so you say its your birthday?

Today is my dad's birthday.

It also happens to be Paul McCartney's birthday as well. I bet it is other people's birthdays as well, but when I was 12 years old it only mattered that Paul McCartney shared a birthday with my dad.

I "discovered" the Beatles when I was about 12 (I think...I might have been 11?) when the Beatles Anthology came out. I watched it on TV with my parents, who had both grown up in a world dominated by the Beatles's music and presence. I think I managed to fall in love with them when we were watching a clip from the opening of "Help!" and my mother said something about George Harrison having nice hands and long fingers.

I was hooked on his hands. I was hooked on the Beatles from that moment on. It became my closet obsession for the rest of 6th grade. I did not want anyone to know that I liked the Beatles. I did not want anyone to know I listened to the oldies station rather than the cool station. I always had Beatles songs stuck in my head that I wrote in code all over my notebooks. People would always try to figure out what the things said, but no one ever caught on to what I was really doing. A few times I would slip up and say something about the Beatles, which would also cause the person I was talking to to get rather excited because they also liked the Beatles.

I failed to realize that everyone liked the Beatles and there was nothing to be ashamed of. Well, okay, no one liked them as I did, as no one could spout off the random information I could and I doubt no one carried a biography from 1964 around with them as I did. (To the point the book fell apart and the cover no long stayed in once piece, but those were such minor details when I was 12.)

Every Sunday my dad taped Breakfast with the Beatles with Kitty Lolley (or whatever her name was.) I went to church, he taped it and I listened to it constantly. When I was in 6th grade my parents would threaten to take away my Beatles tapes. It got to the point I bought a lock for the box I kept them in, so they couldn't take them away. I got my first CD player when I was in 6th grade and I would annoy the whole world singing along to the CDs at the top of my voice. I have always found it hard to listen to music and not sing along. I was always singing it seemed when I was a kids.

The manic obession with the Beatles really only lasted a year. By 7th grade I was branching back out into the real world of music. I knew what was going on again, though I still did not listen to the "cool" radio station. I just tended to watch VH1 and MTV a lot. The Beatles still ruled my mind, and I still recieved Beatle themed things from my uncle (I still do actually, so I am still collected Beatle music).

But today is Paul McCartney's brithday. It is also my dad's birthday. I almost can't wait till he turns 64 so I can send him the recording of "when I'm 64" by Paul McCartney. Paul McCartney's all ready turned 64, but my dad's got a long while before he hits that land mark.