The Beatles and me...

The Beatles were the first band I really liked. My dad borrowed a copy of the "Red" compilation album (1962-66) from a friend and taped it for me. Before that, apart from hearing them on the radio, the only way that I could hear their songs was on dad's "Herb Albert plays Lennon and McCartney - Tijuana Style" LP. I got mum and dad to borrow their friend's other Beatles records and I taped "Abbey Road" and the White Album using the family's white, plastic "Ultra" record player plugged in to my radio cassette player using a bulbous-ended DIN lead. Abbey Road was fine - Here Comes the Sun and Sun King - but the White Album was a bit harder to like at first. Revolution Number 9 and Helter Skelter...(later, of course, it was precisely these "difficult" tracks that I would claim to be my favourites).

The first record I ever bought was a double-A-sided single of Twist and Shout and Back in the USSR. For some strange reason, the first LP I ever bought was The Rutles - a Beatles pastiche rather than the real thing. But, after that, I bought a series of albums - at first on pre-recorded cassette (67-70, Rock'n'Roll Music, Sgt Pepper) and, later, on LP (Beatles For Sale and some strange Italian copy of Revolver). I bought the White Album on LP some time around 1979. Amazingly, it still has the poster and photographs that came as inserts.

During the 90s, I bought the albums again on CD (my copy of the White Album has stickers on the back telling me the track numbers) and, more recently, I have at least listened to the latest remastered CD versions. Having disinterred my record deck, the remastered LPs would be nice but pricey to get all of the albums.

Whilst on holiday last week, I saw this copy of the White Album and bought it. It is an earlyish copy (pre 73?) with a "limited edition" serial number (a limited edition of several million) and it looks well-used. I haven't played it yet but I expect that it will have a refreshing amount of surface noise. And it will look good on the wall.

It feels like history.

And it feels like my history.