Well, Paul is touring Italy, Ringo is Ringo, John and George are still sort of dead...
Oh, you mean WHY all of a sudden I'm crazy about the Beatles? Don't worry. When I begin my psychedelic novel where Ringo saves JFK, start worrying.
It WAS sudden. I went to see Van de Sfroos on July 7 and the billboard listed a Ringo Starr concert the following evening. I thought "Cool" and went my way. Now I'm green with envy because I can't go see Paul in his Italian tour. What the hell happened since July 7?
I was a late-comer to... not really Beatlemania, more like Beatleology. I know it happened several years after George's death, because I don't remember being especially moved by it. But I love mysteries, so I got curious about the "Paul is Dead" controversy. (Paul is totally alive, by the way). On the various sites that try to prove John says "I buried Paul" instead of "Cranberry Sauce", there were samples of songs and they made me tap my foot. But that was all until...
Actually George's death has a meaning. It happened exactly 10 years ago to this day, about a month and a half after 9/11. That's also the reason why I'm writing today about this phenomenon that must have all my friends scratching their head. Those days and the ten years (of therapy) that followed saw my brain go to hell and begin to climb back, not to heaven but at least to cooler zones. Lately it's a rather productive but confused time, as you've read below, and somehow those tunes came back to my head. My dear cousin Luca had given me the Beatles' complete songs years ago, so I dug them out.
Oh wonder! They had a calming effect on my brain. Brain waves, endorphines, serotonine, dopamine, assorted neurotransmitters, what you will - that was it. I could have listened (and do) to them all day. I quickly made up my playlist which includes one of the most beautiful songs I had no idea existed, "Fool on the Hill".
I can also say the Beatles were THE music when I was born. And with this I've dated myself, but I can also relate this sudden passion to the desire of better understanding the times when I was born.
It might also be an early childhood memory - maybe Mom listened to them while she was pregnant, though she denies it. I know that from a very early age I thought that "Yesterday" was one of the most depressing songs ever.
And since I can't leave a good thing alone, I started researching, hence Beatleology. I love complex things, layered things. Right now I've come to the conclusion that the Beatles were a carefully confectioned canned product, everything calculated to make money. But this doesn't spoil my appreciation of their songs; I can keep the two fields separated. And despite the commercialization, those kids had fun, at least in the beginning, and it showed. They were young, beautiful, noisy, brotherly, happy to do their thing. It's a joy to watch videos such as Your Mother Should Know, artfully choreographed - and yet there they are, Ringo out of step (of course), John almost falls from the staircase, George struts his stuff like a boss... you can't help laughing with them. I know it wasn't like that outside the set, internal tensions tore them apart, but if they make me happy for 3 minutes, they've done their job and deserve their money.
Though this doesn't spoil the experience for me either, I'm uneasy about the drug issue. It seems the "clean-faced boys" where stoned 24/7 except when they were working, especially John and in a lesser measure George. Paul and Ringo were more restrained. But I'm uneasy about it in general. I don't do drugs but I do beer - is that so different? However, I don't want to go into much detail, but drugs have acquired a significance I despise - part of the anarchic philosophy "you can do anything, you have every right and no duties, and f*ck the police." Alcohol, though just as dangerous, never had that connotation.
But the Beatles lived at a time where drugs were taken for granted in certain scenes. George has much to say about it. He tried LSD for a time, then he realized he didn't need it anymore; it had been just a phase. He also says (in another life I'll post the exact quote) that Paul kept his drug use to himself, and when the press questioned him about it, he replied "For me it's a private matter, it's you who come digging after it." It's debatable, but the Beatles never came out and said "Do drugs, it's cool." George also says that Paul "saw God" after his first LSD experience. I did too, after my first good beer!
George, George, George. He's my fave because he's preternaturally handsome (and, Bro has added, dead). I like all the others; I think if I had to crush heavily for one of them it would be Ringo, the Prince of Underdogs. Paul is cute and I love what he did after the Beatles; John is brilliant, funny, intellectual, but overexposed, and I hate "Imagine" (before you delete me from your friends, I adore "Happy Xmas War Is Over", "Instant Karma", "Give Peace a Chance" - and I'm still studying).
But I've researched George and found his complexity fascinating. His search for the meaning of life, common to us all, has lead him to Hinduism. A very interesting website is Hari Georgeson (one of his nicknames), by a German fan, with many enlightening interviews. He found his spiritual peace, and so I wanted to learn from him, Guru Hari, though remaining a Catholic.
He talks about his masterpiece My Sweet Lord, saying that Hinduism allows the personal experience of the Lord Krishna. He was raised a Catholic, and says the Church does not encourage the personal meeting with Jesus (whom he considers a great guru). He says the Pope should lead his flock more towards this mystical experience. Having the mystical experience, meeting Jesus face to face, has been one of my concerns as a Catholic since forever. I almost reached it beneath the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem where I received my mission. George, if you can read me, the Pope DOES preach the mystical experience, but also how difficult it is... just like you said. The problem is that the Pope says so in his Sunday Angelus, but who spreads the word? Some websites and nothing else, that's the problem of the Catholic Church. Luckily B16 is internet-savvy.
And what if it's true that Krishna = Kristos, as George says? Ah, it's a win-win situation. If in the end you face Krishna, he'll praise you for following Guru Christ; if you meet Christ, he'll save you because you've been among the "righteous who in peace with God have left this world" (it's a quote from the Mass but I can't find the correct English version). I'm sure George is over there waiting for us, one way or the other.
Does it answer the question?...