Pen's Nest

I've been in love with them since I was 3. There was the Beatles and *all that other stuff*. Back in the 60s most of the pop radio stations played top 40 most of the time and of course that led to the Beatles being played quite a bit. I think I liked John the best at first, then Paul in the mid 60s, then went into a Ringo phase in the late 60s, then a George phase in the early-mid 70s, back to a John phase in the late 70s and back into a Paul phase in the 80s. Still a huge fan of The Beatles collectively and as solo artists, but Paul remains my favorite to this day.

Throughout school there was a big rivalry between The Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Despite the bands being friends, at my school, you only admitted to liking and owning albums of one group or the other. The Beatles were far more popular. I didn't own a Rolling Stones album for years until a friend was giving their LP collection away when they were moving. I thought it was okay as long as I didn't buy it, LOL!

I didn't know they'd broken up until I complained to my dad I hadn't seen any new Beatles records to buy. I kept looking, but I already had everything. That was when my dad actually laughed and me and told me they'd broken up a year or so earlier. He didn't even tell me they had solo stuff available, but I managed to discover that and have almost everything John, Paul and George put out solo and a handful of Ringo's stuff. I still have all my records to this day, also all the Beatles stuff and much of the solo stuff on CD as well.

The general thought is that they're mostly signing lead on the songs they wrote, however, it wasn't unusual for John to write choruses for Paul's songs or Paul to write choruses for John's songs. I definitely agree John was a better master at lyrics while Paul had a knack of developing was really awesome and catchy tunes. If you read through some lyrics of Paul's best songs, they're generally pretty simple. That only makes them easier for the general public to sing along with I suppose.

I absolutely remember being totally devastating by John's murder. Right about the time of the murder I had an awful gut feeling that something was terribly wrong, but brushed it off as nothing. I heard the next morning on the radio that he had been killed. I remember crying so hard that my mom let me go into school late. Some of my class mates were walking around with black sleeves on their arms. I was too much of a mess to think of such a thing, however, as all of my T-shirts were black back then, I was at least wearing black, I am sure.

Paul has his good days and his bad days vocally to be sure. I saw him a year ago November here in St Louis. I think he hadn't been on stage since May. It was the best I have ever heard him sing live. I've seen him in concert 5 times, beginning in 89. I remember him sounding quite strained at some concerts I've been to as he'd often do 2-3 nights straight. I think his voice gets strained. But at his age, yes, he certainly has earned a happy retirement!

Always interesting to hear the Beatles POV from someone from England!