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This is what I’ve written about music in my life and stuff.
When I was maybe eleven, I had decided that I would go back in the past and marry Curt Smith instead of whoever he married. I think her name is Francis or something. Even as a forty, probably closer to fifty by now, year old man, he was, and is, still so cute with his cheeks and his gentle brown eyes. Thinking back to that makes me laugh. I still think he’s cute, but I don’t want to change the past because I’m okay with what really is, what is now.
 ---> OMG the same! biggrin
I was obsessed with the band “Tears for Fears” at the time. I don’t remember if I was eleven or twelve, but I know that it was before I was a teen and in the sixth grade. I wouldn’t shut up about them and I listened to them nearly everyday, if not everyday.
I discovered them at my friend Rebecca’s house. We were playing a game called “Sing Star”. You plug in a microphone into a PS2 (This being around 2008, these were still common) and sing to a variety of songs. There were different CD’s to different types of music, like Pop, Country, stuff like that. We were playing on the 80’s CD (because I had grown up listening to the 80’s as a little kid). (I’ll explain some other time because this isn’t in the journal I previously wrote this in and I don’t want to confuse myself)
Anyways, me Rebecca, and her little sister, Gracie, were flipping through the selection of songs trying to find one we liked and/or knew when I came across this beautiful song. I felt my heart skip a beat, and then it began pounding very hard. I just flew up into the clouds, past the heavens, into a perfect, sunny world in which you can only enter with the purest of songs. This was one of them.
I ran home (Just across the street and a couple houses down) to look through my mom’s collection of 80’s CD’s. She has about thirteen or so CD’s in a collection called “Modern Rock”. It’s ironic because it isn’t modern. They’re pretty much all 80’s. One is late 70’s and another one is early 90’s. Each case holds two CD’s and each CD has twelve songs, so I know a lot of 80’s. When I was a toddler and a little older, I loved Disney songs, because what little girl doesn’t? Then when I was a little older than that, my mom played a lot of those “Modern Rock” CD’s when my dad wasn’t around. My point here is that I grew up listening to the 80’s, so that’s what I knew and loved, which will always make me different.
As I was saying, when I found the CD with the song on it, I nearly exploded with excitement. I stuck the CD in the boombox (Yes, I know that it is 2011 right now, but that’s what it is!) and learned every word, every single detail of the song “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” that night. From then on, I was obsessed. On another CD, I had the song “Shout”, which I liked just as much as EWTRW (Everybody Wants to Rule the World). I also had the song”Mothers Talk”, but when I looked inside the case, the CD wasn’t there, so I would learn this song later.
On yet another CD, I had the song “Sowing the Seeds of Love”. At first, I wasn’t really sure if it was Tears for Fears because the singer’s voice was different from EWTRTW, but instead of looking up or researching stuff about the band, I just made up theories. I made the hypothesis that Curt’s voice had just changed. I know that this might sound silly but just listen. In the case that held the CD that had “Shout” on it, there was a picture of Tears for Fears in it. It was on a little booklet that is in the front of each case that tells about the featured band and about their song on the CD. The picture of them looked kind of weird because of the style in the 80’s and I couldn’t tell whether they were a boy or a girl! I knew one of them had to be a guy because the singer was obviously a guy, so I decided that Curt was a guy and Roland was a girl. Just remember that I was around eleven then and who knows what the hell I was thinking then!! Luckily, I learned they were both guys before I said anything about them. I learned that Roland Orzabal, the other singer, was the singer to another song I had called “Head Over Heels”, “Sowing the Seeds of Love”, and “Shout”, and Curt Smith was the singer to EWTRTW.
(I scanned the picture)
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I make a lot of guesses and theories before I actually take the time to learn about it. I don’t know why, but I do.
Back to Curt Smith now. If you look at a picture of him in 1985, you’ll see that he has a big ‘poof’ of curly hair in front of his face. I don’t know if it is real or if it was a perm, but I had never seen a guy with a pony tail! I thought, and still think it’s super sexy. He had the most perfect cheeks, gentle brown eyes, a much defined jaw line, and soft pink lips. Curt Smith is probably 50 (I just looked it up… he’s only 49!!) by now, and though he has some wrinkles as all old men and women have and very short white-ish hair, he’s still as hot as he was thirty years ago, as weird as that sounds.
(Curt Smith 1983)
I bought my own Tears for Fears CD at one point and I keep it with all of my other CD’s (I pretty much own the “Modern Rock collection now because I’m the only own who listens to them). My CD’s are my most valuable and prized possession. Right now, I’m 14, and most kids in my school have tiny iPods, or an iTouch, or maybe even an MP3 if those are still around. I got an MP3 from my Grandma, or as I call her, Grammy, but I never used it and finally gave it to my older brother Zane because he’ll actually use it. Instead of all of the ‘invisible music you download off of the internet, I have CD’s, tapes, and even records. My mom still has her old eight-track, too.
(The TFF CD I bought)
I still only know about thirteen songs by Tears for Fears, but for some reason, I just didn’t want to learn anymore. That was enough for me. I guess I just didn’t want to ruin it.
Tears for fears wasn’t my first favorite band, but it definitely was the first band I was totally obsessed over. First, there was the Cranberries, which surprisingly is the 90’s. An old friend of mine named Nikki Snyder showed me one of their songs on YouTube one day when she was over. I didn’t like it much at first, but then I got bored and listened to it again a couple days later. ”Zombie” was the first Cranberries song I learned the name to. I later figured out that I had actually already known one of their songs, called “Dreams”. That was a sign to me that this was a good band.
Nikki also showed a band called Evanescence. They had a couple of good songs, but they were really gothic and not my thing. I’m a happy kind of person, so they only lasted for a couple of weeks.
Eventually, I actually got tired of Tears for fears, and my music interest just kind of stopped for a while. I listened to the stupid s**t they play on 102.9 Kiss FM, but after a couple months, I realized that I was not enjoying the music they were playing. It was all fake. The singer’s voices were altered on a computer so much that it was not there own anymore. I got no enjoyment or feeling from it. It might have had a good beat, but it was hollow and meaningless. It’s all bullshit, guys. I abandoned it. Forever. I went back to the sweet sounds of the 80’s.
Okay, okay, you may be thinking that the 80’s had a lot of computer generated sounds as well as now. But that was just some. Now it’s the whole damn thing. Plus, in the 80’s, it was mostly from a keyboard. I don’t know about y’all, but I take talent into consideration when I’m trying to find a good song, which is why I don’t like anything new.
Back to what I was saying. I don’t remember much after that. I really enjoyed some 70’s stuff Grammy played for me, which inspired me to start earning money so I could buy CD’s. I never got a job or anything, I just waited for birthdays. Anyways, I eventually got hold of a “Steve Miller Band” tape my mom had and I bought my own “Cranberries” CD, a Neil Diamond CD, a “U2” CD, and a Queen CD for my mom (But I listen to it more). For what I think was my 13th birthday, my mom got me four CD’s of various artists, but I didn’t like them. I like “The Cure”, which was one of the bands I got, but I didn’t know any of the songs. I also got some weird Irish or Scottish lady (I don’t remember her name), and P!nk, which was just too modern for me. I also got this CD with live performances of Bon Jovi, but when I went to return all of the CD’s, I forgot to take that one, so I just kept it. In return for the three CD’s, I got a “Daughtry” CD, even though it’s more recent music, and that Neil Diamond CD I mentioned earlier. I also got a “Beatles” CD. I also got an “ABBA” CD because Grammy had two of the same CD’s.
Not to change the subject, but I’m going to kind of jump to a different topic here. Over the summer from the seventh to the eight grade, I babysat for a family friend of ours pretty much every day except for the weekends. Laureen is the mom, and even though she just turned 40, she is probably my most trusted friend in the world. Her husband, Kevin, is a really sweet guy, but because I grew up as a small child with an abusive dad, then no dad after that, I didn’t (And don’t) know how to communicate with him. I’m too afraid to talk to him for some strange reason, probably because of when I was little but it will always be there in my mind but I will never know. I really think I’ve been getting better, though. At least I hope so.
Laureen and Kevin have two beautiful children, and I love them with all of my heart, but lately, because school is in and I don’t get to see them as often, they get so excited when they see me that they don’t behave the way they should and it gets on my nerves. Jacob is the older brother and is almost seven. Jessie is the younger sister and is almost five. I’m not sure exactly when their birthdays are, but I’m pretty sure that they’re soon… I better get a present for them!
Laureen has probably been the most influential (In a good way) person in my life. She pushes me to my limits without putting strain on me and understands me when I just can’t, but at the same time pushes me to do it anyways, which is good because it gives me the courage I need to do things I would never do on my own. I hope that last sentence made sense to you! I used to love her like she was my second mom, but just recently we made her my God-Mother, so now she really is my second mom! She calls me her “Red-Headed Step Child”, which I find hilarious. That summer with Laureen will, and has, change my life. Drastically.
I am about to talk about the best band in the world. I made Tears for Fears, look amazing, but this next group paved the way for everyone else. They are musical gods, I tell you. It’s a really cheesy and stupid way of discovering them, but it was almost the same as the way I discovered Tears for fears, so it’s not that bad. Never-the-less, I did discover them, and that has made all of the difference.
Laureen has a Wii at her house (Which used to be the most awesome game system, but now I think it is the Xbox because of “Black Ops” and the whole “Kinnect” (Or however you spell it) thing. Zane calls the “Kinnect” thing the ‘Wii on steroids’ because you can control it like the Wii, but without a controller). Anyways, they also had Rock Band (Which is the best video game in the world besides “Tomb Raider 4” and “Dragon Warrior 7”) and three games to go with it, one being the Beatles Rock Band. We ended up playing that game because Laureen had said that it was the easiest one out of the three. That was good because I was a beginner. Plus, I had never heard any Beatles songs (Of course I had, I just didn’t know it was the Beatles because I didn’t know anything about them).
I can still remember the first song I ever played. I didn’t fail, but I didn’t do too well on “Yellow Submarine”. After a little bit of time, I started to recognize some of the songs I had heard before in the past. I liked the songs I played, but at first, they were just ordinary songs. Well, not ordinary, but I didn’t see how magnificently brilliant they were yet. But like they say in “Dinner for Schmuks”, they (The Beatles) ‘crawled into my brain and laid eggs’! They wouldn’t leave!
The first Beatles song that got stuck in my head, and therefore was my first favorite, was “Do You Want to Know a Secret?”. After a while of being deprived of listening to the song (About fifteen minutes or so), I finally added the song onto my play list on www.playlist.com. I would have done it eventually, but I did it way sooner than I usually do. It usually takes me a month or so to add a song, but this took me about a day instead!
I started listening to the Beatles on my own, as I explained in the last paragraph, but only songs from the game. When Laureen told me each of the Beatles names, I got really exited because I finally realized why those four names were so famous and why I knew them in the depths of my memories. She knew their names, but she only remembered that Ringo Starr was the drummer. She forgot which ones John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison were (I know right! HOW COULD SHE?!).
I played, and still only play (Well maybe drums when I’m in the mood), the bass guitar on the game, and I wanted to know which Beatle I was playing as. I don’t know how or why, but for some reason, I thought John was Paul, so I thought I was John Lennon for a day or two. I realized I wasn’t when I actually took the time to look it up (See, I made up theories before looking it up again). I figured out that, just in case y’all didn’t know, that Paul McCartney was the left-handed bass guitar player, George Harrison played lead guitar, John Lennon on the other guitar (It always seems to be different, so I’m not quite sure what exactly he plays), and the blue-eyed Ringo Starr on drums.
By the end of the summer, I had played almost every song on the game and could play on expert bass really well. But the end of summer meant no more Rock Band. I was really sad to have to let it go because I didn’t want to lose my skill at it, and plus, it was one of the few things I actually liked to do. On the last day that I would be at Laureen’s house for the summer, we played Rock Band pretty much all day. At the end of the day, she had a surprise in store for me. She was packing up all of her Wii and Rock Band Equipment so that I could borrow it for a week! That would give me plenty of time to save up to buy the game and a guitar. I was so happy! It might seem stupid to you, but that was a huge deal for me.
I played the game pretty much everyday, and before too long, my time with it was up. Over the next week or two, I saved up my money by babysitting Laureen’s kids and bought my own game and guitar for the Xbox. A new guitar cost 150 dollars, but I found a place called ‘Entertain Mart’ that sold them for only 20 dollars. They were really used, cheap, old, and crappy, but that was better than nothing, right? I bought the game a Game Stop for 20 dollars, too, so it was all only 40 dollars, which thought was pretty awesome.
I played the game on story mode and beat the game in three or four nights. I learned every song, including the ones I hadn’t really liked before, and began to like them all. There is something special about a Beatles song. You may think you don’t like one of their songs, but then it gets stuck in your heads until you are forced to love it. This isn’t the reason why I don’t like any Beatles song, though. I’ve liked every song I’ve heard because they are truly amazing.
I started listening to new Beatles songs on YouTube and also watched some of their movies. I’ve seen “A Hard Days Night”, “Help!”, “Yellow Submarine”, “The Magical Mystery Tour”, the “Let It Be” movie, and even though it’s not a Beatles movie, I also watched “Caveman” and “The Magic Christian” because Ringo was in it. I’ll explain later why and how he became my favorite Beatle.
I read everything on all of their ‘wikipedia’ pages, even though it took me four hours just to read John Lennon’s page. I learned a lot about the Beatles from it, though. I watched a lot of videos of them, which is how I learned so many songs, and I got to watch them be goofy and stuff when their not on stage. I even found this guy that makes videos with information about their songs. There will be one of their songs playing and he tells the viewers everything about how the song was made and what stuff means and stuff like that. Random stuff like that has helped me learn.
In Christmas 2010, I finally got my first Beatles CD. My cousin Hunter works at ‘Entertain Mart’, so he picked out the CD for me. It was wrapped inside what is now my favorite hoodie (Because it’s big and fluffy). I got the album “Help!” which was cool because the songs from that movie were my favorite at the time. I’ve played that CD so many times since I got it. This is also what made me choose Ringo as my favorite.
It was either January 24 or 25, me and my mom went out and spent a lot of money on old gift cards I had. I had a card that was for a place called “CD Warehouse”. Well, its real name is “Movie Trading Company”. “CD Warehouse” closed down and moved into the same store as “Movie Trading Company”, but I just call it “CD Warehouse” anyways. Plus, it sounds cooler.
As I was saying, I spent the three dollars that was on the card and another 41 dollars on three more Beatles CD’s, because, of course, I’m still obsessed with them. So now I have the albums “Help!”, “Rubber Soul”, “Revolver”, and “Abbey Road”.
  
Now I’m going to explain why Ringo is my favorite. I was watching videos of songs from “Help!” because I didn’t remember them all. I clicked on “Another Girl” because I didn’t remember the video. About a minute in, I saw Ringo’s blue eyes in up close and in color. I hadn’t seen them like that (Just remember that I’m still a Beatle noob), and I just melted, especially because I didn’t expect it or know it was coming. They were so beautiful, I just kind of died and went to heaven for a second.
I have loved Ringo’s smile for a while, though. I love how his top lip smoothes out and curves and how he gets these deep laugh lines when he smiles really wide. His little side burns or whatever is really cute too. I love how his eyes are kind of slanted downwards and his eyes brows are the exact same shape. I don’t care about how short he is compared to the other three Beatles or his “abnormally sized nose” or anything like that. In fact, I think that that just makes him even more adorable! I think that it’s hilarious how everyone, even himself, makes fun of all of these things. I think that the name “Ringo Starr” is a very awesome and clever nickname. If you didn’t already know, his real name is Richard Starkey.
   
(See look, adorable!)
Right now, I’m fourteen and I’m still madly in love with the Beatles. I’m listening to new songs all of the time and they’re all brilliant. Remember those “eggs” that the Beatles left in my brain? Well they reproduced at such a rapid rate that the have become a parasite that has taken over my brain. It controls everything that I do. It is my life.
I find this funny because this is how I used to feel about “Tears for Fears”, but not this seriously, of course. It’s also funny because I feel the exact same way about Ringo Starr as I did Curt Smith, but this is also a little bit more serious. At one point, I actually made it my ambition to go back in time and marry him. Right now, thinking about it, I realize how silly that is. I think I’ll just go back in time to meet them.
I was devastated when I learned that John Lennon died because he had been shot and that George Harrison had died from cancer, but I was glad to know that Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are still alive. I was sad that they got their hair cut, but thinking about it now, I think that they would look weird with long hair at their age. They both look old, but when you look close, they still look the same as fifty years ago. Paul still has the same eyes, and, though he’s old, he never lost his baby cheeks. I smiled when I saw him on a video and he still acted goofy like a kid.
  (Ringo and Paul)
It’s sad because I can never see Ringo’s beautiful eyes anymore because he always wears these really dark glasses. I’m pretty sure he’s still short, and he definitely has the exact same nose and face. He still has his gorgeous smile, though, which made me as happy as I can be.
I might be changing the subject again here, but something just came to me. It’s not that I don’t like Paul’s, John’s, or George’s smile, it’s just that I like Ringo’s the best. Paul’s smile is really cute because he still has his baby cheeks, and every time you see it, you just have to smile with him. George has really big teeth, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a nice smile. It’s not that his smile isn’t cute, it’s just that it’s more on the sexy side. John is different. It doesn’t matter what he’s doing, I always laugh when I see him. He’s just a funny guy, I guess. His smile is really cute, and I have to laugh every time he smiles.
My friend Autumn did something really cool for me. On the week of school after Christmas, she learned that I loved the Beatles, so she told me that she would give me something. A couple days later, she brought a present to school. Opening a wrapped present in art class is probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done! Just kidding, but it was pretty awesome! I opened it and inside was a picture of the Beatles! It was split in four with a picture of one in each square. I was so happy! I haven’t bought a frame for it yet because it is a larger picture that mast pictures are, so it’s hard to find a frame that fits. It’s on top of my dresser leaning up against the wall so I can see it easily.
(The picture she gave me)
On Friday, the last day of school before Spring Break, my mom came home with a bow and wrapping paper because I had a party to go to and I had to wrap her present. She also had something else in the bag, and when she pulled it put, I freaked (I didn’t scream, though, because screaming is stupid and I can’t scream anyways.). It was a shirt with Abbey Road on it! Obviously, it’s my favorite shirt right now, and I wore it to the party.
Okay, okay, yes it was a really cheesy way to discover the Beatles and choose Ringo as my favorite, but I did, and it has changed my life. I am certain that it will continue to shape me into who I will grow up to be.
 yumyum8675309 · Fri Mar 18, 2011 @ 02:37am · 0 Comments |
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