How Did YOU Discover The Beatles?

[stevie]

My aunty had all these old E.P.s, Twist and shout, etc. I was 8 years old and loved the music. then I got Help and Abbey Road for my birthday and Christmas. Very confusing at a young age to hear such diverse music from the same band! and why did they look different on the covers?
I've spent the 38 years since then on a fabulous Beatle journey...

[An Apple Beatle]

Nice to hear from you..Welcome Stevie.

[moonbeam34]

The instructor for a college course I took one or two terms ago included some of The Beatles' songs in the lesson plan. I always say that it's his fault that I became interested in the group. The level of interest steadily grew, beginning with Ringo and his songs "It Don't Come Easy" and "Photograph", which I heard on the bus coming home, fell in love with it and when I got home, downloaded it onto my mp3 player. Now I have a few Beatles documentaries, one movie, and five books.

[Hello Goodbye]

^

Well, that's a good start!    

Welcome to the Forum, moonbeam34.

[Busker Hook]

In the beginning of 1964 I read from a magazine a short article about a 'jazz quartet' from England with a sonorous name 'Beatles'. In the article they wrote how 'Beatles' were 'bad' and how they 'corrupted' youngsters, especially girls I grew very very interested in the article, for I had known: if soviet mass media criticized severely someone who belonged to "the Western culture", it mostly meant that the "someone" was of uncommon and considerable talent. I tried to get some more information about the "jazz quartet from England", but without any success. I only knew from the article the names of the boys: John, Paul, George, Ringo...
About a month or two later one fine night I turned on my home made wireless set and tuned in to the BBC - the radiostation (as well as the Voice Of America) often broadcasted good popular music and, of course, good rock-n-roll - in the USSR in the beginning of the 60's one could only listen to real rock-n-roll music mostly from western radiostations. Suddenly I heard - "Tell me wha-a-a-ay you cry and why you la-a-ie to me-ee..." I was "killed on the spot"...  I had never heard anything like that! It was like my old good friends were singing and playing specially to me. The style of singing, playing guitar, et cetera, et cetera - were absolutely "mine"! And the singing and the playing were superb! That time I "perfectly" didn't understand English, but it seemed it didn't matter - the "sound of the words" was like superb music and didn't need a "logical sense". And then the broadcaster began to say something in English, but I managed to make out the words: "John, Paul, George, Ringo!" Wow! So it was the Beatles!
I couldn't sleep till morning. "Tell me wha-a-a-ay you cry..."...

[Kevin]

About a month or two later one fine night I turned on my home made wireless set and tuned in to the BBC - the radiostation (as well as the Voice Of America) often broadcasted good popular music and, of course, good rock-n-roll - in the USSR in the beginning of the 60's one could only listen to real rock-n-roll music mostly from western radiostations. Suddenly I heard - "Tell me wha-a-a-ay you cry and why you la-a-ie to me-ee..." I was "killed on the spot"...  I had never heard anything like that! It was like my old good friends were singing and playing specially to me.

Great story.The chaps at MI5 and the CIA will be thrilled to know their subliminal messaging actually worked. Did you also experience an overwhelming urge to buy jeans and dabble in the stock market?

[Casbah]

I heard Hey Jude on the radio growing up as a kid, that was my first taste of the Beatles, but I was only 4 at the time, and I didn't make that big of an impression on me, music was more like background noise at that age. and as I got older, my mom bought me an album by The Buggs, the LIVERPOOL SOUND!



(I found out last year they were really from Omaha,  Nebraska. Buggers!)

But there were a few songs on there to get me interested, I knew I Want To Hold Your Hand and She Loves You... but what got me hooked was a dance at the Unitarian Church in 7th grade. Some of my friends older brothers had a band and they called themselves The Rutles, also being Python fans. They basically did the Hollywood Bowl album with a few others thrown in there. For some reason that clicked with me and I just went bonkers over trying to figure out every Beatles song. I started a Beatles band, started collecting magazines, etc etc etc...

And the rest is basically history, for me, anyway!

[Busker Hook]

Did you also experience an overwhelming urge to buy jeans and dabble in the stock market?

Yes, of course! For example, when I heard Hippy Hippy Shake, I experienced very overwhelming urge to go and buy blue jeans

[This Bird Has Flown]

It's a bit of a long story, but these sort of threads always get me in storyteller mode.
When I was about 5, I would always sit around at home and listen to CDs on this big purple CD player I had in my room.  I don't remember exactly how it was introduced to me, but I always used to play the Beatles 1 CD.  I loved the music right away! I would play that CD every day, and additionally, my mom would sing "All My Loving" when she  would pull me out of the bathtub and dried me off.  

I loved the Beatles from an early age, and I really wanted to see them live.  I had a slight problem with that sort of thing during my previous Monkees phase (it was a very short phase, I assure you).  When I saw that all of them were old on the TV I totally freaked out.  I hoped this didn't happen with my new beloved Beatles.  So I asked my mom, "Mommy, can we go see the Beatles?" and she got a sad look on her face, and told me that John had died a long time ago.  She told me that "some crazy man shot him."  I immediately cried all night, because right from the beginning John was my favorite.  It didn't really help that George passed a few months later...

For the next couple of years, I didn't really listen to the Beatles. (I don't know how I did it!) I pretended not to like them, seeing as it was becoming "trendy" to like them, and something about that rubbed me the wrong way.  But a few songs stuck with me all through that time, like Come Together, Hey Jude, Help!, and of course All My Loving. Some other songs too.  I had also heard a few covers of Across The Universe, and something about the song just blew me away.  I tried to think nothing of these things.

Then, a few months ago, I was just messing around with some friends, and for sh*ts and giggles, we decided to look up I Am The Walrus on the internet, because we all thought it was a funny song and we wanted to know who it was by.  Sure enough, the video of the Fab Four popped up, and I was looking at them through the whole song.  All week, everywhere I went, I would talk about I Am The Walrus and laugh uncontrollably.  I even linked to the video on facebook.  Shortly after, I saw a comment under the link from an out of town friend.  It read "This is crap. Look up other Beatles songs, they had much better stuff."  I then remembered the 1 CD.  I had to find it, and I wanted it NOW.  I (quite messily) looked through every place CDs are kept in my house, and of course the LAST CD in the LAST place I look, was the Beatles 1 CD.  I didn't have the purple stereo anymore, I just popped the CD in my old, beat-up walkman and listened.  My love of this awesome band just came flooding back to me there and then. I got a lot more of their music, and I'm learning more and more about them every day.
"You know, if you break my heart I'll go, but I'll be back again."
Aaaand, here I am!   The end! Go home! Read a book!  

[Penny Lane]

^  Wow, I'm glad you rediscovered your affection for the Beatles.  I've actually never bought the "1" album (since I already own all the songs), but from what other people have said, it's a really good starting point for those who are fairly new to the Beatles' music.  I think many others have gotten hooked due to that album.

[Mrs Lennon]

I think many others have gotten hooked due to that album.

I'm living proof!  

[Penny Lane]

I'm living proof!  

Cool!  (grin)

Has anyone here gotten hooked because of the Red Album?  That's what did me in.

[georgeharrisonluver]

^  Wow, I'm glad you rediscovered your affection for the Beatles.  I've actually never bought the "1" album (since I already own all the songs), but from what other people have said, it's a really good starting point for those who are fairly new to the Beatles' music.  I think many others have gotten hooked due to that album.

I have a pretty similar story to This Bird Has Flown. I got started with the "1" album as well. I always liked older stuff. I would watch the old Bugs Bunny/Looney Toons cartoons and shows from the 60's with my dad. In the car we'd always listen to the local oldies station(which played a ton of 60's stuff but have since changed to more 70's which made me really mad at the time but I love that too now). I really got into that music so my dad bought the "1" album when I was about 7 since it had pretty much just came out. I loved that CD! I would play it all the time and my dad and I would sing along. The Cd had pictures of all the singles and stuff and, like a lot of people first discovering them, I so shocked at how different thay looked after only a short period of time I hadn't really seen too many pictures of them besides the cd case until my dad got one of those books with beatles pictures in them. I really didn't have a favorite yet, but looking through that book I decided that George was my favorite. I'm not sure why, but he just stuck out to me. I remember talking about John and George's death with my dad but I think I was too young to really feel strongly yet, that has since changed though. Through the Beatles I found the Beach Boys and many other 60's bands that I loved at the time and still do.

For some reason around the time I started middle school I stopped listening to them. I started listening to more of the popular music that everyone else was listening to. that went on until about a year ago when I got my new computer and internet. I was on YouYube one night kind of messing around, seeing what they had, so I wanted to see if they had any older stuff and the thing that first came to mind were the Beatles. I was surprised to find their was a ton of stuff! The first thing I watched was the And I Love Her scene from A Hard Day's Night. I had never really heard the song before but I soon fell in love with it. I spent hours on youtube listening to songs like while my guitar gently weeps, strawberry fields forever, norwegian wood, I am the walrus, songs that my dad said were great but I had never heard. That got me into Rubber Soul, Relover, Sgt. Pepper, and the movies. I was constiently finding new songs and was amazed by each of them. George, who I had forgotten about, became my favorite again and I became hooked all over again. So long story short hear I am and completely obsessed! my new thing is learning them on guitar(as soon as I get one that is). I think I've wanted one for 10 years and I'm still waiting for the one my parents have been promising me   ha ha that was alot of typing

[Penny Lane]

^  Lovely, thank you for sharing.  

Here's a special George song:

xzkhOmKVW08

One of my personal Beatle faves!

[RockNRollMusic63]

When i heard about John Lennon's R.I.P Death, then i never new what he was or done so i looked into it and then got into it ever since.