Hail Lennon

Sdaeh rieht edih dna nur yeht semoc niar eht nehw, niar

-- John Lennon

That's John Lennon (RealAudio clip, 5 sec.) at the end of the great Beatles record Rain (RealAudio file, 2:57 -- courtesy Northwestern Univ.). So beautiful! The backwards bit is a recording of the first line of the song, "Rain, when the rain comes they run and hide their heads." Come to think of it, it's about as easy to understand as anything recorded today.

I'm having a little Beatles spasm. After listening the other day to the All Songs Considered special on the Beatles' "Let It Be" sessions, I'm heavy with appreciation and nostalgia for the Fab Four.

My personal Beatles highlights:

Feb. 9, 1964: The Beatles are introduced to the American public on The Ed Sullivan Show. I'm 8 years old, and I take my cues from my rapt 13-year-old sister. We love them.
 

Summer, 1964: I spend most of the afternoon walking up and down a street in Florissant, Mo. singing I Want to Hold Your Hand.
 

August, 1964: My 18-year-old brother goes off to college and gives his baritone ukelele to my sister. She learns to play it and, eventually, so do I. Beatles songs figure large in our repertoire.
 

July, 1965: Help! is released. [Caution: Unbelievably lame MIDI version of "Help!" at that link.] When the words THE BEATLES appear in the opening titles, I give my best Beatle-fan scream, just like I was in Shea Stadium. Unfortunately, I'm sitting with my now-14-year-old sister in a suburban movie house. She almost punches me.
 

Summer 1965: The falsetto coda of "My baby don't care" at the end of Ticket to Ride clues me in that something strange is about to happen to the Beatles and pop music.
 

1966: After listening all last year to Beatles '65 -- the U.S.-only LP that combined a number of pre-Rubber Soul B-sides and singles -- my sister and I dig into Rubber Soul. I'm now 11; I find the hint of psychedelia contained in the distorted album cover photo, the slightly irreverent use of the word "soul," the use of a sitar, and the misogyny of Run for Your Life all vaguely threatening.
 

1968: Hey Jude becomes the longest number 1 single ever; still, it plays on AM radio. I sit down one evening and count how many choruses there are at the end: the total is 17, I seem to remember.

Things get a little fuzzy after that, because for a long time I was too cheap to actually go out and buy Beatles records. I still don't have all of them. But I have to add:

1981: By now I am a performance artist in San Francisco. Inspired by the Annie Leibowitz cover of John and Yoko, I write a song, Be My Yoko and with another local performer, Lynn Grasberg, put together a show of the same title. It was about two artists who live together and have an obsessive relationship and aspire to be each other's muses like John and Yoko. Perhaps coincidentally, it's the only performance of mine my sister (by then married) has ever seen. She really liked it.