How Did YOU Discover The Beatles?

[Indica]

 

Yeah, the Rickenbacker sounded too good, but he still used the Hofner at gigs, for that iconic status.

[Paperbackwriter]

I guess, he used the Hoefner on stage, because he was used to it's easy handling. If you ever tried singing and playing bass simultaneously, you'll understand his preference.

[Will Campbell]

This is a great thread btw......

My mum used to work some nights and my dad and I would lie on a rug on the floor, listening to the turntable.

[ewomack]

It's amazing that the Beatles keep getting rediscovered by every new generation. I didn't grow up with the Beatles and knew nearly nothing of them until I started reading Rolling Stone's "Best Albums of All Times" lists. Then I saw song titles that I could hum, saw images I'd seen before, and suddenly had an epiphany: "AHHH! SO THAT'S WHAT THE FUSS IS ALL ABOUT!!!" Then I went out and bought everything and found myself obsessed. I read the good and bad biographies, watched the good and bad movies, started playing guitar and learned how to play loads of their songs (but was never able to convince any band I played in to take on a Beatles' song). In college the band I was in went into a recording studio, and the engineer explained all of the now industry accepted recording techniques that originated with the Beatles (and George Martin, of course). Strangely, my parents were the right age to have been fans, but never took the plunge. They had never even heard the White Album until I played it in my bedroom as a teenager, decades after its release. My dad once came in to my room and said "Who's this playing?" I said "The Beatles" and he couldn't believe it. "When did they get so strange?" he asked. I think I was playing The White Album or Magical Mystery Tour. I barely remember the day Lennon was shot, but I remember some of our neighbors being horribly distraught. I think I was playing with Legos when it came on the news. Little did I know...

So, I found them purely by accident, but it would have happened in some way shape or form anyway. An inevitable accident, you could say. I still hear kids much younger than me talking about them - they have apparently had the same accident I had. I also have a very young cousin who painted the words to "Strawberry Fields Forever" on her bedroom wall. The Beatles are her favorite band at an age when she should be listening to Britney Spears or some other such goop. See, there is hope.

Ed Womack

http://www.getmilked.com

[TurnMeOnDeadman]

Nice, well said story ewomack...I discovered The Beatles when my sister was playing them in her car one day, when she 1st bought Beatles 1...and Ive only heard Here Comes The Sun and Yellow Submarine

I listened to the whole CD and suddenly I was obsessed...I couldnt stop listening to that CD..then I told my freind I never knew how good they were, then he played me Sgt Pepper at his house...and I never knew how good this band was, and THANK GOD i discovered them...or I would still be listening to Blink 182 crap

[strawb3rryfi3ldsfor3ver]

Hm. I've always, y'know, appreciated the Beatles, but now I <3 them. ;;

I had a friend who was into them, and she kept showing me pictures of them and telling me to look at sites. We had this after-school rehearsal for a play, and we'd have to walk to another school -- so, out of boredom, i'd bring my CD player. She took her CDs and had me listen to whatever songs off of 1/Sgt. Pepper's/Magical Mystery Tour she liked at the time. Our little "group" would stop off at this ice cream store and hang out in between...there was this jukebox full of all kinds of oldies CDs. "Yellow Submarine" was played almost constantly. XDDD;

So, a few months later -- summer vacation. I'm sittin' in my room, bored. And songs keep popping into my head. Next CD I got -- just because those songs were grating on my nerves because I didn't know them -- was 1. At first, I was thinking -- why did I want this, anyway?

After listening to the CD a few times for a couple days, I was a hopeless addict. XD My friend kept showing me different sites and I was just...obsessing like mad. I rented Help! from the library. Fell in love with it. Got the soundtrack.

...and to save time -- the rest was history.

I remember I was watching TV and A Hard Days Night came on and I have no idea as to why I felt the need to watch it but I did and the whole time I was watching it I was so intrigued with them and It was also very entertaining. From the moment that movie finished, the obsession started and once you catch the beatles bug it never goes away. The very first song I had ever heard by the Beatles was Across the Universe, which to this day is my all time favorite Beatles song. When you listen to a beatles album for the very first time, its quite a magical night.

[Lenny Pane]

i would say about 25 years ago.. my mothers Brother gave me a 45 Single which was Helter skelter / got to get you into my life.. im not 100% sure if the B'side was get you into my life, maybe someone here could confirm that for me...im sure the cover was green and white.. then he gave me the Beatles Rock N Roll music album which i played to death lol.. then i finaly got my hands on the Red Album .. then i remember going to my local record shop which was called studio 4  ( im sure Apple Beatle will remember that lol ) and bought Love me Do (45 single) obviously a repress of the original as it was bought in the early 80's  ...and from then onwards ive collected numerous amount of beatle memrobillia and now i play along side Apple Beatle in a Beatle Tribute Band .. and the story continues..........

[Lenny Pane]

Well i was almost right lol, but had it arse about face

It was December 1980. Living in Merseyside it was impossible not to be bombarded by Beatles songs on the radio during the week after the murder of John. I was smitten and discovered that my parents had a copy of Rubber soul which I played many times before starting to buy the other albums over the ensuing months.

My parents were regulars at the Cavern and many other early Beatles venues in the period 1960 to 1962 but they were a little surprised at how much I came to love the Beatles music.  I guess in common with many of their very earliest fans they considered the later music as somewhat weird!

I have been playing the albums ever since.  Highlights were the first CD issues back in the 1980's and of course the later Anthology series.  Just been listening to Let It Be - Naked.

[andaludia]

My parents played them a lot (along with Elvis) so i got to hear them when i was young,as i have said i knew Tommy Moore and he really got me interested in them. also being from Liverpool they are all around

[GroovinUpSlowly]

To tell you the truth, for a long time, I really did not liek them at all, becuase I'd seen a Paul McCartney music video and made me go "ick" but, for the longest time, my friend had been telling me how awesome they are, then I got into Zeppelin, and I was looking through my dad's old cds and took all his Zeppelin, Stones, The Who, Bob Marley, S&G, and, of course, The Beatles-- the past masters 2 album-- I loved it, but never really got into them. Then about a month later, I was going to Tennessee with some friends, and I had bought AHDN for my boyfriend for his birthday, and as I was packing, and decided to keep it for myself and get him something from Graceland ^^ lol everything worked out well and then I became obsessed with them and that's my life story haha,

My parents used to have a lot of Beatles LP's around my house...but I really discovered them when I was about eleven yrs old, back in 1995, and  The Anthology Series was on TV. I  was completely hooked since the first time I saw them. I dragged other people into beatlemania as well, and I'm very proud of it, thank you

my sophomore year of college i lived across the hall from a fanatical beatles fan by the name of angie.  one day we were talking about how crazy she is about them and she asked me had i ever really listened to them.  i told her no but i knew bits of their songs.  she told me she was going to "convert" me and said that everyday before dinner i was to come to her room to watch one tape of the beatles anthology.  at first i was bored out of my mind!!  i just didn't see it.  but the further i got into the tapes the more i saw the light!  it got to the point where i didn't duck her before dinner but i came looking for her!  at the end of a week i was taking all of her beatles cds and taping them.  i couldn't get enough of them!  and it's mushy but i am going to credit her and definitely the beatles with changing my life.  i grew up in a bad neighborhood where most kids end up pregnant or in jail.  i made it through to college but i was on autopilot.  at some point in my life i just shut off to everything.  when she exposed me to the beatles, though, i felt like a newborn baby.  so much to learn from life, so much to appreciate and those four guys who had disbanded years before i caught on to them were showing me how special the world is.  if it wasn't for my newfound appreciation for life and art and the deepness of it all, i really don't know where i would be now.  i am a lot better off than most people i know. 

[Indica]

Thats great^
What a story!