Why you shouldn't just, 'Let it be'

A close encounter with the fab four

Two years ago, on a short visit to the United Kingdom, I was the only one who showed interest in going to see the birthplace of the Beatles. Disappointed, I reconciled by listening to their music on a long train ride to a lock in Scotland.That all changed last month when 2025 became the year, I would accompany my daughter and older sister to relive a bit of Beatlemania.

Some would say it is 'just' music. In my humble opinion, you'd be undermining the truth. The founding members who had a chance meeting in 1960 would soon alter the very foundations on which popular music (or pop music) would be written. To be seated in front of the actual wooden stage where John Lennon and Paul McCartney first played, which is archived in the Liverpool Museum, leaves fans with enough time to reminisce about a time when those boys were only teenagers in 1957. The museum visit is free, so we had time to see the original grey high collared spiffy suits that the Beatles wore when their then manager, Brian Epstein, decided to spruce up their look. There is also the original quilt that Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono were gifted and would use as part of their protest for peace, shortly after their wedding in 1969.

But besides all these notable dates and legendary memorabilia, I wondered what relevance the music and indeed these musicians may have for the youth of 2025. The message seems clear, if you stop to listen. They certainly weren't out to change the world when 'Yesterday' was written perhaps but to have sung that song countless times and to see the original music sheets protected in 'The Beatles Story,' a museum for more ardent fans, holds a special place in your heart.

You may think that the price of entry to this Story centric museum is a bit steep at £22, like I did. However, it offered a visit I'd not soon forget. Every minute detail is recreated from the entrance to the 'Cavern Club' where the Beatles performed many times and you will also see the last piano that Lennon ever used. Harrison's first Egmond guitar that he played as a child is in bold display as are Ringo's drumsticks. For someone who has grown up listening to their songs through the years, often replaying a song like "We can work it out," to listen to the tambourine jingle, coming close to the percussions that helped create the music, is nothing short of euphoric.

You can be sure to mingle with fellow fans who bump into you in the halls as you are left with your jaw on the floor, as you pass the immaculate white piano Lennon used for the video of "Imagine," a song forever etched in most people's imagination.The peculiar spectacles Lennon made famous, two varieties of them, are carefully boxed in this museum. I still feel goosebumps thinking about the fact that I was inches away from someone I often looked up to in my own teenage years. The lyrics of the song, "Help," come to mind. We used the lyrics to beckon our college batch mates to donate blood to fellow citizens back in India. The song worked its own magic as ran down the halls and got the attention of young donors.

The plethora of music and legendary status of the Beatles did travel across time zones and the ages. Their impact in India is without doubt and that is not only made clear from the song, "Across the Universe," and countless others I am still listening to as its released now and again. A simple book that Harrison has signed dedicated to his 'guru' after a visit to India is housed in the museum as well.  

Ticket to Ride

To complete the Beatles trip that we were on, we boarded the 'Magical Mystical Tour,' a bright yellow bus that takes you to the doorsteps of the lads who grew up in Liverpool. The two-hour ticketed ride is worth every penny as (you guessed it), they drive up to Penny Lane and back, offering fans a chance to pose for pictures. It was a quaint moment as you drive past the river where Lennon’s parents first met.  

You can be forgiven for being sentimental as this author was when stopping by ‘Strawberry Fields,’ which is now an institute that helps provide work for people with learning difficulties. We weren’t allowed to step inside this place but were left comforted by the fact that there still a lot more to see. For example, the building that many of the songs, including some by Freddy Mercury many years later, were written or the bus stop that Sir McCartney used to go in to school as a little boy.

I left on a high note, with music coming out of my ears for the next few days when nothing was playing. Sure, Liverpool has much more to offer, especially if you are a football fan or love architecture or fish n chips. For me passing, ‘Hard day’s night,’ Hotel, with an unwitting smile plastered on my face, it is a visit that I feel fortunate to have shared with my guitar playing teenager.  In the words of another famous member of the United Kingdom, “If music be the food of love, play on.”

#Beatles #music

Strawberry Fields Forever

Yesterday, once more

When love is all you need

If you can imagine