Inspired By The Movie “Yesterday” — The Beatles, Brazil, and Me

In the movie trailer for Yesterday, a struggling singer/songwriter wakes up to a world where no one remembers the Beatles. I don’t completely understand what happened that led to the eradication of all Beatles music. It looks like some world-wide power outage occurred and all computers lost all data. And I guess no one remembers any Beatles songs? The lead character, portrayed by Himesh Patel, gains more and more notoriety as he comes out with one hit after another (like Hey Jude except they suggest he change it to Hey Dude). Lily James stars in the movie and it has a release date of June 28, 2019. The ads say it’s the “feel-good movie of the summer,” and it looks like it lives up to the hype. Can’t wait to see it — who’s with me?

The premise got me thinking: excluding the Beatles, what band’s repertoire would you be able to recite should the world forget them and lose all records of them? Let’s say for “repertoire” you’d need to be able to sing and/or write down the lyrics to 15 of their songs. In their entirety. Verbatim. At first, this may seem pretty simple. But when you really delve down the ladder, it’s trickier than you think. Sure, you can easily remember a favorite verse or chorus of a song, but can you get the whole thing down? And do that again and again for a band’s whole list? 

And what bands are worthy of this endeavor to you?

It’s startling the songs that pop into your head you didn’t even realize were stuck in there. Maybe you’re trying to jot down all of the Bob Dylan songs you know. You’re stymied on the first part of Tangled Up in Blue, trying to think of the line after “Wondering if she’d changed at all, if her hair was still red.” You ponder what comes after the word “red.” And like a bad staticky a.m. radio, your brain waves get interrupted by Lady in Red, Chris de Burgh’s iconic theme song of Patch and Kayla from 1980’s Days of Our Lives, and you can spit those lyrics out plain as day (There’s nobody here, it’s just you and me…).

Back to the Beatles, there’s something indelible about the way their songs make a lasting imprint on you.

Even the die-hard Stones fan has to admit he admires if not actually loves certain Beatles songs. My personal Beatles absorption wasn’t clear to me until one spontaneous night in Brazil. My husband and I took a trip there (over 20 years ago) to visit good friends. We spent time at their ranch in the Amazon Basin and afterward, we all ventured to the little beach town near Rio that Bridgette Bardot made famous in the 1960s called Buzios. 

We were all out at a club one night when my dynamic Brazilian friend pushed me up on stage to sing (okay, maybe she didn’t push me and I willingly skipped on up there). The band and I broke out into a rendition of Girl from Ipanema. It was my only link to a Brazilian song I knew. I thanked the band and was heading back to my seat when they asked me to stay and keep singing. But with the language barrier, I didn’t know any of the Brazilian songs they did. They didn’t know any of the American pop songs or jazz standards I suggested. That’s when the tiny conga player, with his scruffy grey beard and ropey arms said, “JohnPaulGeorge? JohnPaulGeorge? You know?” It took me a minute to understand that JohnPaulGeorge was not a Portuguese phrase.

He was talking about the Beatles. “Oh! The Beatles? Well, yes I know the Beatles.” 

Because, sure we all know the Beatles, right? But I had never performed the Beatles. Those weren’t my go-to songs to sing. In high school, I had worn out my Beatles cassettes on the drives to and from school (along with Sam Cooke, U2 Under a Blood Red Sky, Best of Bread and a Bodeans bootleg). But those were songs I hadn’t listened to in years. I gave a shoulder shrug like, “we’ll see?”

And off we went. Starting with easy stuff like I Wanna Hold Your Hand and Twist and Shout (this little club was really getting rocking now). The words came right out; I knew every single one. Onto I Saw Her Standing There. Surprising me as they cranked into Paperback Writer. I rattled the tambourine as we harmonized on Baby You Can Drive My Car. The caipirinha’s were flowing and the smell of sweat and perfume was pungent.

And the tiny man on the congas? He moved over for my less-than-stellar-playing (my friend Russ Lamareoux had taught me and Robin Roseberry proper technique in our She Said band days back in college). I kept up the pace with She Loves You and A Hard Day’s Night. My palms would be black and blue the next day. 

I thought it was done — let’s end this on a high note. But we were all one energy now: the Beatles, the band, the beachgoers of Buzios, and me. We played on into the night. The Beatles had bridged the international language gap between us and we’d found common ground. Who knew when I was driving my 2-door maroon Oldsmobile in my plaid uniform skirt to school, cranking Norwegian Wood, We Can Work It Out, that I was merely in preparation? I never thought there would be a moment in life when I’d see it was all homework.

I’d been studying hours and hours for this test —right here right now in this nightclub — that I didn’t know I’d ever get the chance to take.

“Life is not a dress rehearsal.” I’ve always liked the carpe diem message of that phrase. Life is here, right now, so we better start living it. But to flip it a bit, what if some of life is a dress rehearsal? What if some of the things you are reading or talking about are tools you are going to use later on, in wild and wonderful ways you can’t even imagine yet?

Maybe some of the people in your life right now are there to teach you certain lessons or even to share a piece of information that will catapult you into a different mindset or path.

Or maybe the world is going to have a power outage and rely on your knowledge of the Beatles or the Band or Eminem. We just don’t know. And, isn’t that magical? Whatever you’re doing right now — even the things you think may be insignificant — could be mere stepping stones on a long and winding road.

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For other music-related posts, see my interview with music publisher Kelly King here, or my interview with singer/songwriter/promoter Jill Block here.