With the Beatles

 What does it mean to be "significant"? (and you can scale this to your particular level of existence and/or need)

I was watching a baseball game, as I am wont to do. It was the Angels and Orioles. The camera zoomed in on the batter who was placed in his shot so that the pitch clock was visible, ticking down beyond him. It was at 13 seconds and I realized -- this guy, this kid, knows that within the next 13 seconds, he will do something that others will record, review, write down and analyze, opine about and reconsider well into the future, whether he succeeds or fails. He is guaranteed immortality as a part of the quantified history of the MLB. That is to be significant, knowing that whatever you do, it will be seen, thought about, considered and remembered. I'm an English teacher. While a small group of people is supposed to be hanging on my every word, even they will forget me and what I do today, probably before the bell rings and while my words are still warm in the air.

The Beatles were doing something significant, most every moment fo their lives, for 7 or so years. Their music is layered like a multu-track recording but somehow, the elements on one track act like they are aware of what is and isn't on the other tracks, and they act accordingly. There is an interrelationship between sections recorded at different times. Somehow, they retain their identity as part of a whole and not a discrete aspect. The brilliance of the Beatles isn't the music, but the relationships between the elements OF the music, a relationship which constructs a frame for the music. The instruments are aware of each other, the harmonies explore impossibilities, using even discordance as a tool to communicate anguish, with the emotions in the performance coming alive. The music (to mine a cliche) then transcends. Not that it transcends anything in particular, it just does.

The choices of harmonies (and they made choices) was as a mask worn by a character in whose guise the songs were sung. The Beatles were actors in the truest method of the word. They breathed life into the songs, even if it wasn't their lives. They were authors of stories and made decided choices about how to tell those stories. Listen to something as apparently mundane as the drums on "I saw her standing there" with their "making it up as I go along" facade hiding some surprisingly difficult work.

In fact, were I to finally plunk down the cash and buy a time machine, I think a moment I would like to travel to, a moment which is pretty high on that list would be to the time when I first heard Beatles music. I want to watch myself being rolled over by the enormity of what I was hearing. Was I an infant, unable to appreciate music as anything other than soothing sounds? Did my love come from repeated hearings before I was able to know what was going on? Or was there a day on which I put an album on for the first time and just "got it"?

Truth is, they were toying with us. TOYING with us! Consumer preference is supposed to drive the cultural milieu through a series of give and take agreements and compromises until a middle position is established.  The artist moves the marker of what is part of culture and the consumer accepts it to a degree and the artist moderates to meet that demand. The sides of consumer vs. artist meet in the middle, where the artist's experimentation remains palatable to the public appetite looking for innovation but only within certain constraints of tradition, comfort and predictability. But the Beatles thumbed their noses at us and never gave in. They insisted that we meet them on their terms, not via compromise but via our complete capitualition. We ceded the power of culture creation and let them drive us wherever they went, and we followed, not demanding any sort of balance with our preferences. They dragged the culture where they wanted to go, setting trends and waiting for everyone else to catch up and on.

I daresay that one of the defining features of cultural importance exhibited by the Beatles is the percentage of their discography which appears on someone's "favorite song in the world" list. Sure, many people have the hits on their list, but so many of the Beatles "deeper" cuts are still named by people as "that song." This percentage is higher than for most other artists. So when Jet steals from a few different songs (like the lesser known "Sexy Sadie") or when you realize how much Bohemian Rhapsody owes to Abbey Road, side 2 you start to see fingerprints everywhere.

I listen and consider their impact on society, culture and music, and I also understand that this all happened for a relatively small window of time. The transition from Mop Top to hippie to fantasy character to proto-slacker reflects and is reflected in the greater culture. Imagine the social upheaval, the drive to advance and evolve -- what other era has gone so far, so fast? I think the answer is clear: anyone younger than I am sucks and get the hell off my lawn.

So, in sum, if anyone has any contacts to Sir Paul or Sir Richard, please let each (and both) know that I feel fortunate to have the chance to listen to the fruits of their efforts. It really is good stuff, so thanks.