It was my freshman year at NDSU when my obsession with The Beatles started. I have had a history of being obsessed with musical artists, going from loving Weird Al in sixth grade, to obsessing over Aerosmith from 8th to 10th grade and Eminem during my senior year and into my early freshman year of college. But at this time, I reminding myself how great Aerosmith was by listening to Toys in the Attic on YouTube. Then, I saw Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in the recommend videos section. My godfather is the biggest fan of The Beatles that I know, having loads of books, CDs, and posters in his house. Sgt. Pepper is his favorite album, and I knew it was highly regarded. Knowing this, I decided to give this album a listen to see what the fuss was about.
I wasn’t disappointed. My first listen of the album blew me away. I had heard a few of the songs before, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” being the one that comes to mind the most, but many of the songs were completely new. Some songs I had heard before, but never knew they were Beatles songs. “With a Little Help From My Friends” was always a Joe Cocker song to me, and the only time I had heard “Getting Better” was at the end of “The Cat in the Hat” movie. Enjoying the album as much as I did, I listened to it again and again, learning the words and listening for new things, and enjoying Sgt. Pepper even more.
My foray into The Beatles was just getting started. I listened to all of their albums on YouTube, and did as I had done with Pepper. They are were fun listens, but the albums from last half of their career were mind-blowing to me.
I had always liked most of the songs I had heard by The Beatles. My dad had The Beatles 1, so I had listened to that many times, and my godfather had made me a CD that had about 15 songs, coming from the albums of Revolver up to Abbey Road, not that I knew this at the time. These two discs were my familiarity with this band, and I enjoyed them both, but never thought of them as the best band ever. But when I finally listened to the albums, that was when it all changed for me. That was when my obsession with The Beatles started.
To this day, I continue to listen to them. I have all of their songs on my iPod, and on most days I will hear one of their songs come on in my car when my iPod is plugged in. I have read Wikipedia articles on just about all of their songs. I google search “The Beatles” daily, always looking for any new news on or related to this 50+ year old band (there is usually something new everyday). I have read rankings of albums and songs and done my own rankings (which is for a later post).
I now own shirts, posters, the Mono box set, and more. I have CDs that reimagine that they had never broken up, compiling their solo careers into a few albums (which if you want to see where I got these from go to http://albumsthatneverwere.blogspot.com/ and go to the 2012 posts). I know that there are fans who have done all of this and more than I could possibly imagine, but for a college student who got into The Beatles fifty years after they debuted in American, I think it’s safe to say I have a healthy (some may say unhealthy) obsession.
Tyson's Two Cents 