Just watched the video of the recent Late Late Show with James Cordon, in which Paul McCartney makes the rounds with him singing songs. So they were in Liverpool and what got to me - during the near half hour video - was when they returned to the house Paul grew up in, where he composed his first songs and had John Lennon over. Such a little row house, with the sink his dad hand-washed undies in, and the bathroom as the best acoustics in the place. Clearly the house Paul grew up in is something of a local tourist spot since there are early Beatles photos on the walls and so on. Paul said he had NEVER been back there since the early days. That surprised me. So I had to wonder if he went home and then processed it. I also found it interesting that his mother, who died of breast cancer when he was about 16, had come to him in a dream, saying "Let It Be!"
As you may know if you've read this blog from the beginning, Paul McCartney makes occasional appearances in my dreams, and usually he is cheerfully on the move. When he shows up in my dreams I take him to be the spirit of creativity.
But last year - wish I'd written down the date - I had an entirely different Paul McCartney dream. He was sitting on a chair, not in movement. Yes he had his left handed guitar in his lap but he wasn't playing it. I sat down across from him. And when I briefly touched the top of his left his hand with my right, he allowed this. Our eyes also fully met. And Paul looked like the aging man he is. So maybe this had something to do with continuing to create even as one ages.
Watching the video this morning, I was thinking about the Grammy Museum, one of my favorite spots, and the Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey) Show. Sadly, I missed the previous George show and John show. On display was a black and white TV set that looked like it was from the very early 1960's and through some video magic, Beatles performances were being played on it continuously. I found myself smiling, but then everyone standing around me, and all through the exhibit was smiling. The vibe was just tremendously positive and happy. I must know the lyrics to most of the Beatles's songs, and listened to all of them hundreds of times, yet I have no attraction to a local Beatles Songs radio show or going to see the reenactment groups that tour.
I didn't grow up with the Beatles, but then I did, simply because I had older female cousins who were into them who lead the way. And then in high school I had a friend who got an allowance and did some extreme "baby-sitting" (child-care) who had almost the entire Beatles collection, plus a hot robin's egg blue bedroom that was full of Beatle's posters. So we'd sit and listen to these albums together. Yet, all these songs were already Oldies.
She moved away and one day when she came back to visit, she handed me ALL her Beatles Albums and I still have them, though I have not had a stereo system to play them on in as many years. Sometimes I think I'm going to sell them. Sometimes I think I'm going to surprise her and ship them back to her.
In a sense I was too young or too old for the Beatles. In the question about who I idolize, I said I had stopped having idols after my teenage years, so no one. And this is true. Though Paul McCartney has been showing up in my dreams since I was maybe 10 or 12 years old, and in the fifth grade I made the claim that he was my boyfriend (!), my friend and I used to sit up in her tree house and go through magazines she bought, such as Creem, and try to decide who was the cutest of any number of Beatlesque mop tops. I'm now savvy enough to know how well I was marketed to!
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