As a teenager I always rejected The Beatles. Originally I just passed them over as music my mum liked, one of my earliest memories is going through her record collection and seeing her copy of 'Revolver', on the back she had written "Paul, John, George, Ringo" with hearts drawn all over. Then as I got into the Manics and The Clash I rejected them for more ideological reasons, one of my favourite Manics quotes is the "I laughed when Lennon got shot" line from Motown Junk, and the line "No Elvis, Beatles or The Rolling Stones" from The Clash's 1977 was daubed all over my school textbooks, and this stuck with me for a long time.
My friends were into The Beatles, my best friend while I was growing up tried time and time again to get me into them, he would play The White Album when we were sat around his house on rainy weekend afternoons and make me compilation tapes but I was just never receptive to them.
Over time there was a slight shift, I became less obsessed by the bands who I immersed myself in when I was growing up and my reasons for not listening to The Beatles made less sense than before. I gave Rubber Soul a listen and was bowled over by how much I simply liked it and the simple pop of their early tracks like "I Wanna Hold Your Hand", "She Loves You", "Do You Want To Know A Secret?" became impossible not to love.
This happened over a period of five years, up until this point I would just download an album as I thought about it or as I heard a song of theirs I liked. Then around two months ago that same friend of mine I talked about earlier got me to go see a Beatles tribute band at the Cavern club in Liverpool with him. From that night until now I have had Beatles songs swimming around my head pretty much daily.
Today I have gone to whole distance and am downloading the box set. I now intend to listen to it fully and know those albums as well as I know The Smiths and the Manics. That is a big statement for me to make but I shall do it.
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