The Songs in My Head

When Audrey first proposed a birthday trip to Seattle centering on a Seattle Rock Orchestra Beatles concert, it sounded nice, but I had a passing thought that there has been so much other music in my life before and after the 1960s. In fact, if I had to pick a sound track to enliven my old age, it might be mostly composed of the Great American Songbook, those marvelous ballads whose lyrics I know by heart.

Well, was I wrong about the Beatles. Sitting in rapt attention in the Moore Theatre with a multi-generational band of fans, I relived the extreme delight "the lads" unleashed on the world fifty years ago. Musicians and singers young enough to be their grandchildren performed a heart-warming tribute that highlighted those now-iconic popular songs of the past half-century. Alternately brash, romantic and celebratory, they sum up life in the sea-change that was the 1960s. For a while, we all did live in a Yellow Submarine, whatever that meant.

The most affecting song for me at the concert was "In My Life." Its lyrics muse the passing of dear ones and enshrine the person most loved, surely enough to make even the most hard-boiled former reporter shed a tear or two.

Many of the Seattle Rock Orchestra  Beatles songs are now up on YouTube, and my musician son Michael has enjoyed viewing them. So have I. The two of us have been singing or humming those songs from Rubber Soul and Revolver a lot as we go about our daily chores at home. The songs in my head now span a very long time, but it was great fun to hear that particular music again and to recall those heady times.

--Bernice