Rob and I have been playing Rock Band: Beatles. Rob on guitar, me singing (because I can’t play guitar and uh… well… his singing… ahh… nothing good can come of me finishing this sentence). I love that game. I can’t help it. My father had me listening to Mean Mr. Mustard, Blackbird, and Maxwell’s Silver Hammer in the womb. My mother, who basically hates all English music except for Roger Whittaker (and mainly only likes Roger because he released some songs in French and did duets with Nana Mouskouri) LOVES the Beatles. She has a crush on Paul. Of course she does. I remember watching an episode of Mr. Dressup where Ernie Coombs dressed like and octopus and sang – you guessed it – Octopus’ Garden, with Casey and Finnegan dancing around in the background, dressed as (I think) a starfish and a seahorse. I saw Yellow Submarine before I was five – it was playing on the military base where we lived and I begged my dad to bring me back over and over again. I didn’t find out that John had been killed until I was seven (he was shot when I was four) – my parents hid it from me, knowing that I’d be traumatized if I found out that he was dead. When a neighbourhood kid made some weird joke about dead beetles, and I finally clued in, I cried for days. There’s (OBVIOUSLY) just something about the music that has followed me my entire life. It’s part of me. Look, I know that talking about why I like the Beatles is like talking about why I like chocolate cake. It’s good. I like it. Rob likes it too. Some people don’t but I can’t tell why.

It follows, then, that we love the game – the graphics are beautiful, every song included is gorgeous, and you can tell that the game was made by people who love the music. It’s a tribute to a great band, not just a new way to cash in on their memory. Yoko Ono Lennon, Olivia Harrison, Paul and Ringo have actively promoted it, not just signed the permission form, but said “Yes, this is something we like, and here is our input”. Dhani Harrison worked with Harmonix to make the game. I think that it was a labour of love for many people. I’m pretty sure that we will never see George Harrison singing “You Give Love a Bad Name”.

George was always my favourite Beatle. Getting to geekily pretend that I’m him (or in a band with him) makes me feel kind of rad.

This post was going to be about a bunch of things – I never intended for it to become some sort of print ad for a video game – but I think that I’ll just leave it as it is.