In response to  Ververdan0226's next topic for his weekly blogs about blogs, I have written a blog about what the Beatles mean to me and how they have impacted my life.  The topic is fitting since the Beatles Rock Band is being released tomorrow and I hope that more people take the opportunity to help out with this new 'community spotlight' section, if you will.  
 
 

While My guitar Gently Weeps:  My Take on the Beatles

The Beatles and their music have touched the lives of millions of people all over the world.   Crossing borders, languages, nationalities , and race in some ways uniting the world even just for a few minutes through one of their classic songs.    Their music has lasted the test of time and will last for many more years  to come, as new listeners discover the Beatles for the first time every day and what an experience that can be.  

I can still remember the first time I heard the Beatles when I was about twelve or thirteen years old, hearing the opening piano playing on Let It Be brought shivers down my spine and still does to this day.   It felt as if my mind had been unlocked and for the first time in my life, everything seemed to make sense.   Then came the rest of the Beatles catalog with songs like Here Comes the Sun, Octopus's Garden, Hey Jude, All You Need Is Love, and so many more that have become some of my favorite songs of all time.  

Every album seemed to be a new experience, opening your mind for the first time as if the sun was breaking through a cloudy day's sky.   I can still remember vividly where I was the first time I heard every album,   whether it be that rainy day while listening to the White Album on repeat during my early teens walking home from school or the time I learned to play my first guitar solo ever on George Harrison's Something off of the album Abbey Road, while practicing for hours in my room until I had it down perfectly. 

It seemed that the Beatles had a song for any mood you were in whether you were angry, sad, content, or cheerful there was always a song to either cheer you up or fit your feelings at the moment.   The Beatles have been there for me during some rough times in my life and could always make me forget about whatever problem was going on with the press of a button.  Now music has always been an important part of my life ever since I was a child and I have many artists and bands that have played a huge role in who I am today, but there is just something about the Beatles that make them one of the biggest influence in this way.

Each member of the Beatles brought their own style to the group with John Lennon and Paul McCartney's creativity that produced countless songs that became classics, George Harrison's guitar playing that has influenced many guitar players around today, and Ringo Starr's unique style of drumming that to the untrained ear may sound average, contains precise and tasteful fills that add to every song of the group's catalog.

The Beatles have sung about many things, but the most important being love.   All you need is love is such a positive statement that the world needed to hear during the time it was written, maybe even more so today.   The Beatles brought many people peace of mind and their music has played the role as the soundtrack to millions of peoples' lives for decades.   My friends are Beatles fans, my teachers were Beatles fans, my parents are Beatles fans, and almost everyone I know has at least one Beatles song that they love, they just had that impact on peoples' lives.

Now the Beatles are getting their own video game and possibly opening their music to a whole new group of people who may have never heard them before or are just getting into them for the first time. Personally I am not a big fan of rhythm games like Rock Band or Guitar Hero, but in the case of the Beatles the more the merrier.  If the game can get young kids into the works of the George, John, Paul, and Ringo than that is fine by me.   The world would be a much better place if everyone listened to the Beatles and what their songs had to say and take something from them, especially these days when tensions seem to be high all around the world.