Last month, twelve finalists on American Idol were sweating it out as they do every season. Many howled like men and women possessed. Some did sound familiar with the concept of finding the right notes and holding on to them till the song's natural end. To state the obvious – these were the few who actually seemed to realize the singing part mattered more than pouting like Angelina Jolie or mooning before the television cameras like Michael Bolton on an extra sappy day. Enough about the Idol…Idols come and go, riding on waves of flimsy sms polls. The only reason I dragged the show in here is because all the desperately seeking (shrieking?) finalists were set the same task. Stick to Lennon/McCarteny numbers please.
The Beatles are always on my mind. Buzzing in my head in a nice way, playing on as life's essential soundtrack. Bad days: Whisper words of wisdom, let it be. Charged days: One thing I can tell you is you got to be free, come together. Long days: It's been a hard day's night, I've been working like a dog. A new day: Here comes the sun, and I say it's all right...
I'm a huge fan, always have been. So this episode of Idol was music to my ears. "Hail to the Fab Four," I said, curling up on the couch. "Play on…"
Their melody and harmony, the chart-topping, heartbreaking lyrics. The soul, the sound. Who with a ear for music can resist the Liverpool four's magic? What human with a beating heart can not bow at their altar?
There are philistines who argue that the Beatles – yeah, with an 'A' – best belongs to the sixties. (Lennon once joked in a magazine interview that the group's name came to him in a vision. In the said vision, a savant had emerged from a flaming pie to declare that henceforth they would be called the Beatles – with an A. Ah, the whimsy stuff of legend!). So the carpers say that the group is a relic, best suited for a time when answers, my friends, were blowing in the wind. "All that 'I want to hold your hand' stuff, man" drawls a friend. "A bit out of touch with our time, methinks," says the ignorant. "Forgive him ye gods," I mumble. "For he clearly has no clue what he's dismissing."
Over 50 years have rolled by since Lennon ran into McCartney at a garden fete. That was July 1957. A year later, a very young George Harrison joined the group as lead guitarist. Three years later, Ringo Starr (aka Richard Starkey) played with them. And the stars, they shone bright over Liverpool's obscure skies. Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds, girl with the kaleidoscopic eyes, floating down the river in a boat, she smiled under tangerine trees and marmalade skies.
The Beatles not just defined the 60s and 70s, they owned those tumultuous years. Beatlemania became a legitimate word in the world's vocabulary.
They set an unbeaten record with 13 multi-platinum selling albums in the US. They created six albums which sold 10 million copies. They have had the largest tally of number one albums than any other band – 19 in the US, 15 in the UK. They stayed on for the highest number of weeks in the number one slot in the albums chart – 174 weeks in the UK, 132 in the US.
No more lists. Why cheapen their magic with tawdry statistics?
What makes them special, what ensures them immortality on the musical landscape as well as in our memory, is their enthusiasm to create new sounds and experiment with their possibilities in every album. Rubber Soul, Revolver, the unforgotteble Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The sounds have a freshness that hooks you in. The band daringly used instruments which were never considered to be part of the popular rock and roll scene. String quartets, brass ensembles, sitar, swarmandal. They blended the new with the old, the regular with the unexpected. Made sure their songs cross the barriers of time and space, the lyrics winging their way over the years, all the way Across the Universe.
Those of us who watched the Grammy night on television this year were treated to a live Cirque du Soliel performance. The interesting mix of dance, acrobatics and theatre was choreographed to 'A Day in the Life' from the latest Beatles' album titled Love. Sir George Martin, the group's iconic producer and his son Giles Martin had edited the entire Beatles archive to compile the soundtrack of this Grammy winner.
Before new kids on the block like Rihanna rocked the Staples Centre at Los Angeles, the Crique du Soliet artists danced. And the Beatles cast their spell over the audience and millions of television viewers all over the world. The sixties may have become a dim memory. In the global village, there is no talk of revolution except the retail revolution. All that anti-war angst, all those dreams of a world where people live together in peace. You may say, they were given a decent burial. You may say, they don't matter in our time. But the magic of the Beatles, like a miracle, still seems to be working its wonders. Even in our time.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Beatles track 'Yesterday' is the song with the highest number of cover versions in the history of popular music. The number of covers done so far – 3000. The song was released by the band in the summer of '65. The list of artists who went on to do cover versions includes Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, Sarah Vaughan, Frank Sinatra, En Vogue…
"Why she had to go I don't know she wouldn't say
I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday…
Yesterday love was such an easy game to play
Now I need a place to hide away
Oh, I believe in yesterday…"
The game still goes on. There is war in our world, there is terror and dictatorship. The meek haven't inherited the earth, and the battle is still being won by those with the biggest arsenals. Money can't buy us love and never will. Heartbreak hurts like hell, even in the age of the all mighty free market. And without the sound of that Beatles album in the background, that song reaching out to hold our hand, how would we ever make it through the hard day's night?
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