Editor calls on the Beatles for “Help!”

By Sam Fran Scavuzzo
Collegian Editor
April 25, 2007

I just can’t wrap my mind around how awesome the Beatles are. Since my discovery of them as a seventh-grader poking around Sam Goody with a $20 bill, I can honestly say my life has been changed.

How can one say the Beatles are merely a band? They are a way of life, a slice of what the world should be like, but, also, a recognition that humans make mistakes.

Sure, the Beatles are great, but why muse about them now with college shootings, racist shock jocks and a war raging in the Middle East? Actually, all those examples are precisely why the Beatles should be discussed more. If the world listened to the Fab Four’s lyrics we would all be “Lucys in the Sky” instead of “Mean Mr. Mustards.” How can one think of global terrorism after listening to Paul McCartney pluck away about a blackbird? A person should be committed if he or she looks to a nuclear holocaust instead of hanging out in an octopus’ garden. The only revolution going on out there should be in your mind because it’s all within you and without you.

OK, maybe that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but it basically comes down to people living their lives in more considerate ways in order to be a better society. The Beatles may be a radical, idealistic group, but their messages ring clear today.

Think what the world would be like if George W. Bush had John Lennon in his cabinet as opposed to Karl Rove. Maybe our economic policies wouldn’t be as good, but I know some troops who wouldn’t mind it.

It doesn’t even have to be as big-pictured as that. The song “Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da” paints a perfect portrait of domestic happiness that exists without the materialistic gains which are put on a pedastal by society. Desmond and Molly Jones are content with doing their pretty faces and playing in bands. What more do you really need?

The world is as simple and beautiful as “Michelle” is. “Michelle, my belle these are words that go together well, my Michelle.” Who doesn’t want a pretty girl or guy to call his or her own? Paul and John let you know how easy it can be, and how it should be.

Even if your life gets as bad as Lennon’s did in “Yer Blues” or you’re as disgusted with the world as much as George Harrison was in “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” remember that you can get by with a little help from your friends and it’s getting better all the time.

I’d even be pleased with meeting the interesting characters in their songs. If I somehow came across lovely Rita, Prudence, Anna, the walrus, a nowhere man and Maxwell with his silver hammer, I know I’d be greatly enriched.

Yes, there are drawbacks to living like the Beatles. Did the lads from Liverpool use mind-numbing drugs to create their art? Well, yeah, but that doesn’t mean you have to. All I’m really saying is to appreciate your surroundings, treat others with respect and have fun while you’re at it. Their messages are no more or less novel then what your kindergarten teachers said so many years ago; they just have a better tune.

scavuzzos1@lasalle.edu