This Boy

On Friday, a teacher at the school made an interesting comment to another teacher who is pregnant. He said: "Be careful which music you listen to when the baby is born, because you will never be able to listen to that music properly again. Every time you hear it, your wife will say, "switch that off!" as it reminds me too much of labour!"

This got me thinking about the influence music has had on my life to date.

It may, or may not surprise you to know that as a teenager, I was a pretty mediocre student. I suppose I had the head to study, if not the will to apply myself. 1I found being 16, pretty difficult (as anyone who's been there can attest) and as someone who didn't have the highest self-esteem, I really had no idea of what I was or where I wanted to be.

February 24th 1985 changed that.

I had spent the weekend with a youth group, B'nei Akiva, visiting Liverpool. On Sunday, February 23rd, we visited a museum about the Beatles. I'd heard their music before, knew the songs, but as I walked around the beautifully laid out halls, something clicked. I couldn't explain it but resolved, for reasons which I still can't fathom today, to go out there and buy all their records/tapes.

The next morning, I popped into the local record store and bought Please Please Me . I remember putting the tape into my Sony Walkman and listening to it as I walked to school (I had recently found a new shortcut and enjoyed the walk, which took about half-an-hour).

Slowly but surely, I built up my collection. I think the next purchase was Sgt. Pepper. I remember going to a shop in Camden Town and my parents buying me The Red Album on (1962-66) on Vinyl. I lay infront of our old JVC system and listened intently to all four sides.

And so it went on. I bought the Abbey Road and Let It Be records in Brent Cross (I'd decided to get the albums as I was afraid the pre-recorded cassettes would wear out and also because the covers on the records showed more detail - something that has been lost on CD's)

Summer came along and I was in full Beatles swing. I went to Israel, fell in love for the first time and the glue that bonded us first together was.....that's right, the Beatles. She was as much as fan as I, if not more. So now, the Beatles had brightened up both my school existence and love life! It doesn't get much better than that. I can say, without hesitation that the music got me through the rest of my teenage years. Whenever I was down (and even if I wasn't), I listened to their music and I was instantly re-energized.

My interest in the Beatles' music coincided with my own growing exploration into songwriting. My early compositions were, without a doubt, influenced by the Beatles' sound. Writing music is something that I hope to go back to, one day.

When I met Dana, she understood my passion and as a result, has been instrumental in ensuring that our kids grow up listening to Daddy's music. Hadassah loves Help! and Michal too, is a big fan of The Yellow Submarine.

I could go on writing about how the Beatles have affected my life and why they are still such an important element of the person that is me, but I'll spare you.

I'd be interested to hear from any of you, if you've had similar experiences with music. Someone said that music has the power to move nations. I don't know about that but I can swear that for me, imusicreally was my knight in shining armour.

Twenty years on inside me, my Beatles still rock.