Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds?

Living in London for the past three months has made me want to try to integrate into the culture and understand it as much as possible. I’ve tried the “best” British ales, learned that a “queue” is a line and a “mobile” is a cell phone, and I’ve memorized the life and reign of each monarch.(ok so that’s an exaggeration, but I do know the basics!) But after visiting Abby Road, I realized that there was one other way I needed to integrate into the British culture. I needed to learn more about the Beatles and try to appreciate the music they made. I’m embarrassed to admit that I know very little about them or the music they made. But it seemed worth it to learn more about them, I mean I am in their home country and they seem to be a hot item, even today almost 40 years later.

Then my wish came true in class one day. We learned about the Beatles and the time period they lived in. Only problem was, well the music. We read lyric from Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Seriously? The lyrics made absolutely no sense to me. What are cellophane flowers or rocking horse people?

That’s when I decided to do a little out of class research. I asked someone who I thought would know for sure: my dad. Sure enough he did. He even took the liberty of explaining the significance of it all to me. His words of wisdom can be summed up in this, “You just have to understand the time period.” He echoed what I had already heard everyone else say; that it was the change they made to music that was so notable. It was the Beatles that revolutionized music. Even they began in the bubblegum wave with songs such as She loves you ya, ya. But as times changed with the Vietnam war and the drug culture, they changed music with meaningful lyrics that portrayed more adult statements and with more complicated instrumentals.
All of this made sense to me- a change in sound, more complicated instrumentals that shaped music years to come- but I still didn’t get the lyrics. That’s when my dad came to the rescue again and reminded me of the slang that’s evident in all the songs. That’s when the light bulb inside my head finally came on! When I think about music that’s popular today I also think of all the slang that’s strung throughout the songs. This slang will be completely meaningless to future generations much like how the slang from the sixties is completely meaningless and foreign to me. Good point dad.

One last thing my dad mentioned to me was that not only were the Beatles so important because of how they revolutionized music or because of the statements they made but because they were there, apart of his life as he grew up. He told me to ask anyone his age about the Beetles and they won’t just remember the song or the lyrics, but also where they were when they heard the song or the feelings they felt as they listened to it. So overall, it’s more than music itself, it’s about where the music takes you. I guess it’s not important to understand cellophane flowers or rocking horse people.