When I decided to come to Liverpool to see The Beatles museum, I had no idea what I was getting myself into (in a good way). The city is religiously fanatical about the group, and fans from a band that split up 48 years ago still journey here from literally all over the world. It’s a pretty amazing sight unto itself.
I started the day by attending The Beatles museum itself. This museum was amazing. They give you audio guides which tell the story of the band from their very inception all the way through to stories of individual members’ solo careers through today. As a fairly non-fanatical Beatles fan, I still was amazed at how much I learned on this museum tour.
Brian Epstein, The Beatles’ manager, owned a small record shop in town. He signed The Beatles, a local band who were playing in various bars and clubs around town…and almost overnight was in charge of the most popular entertainment show in all the world. That is pretty crazy to me. I couldn’t help but think, in today’s word of giant corporations controlling the entertainment that we receive, could anything like The Beatles ever happen again? I doubt it.
One funny item of interest: The Beatles were teenage pervs! They used to sit at the same booth at the Cavern Club in between their sets, because they could see into the ladies’ lavatory while they changed their clothes! HA! Additionally, John Lennon used to sneak into Strawberry Fields (which was an orphanage for troubled teenage girls) and climb up a tree so he could sneak a peek at the girls. His aunt used to scold him by saying “if they catch you, they will string you up by that tree!” Hence the line in the song “…and there’s nothing to be hung about…Strawberry Fields Forever.” The song, for John, was about keeping his youth alive.
The museum had all kinds of neat displays and tales…with a recreation of the Cavern Club, Abbey Road, etc. George Martin (their producer) told the story of Brian Epstein taking him a recording of the group and asking him to sign them to a record deal. He said he wasn’t convinced, but would like to meet them. Their personality, rather than their music, won him over. At the time, The Beatles had been turned down by every other record company in the country. George Martin said “…which I didn’t know at the time. If I had known that, I probably wouldn’t have signed them.”
The next thing I know, I’m boarding the “Magical Mystery Tour” bus…thinking to myself “Oh no…I’ve become ‘that guy.’” I normally avoid tourist bus tours like the plague (in fact, this was my first ever), but like so many other things related to The Beatles, I make an exception. The tour stopped at each of the four Beatles’ childhood homes. It was just remarkable walking down the various streets (including the site where John Lennon’s mother was tragically killed by a drunk driver when he was 17). And speaking of streets, the highlight of the entire day was walking down Penny Lane. A song Paul McCartney wrote about his childhood, all the landmarks mentioned in the song are still there. You could almost play the song as a travel guide.
The famous barber shop is there, and surprisingly on this day it’s fairly empty (Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs of every head he’s had the pleasure to know). Wouldn’t you want to get your hair cut there, if even you didn’t really need to? There is a strange round building, which looks like a bus station but is in reality now a coffee shop…admiring the odd building on its own right, I then realize it’s the only building sitting on a roundabout with cars circling it (…behind the shelter in the middle of the roundabout, the pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray). It’s as if I have stepped into some kind of musical version of The Da Vinci Code.
Back at The Beatles museum, I am transfixed at the last exhibit room, which is playing the song Imagine as you look at the white bedroom and white piano from Lennon’s music video. It is here that I realize a lot about myself and my journey. All of the travelling that I do, and even my strange habit of visiting museums about war (even though I viciously hate the concept of war on any level)…it is all my internal struggle to understand other people. With all of the things that are wrong in the world, if we could just make the effort to understand other cultures, other beliefs, other people…so much conflict can be avoided and replaced by love and understanding. It’s an effort that takes considerable time and will power, but I believe is so vital.
As I make my final stop of the day at The Beatles statue on the pier in Liverpool, I smile at these four young lads and realize that not only did they get it, but all of their fans…these fanatical, crazy people like me, who travel from all over the world to get here…they get it to. And I feel there is still hope.
Imagine there’s no countries, it isn’t hard to do….imagine all the people, living life in peace…
Jeff
Aug 11th, 2018
jeffinukraine2016 
Thanks for sharing your feelings on this. Wish I could have accompanied you on this. Sounds like it was very interesting. I remember when Tom and I were in London back in ’75 and one guy asked where we were from. California we told him and he said, “Oh, America. The only thing worth seeing there is Elvis Presley.” I replied, “The only thing worth seeing here in England is the Beatles.” I didn’t really mean it, but I thought it was a proper reply.
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