[Ghoulish Delight]

I was kind of a hybrid. My parents were classical music listeners, but they had a certain appreciation for the Beatles. They didn't listen to it, but they had no objection to us listening to it, so I was exposed to it pretty early and don't really recall a time not having some awareness. Since it relatively ever-present, I had a very murky concept of exactly the time frame. I remember knowing a collection of fragmented facts with no sense of how they fit together to create the history of the band. I knew Lennon had been assassinated, but it took me a while for it to sink in that it was after I was born. I knew the Beatles had broken up because of someone named Yoko Ono (apparently a crazy Asian lady to go by the parodies I'd seen), and if I had been asked, I might have thought about it and put those two facts together and figured out that the latter probably happened before the former.

And the fact that they sang both Twist and Shout AND Lucy in the Sky confused the snot outta me.

I eventually filled in the gaps and have grown to be blown away by their incredible ability to successfully reinvent themselves and stay ahead of the curve. At this point, while I certainly understand that they can't be everyone's cup of tea, but I can't wrap my brain around people who don't acknowledge some amount of appreciation for what they were. The pretty much guarantees that me and them should never talk music.