"There are places I remember all my life"

Note: Prepare yourselves for more posts on The Beatles/Liverpool when I return to the states. Right now, I can’t upload the photos and videos. This is just the pregame.

My undergraduate course load, with an Integrative Physiology major, wasn’t simple. However, the most challenging paper I wrote was for one of my elective classes, The World of the Beatles. Go ahead, laugh a little. But, in all seriousness, I love the Beatles so fiercely, I wanted the paper to be perfect and I ended up rethinking every word (maybe letter). The paper was a persuasive argument on which Beatles album is their best. The answer to me is obvious: Rubber Soul, but I had to convince the rest of the world (aka my teacher and aunt, the only two people who have read the complete paper). My argument began like this:

“Growing up, I listened to and loved The Beatles music. I remember “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, “She Loves You”, “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “Come Together” playing on the radio, in the car, constantly. As I became more musically conscious, in my middle teen years, I started to collect The Beatles albums and evaluate them in their entirety. Rubber Soul was the first album to captivate me for the full thirty-five minutes and forty-eight seconds. I felt the change in the music. Without listening to Rubber Soul, it is impossible to link the transformation from the musicians in Please Please Me-Help! to the artists in Revolver-Let It Be. Rubber Soul is the best Beatles album because it was the catalyst. It tested the waters and pushed the limits. The la-de-da love songs were no longer in par with their competitors. This was the album where they truly had to step up. Because they did, Sgt. Pepper, Revolver, The White Album, and Abbey Road, all revolutionary and brilliant in their own right, were created. Rubber Soul was a catalyst; it transformed pop idols into studio artists.”

I will spare you from most of the remaining 8 pages of my argument, though I assure you it is an armored glass, Pope mobile, sharp-shooter quality argument.

I tell you this to try and impress how influential the Beatles are in my life and therefore how memorable visiting London and Liverpool is. I think the Beatles have, in some way, touched more people living today than they haven’t. If you are someone whose life is a little better because of their music, live vicariously through me in these blog posts.   

Yesterday after arriving in London, finding my mom, transporting my excessive amount of luggage to the hotel, locating my cousin, Alex, at the nearby Starbucks (Alex has been having an amazing summer traveling around Europe as a reporter for the track website Flotrack) and eating some fish’n’chips, we headed to Abbey Road Studios. Over the years, the Beatles recorded 191 songs in Abbey Road Studios, in addition to, naming their last record after the studio. In different combinations, my mom, Alex and I crossed the iconic zebra crossing while trying to avoid the huge amount of traffic. If you ever are bored at work, this webcam pointed at the crossing should keep you occupied http://www.abbeyroad.com/visit/. At the crossing, I was able to help out my future self. A dad was there with his three children. He was getting them lined up to cross and his camera died. I took pictures of his kids for him and will be emailing them to him because I can see myself lining up my children for a picture at Abbey Road. I can also see myself forgetting to charge my camera (cough cough Barcelona).

Today, we woke up bright and early and caught a train to Liverpool: the home of the Fab Four and potentially me if I just don’t board the train on Sunday. We had one of those great days in travel where everything works out. We grabbed a cab from the Lime Street Station and the cab driver was very friendly and was excited to hear I’m a medical student because his daughter is as well. We got to the hotel three hours before check in thinking we would just leave our bags, but we were able to check in. We headed down to Albert Dock for lunch, The Beatles Story Museum, Fab 4D and to explore the waterfront. I will pose some of the questions from the museum; I’m interested if you can answer without using Google.

·         What is Ringo Starr’s real name?

·         Who is Stuart Sutcliffe?

·         What is so special about the Beatles Apple Rooftop performance?

·         What year did the Beatles first visit America?

·         What was the name of the Beatles first UK single?

Shea stadium seats

After Albert Dock, we headed up to Mathew Street to the Cavern Club. The Beatles (back then, they went by several different names: The Quarrymen, Johnny and the Moon Dogs, The Silver Beetles) began playing lunch shows at the Cavern in 1961. Between 1961 and 1963, the Beatles played 292 at the Cavern Club. This is also where Brian Epstein, the Beatles manager, first heard them. The Cavern was in the cellar of a fruit and vegetable warehouse and the smell in the bar, during shows, was described as a combination of sweat, onions and the toilets. Today, in the replicated Cavern, we found a much more sanitary environment filled with Beatles fans and a great performer who alternated between playing the Beatles, Dylan, Neil Young and new music (Adele, Coldplay, Oasis, Kings of Leon).

A little blurry, but me singing on stage where The Beatles performed!

Finally, I will give you leave you with the conclusion of my Rubber Soul paper in the hopes that reading all the song titles makes you want to run and turn on whatever Beatles album is your favorite.

“The cover, title, and songs all presented the idea of change and together made the album a piece of art. Had The Beatles not stepped up to their competition in the fall of ‘65, there is no doubt that they would still be remembered. Beatlemania, The Ed Sullivan Show, Shea Stadium, none of these things were soon to be forgotten and neither were the four shaggy-haired boys who brought them to being. But, if Rubber Soul had not been created, if the pressure had been too much, we would have lost much more than we had been given. The personality seen in interviews that began to come across in “Drive My Car” would have been lost and in addition, future witty creations like “Yellow Submarine”. The beautiful reflection in “In My Life” would have been lost and in addition future nostalgic pieces like “Strawberry Fields” and “Penny Lane”. Without George’s laborious efforts of sitar playing in “Norwegian Wood”, the intersection of Eastern music and rock’n’roll may have never occurred. Because it did, not only did we get “Norwegian Wood”, but we were also given “Tomorrow Never Knows” and “Within You Without You”. If The Beatles had stuck to recording songs in just a few takes, most of the songs on Rubber Soul would have been drastically different and never would we have seen dubbing monsters like “A Day in the Life” and “Revolution 9”. If they hadn’t started directing the titles and album art, we may have lost the iconic images seen on Revolver, Sgt. Peppers, and Abbey Road. But, because The Beatles stepped up and produced this catalyst of an album, the four shaggy-haired boys became the greatest studio artists of all time and produced enough unbelievable albums to make the selection of the “best” something to be debated forever.”