(I never got around to posting in this thread when it was current so I thought I'd bump it up again for my own purposes...)
I ran across a discussion about the Beatles in the Stanford University section of iTunes U. It was titled “Beatles on Your Brain” and it was one of those panel discussions with audience questions that go both everywhere and nowhere. It centered on the White Album since it’s been 40 years
since its release. I don’t really know what the title of the panel was supposed to mean but most of the discussion was about favorite tracks from the album and what they meant to the panelists. At the beginning of the discussion I could barely remember what songs were on the White Album (I only own it on vinyl so I haven’t been able to listen to it in years) but it started to come back to me as different songs were mentioned. I never thought the White Album was very cohesive, in fact I think it’s a mess, so it doesn't stick in my mind the way something like Abbey Road does. It was obvious the four Beatles weren’t working as closely together and it seemed like they just threw everything they had on that one album without trying to edit.
The panelists also spent a little time on the Beatles phenomenon and how it affected people personally. At one point they asked how many people in the audience had seen the Beatles live and I was in my car raising my hand high and wishing I’d been there to see how many other people responded.
Beatles music is always mixed up in my mind with the culture and the world as I was growing up. The Beatles have always represented more than music for me. They were the first big thing I became interested in that was outside my childhood world. In the beginning I was just part of the group because everyone (well, girls my age, that is) was in love with the Beatles. Later when the Beatles weren’t such a dominant force it was my first experience with being obsessed with something that was different from the norm. My best friend and I were the weird ones in high school because we were so devoted to the Beatles. Everyone else thought they were passe. So all these years later listening to this Stanford presentation I was delighted to hear other people talk so enthusiastically about this band that was so important to me.
(And for the same reason I was glad to see this thread even if it did take me six months to respond!)