If this blog covers many of my passions (reading/politics/law/domestic violence prevention, to name a few), one that has slipped past without much mention is music. Here and there I've mentioned that I love my iPod, am not a huge Eminem fan, and other drops of musical commentary in passing. But, heck, when others have whole blogs which are almost entirely devoted to music, Michael's music thoughts have mainly not happened. Which is odd, considering that listening to music is a huge part of my life.

And now I find myself with two music-related entries for you. The first of which starts with you needing to know that I have today returned my DVD player to my apartment. Since mid-August, it has been in grocery stores, training countless employees in the niceties of giving great customer service, preventing trips, slips and falls, bagging groceries, and avoiding selling alcohol to people who are either underage or too drunk to have it.

Anywho, I'd started to miss my DVD player, so the other day, I went to Circuit City and bought an El Cheapo model for the store, sent in the receipt to receive reimbursement, and brought mine home.

Which was good, because I recently acquired The Beatles Anthology on DVD. This was a present to myself for passing the bar. I've been wanting to see the full anthology since it came out...what they showed on TV was edited for time and TV.

So, as I settled in to watch it today, I realized that it's exactly ten years ago this week since the Beatles Anthology first aired on ABC in 1995.

Understand that, prior to this, I had never really paid much attention to the Beatles. I knew who they were, of course, and if pressed, I might have identified a song or two of theirs. I could tell my Lennons from my Lenins, and my Ringos from my Kenneths (heh, heh, heh), but beyond that, I didn't know much.

So, anyway, I saw there was going to be a program on about the Beatles and I thought I may as well check it out to figure out what in the world was going on.

Well.

I was captivated.

These guys were GOOD. Damn good.

Extraordinary, actually.

Much like I imagine my parents and others of that generation experienced it watching the Ed Sullivan show, I was finally introduced to the Beatles.

In fact, the song that first turned me on to them was the song that they first played on their first American appearance on February 9, 1964 on "The Ed Sullivan Show," "All My Lovin'."

For some reason, the tune from that song just captivated me.

Close your eyes, and I'll kiss you
Tomorrow, I'll miss you
Remember, I'll always be true.

And then while I'm away,
I'll write home ev'ry day.
And I'll send all my loving to you.

I couldn't get it out of my head. The next day, walking around the halls of Oak Harbor High School, I couldn't keep from humming the tune. (Surprisingly, I didn't get beat up in high school. I often wonder why not.)

It was clear to me from this music that the Beatles were musical geniuses, and All My Lovin' had to be their greatest hit. I knew watching the second installment of the Anthology would just be a disappointment....they couldn't have done better than that, could they've?

Then I met A Day In The Life.

I read the news today, oh, boy.
4,000 holes in Blackburn Lancashire
And though the holes were rather small.
They had to count them all.
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall.

Ever since then, whenever I hear one of those news stories about how there were 15,000 this or 2800 that, I think, "They had to count them all. Now they know how many _____ it takes to_______. I'd love to turrrrrrn youuuuuuuuuu onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn."

(I also couldn't get the melody of Got To Get You Into My Life out of my head after installment two.)

OK, so now, I was clearly confused between my two favorite Beatles' songs. Then I tuned into the THIRD edition of the series.

And the song Revolution.

I was also pretty keen on The Ballad of John & Yoko.

To name a few.

So I bought the CD Anthology 1. Then my friend Adam said I needed to hear Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which had Abbey Road on the reverse side.

My god, they were good. No wonder people couldn't stop talking about them.

Thus began my ten-year-and-counting admiration for the Fab Four. Even when I've heard a song of theirs a hundred times, it seems that I never grow tired of it.

So, thanks, lads. Something tells me that people will be discovering your music for hundreds of years to come, and going through the same epiphany. And so long as they don't think Yoko was the fifth Beatle -- #9 was pretty damn awful -- they'll stick around like I have.