Having taken another day to think about the documentary “The BEATLES: Get Back” I keep returning to the same question, why do we still care so much about The BEATLES, fifty years on?
For me, the beginning and the end of it will always be the music. I have always felt that when I listen to The BEATLES in order, From Please, Please Me to Abbey Road, I run the emotional gamut of growing up. I start with just infatuation and wanting to hold someone’s hand, to then understanding that giving love is more important that taking it.
I also think that the overall BEATLES story still resonates because these were four nobodies in 1962, that really shouldn’t have amounted to anything given their backgrounds, and became four of the most famous people in the world, for what they created. That story makes them relatable, because they are regular people, like you and me. They weren’t born into great musical families, or had every opportunity handed to them. They liked music, did what they loved, and worked really hard at it.
The last thing that I keep going back to is that they were really friends. The BEATLES weren’t a business arrangement, like other bands. It seems like every bio I read about other bands, there is always the line about, how the public thought that said band members were best friends, like The BEATLES, but they weren’t. I want to believe that if the music is that much fun, then it has to be due to it being created by a group of best friends.
Watching The BEATLES: Get Back, I felt like I was having those points confirmed. I was watching how my favorite songs came into being. How they were taking from what was going on around them and tying to express it in music. How it was hard work, but relatable work; playing around, trying out ideas, leaving the song, working on another song, and then coming back to the song. Listening to each other and hearing the suggestions, and trying them out. It was work, but man, didn’t it look like the most fun work? And when they did get up on that roof, and got about three songs in, the excitement, the joy on their faces; It did look like they were those nobody kids at The Cavern club, just rocking out.
With fifty year on now, The BEATLES still make me feel good, about myself, about the world, about love, and about being optimistic. After all this time, they still make me feel included in the party.
