Sunday mornings, while the rest of the house was asleep, I'd put on these old bulky headphones that my father had purchased at a flea market somewhere. The classic rock station out of West Palm was airing the Lost Lennon Tapes, right after the "new age sounds" show, which weird whale songs and such. I'd always have a fresh cassette in the stereo and kept one finger on the pause key, so I could skip the boring narration and the commercials.
The Lost Lennon Tapes were from John Lennon's private collection. (Brought to you by English Leather!) There were unreleased songs, interviews and best of all, alternate versions of well-known tracks. My favorite episode was the about the development of "Strawberry Fields Forever". Over the course of the hour, they must have aired 10 different versions: one with just the drums, then just drums and mellotron, until finally the version we all imagine singing along to in the shower.
I remember the 20th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was 1987. That was 20 years ago. At the time, 20 years seemed like the entire paleolithic era could have passed. Now, it feels like the Joshua Tree (released in 1987) came out just last month.
When I was learning to play guitar, I asked my friend Eric how I should go about doing it. He said he had a simple plan, just learn to play Beatles tunes.
"Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see."
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