Sometime in the early nineties I decided it would be really good to expand my Beatles collection. Lo and behold, I find the next tape to be played includes Revolver which contains some classic songs - Eleanor Rigby, which is an amazing poem with quite a pleasant tune; Here, There and Everywhere, a sweet little love song; Yellow Submarine, a sweet little nursery rhyme (I remember in my first week at Primary School we had a wet lunchtime and one of my classmates had the bright idea that we were all going to draw Yellow Submarines); and For no one, a sweet song about a love that 'could have lasted years', but didn't.
And then you get Sergeant Pepper, which destroys my thesis that the Beatles produced a lot of pleasant tunes but nothing special. What is special about the Beatles is embodied in this album. I was a student when the media were doing "It was twenty years ago today..." and the music sounded fresh then. Sixteen years on, it is still revolutionary, mind blowing...
Listen to the words of She's Leaving Home - the tiny details of domestic mundanity, and the poignant "She's Leaving Home after living alone for so many years..." Or When I'm 64...
Now, I'm betting that somewhere in your collection you have Sergeant Pepper, and I'll also bet that it's a while since you played it. Go on do me a favour, do yourself a favour, take that vinyl out of its sleeve. And th einner sleeve. Blow off the dust. Put it on the turntable. Listen to beautiful music (And sing along - you know the words...). Then come back here and tell me whether your day just got a little bit better!
