Took her home and nearly made it

The entire Beatles catalogue has been re-released. Yeah, I know. Seems like it’s been re-re-re-re-released or something. Stick with me, here.

Anyway, this time around, all of their original recordings have been re-mastered and remixed. You can grab a monstrous boxed set of the whole shebang, or buy the original albums piecemeal.


On Sue Henry’s WILK talk radio show yesterday, she asked of her listeners which of the Beatles original albums would they buy if they were limited to buying one and only one. And without hesitation, I belted out, “Sergeant Pepper’s,” which got the folks doing yard work directly across the street eye-balling me over the tops of their glasses.

So today I wandered into my earthly version of heaven, Joe Nardone’s Gallery of Sound, flipped through the racks, and found myself unable to purchase only one. I know, I know. A clear lack of self-restraint on my part. Get in line, and then shoot me.

I left the store with Magical Mystery Tour, as well as Sergeant Pepper’s in hand, as well as a free Beatles lithograph. A surprisingly large one, I might add.

Predictably, I decided to start with Sergeant Pepper’s, and I also decided to kick things off with one of my absolute favorites, Lovely Rita. And before the first verse arrived, I was blown away by the introductory guitar lick followed by Paul’s whimsical and prolonged Ahs, and George and John’s perky backup vocals. And at 100 decibels or so, it was almost sonic. Soaring like it never did beforehand.

Blown away, man. I was blown away.

Hearing it like that reminded me of hearing it for the very first time as a kid on my step-dad’s Lafayette brand stereo components. At least, the excitement level reminded me of when I was a kid listening to a new Beatles LP on vinyl. Yeah, the nervous excitement. I remember that feeling. Actually, with the filth that passes as music today, I miss that nervous excitement. And I swear, the only thing missing was my mom yelling at me from downstairs to turn it down.

It’s 40 years later, and I’m still all agog over the magic that was. Oh, and still is.

If you’re a Beatles fan, you have to hear this to believe it.

Now, when are they going to re-master The Rutles?

Later