My kids are huge Beatles fans (and I feel like bragging about it!)

[JackT.Conqueror]

Over the past few months, my 7-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son have become Beatles fanatics. It's really astounding - I've played so much music for them, but I happened to pop in Rubber Soul during a car ride and they took to it like fish to bait.

Within a week they were demanding to hear Nowhere Man 5 times in a row; they made their way through the rest of the album and went on to Sgt Peppers, Please Please Me, and Help! I'm slowly integrating Abbey Road.

How crazy are they for them? I drove from Philly to Florida with them, and kept them completely occupied (no complaining or bickering!) for 5-hour stretches by playing the albums I had all the way through a few times.

My son can sing about 15 songs, a few of them front to back, and pretty close on the notes. He walks around the house singing them, but will never do it when asked - EXCEPT for when I took them out with some friends and a few of the young women asked him to sing. He serenaded them for about 20 minutes - even pulled out obscure songs I didn't even know that well!

When it's time for pizza and a movie on Friday, they argue over whether to watch Hard Day's Night, Help! or Yellow Submarine. When my daughter has friends over she makes them watch one of them. When she goes over someone's house, they sit on youtube and she shows them Beatles videos. Her one friend and her discuss who's cuter, John or Paul.

A friend bought my daughter a kid's book about the Beatles. She now recites trivia, and if her younger brother tries to interject his own facts, she tells him, "Nuh-uh! You don't know! You didn't read THE BOOK!"

The kicker for me is that now they want to play instruments - without me hounding them about it! The boy wants to play the drums, which means he'll probably start on them the same way I did, i.e; his dad figures his son has way too much energy to burn, so let him wail away on the skins for an hour and maybe he'll calm down.

My daughter, intruiged when I taught her the difference between a riff and a chord progression using Day Tripper and Hide Your Love Away, insists I buy her a guitar. She sat down today with the tele for her first guitar lesson.

Anyway, I just find it really cool that they've latched onto it organically, and really get into it. I don't want to sound older than my 28 years prattling on about how bad new music is, but my kids are just that: kids. They latch onto melody and hooks, and the Hannah Montana scene that encompasses my daughter's peer group doesn't get the sophistication, innovation, passion and beauty of really great records when they listen to just ear candy or corporate product.

She told me today that when she listens to Let it Be she wants to cry because it is so beautiful. Darlin', welcome to the wonderful world of music!

[ScatMan]

Like Bad Blake says in Crazy Heart: "You know it's a good song when you think you've heard it before". I had that experience when I was a kid listening to them before I had ANY experience listening to music.

It's amazing that jazzers, bluegrass, country, alt players. etc. may or may not like listening to the Beatles music, but those songs find their way into most musician's stylistic vocabulary.

[hekawi]

Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old he will not depart from it. [Proverbs 22:6]

[JosephB]

kids these days!

i lifeguard at a neighborhood pool, and they have a stereo set up there. I put on the Stones' Goat's Head Soup and this little girl (around age 6) came up during Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) and asked me who it was because she loved the song!

the next week her mom said she bought her a Greatest Hits album!

[Omiewise65]

I've read your posting again and again because it is really beautiful .
Your children are discovering a new world , the world of music and they have a strong guardian at their site . The best they could ever get , their daddy .

[tgfmike]

That is so cool JackT. Thanks for sharing that story.

[repeatofender]

Way cool. My girlfriend's son (sadly) is addicted to AC/DC "Hell's Bell's"




...oh, well, he's 12.

[Brad Pittiful]

the beatles calmed the savage ride to florida

[mudbean]

Awesome!!!

Edit: The missus just walked in, and I showed her your story. She noted that it's impressive that YOU are only 28, and a Beatles fan. Incredibly cool, man.

mud

[robt57]

Unlike with my Parents, there is no such thing as a musical generation gap with my kids and I. How cool is that? I mean that we have the luxury of that connective groove with our offspring? Althouh, if they heard me use the word 'off spring' or 'grove' for that matter.... ;)

[Tele-Champ]

My 21-year-old nephew came to visit for a few days, and he was wearing a Beatles t-shirt. I asked him if he liked the Beatles or just liked the t-shirt, and he said he loved the Beatles.. So I turned him on to a lot of their music that he was unaware of while he was here. It was amazing watching him discover some of these Beatles tunes for the first time, and digging them. Now he wants a Hofner violin bass.... ! (He doesn't play, but this could be a bass player in grooming... )

He said most of his friends his age are just discovering the Beatles and love them.. Made my heart glad.

[joetur]

Great story, reminds me of my own childhood. Thanks for the memories.

[jitensha]

The Beatles you say? I should check them out...

[robt57]

Originally Posted by jitensha

The Beatles you say? I should check them out...

Worth a go, maybe.

[rstaaf]

My 11 year old son who really has not had much interest in Music other than say those Crazy Frog songs has taken an interest in the Beetles lately. Seems he played the Beetles version of Rock Band at a friends house and really liked it. I bought him his first Beetles CD the other day...

[TXAg14]

Originally Posted by robt57

Unlike with my Parents, there is no such thing as a musical generation gap with my kids and I. How cool is that? I mean that we have the luxury of that connective groove with our offspring? Althouh, if they heard me use the word 'off spring' or 'grove' for that matter.... ;)

Me and my dad have been pretty much the exact same way. Except in some cases where I find myself actually preceding his generation and going back to the music of his parents and grandparents.

It's great that your kids are listening to all of this stuff at a young age in the car and now on their own. Their musical tastes should turn out for the better because of it. I know mine did.

[guitarguytim]

When I was 12, my Mom got the Blue Beatles Greatest Hits for Christmas. I stole the CD, and it didn't leave my room until I moved out at 18 and she made me give it back.

I also picked up my first guitar because of that album :)

Great music, will always be great music!

Now you just need to take your kids to see Paul live (saw him two weeks ago, and it was amazing!)

[Vanguard448]

Nyeah. I like the Beatles, but I'm not a massive fan. They were influential, innovative and somewhat ahead of their time but, to be bluntly honest, in my opinion there is just better music out there. But the fact that your kids are into the Beatles is great, certainly better than the rest of the rubbish around today. Obviously raised 'em well!

I think the best way I can put it is to rather inaccurately paraphrase Yahtzee Croshaw, a British bloke who swears about video games a lot on the internet (who is a lot more intelligent than he appears in his reviews, actually), from his Beatles Rock Band review:

'I grew up surrounded by the Spice Girls and similar music, and for the longest time I just thought I didn't like any music at all. Then I discovered the Beatles and discovered that I was in fact the larval form of a classic rock snob.'

Originally Posted by repeatofender

Way cool. My girlfriend's son (sadly) is addicted to AC/DC "Hell's Bell's"

...oh, well, he's 12.

Yep, but then again, I'm only a year older, I also like AC/DC, but I also like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix (to an extent... not going to go into detail about that right now), Bob Dylan, The Beatles (again, to an extent, as mentioned previously), Jerry Lee Lewis, Eric Clapton, The Dire Straits, the list goes on.
What I'm saying is that, in my humble opinion, you shouldn't really dismiss his musical tastes as childish just because he listens to AC/DC and you don't like it; it could be that he also likes a lot of very different music that you do. And who's to say that he only likes it because of how young he is? I know people in their late 30's/early 40's who like AC/DC; it's just what they enjoy listening to.
Just my 2 cents (well, 1p really; I am a British lad...)

[Joefish]

Originally Posted by mudbean

Awesome!!!

Edit: The missus just walked in, and I showed her your story. She noted that it's impressive that YOU are only 28, and a Beatles fan. Incredibly cool, man.

mud

… and he rocks! (I caught one of his shows)

BTW, George was my favorite (… if you were a kid in the 60’s, you always had to say which one was your favorite)

… believe it or not, I had never seen A Hard Day’s Night – so it’s on the other night and I’m watching it … pretty soon my wife sits down and starts watching it … then my 14 year old son sits down … very cool

[JackT.Conqueror]

Hey, been away for a few days, but wanted to say thanks to everyone for the great replies!

A few quick replies-to-replies

Originally Posted by hekawi

Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old he will not depart from it. [Proverbs 22:6]

Nice... I'm not one to read the Bible much personally, but that's a great passage.

Originally Posted by Omiewise65

I've read your posting again and again because it is really beautiful .
Your children are discovering a new world , the world of music and they have a strong guardian at their site . The best they could ever get , their daddy .

Wow, thanks a lot! It's always encouraging to hear, especially as a single father. And, I'm glad you got something out of it, too.

Originally Posted by Brad Pittiful

the beatles calmed the savage ride to florida

lol, yeah! That's a great tag line if I've ever read one!

Originally Posted by mudbean

Awesome!!!

Edit: The missus just walked in, and I showed her your story. She noted that it's impressive that YOU are only 28, and a Beatles fan. Incredibly cool, man.

mud

Tell the missus I say thanks! I grew up on all that stuff, when other kids were listening to grunge I was tearing through my parents' record collection. Interestingly, the kids caught up to me a few years later when they stopped teasing me about it and started wearing Pink Floyd shirts

Originally Posted by guitarguytim

Now you just need to take your kids to see Paul live (saw him two weeks ago, and it was amazing!)

My son actually caught wind of it and asked me to go. Unfortunately the tickets are WAY too expensive for me right now - but it would have been a great first concert for them. Philly puts on free shows in the park near me during the summer, however, and I took them to see a Beatles tribute band the other week. They loved it, of course

Originally Posted by Joefish

… and he rocks! (I caught one of his shows)

BTW, George was my favorite (… if you were a kid in the 60’s, you always had to say which one was your favorite)

… believe it or not, I had never seen A Hard Day’s Night – so it’s on the other night and I’m watching it … pretty soon my wife sits down and starts watching it … then my 14 year old son sits down … very cool

Thank Joe! Got your message, btw, and I'm aiming to make that September show.

George is actually my favorite too. I love All Things Must Pass, and a couple songs from 33 1/3 are really good, too. Plus "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" was one of my first Beatles favorites.