While I wrote the following for my Music Appreciation: The History of Rock N’ Roll class, I think it belongs on my funny little website, too.

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I have never been a Beatles fan. I’ve enjoyed most of the Beatles covers I’ve heard, but it’s been rare that I’ve heard an actual Beatles song, performed by the actual Beatles, that I’ve thought was great.

Some Beatles songs have actually turned me off quite a bit: “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road” “Revolution 9,” and “Yellow Submarine,” among them. Which is kind of weird, upon reflection, since I enjoy overly simplistic songs by the Misfits and the Ramones.

I always sort of avoided the Beatles, preferring to listen to bands like Black Sabbath, and the bands inspired by Black Sabbath. It’s been easy to ignore the fact that Black Sabbath were themselves hugely inspired by the Beatles. Ozzy Osbourne even said, “The biggest break in my life came when The Beatles hit. They totally sucked me in and I thought, ‘That’s my way out, my music.’”

Well, having context for the Beatles has made all the difference. For years, my little brother has been trying to get me to listen to, “Abby Road,” with an open mind, but with zero success. Not even that time we enjoyed half a bottle of whiskey while our girlfriends were out of town.

Music goes through trends. It evolves. Bands themselves evolve. Early Judas Priest, for instance, sounds almost nothing like their more recent albums. Priest’s early albums sound dated. It sounds like it came from the early 1980s. The Beatles are not exempt from this phenomena. Their music has a certain 1960s hippy-dippy quality to it, in the same way Judas Priest has that kind of 1980s tight-pants, big sneakers sound. But it would be extremely unfair to either band to say that they were just a hippy-dippy ‘60s band or just a big hair ‘80s band. Both bands were obviously children of their generation and had that sound, but both were so very much more.

It’s my ability to see that the Beatles were so much more than just a ‘60s band that’s amazing. Up till now, I’d discounted them as,  “that garbage my folks listened to, and we all know how much sense they have.”

And so, after all these years, all the self-education that landed me with a huge library of music all the way back to Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, and Alice Cooper, I finally got a Beatles album. Since my brother’s been saying it for years, I decided to requested, “Abby Road,” from the San Luis Obispo library.

The first time I listened to it, I was cooking dinner; I wanted to kind of ease into it. I wanted to get a general impression while thinking of other things. I got a good impression. I recognized a few songs, including, “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” “Here Comes the Sun,” and, “Come Together,” and generally thought well of it. A solid rock album, and I could hear the foundations they were laying that would later be built upon by bands like Megadeth and Iron Maiden.

The next time I listened to the record was in the best possible situation for music appreciation: stuck on a bus with nowhere to go, using headphones. The mix really came alive. The band’s use of stereo seemed kind of juvenile, in a, “hey, y’all, look what I can do!” kind of way, but now that I understand what was going on at the time, I can’t help but view it as charming. Sort of like a bunch of kids at the park screeching like banshees.

My brother says that Ringo Starr got, “the biggest free ride of the century.” I don’t know that I agree. I do think that if there was a weak link in the band, at least on, “Abby Road,” it was Ringo, but it was only by comparison. Ringo’s performance did not make the album less good in any way I could detect, and I can’t think of anything he might have done differently  to make any particular song any better.

It’s also funny to be thinking about an album in terms of, “sides.” Side A of the album was obviously a collection of singles: great songs that stood alone. Side B, starting with, “Here Comes the Sun,” was a lot more stream of consciousness. That is, the songs seemed more connected, and they flowed from one to the next, often making it difficult for me to know without looking at my iPod if I was listening to a new song or not. I prefer the first side, myself, as the songs seem to have a much more defined rock ‘n roll structure about them. It’s no surprise that the songs from, “Abby Road,” that ended up on their, “1,” album were both from Side A. What is surprising is that only two of these songs made it to that particular compilation.

It’s easy for me now to understand what everybody’s been talking about all these years when they talk about how amazing the Beatles are. I’m not sure that it’s music that I would seek out and listen to on my own, but I’m not sure that it’s not, either. My mom asked if I regretted all those wasted years without their music in my library. After giving it some serious thought, I concluded that no, I don’t regret it. I wasn’t ready for them. Seems I really needed Music  237 at Cuesta College to get me ready for the Beatles. And maybe a decade and a half of horrible metal to soften me up.

It was a long battle. I went kicking and screaming. A thing I never expected happened: I’m a Beatles fan.