Thursday, March 12, 2015

When I'm Sixty Four

Today my brother is 64. One of my earliest memories is listening to his copy of Sgt Peppers. I would have been six, Andrew 16. Everything about it - the cover, the lyrics, the music, the production (though I didn't know what production was then) - was fascinating. It was my first real experience of the power of popular music, that it could be more than just She Loves You Yeah Yeah Yeah - which they'd written just four years earlier - or pretty much any song by anyone in the previous decade (which was as far as pop went back to).
When I'm 64 is hardly revolutionary, but its theme of growing old and jaunty clarinet accompaniment was typical of a group who had outgrown mere pop music. So, happy birthday Andrew. And you've still got your hair.
PS. One of the more obscure objects - never mind people - on the cover of Sgt Peppers is a ceramic Mexican Tree of Life next to Shirley Temple’s right foot.

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