But for me, “In My Life” is seared into my memory and is — one person’s opinion, here — a perfect pop song.  It says, simply and cleanly, in 2 minutes and 47 seconds, everything that needs to be said.  And, perhaps the most astounding part, Lennon wrote this when he was twenty-five(!) 

My memories would lose a good deal of their meaning were it not for the man we remember today.

Comments

[Kristy Berksza]

John,

Jay and I used a few lines from "In My Life" on our wedding invitations. We also left the church to "Here Comes the Sun." (I know that's George, not John, but Beatles-related anyway...)

Also, until I was about 12, I had three cassette tapes: the red Beatles "best of," the blue Beatles "best of," and Born in the USA. :) I discovered radio at 12, and that all changed, but I love telling people I was raised on the Beatles. ;)