9:23 a.m. on 2001-11-30
"All Things Must Pass"

Just a little story, nothing funny or anything, just appropriate......

When I was 7 years old, I bought the Beatles album Please Please Me. I got it on tape and I used to play it in this archaic tape player because we didn't have a stereo. Well, I guess I wasn't the brightest 8 year old because I fell in love with the Beatles music and started saving up for something that was impossible. I started having little garage sales and storing my money away, until one day when my mother asked, "Why are you saving all of this money?" In my best 7 year old (1986)dork mode, I repled, "Because when the Beatles come to New York City and have a concert, I want to see them." My mother sat me down and explained to me that the Beatles were no longer together as a band, and that John lennon had died 6 years ago. She told me, however, that they made a lot of albums and I could always buy them. I was pretty devistated about the fact that the Beatles weren't still a group.

It wasn't until I was like 10, and I had bought every Beatles album, that I realized just what a pop culture phenomenon they were. I started reading all I could about them. Once I read all I could, I started purchasing their solo work. Some of it was brilliant, some of it wasn't. Mostly, Ringo wasn't exactly brilliant, but he was still fun to listen to. Like that drunk who makes silly jokes at a party. You just had to love the guy. John was a powerful songwriter with a beautiful voice. Paul wrote some of the best melodies that rock music has ever heard. Then you had George Harrison. George's voice often flucuated between sounding like John's and Paul's. Never as good, but like a nice combination of both. I really liked George because every book I read about the Beatles paid him the least mind. They didn't take him too seriously.

After many years, I stopped listening to "all Beatles, all the time" and I stopped buying their solo works. Except for George Harrison. Whenever George came out with a new album, I always made sure I got it. People still got to hear George's songs because they ended up in popular movies. "Got my Mind Set on You" was in Look Who's Talking and "Cheer Down" was in Lethal Weapon. George Martin (Beatles producer) said once that he wished he regretted having neglected George Harrison in lieu of John and Paul, beacuse George wrote some of the most beautiful songs ever recorded by the Beatles.

My mother called me this morning to tell me that George Harrison had died. I knew he was battling cancer for a couple of years now. I still have that piece of shit tape player and all my tapes from when I was a little kid. I dug the tape player out and the Please Please Me album. I played it from start to finish while I cleaned the house. I felt as good as I did when I was a kid. Then I turned on the radio, and about 4 stations were all playing Beatles and George Harrison songs. It was really nice to hear that, in this age of excess and perfect pop princes and princesses, all of the radio stations would be playing the music of one of the most quietly wonderful musicians thus far in rock history. So George, thanks for playing the music as long as you did. It made me as happy as an adult as it did when I was a little kid. Somewhere in the world today, people will hear your songs for the first time, and hopefully not for the last time.

in the slammer - up for parole