She's the kind of girl you want so much it makes you sorry, still you don't regret a single day.

Or in other words:

Beatlemania!

I found this pic here

Twitter got me thinking (I know, right?) -  I have a bunch of tweeps that are new to the Beatle Machine and OBSESSED with any and all things Beatle and at first I was like, "Slow it down my ladies, savor the Beatle flavor" but in all honesty, I am totes prone to a Beatle freak-out at any given time as chronicled here for you in past bloggies of squeedom.  And I know this about myself. You all know this about me.

I found this pic here

And I thought back to when I was IN the mania -not that it's ever really left- and what started it, why did it manifest itself into at least a 15 year mental virus that turns everything I look at into deeper Beatle meaning. For example, while in high levels of mania I swore up and down that Jesus Christ Superstar was written about the Beatles break-up.... 

It's not that far fetched. 

Maybe I'm crazy... 

I found the JCS pic here  and the YJP pic here. 

DON'T FLAME ME!, religious people and rock opera people, and Webber-Rice people, Broadway people - just give it an objective view. (I'm totally revisiting this conspiracy theory of mine. And just like that. That's how fast the Beatle mind-virus works itself into what I'm doing.) So just relax. Relax. What Would Jesus Christ Superstar Do? Exactly. He would chill.

I stole this pic from here. 

So anyway, where was I? OH! The Beatles and me. My parents have always been into The Beatles. My mom more so, though she's a Paul fan so I actually grew up listening to Wings. I knew of the Fab Four, but as I, the very mature 4th grader that I was at the time also knew, The Monkees was were it was at man. The Beatles lost that round. Then something stirred one day in junior high for me. I don't even remember why, but I could not stop singing "Help!". So that afternoon, I got off the bus and ran to my dad's house and dug through his Beatle albums looking desperately for that song. Much to my frustration, my dad only owned 3 Beatles albums. Rubber Soul. The White Album. Abbey Road. "Help!" as you know is not on any of them. But I grabbed Rubber Soul hoping that maybe the song just wasn't called "Help!"

wiki link

I wore that album down to the skids. To this day, that opening twang of Drive My Car fills me with such peace and easiness and longing. SIGH. I have to keep typing or I will put the album on and that will be the end of it, my friends. So yeah, Rubber Soul is all time FAVORITE Beatles album for me. Hands down. It always will be. The White Album is my #2 and Abbey Road is my #3. You've got excellent taste, dad.

So my appreciation for The Beatles came YEARS before the mania hit me. In 1995 there were whispers of an Anthology greater than the world had ever known (is how I've blown it up in my mind). I couldn't tell you why I was so excited for it because I wasn't a huge fan, I mean, I liked them a lot. But you could feel something brewing in late '95, like a storm this excitement from people around- my mom, radio people, ABeatleC. It was kind of becoming a big deal, this tv special and disc bonanza.

In November of 1995 it happened. I sat down with my mom on the couch and we watched Anthology each night- I think it was broken up into like 5 nights or something. Anyway, I think it was the second night that it happened. I fell head over heels IN LOVE with Paul McCartney as he sang his little 'Please Please Me' parts on Ed Sullivan.



And it was over for me. For the rest of my life, I fear. Beatlemania took my rational thoughts, my love of literature and writing and it, it turned me into a fangirl who stood outside overnight many nights in the freezing December of Colorado Best Buy parking lots in hopes that I could get a free interview disc or free sweatshirt that brandished the Beatle product (check and check!).

But why? What would turn a rational fan into spasmic, overreacting zealot? What band in the history of ever (which I know, there isn't any other) can have that effect on millions? For 56 something years?! Beatlemania first happened to the world in '63-'64. Then again, when it got me in '95-'96 with Anthology and then again in '09 -'10 with the release of Rock Band and the Remasters. It blows my friggin' mind. That's insanity.

That's genius.

So fangirl away, my tweeps for we are powerless to stop it. I'm off to put on my holey (and Holy) free! Best Buy Beatles' sweatshirt, listen to some Rubber Soul on repeat and then probably just do the dishes.

A WEEK AND A HALF!!!!! I think. "I don't have a memory for numbers"

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

I, little ol' me, will be seeing SIR JAMES PAUL McCARNTEY, HOT in 11 days (or something if I did my math right.)

Do you have any idea how irrational I am right now? 

I mean, um. 

Let me explain to you why this is the most important thing in the world, EVER just about. I've spent countless hours, days, months, years just insanely obsessing over anything Beatles. It's really, probably seemingly sadly true. But it was never time wasted. Vicki and I when we lived together, Friday night it would begin. 

Out came the Coke 

and the cigarettes 

and the cookie dough 

and we would marathon. Always replaying our favorite parts, some of which I'll share with you. We would start with Anthology, bust through ten hours of that, but not before watching this 'till the tape wore bad. (VHS homies. We're old school AND hardcore) 

...hello, Paul.....

then First US Visit (the whole thing is my favorite, but this was the shortest clip),

 then A Hard Day's Night, 

Help! (here's some funny moments for you to chew on.)

and Magical Mystery Tour. 

And sometimes our friend Michelle who called herself Butchie came over, and then the drinking games would begin. As your friend I tell you this. If you're ever playing a Beatles drinking game that involves doing a shot whenever your chosen Beatle smokes DO NOT CHOOSE RINGO.

or this will be you.

It's true. 

And then sometimes we'd watch "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" which is hilarious!!!

 And yes, it is time for full on Bealtemania. Even though, most sadly but probably best for Paul McCartney's sake and nerves, I'm not going to the Macca show with Beatle buddy Vicki. "I'm not in a laughing mood even" about that. 

We love you Beatles, oh yes we do. We love you Beatles, and we'll be true.

Believe it or not, I've been busy today! Okay, not really, but all up in the tweets and Beatles there has been some action and I feel the need to defend myself. And this is what I'm doing on my Saturday night before the Valentine's Day. Blogging and watching Goodfellas. Oh, and defending my honor. 

Rise up my fellow fangirls.

And yes, no longer confined to facebook, the drama has found it's way to twitter. All H1N1 like.

It's not real drama, but it's enough to give me a little stink eye. It's enough to make me panic. It's enough to make me want to defend my fangirl ways. It's enough to make me want to defend ALL of our fangirl ways.

I don't want to be a fangirl. I didn't set out to be a fangirl. It's what I am. So I embrace it. I enjoy it.

You're probably wondering where all of this is coming from. "Where's the fire, Amy?" I know. Okay, my tweep @BeatlesLane got "all up in arms" yesterday about the fangirls (not really, but for dramatic effect he was in arms. All up). And he's right, he really is, but I took it personally. Like every thing else that's probably not about me. Perhaps 'cause I am a woman/ girl. Anyway, he tweets this:

"It's kind of sad (and/or annoying) that a lot of women/girls seem to like The Beatles for a much different reason than us guys like them for."

And I go like this:

Then  he wrote a blog to expand his thoughts. And I get it. I do. And I'm fascinated to hear the male perspective- any perspective other than my own- on the greatest band to ever live.

But here's how it boils down. THEY WERE HOT! It's no jokes.

They were hot. They were sexy. They were smart. They were witty. They were musicians. They were entertainers. They were the greatest thing in the history of modern music. Them being "hot" isn't going to take that away for me. And it's crazy fans like me that made them as big as they were- as big as they are. Fans like me enabled them to be catapulted as far as they went. That's a fact.  And I'm not gonna pretend that I wouldn't have been one of them. One of the screaming, ear-pulling crazies.

I would've been one of them. I am one of them.

Yes. I do know the history of The Beatles.

Yes, I do like their music more than anything else world-wide.

And yes. I do like looking at pictures of The Beatles. I like reading everything about The Beatles. I like listening to everything about, for and by The Beatles. And that doesn't make me just a fangirl.

I like everything about The Beatles that you like, but being a fangirl gives me, and the rest of us an extra edge on the rest of you. We get to swoon about them as well as all the other stuff. Total extra edge.

Now, I didn't write this for anyone to get all down on @BeatlesLane 'cause he's a really cool dude and he has a point. I just needed to bring up the other side. We're not bad people. We're pretty awesome actually.

It feels like as good a time as any for this. Yes?

The fans.

"The world used us as an excuse to go mad." --  George Harrison
As a Beatle fan, I do understand that I am prone to screaming and ear pulling at every mention of the Fab Four. Perhaps this is why Beatle girls (and occasionally boys) in full on mania are my fave.

It must be because I look at these fools and I think, "Don't they know they look ridiculous?! The Beatles would never pick you. I would never scream like that. Fools." But I so would. I do. I mean, Beatle Rock Band comes out and here's me. 

The Remasters?

Maybe it's that there are crazy people out there. And I relate to them. I embrace them. 

Like the fans from this clip of  The Beatles First US Visit . Beginning at about 4:30, my ladies roll into view

At least the fans in London, those ladies got to hang outside of Paul McCartney's house and get stuff signed. 

Or they went down the block to Abbey Road Studios and hung out there. 

The hard(corps) even got their own nickname. "Apple Scruffs". I would've been one of those ladies. Hear you me. So awesome were they, two of them were invited in to sing on Across The Universe (which John saw as a passive-aggressive attack by Paul to sabotage his song) though that version was never released on a Beatle record. And George Harrison wrote a little song for them. 

And I'm not the only one. Zemeckis made a whole movie about it (and it is HILARIOUS! fyi) 

I Wanna Hold Your Hand

And I just found this. I'm not sure what it is, what it means, but it looks exactly like something I must investigate further.

So my little Beatle Droogs, I am not alone. Don't mock me. 

"Their manager's name is Mr. Brian Epstein"

Brian Epstein was a beautiful, troubled man, and today, August 27, marks the 42nd anniversary of his death.

He made The Bealtes and they made him and the world would likely be much less wonderful if, as legend has it, a teenager didn't come into his furniture store with a small music department in the corner and ask for a "My Bonnie" record by The Beatles (actually Tony Sheridan and backed by The Beatles).

And here's what I think is so awesome about Brian Epstein. He was a genius. An absolute marketing genius. It starts out that his family owns this furniture store. He gets put in charge, flips all the furniture so the backs are to the window and turns the failing store into booming business. He gets put in charge of the music section. It was like three racks in the back corner. He turns it into NEMS (North End Music Store).

So this kid, says Legend, rolls on into this NEMS, asks for this record by this German band called Beatles (we know now that they weren't German) and Brian orders the record, finds out that this band is playing a club called The Cavern during the lunch hour. He figures he must hear this band so, The Cavern being just down the street, Brian strolls on in with his high powered suit to this sweaty, stinking hole. He sees this sweaty, stinky band, clad in leather and charisma and he falls madly in love.

"I was immediately struck by their music, their beat, and their sense of humour on stage — and, even afterwards, when I met them, I was struck again by their personal charm. And it was there that, really, it all started" -Brian Epstein

He took The Beatles from this:

To this in the matter of a year. Impressive.

Now, to think that Brian Epstein had anything to do with The Bealtes' talent would be wrong. Brian made them marketable. He put them in suits and ties. He had them stop swearing, drinking and smoking on stage. He packaged them. He sold them.

Brian was gay. Brian was theatrical. He brought this to The Beatle image. And whether you want to believe it or not, even on the most sub-conscious level, girls love boys who may love boys. And so do boys. It's win win. But nobody loved "the boys" like Brian did.

Managing The Greatest Band in all of Music History opened the way for Brian to manage a few other bands, none to the heights of mania like his first catch (though no one else has yet to do so either, so you can't hold it against the guy).

His other bands included:

Gerry and the Pacemakers

Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas

The Fourmost

The Cyrkle

(alright, one more The Cyrkle, for Amy <3)

and Cilla Black

To name a few.

Thanks Christine! 

Brian's heart was with The Beatles, though and he worked tirelessly to jump start what we now know as "Beatlemania". Sure, Brian made a couple of mistakes (like, for one, taking 10 cents to the dollar for Beatle merchandise, costing The Beatles millions in revenue. Oops), but he meant well. But when The Beatles decided to stop touring in '66, he felt they didn't need him anymore, and was devastated. Heartbroken. Finished. With that self-imposed feeling of failure, and of being homosexual in a very... illegal time (though it did become legal in Britain, sort of, in '67), Brian fish-tailed out of control.

Sgt. Pepper was released in June of '67. A promotional party was held at Brian's house in May.

Where, incidentally, Paul met Linda who was there as a photographer

Then the Beatles did the All You Need Is Love bit in June.

And went to see the Maharishi in Bangor, Wales in August. And then found out that Brian had died.

And then The Beatles just couldn't get it back together.

Yoko Ono and Linda Eastman (later McCartney) both are remembered and blamed for their roles in "The Break-up of The Beatles!", but August 27, 1967, the day the Brian Epstein was found dead in his bed of an apparent over-dose was the needle that burst the Beatle bubble. Yoko and Linda just crawled in through the cracks.

Brian Epstein. Quite possibly one of the most important cogs in the Rock N Roll History wheel, and he did it all before the age of 32. Look it up if you don't believe me.

60s Girl Groups.

I have a girl group itch. I don't know what happened. I started thinking about The Shangri-las and it just came rolling over me like the heroin. I WANT MORE.

I started digging deeper and I found out that Beatlemania (and no, I cannot go 20 minutes without a reference) began this craze of girl groups. It seems like a lot of them came from New York. You've got the most famous one, and I think, the only one that lasted through 1966, The Supremes.

The Supremes - The Happening (From 1967) And OMG how I forgot how much I LOVE this song.

There's The Ronettes (Ronnie Spector was married to that guy),

Then there's The Dixie Cups

And so on. I found the COOLEST album though, in my travels through Netland. It's called Girls In The Garage. Holy Awesome, Batman!

There are skulls and a devil right on the cover of the album! Right there, that equals Rockstar. They have the album for listening over on Lastfm.com (there are multiple volumes too. ::in auditory heaven::)

DENISE & CO.: Take Me As I Am

THE PUPPETS: Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart

THE MODELS: Bend Me, Shape Me (1966)

THE CHYMES: He's Not There Anymore (1966)

THE BITTERSWEETS: Hurtin' Kind (1965)

THE ID: Those Ever-Lovin' Baby Blues (unreleased)

THE BELLES: Come Back (1966)

THE BELLES: Melvin

THE LUV'D ONES: Up Down Sue (1966)

KIM & GRIM: You Don't Love Me (1965)

LYDIA MARCELL: The Girl He Needs (1967)

THE CONTINETNAL CO-ETS: Medley Of Junk (1966)

THE BEATLE-ETTES: Only Seventeen

ALTHEA & THE MEMORIES: Worse Record Ever Made(1964)

THE BLUE ORCHIDS: Oo Chang-a-Lang

THE GIRLS: Chico's Girl

THE LADYBUGS: How Do You Do It?

THE BOOTLES: I'll Let You Hold My Hand

THE TERMITES: Tell Me

THE SANSHERS: Gonna Git That Man

THE WHYTE BOOTS: Nightmare

LYN & THE INVADERS: Boy Is Gone

THE CHYMES: Quite A Reputation

THE DAUGHTERS OF EVE: Don't Waste My Time

THE CONTINENTAL CO-ETS: I Don't Love You No More

THE CHIMES OF FREEDOM: Jungle Rock

THE STARLETS: You Don't Love Me

And yes. On the album there is a band called The Beatle-ettes (You think this isn't right up my alley!? Ha!)

And The Bootles?! NICE!

Maybe it's just that I live my life subconsciously to become as awesome as The Carrie Nations in Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls. Complete with gay vampire manager guy.

Beatles First US Visit.

Must be that I'm in an early Beatles mood lately. Must be. Anyway, First US Visit is Fab, it's Gear, it's switched on. If you've never seen it, well, here you are. It's a documentary of literally their first visit to the U.S of A. February 7, 1964 they landed in New York and Beatlemania became official. This film is from the inside looking out on the craziness. While you watch this, you get the sense that it might not have been the music or the hair-styles that made them, it was just them. As a matter of fact, they had been turned down by all the major record labels and as a last resort, their manager, Brian Epstein took a demo to their eventual producer, George Martin who hated the demo, but decided to take a chance and meet them in person.

"The infamous first meeting began with a well timed comment (George Martin asked the Beatles what they thought of Parlophone, to which Beatle George replied, “I hate your tie”), which broke the ice, and set the stage for their future collaborations. Martin later noted that though he really liked John, Paul and George, he didn’t necessarily think they showed any signs of being great songwriters."

It was all about the charisma. And did they ever have it. So, enjoy.

Part One.

Part Two. (By the way, is that the beginning of Strawberry Fields that John is working out at about 8mins 30 in?!)

Part Three.

is missing. Hmm. Guess you'll have to go rent it to see it or something, anyhow,carry on.

Part Four. (This might be my fave one. Ringo's dancing, "Lingerie, Ladies' underwear, floor 12". My fave fans EVER roll out of the Women's Restroom at about 4:30. Oh, and then there's other fans, It's good stuff)

Part Five. ("George and John. Buddies and Pals")

Part Six.

Part Seven. ("Look, Ringo, I doon an abstract" Oh Paul.)

Part Eight.

Beautiful Boy - Man. And hot. Did I mention hot?

Sean Lennon. *Sigh*

Yes. At first I bought a Sean Lennon album only because of who his parents are. I admit that. But something happened that I wasn't expecting. I enjoyed it.

Being a Beatle fan, it's impossible to not know who Sean Taro Ono Lennon is, who his mother is; "She who broke up the Beatles!" As a Beatle fan or a John Lennon fan, the image of Sean goes something like this.

In the 90s sometime, he reemerged from pop-culture trivia (to my knowledge anyway) looking a little...um...,

“When I was 15, a cabdriver asked me if I was Paul McCartney’s daughter.” -Sean Lennon.

I've read that that is what made him decide to cut his hair. Thank god! Because OMG. So after seeing him looking like the male version of Saffron from AbFab about 15 years ago, I didn't expect to be so overcome by how impossibly COOL he's become.

I guess that must be what happens to you when you come from a Beatle and a conceptual artist. And you grow up in Central Park. And someone calls you Paul McCartney's daughter.

His last album was "Friendly Fire." Buy it. It is amazing and still finds daily play on my ipod.

The coolest part about this album, the genius part is that he did a short film to go along with the album. Like videos, but they tell the story of the album as a whole. Here's a little snippy snips.

After obsessing over Friendly Fire, I saw Sean Lennon in concert. He blew my mind. So I came home and wrote this.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Sean Lennon makes me swoon... Tonight I came to a realization. I am that fan. I am her. I am the one I always laughed at when I'd watch A Hard Day's Night with my friends. You know the one. The one that would grab her ears and scream until she passed out. This one. I always thought that I MIGHT be that girl. But it had never happened exactly like that. I have seen weezer more times than I can count, I met Rivers Cuomo a couple of those times. And I'm in love with Rivers Cuomo. It was awesome. But I never once got dizzy, blacked-out and tried to hold back that feeling of vomit. I didn't think it existed. At least not on Earth. Perhaps, though, Disneyland no longer counts as Earth... Even though it is its happiest place. For me anyway. After tonight. April 27th, 2007 will be the day that I became her. I became the fan. Sean Lennon played the House of Blues in Anaheim. Downtown Disney. There was an opening band called Women and Children". They were alright, but for their last song, they brought out a "friend" and as Sean Lennon stepped out and tossed a guitar onto his shoulder, it happened. I tried shifting my weight because I thought that I was locking my knees or something. I kept trying to swallow the mass amounts of saliva that were now pooling under my tongue. I was very uncomfortable. And I could not take my eyes from him. I was mesmorized. And all I could think of was that little boy craddled by JOHN LENNON that I'd seen in pictures a million times. A million times I'd seen these pictures and believed they didn't exist. They weren't real. There was no way that any of it could be real. But it is real. And he looks like him. Just like him. And I became that girl. I regained composure between acts, and I could see him as I had before, as a hot guy who played awesome music, but for that one moment..... This and this became this and this which lead to this

So he's in this new band with an impossibly beautiful, and dumb girl, girlfriend, whatevs. And they're hot together and they make real good music and it just makes me, it makes me hate her and love her all at once. Anyway. They are called Ghost of a Saber Toothed Tiger

I think they are making an album right now. That will definitely be mine. So in the mean time, you can stalk him here on YouTube and at seanonolennon.com - which is a super rad site, by the way, and you can see some really great photos by older (half)bro, Julian.

Oh, also enjoy this little viddy that I cannot stop watching.